Hussar Armor

Kozak

Current project is a full set of Polish-Lithuanian Hussar Cavalry armor. (Wings included, of course).

Helmet model:


By akozak2 at 2011-11-20


By akozak2 at 2011-11-20


By akozak2 at 2011-11-20


By akozak2 at 2011-11-20

Feedback is hugely appreciated. I'm still new to modeling, and am probably making oodles of mistakes.

I have two specific questions that have been bugging me for a while:

1) I have no idea what polycount to shoot for. Let's say the armor would be a prop for a high-end video game. How many polys would be reasonable, per piece?

2) I'm vaguely aware that a high-res model can be baked down into a normal map for a low-poly model. I just have no idea how to go about it! I'd love for this armor to be a chance to practice the technique. Could someone point me in the right direction? I haven't been able to find a straightforward explanation, and don't know when the low-poly model should be built. (Before or after the high poly version?)

Snader

1, it depends. 2, it depends.

No, really.

Is it first person or third person? Console or PC? How many characters are on screen? How detailed are the environments.

Some people prefer to make a lowpoly and then subdiv a copy of that and add some floating details (like your rivets) and then bake to the lowpoly. Some prefer to make an entire highpoly and then re-topo.


As for your current situation, realistically, you could choose anything between 500 triangles and 10,000. It doesn't really matter as long as it looks good, because you don't ACTUALLY have to get it in game. How about you aim for 2~3000 triangles and see if that feels good?

Elith2

Yeah as Snader said it's really down to preference on how you go about doing a bake. I prefer to go high first, then build the low around that but I know enough people who would rather build the low first. So yeah preference.

Could you post up your reference so we can see what you are basing this off of?

In regards to resources for baking normal maps, there are a fair few out there.

http://www.3dmotive.com/training/3ds-max/asset-workflow-series-the-briefcase-part-1/?follow=true

You need to be willing to pay for a subscription for that though and I can't comment on how useful it is overall as I haven't seen it.

But i'm sure with enough youtubing and google searches you could find stuff for free that is equally as good.

Baking normal maps, well learning how to bake normal maps, can take time, learning when to use them, where to use them and what they can and can't do.

I think for what you are making a normal map would probably be a good idea, just for the amount of rivet detailing you have on the go.

Hope that helps

ZeroBigSis

Just to second Elith2's suggestion; I subscribe to 3dMotive and the vids are really good - loads of general advice (as opposed to model specific so you can apply it to anything), and they cover the usual problems /solutions that can occur when baking normal maps.
Don't forget the Polycount wiki - http://wiki.polycount.com/NormalMap?highlight=%28%5CbCategoryTexturing%5Cb%29