Game Props Project

Keltro

Hello everyone!

This is my first thread on the Polycount Forum. My name is Anders and I'm studying CG in Sweden at gsCEPT. I'm currently working on my specialization project, in which I will create props for games.

I will create the following:

• One organic prop, an oak tree.
• One hard-surface model, a motorcycle. (As detailed as possible)
• One low poly character. ( ~2500 triangles, 512x512 diffuse map)

I will work on these until the end of Mars 2012. I have been working on them since January, so... I should have begun this thread much earlier.

Anyhow, if you could give me any feedback on my work I would be very grateful.

As a part in the course I'm doing, I have to blog about my progress.

Moodbard

Here is a moodboard.


The oak

Here is some progress on the oak.








I think the oak is to small and have to much polygons. A friend told me it looks as if it's the same size as a short apple tree. Not the thing I was aiming for, I had in mind a 15 meter (50 feet) high tree.

How should I make it bigger without making the canopy less dense? I thought about making the branch in the branch texture bigger so each polygon packs denser branches... The model as it is is about 10 k triangles with one 512x512 diffuse and normal map for the branches and the bark respectively.

As my time schedule runs by, my work for the tree has to cease for the moment.

The motorcycle

Here is a moodboard for the motorcycle.


Here is some wip:s pictures of the high poly modeling.




Here is two Maya renders of the highpoly model. (final gather, 2.1 M triangles)




Here is my current silhouette and wireframe turntable of the lowpoly model. Roughly 19 k triangles.

Lowpoly silhouette (.mp4)
Lowpoly wireframe (.mp4)

And that's what I have been working on up until now. I will continue to post my progress in this thread.

Thanks for reading!

nordahl154

I didn't bother to read through your whole post, but I think what's making the branch planes very obvious on your trees is the fact that your branch textures are packed with leaves. Leave some negative space between the leaves and branches; it's really important too!
Seems like you've got good organization, so all I can say is good luck and most importantly, have fun with it!

Keltro

Thanks nordahl154, I will try out some new trees soon, and then I will have some negative space in the leaves. I'll keep posting!

Keltro

So I think I'm done with the lowpoly model of the motorcycle. Here is how it looks.

I have been thinking about the UV space... Here is how I picture it.



I plan to have some different materials, and I haven’t decided yet, but something like this:

• Green painted metal
• Brown leather
• Glass/Mirror
• Alpha wheel spokes

I would like to add som cubemaps and detail maps… and an emissive map for the lights?

Keltro

The lowpoly model and the UVs is done. It's about 20,000 triangles. I have been baking out ambient occlusion and normal maps and have been stitching them together for the last few days. I still have some work there before I go over the tires.

Here's a wip screenshot.

Ack Master

I love your high poly man. THe low looks like it came out well for the most part. Minor clean up of the nomral and so on but looks good

i like the break down your doing as well

im not a big fan of the leaves on your trees, something about it look either too big, too spec, or stand out to me as not natural.

Quack!

If you can convince me that your tire will work by tiling it that aggressively, then you win a cookie, it seems like a very bad idea.

I like the heavy use of ao, makes all of your forms and details pop. Can't wait to see more.

lordsarum

Awesome bike man, i love it cant wait to see it finished, with the tree i think u need to redo the branches, the reason is that the shape of them is realy angular, which makes it look like tree made of lots of planes, are you flowing the new 3dmotive tutorial? if so have a look how he made branches, thay where more round which hide the fact that thay where baked on a planes, buy anyway awesome work dude, will be interested to see some more

Keltro

Ack Master, thanks! I'm currently working on the textures, stitching and patching. I agree with you with the tree, I'm not happy with it as it is now. I will try out some more things before putting it in my final udk scene.

Quack!, yep you're right. I ended up tiling the tire texture in three parts instead, but now I have seams I'm not quite sure how to remove. No cookie for me.

Lordsarum, good point. I'll look into that!

Thanks for your replies! I'll keep posting!

Keltro

I think I’m done with the normal map and the ambient occlusion map now. I added some alpha faces for the spokes, which was the simplest geometry I could create for them. I have started dividing the maps into different areas for different types of materials, like green metal and brushed steel. Next is some color and then I’ll start grunging it down with scratches and wear. Then I’ll start making the specular and gloss maps which will be crucial in the look of this model.

Keltro

I'm almost done with the diffuse map, and I have begun adding grime and dirt, trying not to add too much. It's nice to finally see the motorcycle with paint.

BlvdNights

The diffuse feels a bit too blotchy and noisy for that kind of metal. Looking good overall though.

Axios

The bike looks very nice, but for the tree, have you tried using custom vertex normals? That should help make it look less planar.

Keltro

BlvdNights, you're right! I have made the metal texture smoother now, thanks!

Axios, yes I tried editing the vertex normals. First I tried to find the normal thief plugin, but didn't find it anywhere to Maya. Instead I created a balloonlike geometry shaped like the canopy of the tree and transferred the vertex normals from the balloon to the planes. It worked... ish I guess. But it only shows in the last picture from UDK.
I'm thinking the branches is too long and blobby. I have to test some new trees soon.

I have a new update on the motorcycle. I finished a specular map and a glossiness map, and decreased the size of the textures from 4k to 2k. I have added scratches, dirt, grime and dust. It's starting to feel finished now.

Keltro

After some talking with my brother, I kept working on the normal and specular maps. They didn't really show anything in the last post. I removed some cracks/scratches, added some nuts and screws. This is how it looks like now.

Only normal and specular/gloss maps:


All together with bloom:

Keltro

I have a problem with a noticeable seam going through the mirrored areas of the UVs of the motorcycle when importing it into UDK. It’s not very pretty.


I imported the motorcycle as a static mesh, added a simple material, and seams where showing up. I can’t understand why, they doesn’t show up when I import the mesh into Marmoset Toolbag or Maya. What did I do wrong?

Keltro

I managed to remove the seams. I just had to check the flip normals setting on import.

Keltro

I put the motorcycle on ice for a while, and I'm now focusing on creating the lowpoly model. I planned to make a gruntly viking lumberjack fellow, creating something from the concept art I had. Then I found Jonas Georgekakis model "Strongman" in the master thread and was thrilled! I learned a lot from studying how he created the edgeflow and shapes for Strongman, and made that a starting point for my own model. Thanks for letting me study your model from the master thread Jonas! You are awesome

I have modelled the Viking Lumberjack and created the UVs, and I just barely started with the texturing. I'm working with the values first before adding the colors. I have 2 weeks left before the project is over, and I'll keep posting my progress under this time.

Wireframe showing at the last of this turn-around clip:
http://svn.gscept.com/ip12/ip07/public/Blog_content/20120308_lowpoly_texturing1.mp4

-Joe-

Face is perfect for a lumberjack xD Cant wait to see colors!

Keltro

Joe, Thanks!

I got a valid question recently, why am I doing a character in a prop project? Yeah, well... that's true. I should've made something else, like a modular house. The focus is training on model and texture optimization, and I had only my mind on the motorcycle. The choice for what I should've created as a lowpoly model was pretty random and in the last moment.

Anyhow, I'm making a viking lumberjack because it felt like a fun thing to do. Not a prop, but still an exercise in model and texture optimization.

I added some colors and extra detail. The colors and the values don't seem to mix well. I'm thinking of flattening the layers and work in the colors a bit into the values.

I'm almost out of time, I have to create a scene in UDK and if I have the time, I really would like to rig and animate a simple idle animation for the motorcycle/audrey scene and the lowpoly model scene. Only one week left!

Keltro

Hello Everyone!

Sorry for the late update. The project has now ended and here is some images and videos from the finished models.

Movie capture from the motorcycle UDK scene

Mirror 1: http://www.lorentzen.se/annat/anders/polycount/udk_scene_mc_audrey_rev1.mp4
Mirror 2: http://svn.gscept.com/ip12/ip07/public/MS3/udk_scene_mc_audrey_rev1.mp4

Movie capture from the Viking Lumberjack scene

Mirror 1: http://www.lorentzen.se/annat/anders/polycount/udk_scene_viking_lumberjack.mp4
Mirror 2: http://svn.gscept.com/ip12/ip07/public/MS3/udk_scene_viking_lumberjack.mp4

Motorcycle images





Oak images





Viking Lumberjack images