LOW-POLY ART

hawken · Jan 2006

This is the sweet spot for your low-poly models. Post 'em if you've got 'em!

Low-poly hasn't really been a requirement in the games industry for a long while now. This thread is for low-poly art style appreciation, so please take note of these rough guidelines:

Keep models under 1,000 triangles.
Scenes are fine, if all models are low poly.

Some dedicated low-poly modelling tools now exist that make this art style a lot easier to produce; Crocotile3D & Blockbench

Here's a handy list of ways to make your art look right in mainstream 3D software: Low-Poly Art Style Guide

Seyhk · Feb 2012

Awesome polyHetz, but is possibe to do some "Lighting" effect on the pole around the lamps with the resolution that low? i think it would look cooler

Here's my try.. again.

9skulls · Feb 2012

@Seyhk Hey that's lookin' mighty good. I like that asymetric sleeve, gives a bit more personality. I'd have gone a bit more wild with that, but I guess it probably would not have worked out well with the style you are aiming at. Topo looks good. Are you going to do any facial animations with that model? There certainly is enough detail to do some hardcore low poly expressions

Can't wait to see the final texture!

lean · Feb 2012

Seyhk: It's looking good, but it seems like he has no fingers.

GabrielP · Feb 2012

A new piece in the works, still wip, comments are welcome.

Hes under 1000 tries and I'm working on a 1024x1024 texture, will probably scale down to a 512 when I finished.

Seyhk · Feb 2012

@9skulls thanks man, glad you liked, i will probably do some facial animations, but it would be my first try ever so i don't think its going to look great.

@Lean His hands were supposed to be closed, but i'll try to fix that, thanks.

@Gabriel fucking creepy, well done!

GabrielP · Feb 2012

Haha thanks Seyke, before you start on animation Id nail out those cloth textures first, still loads you could do with them.

Seyhk · Feb 2012

Yes gabriel, but it seem to be a problem for now, well, i tried now and it came out like this

I know that i should put more love in the drawing, but i would like to see some suggestions before i put more time into this, any help is welcome please.

Seyhk · Feb 2012

quick Up.

Edit: Scaled down the texture to 256 and didn't see any difference, so i'll keep on 256:(

9skulls · Feb 2012

#### Anonymous daily leak #154994

Just for the lullz of it, a miniature anon

488 tris (including the hat and mask), 128x128 diffuse. Check the download link below which contains the full rigged model (.blend) + texture. You may do whatever you wish with it.

Also, if someone could give me some points of improvement considering the rig, I'd really appreciate it.

And some wires:

> Download here <

EDIT: @Seyhk Wholy sh*t batman, that's one big improvement on the jacket texture! Great job!

EDIT2: A small fix to the uploaded file.

Seyhk · Feb 2012

Fucking Gold nineskulls, + 1 for you and anonymous - 1 to pipa and sopa ^^
Very inspiring style!

Baddcog · Feb 2012

I

you 9

hawken · Feb 2012

Seyhk wrote: »

Awesome polyHetz, but is possibe to do some "Lighting" effect on the pole around the lamps with the resolution that low? i think it would look cooler

Here's my try.. again.

Why did you make the hands so low poly?

Hands and face are the most expressive parts, therefore they should have a higher proportional budget.

They look like potatoes.

paradise.engineering · Feb 2012

wow, so many new talents around lately! awesome work guys!
I'm here to invite you to these 2 contests:

RAWTalent · Feb 2012

Working on a new level for Clive

felipefrango · Feb 2012

Hah 9skulls, that is so cool.

GabrielP · Feb 2012

9skulls, sooooo much swag in that little guy!

PolyHertz · Feb 2012

Seyhk: Thanks

Texture-based lighting wouldn't be possible at that res, but vertex lighting might work ok.

9skulls: Awesome, added to the SDK thread.

achillesian · Feb 2012

we do not forgive, we do not forget, we are legion.

walterlow · Feb 2012

9skulls wrote: »
#### Anonymous daily leak #154994
Just for the lullz of it, a miniature anon 488 tris (including the hat and mask), 128x128 diffuse. Check the download link below which contains the full rigged model (.blend) + texture. You may do whatever you wish with it.

Also, if someone could give me some points of improvement considering the rig, I'd really appreciate it.

sorry for the noob question, but can anyone tell me how to achieve those outline effect on your models/render?

Skibur · Feb 2012

walterlow wrote: »

sorry for the noob question, but can anyone tell me how to achieve those outline effect on your models/render?

Some engines can do it for you. Otherwise you can clone the model in Max, use the push modifier to make it slightly bigger than the original, and then flip the normals.

Mr_Drayton · Feb 2012

@9skulls: that little anon guy fawkes is charming!

After some good feedback received here, I decided to remake all the menu graphics for my iOS game. I'm almost done, this is what I got so far:

Apparently my upload speed is kinda dead, so I only managed to uplad thumbnails, sorry guys... I will update the post as soon as I can, with fullres screenshots.
Anyways, I'm quite satisfied with it, looks way more clear and readable than before! I still have to change the background, but I'm indecided if using a sand texture, or keeping something abstract like this one. :poly141:

Ged · Feb 2012

Looks better to me. The Blue on orange looks pretty good the orange buttons on orange are ok but not very readable.

9skulls · Feb 2012

@felipefrango @GabrielP Thanks guys.

@PolyHertz Thanks for adding, I sent you a PM regarding the file. Check it out!

@achillesian Expect us.

@walterlow In Blender go to Render-tab, search for Post processing -section below and check the Edge-checkbox. Also, as Skibur mentioned, you can fake it by cloning your mesh, scaling it up a bit (like 2-5%) and flipping all the normals of that mesh around. That way only the insides of the cloned mesh are showing, making it look like an outline (remember to add a solid color material to the cloned mesh, since that is the color of your outline).

@Mr_Drayton It's just a random guy, anonymous even, with a Guy Fawkes mask on

Also, your menu is looking much better already. It's much more readable than before. Looks kinda juicy, too. Just a few more things, not that it already wasn't looking great:

All screens: The yellow from the bg pops up to your eyes pretty strongly. Have you considered switching the colors so that your buttons would in fact be yellow(ish) and that yellow strike in the bg would be orange? 'Cause I think that would 1) tone down the whole menu a lot and also 2) make those buttons pop out from the bg even more.
All screens: I noticed you've used some kind of fibre-like texture on the pure orange parts of the background. Have you tried using that kind of texture for the whole background? Because I think, when used as a subtle effect, it might actually boost up the looks as well as the overall difference between the buttons and bg.
Screen no. 2: I'd suggest you to change the color of the "Completed"-text of your race-selection button. It's really, really hard to spot. Have you thought of using "stamps" or "stickers" to mark a certain race "completed"? Like there would be this kind of ribbon of sorts that would be placed on the corner of that Race-button to show that the currently selected race was actually completed.
Screen no. 2: Also, about the blue color. Is there a reason why this screen has its buttons in blue and the other ones has in orange? I think the blue works well to distinct the players from other elements (the next screen), but otherwise I'd keep same color for all the menu buttons to make it look more unified (excluding the "Go"-button).

Mr_Drayton · Feb 2012

9skulls wrote: »

Also, your menu is looking much better already. It's much more readable than before. Looks kinda juicy, too. Just a few more things, not that it already wasn't looking great:
[cut]

Thanks for your precious help! Answering point by point...

In my previous post I wrote I want to completely change the background, so the screenshots I posted are still WIP in some way. I want to use different color tones on the new BG. Again, I'm uncertain if using a sand texture (or some kind of 3D scene), or something abstract (like the actual one). I tought about using yellow buttons too, but I didn't like the idea very much, so I kept them orange. I like that color the most!
Same as before, I'll be changing background, so bye bye fiber texture!
Good point. Honestly, at the beginning I wanted to do some stamp-like graphics, but somehow I tought it was not much related to the graphic style of the rest of menu. So I kept the original "Completed" text, but right, I should at least make it more visible.
Blue buttons actually are not buttons, but just text labels. The general rule is: orange things are clickable, blue things are not.

ad456m · Feb 2012

@ Tigerfeet + GabrielP thanks guys, most of the tutorials I've seen treat tri's like a bad thing and i guess its down to making unwraps easier.
Had no internet over the weekend and haven't really done much but trying to do the texture now so we'll see how that goes.
Had a look at your joint diagrams, excellent help and will definitely keep that in mind for future reference as i haven't seen the more complex ways before now.

walterlow · Feb 2012

Hboybowen wrote: »

toon shading

@skibur, @9skulls and @Hboybowen thanks for the replies

9skulls · Feb 2012

@ad456m Your character's shoulders are going to have difficult time deforming. A slight retopo might be in place by adding few more loops in that area. Take a look at this http://wiki.polycount.com/ShoulderTopology, very educational.

mrmmaclean · Feb 2012

lean wrote: »

had this going for a while, I don't think that I'll be improving it:

This rules.

ad456m · Feb 2012

I never thought about shoulders, Doh!
Will this work?

W1r3d · Feb 2012

*posted in wrong thread*

GabrielP · Feb 2012

Alright so this guy still needs A LOT of work, I've had quite a hard time transitioning back and forth between my more realistic art and my more stylized art, its giving me a pain. But this should be the last stylized character I have to do for awhile. Anyways, thoughts?

Leyto · Feb 2012

And here is a "Drive" movie fan art. 298 tris - 64x64 diffuse & opacity map

9skulls · Feb 2012

@GabrielP Is that character going to be in a game and if so, is he just a random enemy or the main protagonist? If that guy is going to be the main player, then I think he is a bit uninspiring. Meaning, he would need some more personality to it. Depending on the style of the (possible) game, the texture could work out with desaturated colors like that but I'd still add more shadows to bring all the forms alive. Also, I think you could easily go with 256^2 or even 128^2 with that amount of detail you currently have.

In any case, here are some thoughts about the topo:

@Leyto That's a nice model, looks a bit like something from the old Lucas Arts games. Are you going to animate him? If so, you'd need to add some joint loops there as well.

AlexEvangelou · Feb 2012

First off, this entire thread has been amazing. I'm pretty new to modeling but here's my first attempt at a character. Haven't gotten to texture it yet but here's the AO + wireframe of it. I can probably reduce polys in places, it's about 700 tris now. I don't really have a great feel for what detail needs to be in the mesh vs texture yet.

Seyhk · Feb 2012

hawken wrote: »

Why did you make the hands so low poly?

Hands and face are the most expressive parts, therefore they should have a higher proportional budget.

They look like potatoes.

Sorry man, i was about to fix that but i was too lazy to unwrap the hand again then put everything togheter, thanks, i'll keep in mind that the hands are very important even for low poly characters!

j1ll · Feb 2012

all done in mspaint

Mr_Drayton · Feb 2012

j1ll wrote: »

all done in mspaint

Heck, this is awesome! What's the tri count of this big guy?

Snader · Feb 2012

Yeah, there's no way thats below 1000 triangles. The chain uses links that are 48 triangles apiece, and there are far more than 20 links.

Wendy de Boer · Feb 2012

Well, I do think the current title of the topic is misleading. With the new mobile platforms, a mobile game character could easily have way more than 1000 tris. A great example would be Infinity Blade 2.

So now that even mobile games are moving away from the truly lowpoly, we have to figure out what to do with this topic.

We could update it to accommodate current specs for mobile games.

That, or we could keep it the way it was originally intended, keep the triangle limit at 1000, and just go ahead and call it the Obso1337 Thread.

!!

Seyhk · Feb 2012

Royal diaper fTW!! x]
Edit: Omg link has no ears :O!

Aerial_Knight · Feb 2012

baby link! Fucking Awesome!

hawken · Feb 2012

Snader wrote: »

Yeah, there's no way thats below 1000 triangles. The chain uses links that are 48 triangles apiece, and there are far more than 20 links.

Still the polygons are nice and chunky.

Borderline, probably wrong thread, but probably works on mobile.

I'm pushing 700,000 tris with normal maps on iPad2 these days.

Ged · Feb 2012

hawken wrote: »

I'm pushing 700,000 tris with normal maps on iPad2 these days.

woah dude! is that in a game or just a benchmark test?

Snader · Feb 2012

hawken wrote: »

I'm pushing 700,000 tris with normal maps on iPad2 these days.

And? Would you post your Dominance War model on here? After all, that's only 10,000 triangles. Games like Virtua Fighter 5 and Street fighter IV would probably fall within budget too. Does that make them lowpoly games?

michiy · Feb 2012

ad456m wrote: »

I never thought about shoulders, Doh!
Will this work?

Hey man, you should take a look at tommy model. They are very low poly and have a great edge flow. The way the edge flow on shoulder is right now would give weird deformations when animated.

j1ll · Feb 2012

Snader wrote: »

And? Would you post your Dominance War model on here? After all, that's only 10,000 triangles. Games like Virtua Fighter 5 and Street fighter IV would probably fall within budget too. Does that make them lowpoly games?

I have optimized my model down to only 2 tris to please you. My apologies for mistakenly posting here, i did not mean to offend you in any way

GabrielP · Feb 2012

first of all, I agree the character is probably a bit to high-poly, but its not worth making a fuss about.

Well my last ninja was really terrible so I started over. Thoughts on the new one?

Baddcog · Feb 2012

I'd have to look side by side but this ninja is more pleasing to the eye right away. Maybe proportions some, some is the texture...

chrisradsby · Feb 2012

EDIT: Wrong thread

Bill Lowe · Feb 2012

My first low poly character... my first charter which has neared any reasonable level of completion. I hope to finish the texturing over the weekend, and to start rigging as well. Would appreciate any comments and feedback.

LOW-POLY ART

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