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LOW-POLY ART

polycounter lvl 19
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hawken polycounter lvl 19
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

Replies

  • joule
    hy everybody.

    Here is my first atempt on this thread. Hope it will be OK...

    camion3.jpg
    camion2.jpg
    camion1.jpg
    camionUV.jpg
  • domino
    @willy-wilson

    this one is veeery nice...like that simply style
  • lean
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    lean polycounter lvl 5
    willy-wilson: haha! never thought of using boxes like that. Nice results!

    Stinkhorse:
    sweet lighting! and nice glass/transparent-plastic material.

    joule:
    hello! It is ok indeed. I think the wheels are popping out a bit too much on the sides, but the rest of the shape i think is fine. BUT why is there a giant gray rectangle in your texture? if you add that to the wasted white space and shrink the wheel space, you could get like half bigger space for the whole van.
  • joule
    lean: Thanks for the feedback. I agree with you and still have to work if I want better result. But UVs are still difficult for me to understand...
  • rabidbaboy
    Stinkhorse wrote: »
    I'm learning how to build low poly, modular environment pieces. I'm also learning how to light and render and environment. It takes time...

    this looks pretty sweet!
    where are you rendering this in?

    8zBQ5.png

    started modeling something for a friend's 3d modeling class, but then i realized i won't ever get credit for this. crapcrapcrap.
    ah well, might as well make it just "Good enuff" so it won't get recognition. :poly127:
  • NeoDement
    joule wrote: »
    lean: Thanks for the feedback. I agree with you and still have to work if I want better result. But UVs are still difficult for me to understand...

    Something like this would be a bit better maybe
    car_uv.jpg

    Still some waste in the top right but there's not really anything else that can go there
  • joule
    Wow! Thanks for help! I'll try to make UV like this. :poly121:
  • Stormie
    It's okay stink, I don't think you were being a dick.
  • Stinkhorse
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    Stinkhorse polycounter lvl 12
    @Lean: Thanks

    @Rabidbaboy: It's in blender at the moment. Eventually it's going to jump over to Unity.

    @Stormie: Best friends forever!
  • fabio brasilien
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    fabio brasilien polycounter lvl 11
    Stormie: Ok! hehe
    I would suggest not doing separated parts on joints. Some of them you didn´t realy saved geometry.
    I hate when I have to do animation with floating geometry on joints. It is realy hard to make it work well (and normaly doesn´t.) :)
    The polycount usage looks fine beside the joints area. Try to post "triangles" instead "polygons". Your model looks like has more than 464 tris.

    Also next time I will suggest postiong more pictures (side, back)
  • Delko
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    Delko polycounter lvl 16
    Thats really cook joule, reminds me of a bosozoku style truck.
    jccanym2009_342keiTruckBosozoku_parkingArea=282.jpg
  • joule
    Lol , funny truck! Maybe the second mesh to model! I've just seen your crazy turbo run game, that's amazing!!!
    Great modelisation and texture work!!! I'm just fan of it!
  • Hatsya
    low%20poly%20base%20again.jpg
    Much more mobile-friendly compared to my previous attempts...

    (not yet triangle'd)
    Male base: V: 239, E: 483, F: 247
    Female base: V: 245, E: 512. F: 270

    Triangle-d
    Male base: V: 239, E: 684, F: 449
    Female base: V: 245, E: 703, F: 461
  • skankerzero
    Hatsya wrote: »
    low%20poly%20base%20again.jpg
    Much more mobile-friendly compared to my previous attempts...

    (not yet triangle'd)
    Male base: V: 239, E: 483, F: 247
    Female base: V: 245, E: 512. F: 270

    Triangle-d
    Male base: V: 239, E: 684, F: 449
    Female base: V: 245, E: 703, F: 461

    here's a quick scribble-over(tm) going over the curves I was talking about in irc.
    Hatsya.JPG
  • Hatsya
    low%20poly%20base%202.jpg
    Performed some alterations on both genders...
  • Tobbo
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    Tobbo polycounter lvl 11
    I would make the female's hips much bigger and wider. And possibly exaggerate the form more.
  • tucho
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    tucho polycounter lvl 17
    Thanks for your comments and advice Levus and Ged, I take note

    A couple of towers more, these are the last ones for now, I'm starting to work on the ground and tileset objects and we hope to have an alpha version of the game in a month or so.

    crystallizer.jpg


    ballista.jpg

    I also took some screenshots of the Ztools of some of the characters for this game, as you can see they're pretty simple and some details are a bit exagerated just to bake the occlusion:

    zbrush_models2.jpg
  • shaka
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    shaka polycounter lvl 7
    that's really clean and pro Tucho. I love them...saving for further reference.
  • rabidbaboy
    Tucho: saved those sculpts. i love em, would probably make for good prints.

    q5o5k.png
    guess which indie game i started playing today? :P
  • Leisure Centaur
    @rabidbaboy I guess Super Crate Box!

    Nice model :D Look a tad friendlier than the game sprites, but good stuff!
  • rabidbaboy
    LC: thanks haha! guess i made it too cartoony. wanted to keep the cartoon/scary look the game had. maybe i'll make a red version that's scarier. :D

    here's another one:

    tZukA.png
    these are 800+ tris, 256tex, btw. Could be optimized further, but i'm really just having fun with these and trying out a new workflow.
  • Leisure Centaur
    tucho wrote: »
    Thanks for your comments and advice Levus and Ged, I take note

    A couple of towers more, these are the last ones for now, I'm starting to work on the ground and tileset objects and we hope to have an alpha version of the game in a month or so.

    crystallizer.jpg

    @Tucho I would LOVE to get some sort of insight to your unwrapping and texturing process. How have you managed to get such a complex cluster of geometry (the dense crystals) into such a neat UV layout.

    I used to use auto mapping in Maya and then tidy up the resulting mess, more recently I've been using planar mapping to improved results (on my simple, blocky meshes), but I'm curious about the workflow of someone on your level.

    Care to share any pro tips? ;)
  • tucho
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    tucho polycounter lvl 17
    Thanks for your comments shaka and rabidbaboy :D

    @Leisure Centaur: I think that I explained a bit my pipeline for these models some posts ago in this same thread.

    About UVs, as you can see in this screenshot the geometry of the crystals is not too complex, they're really lowpoly, in fact they're almost a bunch of boxes, so the unwrap is really simple, I don't have experience using maya, I use 3ds max and I love its pelt mapping tools for model unwrapping, I guess that probably exist a similar option in maya.

    I just try to place the seams in the best places to make a bit easier the texture painting and prevent seams on the model, but anyway as I project an occlusion map from a high poly mesh I obtain a seamless texture as base for my final texture.

    I hope this help you a bit, don't hesitate to ask me any other question :)

    uvs.jpg
  • Leisure Centaur
    Thanks very much dude, really appreciate the detail and seeing your UVs.

    My experience doing UVs in Maya has been very testing and counter intuitive. I'll research and see if a similar function exists for Maya, based on what I've learnt so far - I would have been better off learning Max. Ah well, I shall persevere, thanks again :)
  • ppoznysz
    hello everyone ;) my first post here and first low poly model. Just wanted to ask you guys, are the UV's good ? I don't know can I continue texturing her or re-unwrap. She has 806 tris. Armor 176 tris and body 630.
    3531gti.png
    107t4lv.png
    I'm sure there could be less tris or overall better model ;p wanted to try something easy for the first time (thinking about characters).
  • Hatsya
    Please let us see the UV texture itself for me to think about your UVing.

    Do you plan to UV the armors on a separate texture?
  • ppoznysz
    Yea I planned to do the armor+hair texturing on different UV. Is it bad ? ;p I don't know about any polycount/texture size limitations yet. Need to study about it tho. Here is the unfinished "texture work" ;) btw for now it's 512x512, thinking about to resize it in PS to 256x256.


    2hib7ux.png
  • Strkl
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    Strkl polycounter lvl 7
    rabidbaboy wrote: »
    LC: thanks haha! guess i made it too cartoony. wanted to keep the cartoon/scary look the game had. maybe i'll make a red version that's scarier. :D

    here's another one:

    tZukA.png
    these are 800+ tris, 256tex, btw. Could be optimized further, but i'm really just having fun with these and trying out a new workflow.

    Awesome !

    I'm tempted to make a super crate box character now ^^
  • Hatsya
    ppoznysz wrote: »
    Yea I planned to do the armor+hair texturing on different UV. Is it bad ? ;p I don't know about any polycount/texture size limitations yet. Need to study about it tho. Here is the unfinished "texture work" ;) btw for now it's 512x512, thinking about to resize it in PS to 256x256.


    2hib7ux.png

    Not that bad, and at least, you can swap textures, promoting aesthetic changes on your character. Consider first what platform do you plan releasing those characters? With the current tri-count, it is either you aim for a Torchlight/Diablo-perspective RPG, or an MMORPG...
  • vkp_number2
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    vkp_number2 polycounter lvl 8
    DZ_Q_001eaz2bcqz6.png

    001bcc.gif

    Here's a rehash. I threw on a Mohawk and made her look mean just so I could use her in my Homebrew project... Lazy, i know.

    Oh yeah, the Bazooka's 76 tri's.
  • hawken
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    hawken polycounter lvl 19
    not really sure where this is going... bloom etc test on iOS

    557168644.png?key=416742
  • ppoznysz
    Hatsya wrote:
    Not that bad, and at least, you can swap textures, promoting aesthetic changes on your character. Consider first what platform do you plan releasing those characters? With the current tri-count, it is either you aim for a Torchlight/Diablo-perspective RPG, or an MMORPG...

    Thanks for the feedback Hatsya. I'll finish this character as it is. On my next project I'll think more about target platform. In the future I would like to work for a company (they are just starting out) producing games for mobile platforms. Need to study hard now ;D so much to learn. If you guys have any advices what is the most important thing planning a portfolio, I would be grateful (so I'll know what to learn first ;p). cheers
  • lean
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    lean polycounter lvl 5
    vkp_number2: I think the model is cool, it has a nice shape. About the texture, it looks kinda like a ps1 texture, cause it's kinda blurry. Maybe you could do some of the antialiasing by hand rather than using a soft brush, I think it would look "cleaner" that way. except you're going for that look. What really would bring your texture up, is not doing shadows in plain black and gray multiplied layers, but using certain tint in it. It's a common practice to bring up the colour.
    I also see that real time shading is interfeering with texture shading. In example, you have shadows over the highlights on the breasts, I suggest trying to control that.

    hawken: nice bloom effect, I've been trying to put bloom on a model recently wth no real success, didn't look good. you make me wanna try again! the model looks great, by the way.
  • Revada
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    Revada polycounter lvl 12
    Need some Crits, I've redone an old piece and I'm trying to crunch down the poly count as much as possible.

    The texture is 256x256
    and the tri count is 801.
    (also,love the thread)

    hGNCt.jpg
  • matsman
    As far as I can see... you could remove some poly s from the roof... not all edges there are needed for the silhouette. Also look at your floor again... it seems it is connected to your walls... if it doesn't have to be a contiguous mesh you can cut some poly s there as well...
    Nice textures BTW, however the piece could use a bit more colour imho.
  • Razorb
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    Razorb polycounter lvl 15
    vkp_number2: I LOVE ME SOME QUAKE! :D gjgj
    rabidbaboy: i am scared! but i love him :D
  • hawken
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    hawken polycounter lvl 19
    I don't get much time for this, from a character I did back in 2005, only taken 7 years!

    tornado.jpg

    still needs heavy optimisation.
  • Sordid23
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    Sordid23 polycounter lvl 11
    Hey, Just made this as a fun little project.
    Can annyone give me some tips to make the blade look better?
  • Snader
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    Snader polycounter lvl 15
    Hawken: how come you're never using geospheres?
  • hawken
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    hawken polycounter lvl 19
    Snader wrote: »
    Hawken: how come you're never using geospheres?

    Interesting, whats the benefit?
  • Snader
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    Snader polycounter lvl 15
    Saving a tonne of triangles, or having a more smooth shape. The longitudinal design of normal spheres creates a lot of size-distortion at the poles, while geospheres have triangles that are roughly all the same size. This creates a more evenly distribution of detail (for a sphere, smoothness is a 'detail', so to speak).

    spheres_and_polycounts.png
    Same amount of sides, less polygons.

    You've already finished the duck, but you can still save a quick few polies by manually deleting some half-loops(like sphere 3) without having to redo the entire UVW/texture.
  • hawken
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    hawken polycounter lvl 19
    Snader wrote: »
    Same amount of sides, less polygons.

    You've already finished the duck, but you can still save a quick few polies by manually deleting some half-loops(like sphere 3) without having to redo the entire UVW/texture.

    Yeah I usually go for the self optimised route here, most of the Bath Time models are optimised this way.

    As I mentioned, needs some heavy optimisation.
  • MrRik
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    MrRik polycounter lvl 7
    first post on polycount! wohoo
    Im busy texturing yoshi but my skills arent that great in texturing.
    I´m also making a kart for him :)'
    yoshibn.png
    yoshikart.png
    Feedback is more then welcome!
  • michael milano
    Thank you for your compliments on my Mary post! I love seeing everyone's low poly models on this thread :)

    I wanted to share a character from our latest teaser here at City State Entertainment. This guy was drawn up by one of our amazing concept artists, Sandra Pauvlaan. He is 1046 tris (sorry he is over the 1000 limit, but I did not have this thread in mind while modeling :/ ). UVed in ZBrush, textured in BodyPaint 3D and rendered in Mental Ray.

    For more info and artwork about our upcoming game, please visit our website CityStateEntertainment.com!!

    Best, mike

    clock1.jpg

    clock2.jpg
  • Tigerfeet
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    Tigerfeet polycounter lvl 12
    Michael I'm in love with that texture. At first I thought I was looking at a painting :)
  • michael milano
    Thanks Tigerfeet! The simple designs allow for fast and fun texture painting, and we quickly found our stride style wise :)
  • minorthreat
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    minorthreat polycounter lvl 7
    Hey guys, first post to polycount! I've created some models I wanna share with Blender 2.6, but I don't know how to create these professional looking renders like you guys have posted. Can anyone explain to me how to create textured images, and how to create animated gif images that show the model rotating, which I've seen alot of. Thank you.
    Also Michael Milano I just checked out City State, and I am impressed! Just by viewing the shear beauty of all of your models has really inspired me. I'm an aspiring game developer, and your stylistic approach is exactly how I have intended on stylizing my models, textures, and animations for the past few years! I really can't wait to play some of your companies games! I feel like I'll be quite a fan lol.
  • Weirdboy
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    Weirdboy polycounter lvl 5
    Do our postings in this thread have to only be for actual professional stuff for games or can we just post little things we've been working on in our free time?

    @minorthroat: Welcome to Polycount, I think your question might be better served in the technical talk or general discussion sections.
  • Red-Fox
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    Red-Fox polycounter lvl 8
    Hey!
    Here's some green little fella and another characters from my upcoming title "Danger Betty".
    Hope you ike it!
    zombie_common.png
    charactersconcept.jpg
    character001.jpg
  • diamond3
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    diamond3 polycounter lvl 7
    Here is a screenshot from my latest live wallpaper for Android.
    Link to Market page with video: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.androidworks.livewallpaperwaterfree

    1-1.png
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