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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

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  • CactusFantastico
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    CactusFantastico polycounter lvl 12
    GabrielP wrote: »
    CactusFantastico : Lovin the money man, great texture work!

    yay thanks! Have some free rotating dollars in return :P

    FGglm.gif



    Done the last of the three money items to collect in the game with the gold bar :D

    WG6ED.pngxFrLB.gif

    @Legionforce: Looking good, though I would say you could pull the tank down some tris from 1957, post the wire-frame :D
  • AlexCatMasterSupreme
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    AlexCatMasterSupreme interpolator
    yay thanks! Have some free rotating dollars in return :P

    FGglm.gif



    Done the last of the three money items to collect in the game with the gold bar :D


    @Legionforce: Looking good, though I would say you could pull the tank down some tris from 1957, post the wire-frame :D

    I like them, but not rotating around the middle of the model is really making my OCD get upset.
  • CactusFantastico
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    CactusFantastico polycounter lvl 12
    I like them, but not rotating around the middle of the model is really making my OCD get upset.

    I wish they didn't but in marmoset, I can't seem to get it to rotate the mesh from the middle of the model for some reason. When I export from Maya the centre point is in the middle of the model and the model itself is at point 0, 0, 0, so if you know how to fix it, I would be very happy to know :D
  • Baddcog
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    Baddcog polycounter lvl 9
    My OCD is acting up too ;)

    You probably need to reset the pivot point. (exporting it probably just makes 0,0,0 the center point on the exported model)
  • CactusFantastico
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    CactusFantastico polycounter lvl 12
    Baddcog wrote: »
    My OCD is acting up too ;)

    You probably need to reset the pivot point. (exporting it probably just makes 0,0,0 the center point on the exported model)


    The pivot point is in the middle as is the middle point of 0,0,0 :/ I didn't do the coins because it is even more off. I can make the camera rotate around the middle of the model at least so I should do that.
  • vanish
    WIP
    wiprussel2.png

    Hey man,

    I'm making russell for a class project here at usc, I was wondering if i could get the texture for him. My email is vanishjoppy@yahoo.com
  • renderhjs
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    renderhjs sublime tool
    The texture is in the screenshot
  • Leyto
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    Leyto polycounter lvl 7
    Hey! I've got a cute tank too!

    rendersd.jpg

    tankcopie.jpg

    79 tris/256² diffuse/awesome unity outline toon shader

    @Ravenslayer nice efficent uv space
    CactusFantastico these flying dollars looks well, I wonder if the middle part could be a little more flatten in the middle where is the band. At this moment it looks a bit too "solid" to me
    >

    Stack-Of-American-Dollars-Against-A-White-Background-8651ab.jpg

    maxguyday is this baked texture ? if not it looks accurate :)
    legionforce your concept looks pretty, that's too bad you lose this bounced feeling in 3d
    waronmars can't wait to see your diffuse :P
  • deadpixl
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    deadpixl polycounter lvl 9
    rndr_mnstr_cpod_comp.jpg

    Small character for a tower defense project i'm working on.
  • felipefrango
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    felipefrango polycounter lvl 9
    deadpixl wrote: »
    rndr_mnstr_cpod_comp.jpg

    Small character for a tower defense project i'm working on.

    Personally, I wouldn't texture at a size so much bigger than what you're aiming for the final texture, maybe a 512, tops, but that's 16 times bigger, you'll probably end up taking more time and adding fine detail that'll be completely lost and even if not, IMHO there's almost no difference at all between the big texture and the final one so you're barely taking advantage of the high resolution at all.
  • Legionforce
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    Legionforce polycounter lvl 9
    Deadpixl, I love that art style. You did a great job. What software did you use to bake the AO?

    CactusFantastico, your next thing should be a briefcase full of money packs.

    Layto, I am trying to keep some of the cartoonism by playing with the scale of the vehicle. I could have probably done well to make it more obvious, but the top is wider than the bottom and the back is a bit smaller than the front. Maybe if I can lasso the texturing part, it will appear a little more obvious without all the diffuse default shading.

    Here is the wireframe for my tank that was asked for.
    StrongD_ApcWip2Wireframe.gif
    Not sure where the right headlight vanished to... oh well. Hope the little driver doesn't get a ticket.

    A big reason the tri count is so high is because I have modeled a simple interior as well, and the back sides of the wheels is also necessary for my project. But if you have any ideas to cut out any unnecessary polys please do share!
  • skylebones
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    skylebones polycounter lvl 10
    Here are a couple of units for a game project. About 500 tris on the left and 700 on the right. Both use 256 textures.

    UD_Units.jpg
  • CactusFantastico
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    CactusFantastico polycounter lvl 12
    @Leyto: Ah yeah good point, I can see what you mean :P I'll change it now.

    @Deadpixl: 100% Agree with Felipefrango. It's what I've learned from making my low poly money as I start with 1024x and move down to like 128x, I have like almost no texture detail loss. well not important detail at least.

    @Legionforce: Oh yeah I can see from the inside that it makes sense that it's that big. Can't see any wasted tris so it's up to how much detail you want to put in, good job :D Ah man I totes need to do a briefcase of money! Even if it doesn't end up in the game haha Also I can say with around 90% conviction that he uses XNormal to bake the AO. It's the best tool around and its free. FREE DAMMIT!
  • Jigsaw
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    Jigsaw polycounter lvl 12
    skylebones: Great stuff! Reminds me a lot of In The Hunt and Metal Slug.
  • CactusFantastico
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    CactusFantastico polycounter lvl 12
    596jB.gif

    Health Kit done now :D
  • Froya
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    Froya polycounter lvl 7
    alienpolycount_zps0a366851.jpg

    Hello I am new to these forums and I am a 2nd year games design student and am very eager to learn so any comments would be greatly appreciated and to be as harsh with me as possible, I want to know exactly how to improve and what areas are lacking, I appreciate your time and effort to look at my work :)
  • RobotArmy
    Hey Froya, welcome here !
    Your model is not really readable, is it some kind of alien fetus in a box?
  • Froya
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    Froya polycounter lvl 7
    Hello RobotArmy, yes it was a brief to make a robot under 300 polys so i chose to make a hybrid of a fetus/alien/robot in a sort of glass cabinet for display on walls etc as it is supposed to be a experiment of some sort, i chose to make a hybrid as i felt that the brief allowed me to do so and i wanted to create something different so i made a hybrid, i feel it isnt very clear to what materials are which, which could explain why it isnt very readable.
  • Wendy de Boer
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    Wendy de Boer interpolator
    Froya wrote: »

    Hello I am new to these forums and I am a 2nd year games design student and am very eager to learn so any comments would be greatly appreciated and to be as harsh with me as possible, I want to know exactly how to improve and what areas are lacking, I appreciate your time and effort to look at my work :)

    I think your robot design is interesting, but you really need to define your shapes to make it read well.

    Right now, the texture feels like a blockout. I can't really tell how this robot is constructed. The shapes are hinted at, but they are not really there. You need to really go in with a tiny brush and refine your design, make it clear what it is.
  • lysaara
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    lysaara polycounter lvl 9
    I don't understand, the brief was to make a robot so you made an alien foetus in a glass case? How is that a robot?

    That said... The shape of the foetus is very undefined - which is okay, since feti tend to be a bit underdeveloped - but your texturing is equally so, so it just doesn't read as anything in particular. There's no obvious features... it looks like it might have a head/face up top but it also looks like the two pale areas protruding from the red mass are tiny faces. I mean, they could be, but it's just confusing.

    When you're working with extremely tight budgets(300 tris is hardcore!) it looks bad to finish so far under the limit - you could have used almost half again more triangles, why is your model still so blocky and vague? Add more detail - to the mesh, and to the texture - and it'll look much better.
  • Froya
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    Froya polycounter lvl 7
    I think your robot design is interesting, but you really need to define your shapes to make it read well.

    Right now, the texture feels like a blockout. I can't really tell how this robot is constructed. The shapes are hinted at, but they are not really there. You need to really go in with a tiny brush and refine your design, make it clear what it is.

    ok so would i make the materials more defined so you know what is what rather thanjust colours? also how would i construct better shapes? would i use more polys in the face and make a more pronounced shield/headware on the top and show a clearer stomach then just hints of colour?
  • Froya
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    Froya polycounter lvl 7
    lysaara wrote: »
    I don't understand, the brief was to make a robot so you made an alien foetus in a glass case? How is that a robot?

    That said... The shape of the foetus is very undefined - which is okay, since feti tend to be a bit underdeveloped - but your texturing is equally so, so it just doesn't read as anything in particular. There's no obvious features... it looks like it might have a head/face up top but it also looks like the two pale areas protruding from the red mass are tiny faces. I mean, they could be, but it's just confusing.

    When you're working with extremely tight budgets(300 tris is hardcore!) it looks bad to finish so far under the limit - you could have used almost half again more triangles, why is your model still so blocky and vague? Add more detail - to the mesh, and to the texture - and it'll look much better.

    well i decided to make a hybrid of alien and robot as i dont have lots of work with mech designs so i made a hybrid but i should have designed something so specific to the brief so it was more readable and no guessing work. Ok so how would i make the shape more defined? more in the head to define the different parts? i think i did not create darker colour to define the eye or the mouth. Ye i understand the faces thing i had 1 week to do two so it was kind of rushed but i should have removed them so it was more obvious that it was a stomach. Ha yes 300 tris is little but i tried to be rescourful and maybe i was unsure what to add and how to add it so it was in a strange shape instead of making arms or limbs to have a more defined edge. I am not good with knowing what to add and what to reduce in meshes so my shapes are not greatly defined but i should have done so in the texture atleast.
  • Wendy de Boer
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    Wendy de Boer interpolator
    Froya wrote: »
    ok so would i make the materials more defined so you know what is what rather thanjust colours? also how would i construct better shapes? would i use more polys in the face and make a more pronounced shield/headware on the top and show a clearer stomach then just hints of colour?

    The point of the exercise was to keep the polycount low, so you don't need to add more polygons. You can simply suggest more shape in the texture.

    I made a paint-over for you to show what I mean:

    froya_example.jpg

    Note that this example texture probably doesn't work well on the actual model, since obviously I couldn't test it out in 3d. It's just to show you some ideas of what you could do to define shapes.
  • quero
    Hey there,
    I really dig to some of these lowpoly-models and their handpainted textures in this thread..
    so I tried some on my own and came up with this guy:

    turntableu5znl.gif

    Plz don't mind the tris-count.. there are also a ton of mistakes uv- and texturewise, but it's my first one and I try to improve..

    @cactus:

    Those moneyprops are really cool and got some unique character imo
  • NeoDement
    596jB.gif

    Health Kit done now :D

    you should make the red cross much bigger, they're pretty big on real medkits
  • Froya
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    Froya polycounter lvl 7
  • Froya
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    Froya polycounter lvl 7
    The point of the exercise was to keep the polycount low, so you don't need to add more polygons. You can simply suggest more shape in the texture.

    I made a paint-over for you to show what I mean:

    froya_example.jpg

    Note that this example texture probably doesn't work well on the actual model, since obviously I couldn't test it out in 3d. It's just to show you some ideas of what you could do to define shapes.

    DemonPrincess: wow thank you for your feedback and your effort to show me those shapes and for taking time out to do this. How do you get your edges so defined? mine come out muddy/dusty which really annoys me any advise would be great, thanks again.
  • Stinkhorse
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    Stinkhorse polycounter lvl 12
    I also would appreciate walk through on how you sharpen up a painting Demon Princess :D
  • Wendy de Boer
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    Wendy de Boer interpolator
    Froya wrote: »
    DemonPrincess: wow thank you for your feedback and your effort to show me those shapes and for taking time out to do this. How do you get your edges so defined? mine come out muddy/dusty which really annoys me any advise would be great, thanks again.

    I was painting in very solid colors most of the time. I used a hard brush set to 100% opacity for a good portion of it, and then 50% opacity for some blending.

    When painting mechanical shapes like this, it's best not to use too many smooth transitions and blended strokes. Put down solid colors based on angle. Top-facing planes will be the brightest, down-facing planes will be the darkest.

    To create a crisp transition, you will want to put a clean dark stroke right next to a clean bright stroke. You can further accent this hard edge by drawing a very thin highlight along it, using a 1 pixel brush. You can make the highlight go all the way to white on some corners to really bring them out.

    Another good example of using simple solid colors to get crisp and defined shapes can be found in this tutorial, in the chapter "Flatten and simplify": http://androidarts.com/art_tut.htm

    A lot of it also just comes down to patience. When it comes to textures of this size, you can't get away with a few quick strokes. You have to zoom way in, work with tiny brushes, and draw accurately.

    The last thing I can really recommend is to familiarize yourself with pixel art. It may sound crazy, but it will really open up your eyes to how much detail you can create with just a few pixels. For me personally, my texturing skills shot through the roof once I started doing pixel art on the side.

    Here's a good spot to start learning about pixel art: http://www.pixeljoint.com/
  • mrmmaclean
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    mrmmaclean polycounter lvl 8
    Excellent tips, DemonPrincess!
  • Stinkhorse
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    Stinkhorse polycounter lvl 12
    That's an awesome run down, and thanks for the links!
  • mcunha98
  • poopinmymouth
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    poopinmymouth polycounter lvl 19
    Great feedback Demonprincess. Maybe froya can post an image with your texture applied to the model so we can see how it looks?
  • CactusFantastico
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    CactusFantastico polycounter lvl 12
    @NeoDement: It was that small on the photo reference but to be fair, I'll make it bigger anyway because the players suppose to know its health easily. thanks for the advise :D

    @Quero: Thanks for the praise :D Post a wire-frame of the Snowman and I'm sure we can reduce the amount of tris.



    Edit: Is this better?

    DuAIW.png



    Smaller health pick-up:

    ZadXr.gif
  • Slaught
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    Slaught polycounter lvl 18
    I want to walk over them. :)
  • Delko
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    Delko polycounter lvl 16
    lotusnew.png

    Anyone have a link to a tutorial on setting up simple cube maps in Max?
  • William3DArtist
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    William3DArtist polycounter lvl 13
    How do you stream youtube vids on here?
  • Froya
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    Froya polycounter lvl 7
    I was painting in very solid colors most of the time. I used a hard brush set to 100% opacity for a good portion of it, and then 50% opacity for some blending.

    When painting mechanical shapes like this, it's best not to use too many smooth transitions and blended strokes. Put down solid colors based on angle. Top-facing planes will be the brightest, down-facing planes will be the darkest.

    To create a crisp transition, you will want to put a clean dark stroke right next to a clean bright stroke. You can further accent this hard edge by drawing a very thin highlight along it, using a 1 pixel brush. You can make the highlight go all the way to white on some corners to really bring them out.

    Another good example of using simple solid colors to get crisp and defined shapes can be found in this tutorial, in the chapter "Flatten and simplify": http://androidarts.com/art_tut.htm

    A lot of it also just comes down to patience. When it comes to textures of this size, you can't get away with a few quick strokes. You have to zoom way in, work with tiny brushes, and draw accurately.

    The last thing I can really recommend is to familiarize yourself with pixel art. It may sound crazy, but it will really open up your eyes to how much detail you can create with just a few pixels. For me personally, my texturing skills shot through the roof once I started doing pixel art on the side.

    Here's a good spot to start learning about pixel art: http://www.pixeljoint.com/

    wow again thank you very much and i will keep looking back at this message to hammer home these ideas and put them to good use on my projects, i thank you a lot for your time and effort and brining to life my painting.
  • Razorb
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    Razorb polycounter lvl 15
    Delko: I fucking love that! <3!!!
  • Delko
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    Delko polycounter lvl 16
    Thanks, I finally got the windows working how I wanted them to (only took me 2 years!)
    lotus360.gif
  • NeoDement
  • leilei
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    leilei polycounter lvl 14
    oh my god that's so Lotus III
  • D4V1DC
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    D4V1DC polycounter lvl 18
    Delko still loving It.
    A while back I thought about making the red car from rad racer but I'll just enjoy your work instead. :)
    They all look ace man, glad to see more.:thumbup:
  • DEElekgolo
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    DEElekgolo interpolator
    You can probably pull off that anisotropic effect on the wheels too!
  • scope
    Hey guys. Just submitted my university mini assignment, we were tasked with making a brick in under 200 polies, 256x256 texture maps.

    ballington_geoff_brick_B.jpg
    ballington_geoff_brick_C.jpg
    textures.jpg
  • Jakten_hizeme
    Flint.gif
    I made a low-poly model of Flint from Mother 3 recently.
    He is 550 tris and the texture is 256x256
    lotus360.gif
    How did you manage to get that anisotropic effect? I've modelled a few low-poly cars in the past and wanted to do this same kind of thing but could never figure it out. This is a really amazing model!
  • Delko
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    Delko polycounter lvl 16
    Thanks guys, I'm glad you all like it. The original Lotus model I made way back in 2010 was my first 3D or pixel work in almost 3 years, so it really didn't come out the way I envisioned it, but was close enough for me at the time.

    Here's the original for reference
    lotusturntable.gif

    How did you manage to get that anisotropic effect? I've modeled a few low-poly cars in the past and wanted to do this same kind of thing but could never figure it out. This is a really amazing model!
    Its a pretty simple material set-up in max, I based it off of what i could find on Google regarding reflections. It seems techniques like this are so outdated no one ever really bothered making any tutorials for it. It took me a few hours to work out since I'm not used to working with multiple maps and stuff, so this will probably seem pretty obvious to anyone who knows their way around max's material editor.
    matlf.png
    I circled the part that produces the anisotropic effect. You also need to have the masks textures' mode set to "Texture" instead of "Environ"
  • Delzhand
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    Delzhand polycounter lvl 8
    Flint.gif
    I made a low-poly model of Flint from Mother 3 recently.
    He is 550 tris and the texture is 256x256

    holy shit yes
  • gUnter
  • ActionDawg
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    ActionDawg greentooth
    tumblr_mbnfc00Zfe1qk6eteo1_r1_400.gif
    i havent had time to work on my pokebit thing for far too long
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