Water Well . Prop Practice

dvisionvoid · Feb 2014

Hey guys, i'm pretty new to the game world, and i want to practice my low poly modeling and texturing skills. I chose this picture to practice and i'd love you to critique my model, specially the mesh and shapes

And this is what i've done till now

I'll update later, thank you!

KazeoHin · Feb 2014

So far, so good! The vertical logs in the reference kind of seem to be bowing under the weight of the heavy roof, where as yours seem kind of complacent.

dvisionvoid · Feb 2014

Nice appreciation KazeoHin! I will check that

dvisionvoid · Feb 2014

Quick Update

Suba · Feb 2014

This is nice. Waiting for more updates !

Rafferty_Eggleston · Feb 2014

Looking good so far! I think the top of your well (the stone part) is too flat. In the reference pic, it looks like it is bowed and at an off angle instead of parallel to the ground.

dvisionvoid · Feb 2014

@Suba Thanks man!
@Rafferty It's true! Im going to fix that now

Marshkin · Feb 2014

That's a great start! I'm really looking forward to seeing what you do with the textures!

dvisionvoid · Feb 2014

Marshkin im really afraid of texturing haha, but i will try to learn as much as i can with this

dvisionvoid · Feb 2014

I've done the UVs but im having trouble with the rope

I'm using c4d, anyone has any advice?

oshima · Feb 2014

About the rope UV, the easy way is map it when is only a cylinder and after bend, turn and deform. After that you only have to adjust the final UV. Another way, i dont know C4d but in max u can do the map follow a spline with the shape of the rope, i dont know if this exists in c4d.

dvisionvoid · Feb 2014

Thanks oshima, i will check if that is possible in c4d

dvisionvoid · Feb 2014

Starting to sculpt the stones , any tip? This is my first time haha

CarlK3D · Feb 2014

I've done rocks a few times in Zbrush but I'm no pro.
I tend to start with Clay Buildup to get my forms and shape for all my rocks. I then cut my rocks where I want the cracks to take place using Slice. after that to clean them up I use hPoish in the edges to create a kind of chamfer edge. then I go over and parts that are to blobby to tighten them up. your off to a good start be you should hPolish out some of the bits that stick out to much

dvisionvoid · Feb 2014

Thanks CarIK3D ! I'm trying your method right now!

Add3r · Feb 2014

I personally think you are approaching this prop in the wrong way. Right now you are attempting to make unique assets for each section of the model. Personally, I would sit down and break down the asset I am gong to attempt to make. For the well, you have the roof, the rock base, the wood supports, etc. I then decide what major materials will be used and start planning out the UVs/materials I will be making. The smart thing to do for this guy would be just to make a quick tiling texture for the base. For the roof, since it has some interesting shapes that make up the roof tiles, I would do that uniquely, or at least a section of it and then duplicate a quarter of it around to make the full roof. Not only is this to cut down time, but also to increase the amount of textual space you can have per UV shell. A prop like this in game would get a pretty small texture budget because it probably wouldnt be a large focal point, or so I am guessing. Also for games like WoW or whatever style you want to match, you need to think about their average texture sizes. Say you end up using a 512x512 sheet for this entire prop in game, you are getting like 150x150 for just the roof. Would you rather try to fit that entire roof in that 150* space, or fit a quarter the of the roof and in sense multiply your texture density by 4.

Just little things like that. If this is just a study piece, by all means make it all unique and be as wasteful as you want. For portfolio, I would optimize and make it feel as in-game ready as possible. Following proper workflows, using industry spec tools, and then rendering in an engine or something that allows for real-time display. Also be cautious about wasting UV space. On your current UV sheet, you have a lot of empty space. Once again, choose your general texture size you are aiming for and figure out how many pixels will be needed between each UV shell and try to max out space used to maximize efficiency.

Just some tips on basic workflow. Sorry for the wall of text and if some of that doesnt make sense, just kinda writing off the top of my head and might kinda sound like a dick about it all. Goodluck man!

dvisionvoid · Feb 2014

Add3r that was super helpful, is the first time i try to make something with game specs so all those tips you gave me were really really helpful. So the best way to go is to divide the roof (for example) in quarters and make a tileable texture for it?
Basing on what you said i will try to fit the entire texture in a 512x512 sheet.

One more thing, do you think the poly count is ok? Now it has 1004 polys. Is it ok or is too much for a prop like this?

Sorry if my english is not perfect, i'm from argentina and my first language is spanish.

Add3r · Feb 2014

Your english is just fine. And okay cool, yeah didnt want to come off as rude, was typing super quick during my down time at work. But yeah, I would divide sections up where you can. Tiling textures are awesome because sometimes you can reuse these sections for different parts of a scene, other props, etc. Just really helps with efficiency in general. As for the poly count you current have, that is more than acceptable. Current tech is more limited by the texture sizes, tri and poly counts arent a huge factor anymore. "Next Gen" consoles have weapons in the 50-60k triangle range. Characters for Ryse were in the 100K triangle range. So really comes down to how much would this prop be used throughout the level at one time. If it was a box and being used a lot you would want less in the world as the more you have the more you cna just multiply the tri amount. So if the box is 1k triangles, and the box is used 20 times, you now have 20,000 triangles in the scene for just boxes. Not a huge deal as a lot of scenes can handle millions of tris, saying that everything else is in budget.

There is a lot that is thought about in a game when building environment and props. As a tech artist with an environment artist background, myself, you have to deal with these numbers on an hourly basis and need to know the details behind why we have these budgets. As for a prop like this, I would say the 2-3k triangle range is very safe with today's specs. Could even be happy at 5k. Just some ballparked numbers.

dvisionvoid · Feb 2014

I follow your advice add3r and this is what i got, i think is much better than the previous one, what do you think? it's 512*512

dvisionvoid · Feb 2014

Now i'm having issues to understand the high poly modeling and texturing, for the roof for example.. I divided the roof into four parts for the UVs, and now how i make the texture tile?

dvisionvoid · Feb 2014

Well i started with the high poly modeling and texturing, it's my first time so any feedback will be highly appreciated

.

That's not the real size of the textures it's just for you to see more details

Water Well . Prop Practice

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