Props Practice

tragische · May 2014

Hello again my dear Polycount!

I'm pretty nooby noob in 3D modeling so I started to practice my skills and learn how to model simple objects. I use Blender and Photoshop.
My goal is to study modeling and handpainting lowpoly props.

So I will appreciate your feedback and support. Especially I need feedback for my meshes, sometimes I really don't know what I'm doing and what is good and what is bad.

First one:

view on sketchfab https://sketchfab.com/models/8e0a4eaefd574ac39f430f82c5071fe5

Not textured yet:

view on sketchfab https://sketchfab.com/models/ce4957aa10fb428697df116d47ec5588

view on sketchfab https://sketchfab.com/models/6558fd3c0e78477c9229f2ab61f5a136

Thank you)

Swarm22 · May 2014

My only comment would be on that last pic, the wagon. You have edges going up and down the side of the main body that are contributing nothing to the silhouette. If it's a game mesh, it's a waste of polygons. Other than that, I really like the axe.

Rafferty_Eggleston · May 2014

Nice job so far! Other than the unnecessary edge loops on the wagon, it looks like you have some smoothing issues on the axe. All the edges appear to be hard edges (not sure what this is called in blender). I didn't really read much of this tutorial, but this looks like what I'm talking about. Keep it up!

Marshkin · May 2014

Axe looks good aside form the hard edges, which RAfferty already pointed out. If those are intentional, maybe add some wear/lighter edge highlights to that part?

I'm looking forward to seeing the other two textured!

tragische · May 2014

Thank you for your feedback!

Now I have few questions:

1. With the wagon, I fixed some edges I decreased triangles count from 2.1k to 1.6, but here is the question: how to know then I must keep parts of mesh connected and then I can just make to pieces of mesh and insert one in other (sorry for my poor explanation, I'm not a native speaker)

Here is a pic illustrating that I'm talking about:

2. With the smoothing. I know how to make edges smooth, but I want to keep them sharp I just like them sharp, how can I make them look like I clearly did it intentionally?

Jeza87 · May 2014

Having intersecting geometry like that is fine, and since this is a very low poly look your're going for you can even do it with more parts of that mesh to get an even lower poly count.
As for the sharp edges, do you want the mesh to me smooth for like the round part of the wheels and sharp in other places? or just look faceted all over?
If you want smooth AND sharp parts you have to set the shading to smooth and add a modifier "edge split" (uncheck the angle option) then go in and manually select the edges you want to be sharp CTRL + E then K for "Mark Sharp".

DWalker · May 2014

Really the only time you'd need to tessellate as you did in the right image would be if you have z-fighting issues - that is, if the bottom of the wagon appears over the springs. You'll rarely have a problem with this, especially with low-polygon models.

When working with low-polygon models, keep in mind that some faces - such as the bottom of the wagon - may be hidden, so you can safely remove them.

With low-poly models, even more than with high-poly models, you need to keep in mind the final product. Look at the model with the actual game engine; if that's not possible - if you're only working on portfolio pieces, for example, and don't have an engine - then decide how the model will appear and set the camera in Max/Maya to match.

Looking at the new version, you've still got some extra polygons. It looks to have ~11-12 polygons instead of the 2-4 it should have.

WhiskyDelta · May 2014

As mentioned above, it is completely fine to have floating or intersecting geometry, it just depends on the specific circumstance you have at that time and it is generally a trade off between higher poly count, but more efficient texture (intersecting) or fewer polys and a less efficient atlas (floating)

What i mean by that is that when geometry is overlapping, the part of the texture which is underneath the geometry, is never seen but is taking up texture space on the atlas, whereas, when it is cut into the geometry, there is now a hole in the geometry and therefore a hole in the UV island of that geometry so you can squirrel away some other geometry in your mesh within that spare space. In your case of the wagon, it is really not neccacery to cut the geometry in, as you only save those 4 small squares worth of texture space but have increased the polycount. If however geometry underneath the cart covered a much larger portion of the underside polygon, i would suggest you cut in.

Hope i have made sense and it helps a little.

Whisky

tragische · May 2014

Thank you all for advices! It helped so much!

Started texturing. I'm testing Blender Texture Paint Layers. Here is some progress. Textures are not finished yet, but I'd like to show it.

tragische · Aug 2014

Long time I didn't post anything here is my latest model. actually I done model few months ago and finally found some time to texture it.
And I'm stuck, I need some advice. Here it is:

1318449.53efbac277b72.png

It's a statue and I can't get that stone look, so I thought that cracks and cuts may help, and I started to add some and I don't know I'm not sure will it help or not.
I think I just need some look from the side and some advice. Any thoughts?

Here is link to Sketchfab: https://skfb.ly/yCJH

Props Practice

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