@mrgesy Great job. I feel like have matched the feel of the concept superbly. Just one thing that is sticking out to me is the crispness/cleanliness of warning poster. I feel like they should just be a bit more crumpled/dirty to match with the rest of the scene.
Yeah I guess I missed that part, I actually had it look very grimy but removed because it looked too noisy to me. Lets just say its a freshly posted poster
Heya guys, everyones making amazing progress especially on the environments!
Here is my incubator so far. I'm going to leave the straps till last, I believe if I start messing with Zbrush like I want to now it'll just distract me from finishing the main body.
@Holly Mellor: Looking good man. I think the details are off with your asset though:
As for me, today I was able to spend some time with my asset and worked on the straps. I took the freedom to change those flaps of the bottom, removing some of those straps that seemed to be tied around it. C&C welcome!
Thanks Holly, though I'm still learning. In fact...
...@DonEngland: Could you enlighten me as to how you made the horizontal lines on the smaller straps? I can't seem to get good results without overly tedious and not-accurate work.
---
I'm a complete noob in regards to normal baking. I've done it in the past but never really understanding the theory. I've now read EQ's threads (wavyness, bit-depth, skewing, average projection meshes and some others) and learned a LOT, so I'd like to apply that knowledge with this asset.
Now, hopefully a more experienced artist can confirm this breakdown I did (I'm using Maya2014).
1) For this asset, if I were to bake normals in XN for rendering in TB, I should explode it as seen in the image*, cage (average projection mesh) each part, triangulate it, export lowpoly and cage as one obj each, and bake, am I correct?
2) I was also planning to texture this with Substance Designer. Is this a good-enough synced pipeline, or would the exported normals from SD conflict with TB's renderer? Is there a recommended pipeline if we keep in mind the final asset will be displayed in TB (I guess I should just research this question)?
* 3) I guess no matter how tiny the piece is, I should normal map it, right? After all, it's consuming UV space so why not. To be more specific, the straps' tri pieces?
@mrgesy: I like how close you got to the concept, really nice!
@Holly Mellor: Thanks! You have some good progress. I agree with Justo's feedback. I like how you made that change to the side. Looking forward to seeing more.
@Justo: The nylon straps were made with sub-d using an array and a spline. It is a bit too high frequency for the normal, unless I go extremely high res. As for your questions:
1.) You explode to fix projection errors, so it depends on your geometry. My main bag body, backpadding, and shoulder straps are all one mesh and will be baked together. With your mesh, it may make more sense to explode the backpadding away as per your breakdown. For the straps-tri-pieces, I'm only baking the unique pieces and will duplicate the result to the waist and chest straps.
2.) From what I understand, Substance Designer is targeting UE4 which uses mikk tangent space. There should be an option to use mikk tangent space in TB's renderer.
3.) I will be baking the normal for the straps-tri-pieces. Some detailing, such as the nylon strap lines, can be easier/faster to do when texturing.
Nice progress, keep going!
For my model, I made new waist straps, built a lowpoly and finished UVs. Baking is up next. Sitting around 8k tri's
Thank you for answering. What you said made a lot of sense, and I appreciate you used better naming (like nylon straps) than I did. English is not my first language, and it can be very useful to know the names of stuff like this : )
Nice thinking about how to do the nylon straps. Way easier like that!
Now, I'd like to be able to work as fast as possible with my assets. If I can save time somewhere, I'd love to know it. When you say "You explode to fix projection errors", I always thought that you had to explode your lowpoly's different pieces that would be animated separately (like some nylon straps, or the bag's lid).
1) Having said all that, you said you were going to bake together the "main bag body, backpadding, and shoulder straps". Am I right in assuming you'll be doing that because even though they may move, they're not really intersecting that much with each other, thus the reason why you merged them all? (in other words, what was your reasoning for this)
2) What about the tri pieces? Will you bake them together with the shoulder straps, or separately? Surely it would make more sense to separate it since those pieces are really intersecting the shoulder and nylon straps, right?
3) Will you be using a cage(average projection mesh) for each exploded part?
Sorry for the avalanche of questions (anyone feel free to chime in). I want to KNOW MOAR!
Pretty happy with my locker model. Going to really focus on the texture on this one. Hopefully get it done today or tomorrow.
Will just edit this post since nobody else has posted. Worked on my texture today, honestly not very happy with it. Somehow I have a UV error of sorts, my texture is actually flipped horizontal from intended and it has produced lines on the top between the bottom lockers. I'll probably do another attempt tomorrow.
Unfortunately, I couldn't finish the environment for the end of the month. I definitely had time management issues which were compounded by having an illness this week. In any case this is what I ended up with.
I am going to continue working on this, but the updates will likely be in my sketchbook so that I avoid necroing this thread throughout next month. Congratulations to those that finished.
@Justo:
1) I merged those pieces because it is was easy to combine in the low poly, and I knew it would bake correctly with a cage. I did an early test bake to check the intersection between the top of the shoulder straps and the back of the main bag.
2) The straps and strap hardware were baked separately.
3) Using a properly averaged cage ensures a good bake. You might want to experiment with a few meshes in different bakers to see the results of caged vs non-caged baking.
Good Luck!
Finished bake and blocked out colors, plenty left to do. Ran out of time this month. Here is what I have so far.
Heya guys, been working on this for a while now and finally got to unwrapping. I know it's quite high poly ;(.
Could you guys look at my UVs, are they okay? When I'm working sometimes i'm just not sure if I'm doing it right. I've kept some of the pieces as separate objects so I can move them in the end. Is there another way to do this?
@DonEngland your straps are amazing, they look real! @Rikcharr it's looking good you should keep going
Got around to texturing this guy. This is my first real attempt at PBR, so I've kinda hit a wall where I'm just not sure how to improve it at this point. I made some mistakes with the model, too late to turn back on this particular model but I'm feeling pumped about the next one to apply what I've learnt not to do!
Any tips on how to improve the textures? I've used Marmoset to render it, so I created an Albedo, Spec, Gloss and normal map on the outer case (only high->low poly I did).
Replies
Yeah I guess I missed that part, I actually had it look very grimy but removed because it looked too noisy to me. Lets just say its a freshly posted poster
Here is my incubator so far. I'm going to leave the straps till last, I believe if I start messing with Zbrush like I want to now it'll just distract me from finishing the main body.
@DonEngland your straps are amazing!
Any crits before I begin to unwrap? I didn't like the look of the final edge without a proper 'ledge' hence the two step section on mine.
As for me, today I was able to spend some time with my asset and worked on the straps. I took the freedom to change those flaps of the bottom, removing some of those straps that seemed to be tied around it. C&C welcome!
...@DonEngland: Could you enlighten me as to how you made the horizontal lines on the smaller straps? I can't seem to get good results without overly tedious and not-accurate work.
---
I'm a complete noob in regards to normal baking. I've done it in the past but never really understanding the theory. I've now read EQ's threads (wavyness, bit-depth, skewing, average projection meshes and some others) and learned a LOT, so I'd like to apply that knowledge with this asset.
Now, hopefully a more experienced artist can confirm this breakdown I did (I'm using Maya2014).
1) For this asset, if I were to bake normals in XN for rendering in TB, I should explode it as seen in the image*, cage (average projection mesh) each part, triangulate it, export lowpoly and cage as one obj each, and bake, am I correct?
2) I was also planning to texture this with Substance Designer. Is this a good-enough synced pipeline, or would the exported normals from SD conflict with TB's renderer? Is there a recommended pipeline if we keep in mind the final asset will be displayed in TB (I guess I should just research this question)?
* 3) I guess no matter how tiny the piece is, I should normal map it, right? After all, it's consuming UV space so why not. To be more specific, the straps' tri pieces?
Thank you for anybody who answers : )
@Holly Mellor: Thanks! You have some good progress. I agree with Justo's feedback. I like how you made that change to the side. Looking forward to seeing more.
@Justo: The nylon straps were made with sub-d using an array and a spline. It is a bit too high frequency for the normal, unless I go extremely high res. As for your questions:
1.) You explode to fix projection errors, so it depends on your geometry. My main bag body, backpadding, and shoulder straps are all one mesh and will be baked together. With your mesh, it may make more sense to explode the backpadding away as per your breakdown. For the straps-tri-pieces, I'm only baking the unique pieces and will duplicate the result to the waist and chest straps.
2.) From what I understand, Substance Designer is targeting UE4 which uses mikk tangent space. There should be an option to use mikk tangent space in TB's renderer.
3.) I will be baking the normal for the straps-tri-pieces. Some detailing, such as the nylon strap lines, can be easier/faster to do when texturing.
Nice progress, keep going!
For my model, I made new waist straps, built a lowpoly and finished UVs. Baking is up next. Sitting around 8k tri's
Thank you for answering. What you said made a lot of sense, and I appreciate you used better naming (like nylon straps) than I did. English is not my first language, and it can be very useful to know the names of stuff like this : )
Nice thinking about how to do the nylon straps. Way easier like that!
Now, I'd like to be able to work as fast as possible with my assets. If I can save time somewhere, I'd love to know it. When you say "You explode to fix projection errors", I always thought that you had to explode your lowpoly's different pieces that would be animated separately (like some nylon straps, or the bag's lid).
1) Having said all that, you said you were going to bake together the "main bag body, backpadding, and shoulder straps". Am I right in assuming you'll be doing that because even though they may move, they're not really intersecting that much with each other, thus the reason why you merged them all? (in other words, what was your reasoning for this)
2) What about the tri pieces? Will you bake them together with the shoulder straps, or separately? Surely it would make more sense to separate it since those pieces are really intersecting the shoulder and nylon straps, right?
3) Will you be using a cage(average projection mesh) for each exploded part?
Sorry for the avalanche of questions (anyone feel free to chime in). I want to KNOW MOAR!
Will just edit this post since nobody else has posted. Worked on my texture today, honestly not very happy with it. Somehow I have a UV error of sorts, my texture is actually flipped horizontal from intended and it has produced lines on the top between the bottom lockers. I'll probably do another attempt tomorrow.
I am going to continue working on this, but the updates will likely be in my sketchbook so that I avoid necroing this thread throughout next month. Congratulations to those that finished.
1) I merged those pieces because it is was easy to combine in the low poly, and I knew it would bake correctly with a cage. I did an early test bake to check the intersection between the top of the shoulder straps and the back of the main bag.
2) The straps and strap hardware were baked separately.
3) Using a properly averaged cage ensures a good bake. You might want to experiment with a few meshes in different bakers to see the results of caged vs non-caged baking.
Good Luck!
Finished bake and blocked out colors, plenty left to do. Ran out of time this month. Here is what I have so far.
Could you guys look at my UVs, are they okay? When I'm working sometimes i'm just not sure if I'm doing it right. I've kept some of the pieces as separate objects so I can move them in the end. Is there another way to do this?
@DonEngland your straps are amazing, they look real!
@Rikcharr it's looking good you should keep going
Any tips on how to improve the textures? I've used Marmoset to render it, so I created an Albedo, Spec, Gloss and normal map on the outer case (only high->low poly I did).
I also tried with different times of day and ambients in the scene.
Here is my final Locker piece.
A derelict Look
and the fire extinguisher...
some cardboard boxes and some books to dress the scene.