Methods for creating huge cliffs (low poly)

Oro · Jul 2015

Hello all,

So I browsed the tech talk for this subject but only found this http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=154654 which wasn't really answered and the link posted had died.

I am trying to create cliffs with character that I can re-use via scaling/rotating to place around the 'boundaries' of my scene.

I have come across a few ways of approaching it but I'm not sure which is the better.

I have linked two ways I was thinking of going about it and the scene I am creating. I would also be interested in knowing if the examples I have given would be classed as bad geometry.

Any advice on this is more than welcome.

EDIT: Added sketch-work, might help you see what I'm trying to achieve, very rough sketch sorry.

loggie24 · Jul 2015

My first thoughts would be 2 high-res tileables with blending to minimalize repetitiveness. Sculpting and creating unique UV wouldn't fare well with huge assets. If you have any possibility to use something like a unified detail map like we have in CRYENGINE it could work though. Would need to know more about the engine you are using.

Eric Chadwick · Jul 2015

Some ideas here, should help.
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/EnvironmentSculpting#Rock_and_Stone
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Modular_environments

Oro · Jul 2015

@Eric Thank you

@loggie At the moment Im just building in Maya but will be moving it into UE4 most likely (this is a personal project). I will also be attempting vertex painting/(texture blending?) but this is my first time with it and so am reading up etc. I planned to use this method for the custom terrain (ground) and have cliffs surrounding it. I want them to be very stylized/cartoon and I will be hand painting them, there seem to be so many ways of making cliffs I'm lost in my options. I would also prefer to avoid sculpting as I find it much hard to create a stylized looked, and am simply not as confident in it.

I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to maybe hand-paint a tileable cliff texture first, put it on a plane, place edges and play with the verts to match to textures recesses and extrusions?

Eric Chadwick · Jul 2015

Oro wrote: »

I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to maybe hand-paint a tileable cliff texture first, put it on a plane, place edges and play with the verts to match to textures recesses and extrusions?

That's certainly do-able. In my experience though, it's often better to sculpt a full cliff surface, as a large rock with all sides sculpted. Then you can rotate the finished asset multiple ways when placing it in the level, which hides the repetition better than using a single extruded texture.

Sculpting in a stylized way is a bit harder, as you probably want a specific painterly style. Requires you to think like a painter. Some examples:

Fanny Vergne:
http://fafart.blogspot.fr/p/tutorial.html
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=125737

Also see Arif Pribadi's tutorial
http://arifcreations.com/blog/2012/01/21/tileable-rock-texture-in-zbrush/

Methods for creating huge cliffs (low poly)

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