help me breakdown this train car

shubham kumar · May 2016

modelling isn't issue but its a huge object ,how do i break this thing down to create Lowpoly and unwrap it to get better resolution texture without repetition . Should i keep it in single uv map or multiple uv maps ? Please give me tips how do you guys deal with large assets like this

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/3g/zol9ek2z94j7.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/zq/tjfec9pupn6r.jpg

Steppenwolf · May 2016

Personaly i would use at least two atlases for it. One for tiling surfaces (roof, side walls, trims), one for unique elements. To break up repetition you can use either decals or some vertex blend, shader techniques. Or a mix of both. But yea this can become quite expensive hero asset especialy when you plan to model the interiour aswell. So make some good lods for it and try to reduce the number of materials on your lods.

Synaesthesia · May 2016

On the locomotive I built, I utilized a lot of planar projected UVs (for easy stacking) and stacked quite a bit of it to improve resolution. At 8k, it was still going to be low-res if everything on it was a set of unique UVs. I'll gladly give you some specialized advice if I can see the model itself and how you've built it!

Mark Dygert · May 2016

100% unique, unwrap every last bolt and scrape to it's own 4096 texture sheet =P

Kidding! Yes, tiles where you can, unique when you need it. Depending on how you layout your UV's you might be able to use one sheet and tile specific parts in specific places. For example using the lower 2/3rd of the sheet for UVs that tile left to right and can hang off the sheet. Then use the remaining space for unique assets and generic material squares where odds and ends can be stacked.

If I was to break up the materials, I would be tempted to break up the sheets by material type so you aren't trying create a lot of different surfaces inside of one overly complex material. Opacity on it's own, metal on another, wood on it's own ect... But that is really subjective, it depends on the engine, the project and how important the materials are to the level and the game overall.

A decent artist can easily make some high poly hero asset that looks amazing in isolation but a GREAT artist, might might be called upon to create a handful of tile materials and use just those materials to do much more than just this asset. If you could do an entire trainyard with 5 materials that would speak volumes your skills as an environment artist, if that is even a direction you want to go.

But yea, be prepared to make a lot of mistakes, there is no shame in that as long as you learn from them. A lot of the time you won't figure out the best way to make something until you do it a few times, even then it's very situational. Just don't let 'not knowing the perfect method' keep you from starting. I don't know anyone who has been through a series of assets, who hasn't gone back to the first one and said "oh that is crap I can totally do better now." Probably won't the first time around, but you will learn a ton by just doing it and dissecting your work.

It doesn't matter which foot goes first as long as you take that first step. Wash rinse repeat until you either finish or give up

EarthQuake · May 2016

You could get creative and build this in a modular way, ie: a set of two windows is a tiling texture. Then, make a clean and a dirty version (dirty version full of rust and wear), and use a blended (texture or vertex based) material to mask between the two texture sets to give it unique wear. To make it more unique, put more windows on the tiling texture set (4, for instance).

shubham kumar · May 2016

Thank you guys for replying ,

Synaesthesia said:

On the locomotive I built, I utilized a lot of planar projected UVs (for easy stacking) and stacked quite a bit of it to improve resolution. At 8k, it was still going to be low-res if everything on it was a set of unique UVs. I'll gladly give you some specialized advice if I can see the model itself and how you've built it!

i will surly be in touch with you .

Mark Dygert said:

100% unique, unwrap every last bolt and scrape to it's own 4096 texture sheet =P

Kidding! Yes, tiles where you can, unique when you need it. Depending on how you layout your UV's you might be able to use one sheet and tile specific parts in specific places. For example using the lower 2/3rd of the sheet for UVs that tile left to right and can hang off the sheet. Then use the remaining space for unique assets and generic material squares where odds and ends can be stacked.

If I was to break up the materials, I would be tempted to break up the sheets by material type so you aren't trying create a lot of different surfaces inside of one overly complex material. Opacity on it's own, metal on another, wood on it's own ect... But that is really subjective, it depends on the engine, the project and how important the materials are to the level and the game overall.

A decent artist can easily make some high poly hero asset that looks amazing in isolation but a GREAT artist, might might be called upon to create a handful of tile materials and use just those materials to do much more than just this asset. If you could do an entire trainyard with 5 materials that would speak volumes your skills as an environment artist, if that is even a direction you want to go.

But yea, be prepared to make a lot of mistakes, there is no shame in that as long as you learn from them. A lot of the time you won't figure out the best way to make something until you do it a few times, even then it's very situational. Just don't let 'not knowing the perfect method' keep you from starting. I don't know anyone who has been through a series of assets, who hasn't gone back to the first one and said "oh that is crap I can totally do better now." Probably won't the first time around, but you will learn a ton by just doing it and dissecting your work.

It doesn't matter which foot goes first as long as you take that first step. Wash rinse repeat until you either finish or give up

i am a student right now , but yes my plans are to become pro and i know it will take a lot of hard work and i am ready for it ,

Steppenwolf said:

Personaly i would use at least two atlases for it. One for tiling surfaces (roof, side walls, trims), one for unique elements. To break up repetition you can use either decals or some vertex blend, shader techniques. Or a mix of both. But yea this can become quite expensive hero asset especialy when you plan to model the interiour aswell. So make some good lods for it and try to reduce the number of materials on your lods.

i think i can use vertex paint in ue 4 ,but i wanted to make it like i am making it for someone else and don't want them to do some additional iterations on it everything should be done by my side , they just have to import it in engine

, so i think it should be modular , i will create a separate Lightmap uv with no overlapping as i will use it in unreal engine 4

so here is my planning for modelling ,what do you guys think?
i will have 3 uv's or any suggestions

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/2z/g7asjo17cjo5.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/p2/0bba129j2lza.jpg

EarthQuake said:

You could get creative and build this in a modular way, ie: a set of two windows is a tiling texture. Then, make a clean and a dirty version (dirty version full of rust and wear), and use a blended (texture or vertex based) material to mask between the two texture sets to give it unique wear. To make it more unique, put more windows on the tiling texture set (4, for instance).

Hey sorry i already planned , i was just editing my topic and saw your reply

so should i create two sets of textures one normal and other dirty and rusty ?
i use maya and can do vertex color but i wanted to keep it lowpoly which is you know not good for vertex paint and i don't think maya has blend materials like 3ds max

Steppenwolf · May 2016

shubham kumar said:

i think i can use vertex paint in ue 4 ,but i wanted to make it like i am making it for someone else and don't want them to do some additional iterations on it everything should be done by my side , they just have to import it in engine

Hey sorry i already planned , i was just editing my topic and saw your reply
so should i create two sets of textures one normal and other dirty and rusty ?
i use maya and can do vertex color but i wanted to keep it lowpoly which is you know not good for vertex paint and i don't think maya has blend materials like 3ds max

You can import vertex colors to UE4 afaik. So no need to paint it in UE4 directly. I think due to the windows and modularity you would have enough geometry for vertex blends by default. Your materials just need some good masks. And i wouldn't worry if you have no blend material in your 3d app. Of course its nice to see what you get whilre you work on it but i see no reason why you couldn't iterate on this hopping between the 3d app and the engine a few times instead.

shubham kumar · May 2016

Steppenwolf said:

shubham kumar said:

i think i can use vertex paint in ue 4 ,but i wanted to make it like i am making it for someone else and don't want them to do some additional iterations on it everything should be done by my side , they just have to import it in engine

Hey sorry i already planned , i was just editing my topic and saw your reply
so should i create two sets of textures one normal and other dirty and rusty ?
i use maya and can do vertex color but i wanted to keep it lowpoly which is you know not good for vertex paint and i don't think maya has blend materials like 3ds max

You can import vertex colors to UE4 afaik. So no need to paint it in UE4 directly. I think due to the windows and modularity you would have enough geometry for vertex blends by default. Your materials just need some good masks. And i wouldn't worry if you have no blend material in your 3d app. Of course its nice to see what you get whilre you work on it but i see no reason why you couldn't iterate on this hopping between the 3d app and the engine a few times instead.

as i showed you breakdown image , they all are using same texture so how can i get variation in other texture ? variations also gonna be same , this is confusing

EarthQuake said:

You could get creative and build this in a modular way, ie: a set of two windows is a tiling texture. Then, make a clean and a dirty version (dirty version full of rust and wear), and use a blended (texture or vertex based) material to mask between the two texture sets to give it unique wear. To make it more unique, put more windows on the tiling texture set (4, for instance).

but they are 12

help me breakdown this train car

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