Celebration post
null
Hello polycounters. I am not much of a forum person, but this time I felt it was time to craft couple lines (first post btw) to tank everyone for your incredible guides and comments that led me to bake what I proudly consider my first quality normal map. I know I know, it may not seem a big deal for most, But for me has been a real long journey!! I started toying with 3d modeling in the spare time 2 or even 3 years ago but the results have been... well... lets say way, way, waaaaay below expectations if not straight nasty. If I knew back then that In order to make a game asset I had to spend most of the time not modelling it but instead researching pics in an ocean of trash, re-make the low poly every iteration, then Uv the low poly correctly (don't get me started on learning the uvs and then the Udims and whatnot) but no, it was not over. Then It was time to fight with the normal maps, and I need a cage now too?? in 2018? To be honest my friends always knew I needed one!
I ended up thinking.. "how the hell am I gonna stop modelling turds if I have to spend all this time polishing them?" And I was beaten, stuck, I gave up for a while, It was no longer fun.
Some time passed, some tools got some cool updates, but most importantly I have read some of the best articles & guides, 90% found here, and I finally scrapped a pipeline together that finally does the do. I sure wish the whole process was less time consuming and more straightforward but for now I just want to take a minute or two and celebrate that my assets are no longer stabbing my eyes with jagged blades. Last night I was able to obtain my first clean crisp normal map bake and relative sexy curvy low poly asset finally free of unwanted alias, jag, crap, black lines,distortions and ugliness. And, for helping me put an end to the struggle and restoring my creative confidence, Polycount I thank you warmly for the invaluable service!
I ended up thinking.. "how the hell am I gonna stop modelling turds if I have to spend all this time polishing them?" And I was beaten, stuck, I gave up for a while, It was no longer fun.
Some time passed, some tools got some cool updates, but most importantly I have read some of the best articles & guides, 90% found here, and I finally scrapped a pipeline together that finally does the do. I sure wish the whole process was less time consuming and more straightforward but for now I just want to take a minute or two and celebrate that my assets are no longer stabbing my eyes with jagged blades. Last night I was able to obtain my first clean crisp normal map bake and relative sexy curvy low poly asset finally free of unwanted alias, jag, crap, black lines,distortions and ugliness. And, for helping me put an end to the struggle and restoring my creative confidence, Polycount I thank you warmly for the invaluable service!
Replies
Don't be shy, post your art so we can help you improve on it. It's a bit odd you have no forum history whatsoever. If I was in your place, I would have been asking questions all along, and posting my attempts so I could get feedback and more eyeballs on my work. It's really hard to do it entirely on your own. For some idea of how the culture works here, and how to get the most bang for your attention dollar, see How to Post on the Internet and Why you're not getting any replies.
Anyhow, enough with the soapbox! Always great to see the community helping people achieve things. Congrats on jumping the first few hurdles!
My big leap was when I got turned onto Marmoset Toolbag 3. For $150 or whatever it was, it is a total game changer for me at least. Now baking is a fast no brainer. Almost a mindless step I can do in a few minutes and move on. You don't get the results you need? You just tweak and see visual updates in real time.
Nice one.
Now lets see stuff so we can help level up your progress even further?! either another notch or three...or more
Wow so much interest, nice! Here we go then, This is the latest in town, around 1.5k tris. and toke me a whole evening. I was experimenting with boleans but fixing the topo of the low poly maaaan wtf!! it toke forever, like 70% of the total time! I am going to fake more details in he future just to save retopo time.
If it helps, you can also boolean your way to a low poly, instead of trying to plane by plane rretopo something.
Since we talking booleans, they seems to always cut a bit too sharp in the mesh and that gives me a bit more aliasing that I like even at medium distances especially in vr. Next step I guess would be... to manipulate/ smooth the high poly after the boolean operation. I had no success so far in re-meshing it and obtaining workable loops while retaining the edges. Do you plan those polygroups in advance too? Cose regrouping by tangents after the fact is not working even on simple stuff. Would be nice to figure that bit out, I am planning something big next, in space screen terms, lets say a big sci-fi bridge. I have not tried big meshes yet man, they are scary, I must be shimmerfobic
Like looking at the posted object above, I can imagine booleaning a lower poly cylinder to get the general cuts I need to match the high poly mesh.
Congratulations man! I totally understand the feeling of being stuck, of having high expectations (I believe everyone here still feels that)...but hey, go and celebrate man. One step at a time and we will reach the top.
I just wanted to share something that I read/listened these day, from Ryan Kingslein
"We struggle because we are growing. If there was no growth, there wouldn't be struggle"
This is another way to face things. You are only struggling with stuff because you are growing, and that is an amazing thing.
Keep on the good work my man.