Basic questions about video game assets pipeline
node
Hello,
This is my first topic here, I hope I am not doing wrong by posting in this section for my questions.
So I am currently learning 3D, as I want to be environment artist in videogames. Despite the incredible amount of online ressources, I still have somes specific questions I would need answers to move on and continue my learning. They are various and about different subjects, and for somes I found different answers, so that's why I came here, to be able to have some specifics answers to theses specifics questions. By advance thank you for your time reading this and maybe answering these following questions :
1) First, at the modelling step, is it okay to split my meshes instead of trying to extract the shapes of it ? Let me explain, if I want to model a table ( I model in blender ), is it better to add first my top part, then in edit mod add each legs as a new cube and put it at the right place, or is it better to add loop cut on the top part then extrude the legs from it ? This is a really... basic question but I could not find a clear answer anywhere as some peoples add details to their model by adding new mesh in edit mod and some others try to extrude them.
2) Still in modelling : I've understood that quad modeling is the big rule in 3D, but in videogames every model are triangulated. I've read it was due to mathematics and how the game engine handle calculate easier with triangles than with quad. But when do I triangulate my model ? Do I need to do it with blender ? At the very end of my worflow just before importing it in the real-time engine ? Also, what about N-gons : i've seen many hardsurface worflows based on booleans, but as you know once you apply them you get terrible topology. Does it really matters if every thing gets eventually triangulated and not even animated ? ( I am talking about environment props ). As long as your shading is ok, are N-gon ok ? I am talking about what is accepted in industry since I will use your answers in my portfolio.
3) Is there a "acceptable" threshold of polycount for environment pieces ? Since you model in quad, this number is doubled when you triangulate it. So is there somewhere a sort of table saying what max number of poly you can use for let's say, first, middle and third order of props importance in the screen ? Same for texture resolution : 2k, 4k ? and I know all of this is also related to LODs, but when you present you portfolio as a junior Environment Artist, do you need to show LODs of your model ?
4) Speaking of portfolio : when you are self-learning, what do you base your models on ? On artstation, I see many artists creating based on concepts arts, wich is I guess how it works for some big companies when you work as 3D artists. But what if you don't have concept art ? Do you imagine one ? I have a loooot on artbooks on many games, films etc but I guess I can't just take a concept art that I like, make a game-asset based on it and place it in my portfolio without asking to the guy who made the concept ? I know you can also model things based on real life objects but this must also be related to the company you are applying, and what kind of games they are making...
5) Last question for today : is general, is it better to have one texture set for all your model ( even if that comes with some parts having less definition) or you can have two or three texture set ? Maybe that is more adapted to animation and in videogames you have to stay with one ?
So that's it, I know that is a lot but even if you have the answer for just one of these, I'll really appreciate it !
Thank you for reading
Worraps
1) First, at the modelling step, is it okay to split my meshes instead of trying to extract the shapes of it ? Let me explain, if I want to model a table ( I model in blender ), is it better to add first my top part, then in edit mod add each legs as a new cube and put it at the right place, or is it better to add loop cut on the top part then extrude the legs from it ? This is a really... basic question but I could not find a clear answer anywhere as some peoples add details to their model by adding new mesh in edit mod and some others try to extrude them.
2) Still in modelling : I've understood that quad modeling is the big rule in 3D, but in videogames every model are triangulated. I've read it was due to mathematics and how the game engine handle calculate easier with triangles than with quad. But when do I triangulate my model ? Do I need to do it with blender ? At the very end of my worflow just before importing it in the real-time engine ? Also, what about N-gons : i've seen many hardsurface worflows based on booleans, but as you know once you apply them you get terrible topology. Does it really matters if every thing gets eventually triangulated and not even animated ? ( I am talking about environment props ). As long as your shading is ok, are N-gon ok ? I am talking about what is accepted in industry since I will use your answers in my portfolio.
3) Is there a "acceptable" threshold of polycount for environment pieces ? Since you model in quad, this number is doubled when you triangulate it. So is there somewhere a sort of table saying what max number of poly you can use for let's say, first, middle and third order of props importance in the screen ? Same for texture resolution : 2k, 4k ? and I know all of this is also related to LODs, but when you present you portfolio as a junior Environment Artist, do you need to show LODs of your model ?
4) Speaking of portfolio : when you are self-learning, what do you base your models on ? On artstation, I see many artists creating based on concepts arts, wich is I guess how it works for some big companies when you work as 3D artists. But what if you don't have concept art ? Do you imagine one ? I have a loooot on artbooks on many games, films etc but I guess I can't just take a concept art that I like, make a game-asset based on it and place it in my portfolio without asking to the guy who made the concept ? I know you can also model things based on real life objects but this must also be related to the company you are applying, and what kind of games they are making...
5) Last question for today : is general, is it better to have one texture set for all your model ( even if that comes with some parts having less definition) or you can have two or three texture set ? Maybe that is more adapted to animation and in videogames you have to stay with one ?
So that's it, I know that is a lot but even if you have the answer for just one of these, I'll really appreciate it !
Thank you for reading
Worraps
Replies
An exception is for normal mapping... these models can look better in-game when modeled contiguously. http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Normal_Map_Modeling#Low-Poly_Mesh
2: triangulate before baking a normal map and exporting to your game engine. http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Texture_Baking#Triangulation
3: Look at examples on Artstation from artists working on games. Also check the sample assets from Epic's Paragon. Demonstrating LODs is unnecessary... For entry level it's much more about artistic quality than it is about technical issues like LODs, which are often created automatically anyhow.
4: using concepts is accepted practice. It's polite to credit the concept artist, asking permission is not required but is often appreciated.
5: depends on the size/importance of the asset. Again, check samples from Epic and elsewhere.
Good luck, and keep the questions coming!
Everything is a triangle. Even ngons are triangles. You kinda answered the big part of the question yourself, does the shading work or not?
That's not the entrie argument, as there might be other concerns dpending on the function of the model, and obviously you don't go out of your way to make and model in explict triangles or ngons, as many modelling tools work best with quads and so on, but it's all tris at the end of the day even if you don't connect the edges. But tri and ngons happen, and they might work or not in that situation.
As far as triangulating, there are few sticking points where there this is a problem in any workflow where the model has to move from one app to another though> Different apps triangulate the model in different ways, so unless you force collapse all polys to tris some problems might occur. Most apps are basically dumb to the fact that everything is a tri and remove any control from the user for no reason. So we end up with a problem of apps using triangulated models under the hood, but they make up and remake that tri topology on their own in different ways depending on the app.
1) Modelling or sculpting the high poly mesh, no matter the way ( relatively speaking ) as long as it looks good and without shading issue. Spliting in different logics parts is accepted but can create some problems when baking normals, so it has to be made wisely.
2) Then I have to create the lowpoly mesh, this time with the best possible topology
3) UV Unwrap
4) Triangulate it before the baking of the HighPoly on it to avoid vertex normal flip and shading issue later.
5) Baking
6) Texturing
7) Ready to go
I know you just told me there are differents worflows for different situation, but I need to have a kind of a "guide" to follow along, and to know what I have left to do, a kind of checklist. I've been learning Blender with different courses, experimenting a lot, but game dev is a whole new world ! So now that I am learning Subtance Painter, I'd like to follow along the course with a model I made and not the one that come with it, in order to eventually put it in a real time engine and ( I hope ) get my very first game-ready asset. That's why it's so important to me to know very precisly what steps I have to go through !
Again, thank you for your answers.
Worraps
thank you for the link, very interesting things and exactly what I was looking for. There are some step here I never heard about before so really nice checklist.
Worraps