A huge Soviet electric locomotive for UE 5.
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Hello everyone, I was given an order to make a detailed gaming version of the MID POLY of this model for UE5. I work in Blender, I know how to work with unique textures. I know about mid poly and custom normals. But I haven't had any experience working with large assets yet. Please tell me which approach is most suitable here? What to make unique, what with trims, and what with tiles? At the same time, the technical specification specifies Texel 10.24 for the entire model.
Replies
Collect a LOT of references - you will always need more. Study them and break the piece down into conceptually isolated modules. Block the loco out and recursively increase the detail from your blockout, module by module.
You can treat this kind of asset as a composition of smaller assets - this is the way it would have been built in the real world too.
It's probably too early to be thinking about texturing this, but I expect you'll be relying less on trims and more on tileables. I would layer masks over the main chassis and modulate base colour for the body paint, rather than trying to map it to some area on a decal sheet, for example.
Your blockout should help make it clear what will need attention from hand-painting and what can be covered with tileable materials. I expect the bogeys and pantograph sections will need hand painted attention.
I did document my own process working on a similar model here, maybe it can be of some help to you?
Hoping to shortly make a start on something similar myself...
Anyway, here's a resource I had bookmarked awhile about an artist currently working for the team behind Railway Trainz Simulator, where he shares a few insights coupled with production asset constraints which may prove useful as well:
Many thanks to you, my friend, for your advice, I was sure that I would need a lot of references. I see that you and I are like-minded people, according to a similar model, it pleases. Yes, your work will undoubtedly help me! Thanks. I just wanted to clarify what to do in this model with a cart with wheels, and what is on the roof, as well as the front part, headlights, and front protection? Is it possible to make the whole body tile ? And another point, how do I make sure that the unique UV hit exactly 10.24 texel?
Thank you! :)
I use Textools for Blender and Texel Density Checker to align my UVs and keep them within target. The main chassis should be possible to cover with tileable materials in my opinion, but this is going to be at your discretion as it's dependent on your knowledge of the project and the technical requirements.
Thank you, but in my opinion he made this model uniquely. And I need a hybrid :)
Thank you! :)