Good Quality LP from HP (Substance Md)
Hi all! This site was recommended to me a few weeks ago, only just got around to distilling my thoughts into a question, I hope someone can help.
Over the last couple of years I have been making models to go into a Star Wars Galaxies Emu server. simple things, I used to use Tinkercad, pushing that through Blender and such. Very basic and rough, but fun.
I've made a couple of basic things with 3DS Max too, but that lacks to me the beauty of using Substance Modeller's voxel system. Feels so much like clay!
I've learned a lot over that time and have fallen in love with Substance Painter and Modeller. Wonderful tools! I push things through 3DS Max now.
However I would ideally prefer to make a decent Low Poly of 3-4k quad (quads to help with the Substance Painter part and the 3-4k for the game itself ideally) with the High Poly being baked onto it in Painter.
Modeller (Beta) has had some damn good exporting additions over the last month or so, but is still wanting when it comes to lower poly counts.
I'm ideally looking for something that keeps the shape of the model but doesn't distort it. Again, in quads if possible.
The normal size of the High Polys - although not the highest in comparison to other models, is about 250-300k quads. The textures I create tend to be 4096 UVs.
Bearing in mind I am...middling at best with 3DS and Blender, how can I get a decent LP from an HP that maintains the shape? Any other stand alone software there than can do the job maybe?
Not sure how to post a pic here, but if needed I'm sure there is a way.
Thanks!
Over the last couple of years I have been making models to go into a Star Wars Galaxies Emu server. simple things, I used to use Tinkercad, pushing that through Blender and such. Very basic and rough, but fun.
I've made a couple of basic things with 3DS Max too, but that lacks to me the beauty of using Substance Modeller's voxel system. Feels so much like clay!
I've learned a lot over that time and have fallen in love with Substance Painter and Modeller. Wonderful tools! I push things through 3DS Max now.
However I would ideally prefer to make a decent Low Poly of 3-4k quad (quads to help with the Substance Painter part and the 3-4k for the game itself ideally) with the High Poly being baked onto it in Painter.
Modeller (Beta) has had some damn good exporting additions over the last month or so, but is still wanting when it comes to lower poly counts.
I'm ideally looking for something that keeps the shape of the model but doesn't distort it. Again, in quads if possible.
The normal size of the High Polys - although not the highest in comparison to other models, is about 250-300k quads. The textures I create tend to be 4096 UVs.
Bearing in mind I am...middling at best with 3DS and Blender, how can I get a decent LP from an HP that maintains the shape? Any other stand alone software there than can do the job maybe?
Not sure how to post a pic here, but if needed I'm sure there is a way.
Thanks!
Replies
I get that a voxel modeler might be fun to use, you could still reserve that creation method for complex organic shapes?
From my view a big aspect of creating assets for real-time is breaking up complex designs into parts which can be easily re-used. This should speed up subsequent iterations and allows to quickly assemble new assets from the sub parts. Working that way also mean better re-use of textures.
You could look into some decimate modifiers do remove non-silhouette defining geometry, but yeah doing UVs will be less fun.
Aside from a maximizing the space, some other aspects I would aim for:
- seams along edges where it makes sense, certainly at hard edges (if used to control the lowpolys shading)
- UVs straightened and aligned with pixel grid UVs where it makes sense (strips, grids), particularly at borders - to minimize aliasing artifacts
- re-using of space for similar/identical parts - smaller textures neccessary
- (personal preference) readable UV layout allowing to make adjustments in UV space
Even when doing this for fun, progressing on the modeling side might unlock more options when creating content. You could start a thread documenting your progress and 3D assets.