WIP - hi-poly count version

Community Forums/Graphic Chat/WIP - hi-poly count version

Dustin(Posted 2006) [#1]
So, this is a work in progress sneak peek at my upcoming game character. This is the hi-poly version. After I finish (need to add the arm protection, etc) I'll add textures and bake it to a UV. Then make a low poly version based off of it for my game and make use of the high poly UV. By the way, the proportions are supposed to be cartoonish.





Ruz(Posted 2006) [#2]
looking good man. might be nice to make the arms in the same style as the legs, ie segmented body armour


Vorderman(Posted 2006) [#3]
After I finish (need to add the arm protection


might be nice to make the arms in the same style as the legs, ie segmented body armour


Top marks for reading the post there Ruz :)

Excellent model so far - looking forward to seeing how your lo-res model works.


Ruz(Posted 2006) [#4]
Top marks for reading the post there Ruz :)

that bit was in my blind spot, mr forum police vorderman:)


xlsior(Posted 2006) [#5]
Lookin' good!


N(Posted 2006) [#6]
Nice.


Vorderman(Posted 2006) [#7]
that bit was in my blind spot, mr forum police vorderman:)


I feel slightly guilty about my comment, because just after I posted about you not reading the original post, I posted to ask whether Dustin is going to make a low-res model and apply a normal map to it. Then I actually read his post all the way through and found he had already said it, so I had to quickly edit my own post to remove the evidence :)


Paul Murray(Posted 2006) [#8]
Looks great.

Sci-fi themed I take it?


Ruz(Posted 2006) [#9]
I think we tend to skim through forum posts . but anyway, its still looking pretty solid


Dustin(Posted 2006) [#10]
Thanks for the kind words guys! Glad you guys read the full post (eventually). :)

Yep, the game will be sci-fi in theme. I'll show more as I make progress


Steve Elliott(Posted 2006) [#11]
Impressive. A good bit of modelling there.

Is it easy to produce a low poly version from a high one? Or do you just re-start and base it on the one you've got?


Dustin(Posted 2006) [#12]
Thanks Steve.

No magic trick for the low poly. I'll just load this guy into a background layer and build the low-poly from scratch based off of this one.


ErikT(Posted 2006) [#13]
Love it! Armor, proportions and all.


simonh(Posted 2006) [#14]
Superb. What program did you use to render that, and how do you get that nice 'graininess' in the image?


Dustin(Posted 2006) [#15]
Lightwave.

It's a trick we use at work. Create a "Textured environment" that's full white. Turn on radiosity and select background only. You get that nice 'graininess' and some super quick render times. Also, add a grey image for the background so the pure white textured environment doesn't blow out the image.


Erroneouss(Posted 2006) [#16]
I like it! I wish I could model... I suck at all things
art.

-- ~1/4 (about one-fourth) off topic --

Very nice portfolio Dustin! :)

Seen lots of those commercials! The Hot-Wheels one was
especially cool! :D


Steve Elliott(Posted 2006) [#17]
Dustin, thought you had a nice little trick for me in Lightwave to convert to low poly easily - aw well the hard way it is.


scribbla(Posted 2006) [#18]
nice very nice

what about using qemloss 3


Dustin(Posted 2006) [#19]
Thanks '*', did I spell that correctly? :)

Thanks scribbla

Not a big qemloss fan. I'd rather do it manualy. Actually it's pretty easy. I built the object almost completely sub-d. I froze the pieces in modeler at a patch level of 1. 50% of my work is already done.

I only put in about an hour last night and already built out the entire chest area (400 polys, shooting for ~3k total).

Hopefully I should have the low-poly version finished by this weekend! That is if I don't play hookie and start playing 1 of 4 games that I got for Xmas and still haven't opened. :)


Dustin(Posted 2006) [#20]
Aaaaaaaand, FAILURE!!!!

I thought I had a great system in hand. Make the high-poly object version; then make the low poly counterpart; then bake out the high-poly detail in a normal map and bake it onto the low poly version. This approach failed for 2 reasons. 1) The normal map had too many details and curves and as a result no matter what settings I tried it generated too many render errors. 2) The only way to see the normal map effect is with a traditional light. Kind of hard to bake a low poly texture with equal lighting using traditional lights instead of an illumination globe. Here's the results:




Not disasterous but not what I want them to be. So I'm going to have to do a little more work. I'll go back to the high-poly object and generate a UV which will line up as closely as possible with the low poly version then bake out the detail of the high poly version onto the UV. It's do-able, but it's more work than I wanted it to be.


scribbla(Posted 2006) [#21]
doesnt look that bad to me
would be nice to see it animated and textured


IPete2(Posted 2006) [#22]
Dustin,

Isn't it tricy to do animated normal mapping anyways? - You should be proud though dude - the results shown here look fab and like Scribbla I would like to see it textured and animated.

IPete2.


Dustin(Posted 2006) [#23]
Thanks guys!

Sorry, the previous explanation was a little off. I generated a normal map that I planned on using (baking) to make a texture to apply to the low poly. I wasn't planning to do any normal mapping in B3D. You're exactly right, it's way too tricky.

The cool news is that I did finish modeling & teturing. But rather than just post another image, let me finish the rigging and I'll have a test animation up for review. I should have it up in a couple of days.