This frogman has been my gingerbread man (learning model) for weeks now. It’s been through a lot, shame Textured and then retextured (3+ times), UV mapped and re-mapped propably more than 10 times and normal mapped more than I care to remember. It was supposed to be a quick and simple model only to try out Nvidias Normal map plugin before I start on my female model, but it’s ended up as my workhorse for everything else.
It has only a normal and colour map and no specular or anything else - I’m getting there
The reason why it’s still unfinnished is because I’m going to use it in a scene. I’ve already conceptualised it but still need to start building it. So I’ll update in a few weeks time - I hope.
So anyway… a few problems I noted last night:
The feet might be too dark
The red on the back is not looking too well (tough luck - I’m not remapping, rebaking, fixing the seams and all that AGAIN!)
Some of the normals are still reversed (Thats almost impossible to fix)
What am I going to do with those eyes?!
He does’nt have nipples! LOL! Uhm… anyway.
Oh yes, Issue 21 (I think) of the BlenderArt Magazine has this terrific tutorial on baking textures to different UV’s to fix those nasty seams. I was really glad for that!
If you see any strange behaviours in my height/normals please ignore them. I’d have to cheat in my scene to fix the sides facing the camera. One of the terrible drawbacks of the Nvidia plug-in is that you cannot paint according to the model’s form (left-side, right-side, top etc).
Mmm, maybe I should have given a reason for the post - not getting much replies.
Well, I would like a opinion and even some tips for detailing something like this in the future. I took a VERY long walk (Nvidias normal map plugin) with this and my machine can only handle about 300 000 or so poly’s.
I’ve heard something about baking a image into (or through) the displacement att.of a high poly model… or something like that. That propably means I don’t have to see the displacement on-screen but it’s mapped directly into a image (normal)?
Also, Blender can seemingly handle about 1.7 or 7 million poly’s. Is that true? How the hell do you do that with multires and sculpting? Zbrush can handle up to a billion!!!
I’m thinking of handing out this model with textures and all as a tutorial package sometime. Not a tutorial on every modeling aspect but only covering the propblematic things some poeple might run into as they first start and go along and the way to approach UV texturing and texturing overall. Also, maybe someone wants to use the character, change it, or redo the whole bloody thing! Dunno if anyone’s interested…
I find that too much reading and detail covering the modeling aspect actually bores me and I loose interest in the tutorial. I’d much rather just follow my nose, and if I bump my head I can always go back and reference sections I’m having trouble with.
I really like your frogman! I think the reddish coloring on his back looks great… befitting a creature from a swampy area. The only thing that gets me is the chest. I’ve never seen a frog with breasts. I suppose that’s part of the reason this fellow is an upright member of society
Those breasts were leftovers from my original concept sketch. He was actually a bit fatter but I took some liberty in changing stuff. So now his a skinny, big breasted google-eyed thing.
RickyBlender
NOR? You mean normals like normal bumpmaps normal maps?
No problem. But I’d have to do it tonight. I will propably upload the whole model with all the textures sometime in the future - with a small guideline.
Frogman/women is getting some sparse clothing and accessories at the moment - but no bra (if any of you were getting strange ideas). I will post the final model and scene in the finished gallery.
RickyBlender:
Here is the sample of the texture file and normal map.
The normal map is a combination of a Blender made map through the sculting tool and a overlayed map made in photoshop and converted with Nvidias tool. I know there is a LOT of wasted space but I was trying to get a natural flow in the texturing process. The baked texturing and re-editing the seams was REALLY a lot of work. Both these textures were mapped, baked, re-edited and remapped as well as baked tot he original UV. It left a little bit of blurr but nothing you’d notice.
Textured and then retextured (3+ times), UV mapped and re-mapped propably more than 10 times and normal mapped more than I care to remember. It was supposed to be a quick and simple model only to try out Nvidias Normal map plugin before I start on my female model, but it’s ended up as my workhorse for everything else.
