hello, ive been trying to get a decently detailed model done.
ive been using edge split to make my mesh look smoother, but i encountered more problems then it was worth, especially when uv mapping. how do you guys smooth your meshes when modeling for games ? how doe you make complicated models eqally smooth on a lot of different surfaces without using the troublesome edge split ? how do you counter the uv problems that eventually arise?
we all know uv mapping a cube isnt that hard, but when you smooth it it becomes a bit less easy. ive seen a lot of tuts for max which seem to have a ridiculously easy time making holes in a mesh for example without using boolean and a second mesh, is there something im missing in blender ?
i will check for tutorials, thanks for the heads up. ive read up on floating geometry, seems blender is still behind max in this one. as for edge split, do you do it manually to avoid some weird ngons showing up or is it necessary to go through the troubble ?
How do hard edges affect your UV mapping and ngons?
What kind of model is this?
For a game model where you bake normals from a high poly mesh, hard edges help to remove gradients from the normal map. These gradients can cause nasty shading artifacts, depending on the texture resolution and shader.
For pure low poly models, like a building with tileable textures, you’ll likely need hard edges to get it shade accurately.
(You could use no hard edges at all but this would require lots of edge loops for proper shading)
the way to making awesome textures, is to have a high poly version of your model, and bake it onto the UV coords of the low poy version as a normals map. to do this you need to know UV mapping / unwrapping. after that, it’s pretty much the press of a button.
i do know it, i just never used anything outside uv mapping and ambient occlusion. the model isnt exactly high poly either, and thats the fully fledged out model. should i use texture methods and sharp edges to avoid those bugs you mentioned or should i use the “high poly” model instead ? i aks because it might be unnecessary in the end considering the polycount of the model, and the superstructure could turn pretty ugly considering its a very boxy design.
I think your low poly model is good. you just need to add bevel the hard edges to give it more refined look and shadows.
The pictures which you are tryin to mimic are on high poly count, even in udk. I think its above 5000 polygons. Your model seems under 2000 polys.
Your silhouette looks good. by the way, add up some material , give it a good light setup , render it and then post it for response.
thank you duke! modron has a point, ive been getting som serious texture distortion and lighting errors even though the uv for example was perfectly fine.
materials and AO are already in, ive posted the pictures just for evaluation as i want to start texturing it already. it has taken up way too much time as it is already.
i think ill make some subdivisions to add more loops and bake the AO again, then use this model to apply textures. i still need to try my hand at normal maps, as the only thing i used was AO for now.
i gotta look up that use of bevel as ive never used it tbh.
what do you mean by shadows ? shadows as putting them into the texture or ?
p.s. the model for the battle rifle is around 5k polies, still for a model of such complexity he managed to make it appear smooth without any errors or distortion, hes a pro after all
Here is very basic UV painting sequence I posted before.
UV and AO maps are generated from the model. You layer those maps up in Gimp where UV and AO are placed at the top. The Color and base texture below are mix together to create more complex looking render. Base layer is no more than noise. Top UV layer is used as guide to aide painting, and it is not rendered out as a texture at the end.
Very simple color schemes, but you will end up with fine render.
I mean it gives better light bounce or shadows in game.
It doesnt matter if he is a pro and you are not. every pro start as noob. If you don’t want to work on the geometry anymore, then leave it as is. concertrate on texturing. Use @ridix example as guide line.
Normal maps are extracted just like AO maps and used for detailing the model.
An example is to add up engraved text, lines, cuts , bolts etc.
There are several tutorials on blendercookie.com for using normal map. do give them a look.
not bad though the stripes kinda look off, the grip might need more work. i guesss its early WIP ?
i also guess youre doing it for fun hehe, ill redo the lasgun model sometime, this was mainly to set my newly learned skill for future work. the next model will be cleaner especially in the normal map department.
I was just having fun adding rounded shapes with boxed ones, nothing serious. Yep lot of work is needed on grip. Thinking of using normal mapped greeble for more details.
