War General

Submitted by Makk on
Forum
Work in progress

Here is my entry to the dominace war. I am a member of the black and green army; Team Polycount
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/general/high_poly_13.jpg[/i…]
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/general/high_poly_11.jpg[/i…]

He is supposed to be a general of several wars. Due to horrific injuries suffered in combat, he now dictates the battle from deep within the Polycount fortress, blah, blah, blah.
The statrs will be-
5k tris
1024 normal, diffuse and spec maps.

Started on the low poly-
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/general/low_poly_01.jpg[/img]

Going to split it up into different segments. Since it is normal mapped I going to have to cap of the low poly bits. A bit of waste of polies I know but I think its going to make things easier.

Anyway and crits (especially in regards to how my low poly is going to transtion from the high ploy source model) would be good.
Ive got like a week to build the low poly, Uv map it, generate the normal map, texture and pose it. Oh and build a normal mapped podium for him to stand on *gulp!*

Submitted by LiveWire on Thu, 02/03/06 - 2:05 AMPermalink

Good luck mate, i've had to give up on my entry - been to strapped for time - but I hope to see you finish.

Submitted by Makk on Thu, 02/03/06 - 7:06 AMPermalink

Thanks livewire, its a pity you wont get to finish yours but its understandable.

Update-
Progress on the legs...
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/general/low_poly_02.jpg[/img]
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/general/low_poly_03.jpg[/img]
Im planning on mirroring them, though I know that cuases a seam with the normals, though I think you can use the edit normals modifier to fix this. (Saw it on one of Ben Mathis vid tuts [url]http://www.poopinmymouth.com/[/url] ).

Submitted by Lloyd on Fri, 03/03/06 - 12:29 AMPermalink

Hey Makk,

Cool character dude.

Being new to the whole normal mapping thing myself, I thought I would raise a question. I notice Makk has done his high res model first, which he is using as the bases to construct his low resolution mesh. Personally, I would always create the low res first and take into zbrush.

From observation, I have only ever really seen ppl model low then create their high res from that. So, my question being, is it wiser to create the low or high first or is it just personal workflow?

Thanks.

Submitted by Makk on Fri, 03/03/06 - 1:09 AMPermalink

I think its just personal workflow. Dont think it really matters as long as you can get the end result looking good.

Reason why I create the high poly first and on a seperate mesh is becuase when doing the the high poly, Im only concerned about surface detial. No need to worry about building so it animates correctly, etc. Plus you can get away with building it in separete pieces and have it just floating there.
Also, you have too model differently as well. Like specifically when dealing with sharp/soft edges since that depends on the placement of them.
Finally, its generally a bad idea to have traingles, but (mostly) ok to have 5 sided polies in high res stuff. Where as the low poly you can have triangles but not 5 sided polies.

Make sense?

Oh and I just noticed I havent given him any eyebrows! Speaking of, I was going to use the PS normal filter to generate the hair strokes on the hair and eyebrows. Anybody had any experience with that? and how did it turn out?

Submitted by LiveWire on Mon, 13/03/06 - 7:28 PMPermalink

so did you end up getting it in on time?

Submitted by J I Styles on Tue, 14/03/06 - 3:59 AMPermalink

in regards to hair and eyebrows, I strongly suggest doing barbie hair in either max or zbrush first, then doing fiber strokes in post the nv filter -- I have done hair fiber in zbrush before, but it takes quite a few million polys to get a nice flow, and a whole lot of fiddling around in projection master to smooth it all out and looking good. Too much hassle than it's worth.

Submitted by Makk on Tue, 14/03/06 - 9:35 AMPermalink

err...whats barbie hair? Is that like doing it in lots of of seperate planes? I did try doing in zbrush with the fiberbrush, but yeah, it was too fidly and didnt look like proper flowing hair.

Livewire I probably could rush it since Ive just got to finish off the boots and gun and add a a base, but I really feel it just isnt worth it anymore. However I WILL finish it.

So I was playing around with the posing (using bones and the skin modifier) and is it the mesh itself or is the poor rigging making his arms stretch out longer then what they are...

[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/general/newgeneral02.jpg[/i…]
Here is the wires to compare..
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/general/newgeneral03.jpg[/i…]

Oh and ANY crits would be good since I cant seem to get anything from polycount board.

Submitted by J I Styles on Wed, 15/03/06 - 9:13 AMPermalink

barbie hair equals:

[img]http://www.nancysdreamhouse.com/listpics/busyken1.jpg[/img]

molded large mass approximating the hair volume. Only tackle individual hair fibers in zbrush if you're willing to make custom brushes to use in projection master to get correct layering and then dick around with the flow where you drop and pick up on edges. I strongly suggest against using the fiber brush for this sort of thing since it's just a mess [:)]

Posted by Makk on
Forum
Work in progress

Here is my entry to the dominace war. I am a member of the black and green army; Team Polycount
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/general/high_poly_13.jpg[/i…]
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/general/high_poly_11.jpg[/i…]

He is supposed to be a general of several wars. Due to horrific injuries suffered in combat, he now dictates the battle from deep within the Polycount fortress, blah, blah, blah.
The statrs will be-
5k tris
1024 normal, diffuse and spec maps.

Started on the low poly-
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/general/low_poly_01.jpg[/img]

Going to split it up into different segments. Since it is normal mapped I going to have to cap of the low poly bits. A bit of waste of polies I know but I think its going to make things easier.

Anyway and crits (especially in regards to how my low poly is going to transtion from the high ploy source model) would be good.
Ive got like a week to build the low poly, Uv map it, generate the normal map, texture and pose it. Oh and build a normal mapped podium for him to stand on *gulp!*

Submitted by LiveWire on Thu, 02/03/06 - 2:05 AMPermalink

Good luck mate, i've had to give up on my entry - been to strapped for time - but I hope to see you finish.

Submitted by Makk on Thu, 02/03/06 - 7:06 AMPermalink

Thanks livewire, its a pity you wont get to finish yours but its understandable.

Update-
Progress on the legs...
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/general/low_poly_02.jpg[/img]
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/general/low_poly_03.jpg[/img]
Im planning on mirroring them, though I know that cuases a seam with the normals, though I think you can use the edit normals modifier to fix this. (Saw it on one of Ben Mathis vid tuts [url]http://www.poopinmymouth.com/[/url] ).

Submitted by Lloyd on Fri, 03/03/06 - 12:29 AMPermalink

Hey Makk,

Cool character dude.

Being new to the whole normal mapping thing myself, I thought I would raise a question. I notice Makk has done his high res model first, which he is using as the bases to construct his low resolution mesh. Personally, I would always create the low res first and take into zbrush.

From observation, I have only ever really seen ppl model low then create their high res from that. So, my question being, is it wiser to create the low or high first or is it just personal workflow?

Thanks.

Submitted by Makk on Fri, 03/03/06 - 1:09 AMPermalink

I think its just personal workflow. Dont think it really matters as long as you can get the end result looking good.

Reason why I create the high poly first and on a seperate mesh is becuase when doing the the high poly, Im only concerned about surface detial. No need to worry about building so it animates correctly, etc. Plus you can get away with building it in separete pieces and have it just floating there.
Also, you have too model differently as well. Like specifically when dealing with sharp/soft edges since that depends on the placement of them.
Finally, its generally a bad idea to have traingles, but (mostly) ok to have 5 sided polies in high res stuff. Where as the low poly you can have triangles but not 5 sided polies.

Make sense?

Oh and I just noticed I havent given him any eyebrows! Speaking of, I was going to use the PS normal filter to generate the hair strokes on the hair and eyebrows. Anybody had any experience with that? and how did it turn out?

Submitted by LiveWire on Mon, 13/03/06 - 7:28 PMPermalink

so did you end up getting it in on time?

Submitted by J I Styles on Tue, 14/03/06 - 3:59 AMPermalink

in regards to hair and eyebrows, I strongly suggest doing barbie hair in either max or zbrush first, then doing fiber strokes in post the nv filter -- I have done hair fiber in zbrush before, but it takes quite a few million polys to get a nice flow, and a whole lot of fiddling around in projection master to smooth it all out and looking good. Too much hassle than it's worth.

Submitted by Makk on Tue, 14/03/06 - 9:35 AMPermalink

err...whats barbie hair? Is that like doing it in lots of of seperate planes? I did try doing in zbrush with the fiberbrush, but yeah, it was too fidly and didnt look like proper flowing hair.

Livewire I probably could rush it since Ive just got to finish off the boots and gun and add a a base, but I really feel it just isnt worth it anymore. However I WILL finish it.

So I was playing around with the posing (using bones and the skin modifier) and is it the mesh itself or is the poor rigging making his arms stretch out longer then what they are...

[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/general/newgeneral02.jpg[/i…]
Here is the wires to compare..
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/general/newgeneral03.jpg[/i…]

Oh and ANY crits would be good since I cant seem to get anything from polycount board.

Submitted by J I Styles on Wed, 15/03/06 - 9:13 AMPermalink

barbie hair equals:

[img]http://www.nancysdreamhouse.com/listpics/busyken1.jpg[/img]

molded large mass approximating the hair volume. Only tackle individual hair fibers in zbrush if you're willing to make custom brushes to use in projection master to get correct layering and then dick around with the flow where you drop and pick up on edges. I strongly suggest against using the fiber brush for this sort of thing since it's just a mess [:)]