Progress

Making progress on my building.

Having to redo some of it, but getting there. Just... it looks more run down than war torn.

Workflow Advice

I found this nugget of gold on the polycount forum It was posted by Chrisradsby

Remember: Props are much more impressive when put into context, even if they're simple.

 

I say:

 

1. Go into http://www.conceptroot.com/ and find inspiration and reference for you next scene.

2. Start to plan your scene, decide on what's important: The whole picture or a close quarters scene with lots of detail. (Best worlds is if you can fit both)

3. Plan your textures, write down a list and get down the initial textures you would need for the basic overview of the level. (wooden beams, concrete, metal etc)

3.5 Decide your texture workflow, is it really worth it to Zbrush or have unique textures for smalll props? Is it worth going through all the high-low poly baking? Will you see all that detail?

4. Go modular, tilable textures and modular parts that you can put together in your 3d-modeling software.

5. Create the shaders you need to set everything up.

6. Greybox your environment and some bigger props and add your basic tilable textures to them so that you feel like you're getting somewhere.

7. Post to polycount and get feedback as soon as possible.

 

Brick Texture

Working on an Art Test, I needed a brick texture, and one better than my previous attempts. Took me a couple tries to get the normals decent result. I used PhillipK's tut as a roadmap.

Going to use it as a base for a damaged version to use for vertex blending.

I lost control of where my scene was heading because of the advice I was being given. It was good-GREAT advice, but I couldn't get the scene to come together without redoing nearly all the pieces, and then it wouldn't of really made sense.

This is a low poly blockout/guide of what I am planning. I don't have all the pipes and ceiling tiles placed, but it should be enough to get me going.

I am looking for a Mod to join, again... The last 3... well, anyway. I applied to one and they will be giving me an art test, I guess we will see. At least taking an art test seems more professionally done.

Still unemployed...

Progress

Max has been crashing alot on this pieces slowing me WAY down. Ended up being 4317 tris. The Count is higher than I planned, but I think I will leave it, and continue the rest of the scene. Pipes are placeholders BSP brushes.

Naming Conventions

This is more for me than for anyone else. File names are extremely important, whether in Max, or in UDK. These are mine, however, if you are working on a project with someone else, be sure you are using the agreed upon naming conventions.

Map Names Suffixes, All have the Prefix TEX_ for Texture

• _D  Is your Color map or Diffuse.
• _S Is your Specular Highlite Map, It normally is colored but can be grey scale and placed in an Alpha Channel to save file space, otherwise, put your Gloss map in this Alpha Channel..
• _N Is your Normal map. If you are using a Height Map, just put it in the alpha channel here.
• _SI Is your Self Illumination map or Glow Map.
• _G Is your Gloss Map, it controls the spread of your specular highlites. I have the least experience with this map. I think it is just a grey scale image and should be placed in the alpha channel, (I try to use S) to save space.
• _H Is your Height Map, I try to put it in my Normal's Alpha channel.

So, T_TechWallLg_DIF would be a Diffuse texture for the Long Tech Wall.

Static Meshes have the Prefix SM_
SM_TechWallLg

Materials in UDK are MAT_ or MI_ for Material Instance
MI_TechWallLg

Particles systems are PART_

I hope this helps someone.

Trying a Different Work Flow

I tried a different Work Flow. I am also trying to teach myself to draw... So I made a concept of what I wanted to make.

I created a base mesh, well a series of meshes, in Max. I imported into Mudbox. I sculpted in Mudbox.

I reimported into Max and created a low poly mesh which doubles as my cage for baking the normals. I unwrapped and cloned the pieces I needed. I moved them off of 0-1 area. I baked the Normals, AO and a selection mask in Max.
Ran the result through Photoshop and Bam!

Diffuse, Spec, Gloss and Normal. Also a Self Illumination map not shown.

Here is the result. 396 tris