Spring RTS Engine

@ hoi : :D no fun allowed. make a mario mod, i want to spam some koopas

I'm making a mario version of chickens

Hoi wrote:I'm making a mario version of chickens

Do want Bowser nao!

He will be the "queen"

Rendered low polygon model with ambient occlusion map and normalmap from highpolygon model applied:



The actual models looks like this:



The ambient occlusion map should make texturing a breeze, only needing to mix it with some flat colors and maybe fine tuning.

Zpock wrote:The ambient occlusion map should make texturing a breeze, only needing to mix it with some flat colors and maybe fine tuning.

That's only if you want your textures to depict flat colors with lighting, if you want any details you'll still have to paint them.

** notes that skeletal animation is far more needed then normal mapping, especially for an RTS...

>_>

Are you going to add some edgeloops around the joints on the low poly model?
it'll save you headaches when rigging and the deformations when the limbs bend will look more natural.

Yeah, I probably should, altogh edge loop theory is like a whole science in itself that I don't want to deal with yet. I focused more on making a quick model with few polygons for a proof of concept. But having good edge loop structure would have helped a ton when refining the mesh too. I'll see what happens when rigging. Another thing I learned is that triangles are a really bad idea too, screws up the highpoly model.

Man, I have no idea what you two are talking about. Looks like I've got a lot to learn before I can even start to use this new animation stuff anyway...

Basically when doing subdivide (smoothing, organic) modeling, esp rigged, edge loops, poles and your model topology in general is really important for making a sound model. There's some interesting stuff on the internets about it. When making the above model I didn't pay any attention at all to it since I was busy learning the quirks of blender. For my 3rd or 4th model however I'm hopefully making a (video?) tutorial covering all things.

Yeah, when you have triangles in a mesh and you apply subsurf to it, the triangle 'pulls' on the mesh, creating unexpected deformations and creases. it also is notorious for being connected with poles, which are an animation nightmare, they can create some very ugly artifacts and creases.

Poles and triangles are both very connected, as they are most commonly seen at the end of edgeloops, which is another VERY important concept in modeling, especially high poly modeling or models that will be animated. The edge flow not only determines how the model will deform when animated, but it pulls in certain ways, and is very necessary to create proper curves. That's why it's very important to watch where your edgeloops terminate, because if they terminate at a pole, then you'll get some bad deformations.

You want poles in the right places to start off edgeloops sometimes, there is no way to do that except for at poles after all. Also edgeloops are most useful when doing detailed faces, when making a low polygon model like the one above, it might not be the best way to obsess over them always.

Here's my favorite text on edge loops, it takes up more of the theory rather then just talking about the ubiquitous face all the time.

http://www.subdivisionmodeling.com/foru ... .php?t=907

Thanks ALOT for the link, i'm looking into hi-poly character modelling as well, and i've run into alot of issues discussed in that thread, really good stuff.

On the subject of joints, i was looking through Polycount (IIRC) some time ago and found this:


Hope its self-explanatory, anyway might be worth adding the small cut on your low poly model in the fashion of the last example, when you're prepping it for rigging.

Zpock wrote:You want poles in the right places to start off edgeloops sometimes, there is no way to do that except for at poles after all. Also edgeloops are most useful when doing detailed faces, when making a low polygon model like the one above, it might not be the best way to obsess over them always.

Here's my favorite text on edge loops, it takes up more of the theory rather then just talking about the ubiquitous face all the time.

http://www.subdivisionmodeling.com/foru ... .php?t=907

That site is amazing, and SomeArtist is a topology genius. I'd never know what I know without his stuff.


@Wolf: I've always found that putting three loops works the best. Of course, when you're working in low poly your options are limited, but it's much better than the cutoff you get when you only have two, and the sharp edge you get when you only have one.

very interesting guys. I am highly interested.

can one of you tell me, is there a contiguous mesh mode in blender that makes editing meshs(I.e. deleteing edges and verts) behave the way it work in wings?

Well, there are equivalent functions that merge points.

Blender doesn't really support n-gons so such a mode would be hard. There are things like delete edgeloop though.

It might not look super, but it's my first organic "texture" It helped me learn quite a bit about lightsource and stuff, some tips would be great:)

that texture would be big in asia