Project Perfect Model

Gangster · Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 10:55 am Post subject: Project Perfect Model

Hi and welcome. Here I am going to show my modeling and texturing workflow to help other people to improve their skills. Or maybe it is I who will be a scholar if someone else experienced would join discussion. I have never written any tutorials, so I've decided to make it step-by-step. A bunch of short posts with images and commentaries explaining what am I doing and why. Depending on your questions I might expand some explanations if it feels important, but this tutorial assumes that you a little bit advanced than newcomer.

Okay. And our first patient is... a GDI radar.

Nice model, thanks to DonutArnold with small fixes by me. And I am going to create a good texture to it.

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Gangster is a Project Perfect Wuj (c)Aro

Gangster · Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 3:37 pm Post subject:

Firsty. I am working in 3d max 2011 and Adobe Photoshop CS3 simultaneously.

In 3D MAX:

Open a Material Browser (hotkey 'M'). Pick any free slot and create a Multi\Sub-object. Just to keep everything well organaized.

At the first slot inside of Multi\Sub load a your very first texture.
Load it to a Diffuse map at Map list.

Something like this. Repeatable camo. In my case its colored gold.

Next my step is drag-drop material on parts of model I want to be golden.

And than I selecting all this model pieces and applying a UVW Mapping on all these. With parameters of mapping: Box 50,50,50. And Rendering at Camera View. (hotkey 'F10','F9')
It is important to me to start getting first previews ASAP. That why its going be UVW Mapping insted proper Unwrap UVW for now

Now I need a variation texture. Some kind brownish-golden.

In Photoshop:

Opening golden texture. Creating a three new layers and filling it with any color. It doesn mater because they all will be made transparent. (Layer Fill set to 0%) With double clicking on layer's thumbnails I ll apply effects which are (from bottom to top):

Color Overlay. Blend Mode: Multiply; Color: 0,0,0; Opacity 50%
Colour Overlay. Blend Mode: Overlay; Color: 177;0;0; Opacity 5%
Colour Overlay. Blend Mode: Color Dodge; Color: 255;255;255; Opacity 30%

So now its little bit more dark, contrast and also litte bit redish than original.

I think it is always nice to have at least two variations of same texture. At first look they might look same but human brain can see difference. This is very usefull. To remove the integrity of the object, to visualy break solid look

Merging layers (hotkey:Ctrl+Shift+E) and saving as copy.

In 3D MAX:

Creating a copy of my gold material. Inside Multi\Sub drag-drop it to next free slot. Select Copy press OK. Don't forget to rename new copy.

Now applying variation material to the rest part of the tower.

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Gangster is a Project Perfect Wuj (c)Aro

Dutchygamer · Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 4:17 pm Post subject:

Funny to see that for 2D games the textures of models don't need to be that detailed to give a nice looking result.

SaneDisruption · Cyborg Cannon **Joined**: 14 Feb 2007

Awesome tutorial gangster, this should be moved to the media hut, or the 3D forum and stickied. Damn fine work you've got

DaRTzO · Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 11:30 pm Post subject:

Dutchygamer wrote:

Funny to see that for 2D games the textures of models don't need to be that detailed to give a nice looking result.

... Because they are scaled down and viewed from a huge distance. It's like having a low detailed large image scaled down to make it look detailed. A lot of modern strategy games and RPG's use this trick to make the games look super detailed due to a high camera distance.

Dutchygamer · Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2013 4:58 pm Post subject:

DaRTzO wrote:

Dutchygamer wrote:

Funny to see that for 2D games the textures of models don't need to be that detailed to give a nice looking result.

... Because they are scaled down and viewed from a huge distance. It's like having a low detailed large image scaled down to make it look detailed. A lot of modern strategy games and RPG's use this trick to make the games look super detailed due to a high camera distance.

True. Also, you can put a lot more detail into models for 2D games because in the end they will end up as an image anyway. Of course, not that polycounts matter that much nowadays, but I'm still thinking in Generals style models #Tongue

SaneDisruption · Cyborg Cannon **Joined**: 14 Feb 2007

Y'know gangster, I'm quite surprised you don't utilize UVW Maps for your models, thought I personally can't argue with the end results of your workflow, it just seems strange to see that you don't properly texture your meshes to add detail maps such as normals, speculars, and even some nice emissive maps combined with Final Gathering to create a truly pristine render.

As I said though, your workflow is as simple as can be, and it produces fantastic results!

Gangster · Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2013 8:19 am Post subject:

I am aiminng for a final result, not for accurate executing a technique.
I do utilize UVW Unwrap, but the point is, you don't have to Unwrap everything. On small details you won't see difference, so why wasting a time on texure? But a large flat and empty areas as rooftops, windows, pavement, radar dish, probably tower pillars will be properly unwrapped and textured.
This is a plan for second part of tutorial.

Why to UVW Mapping on this stage? Just to pin a general look and analyse. To correct tint and brightness of future texure. Finding areas that missing highlights or requre more shades.

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Gangster is a Project Perfect Wuj (c)Aro

Gangster · Posted: Sun Aug 04, 2013 9:24 pm Post subject:

Coming soon...

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Gangster is a Project Perfect Wuj (c)Aro