Here I will keep updating with the process of creating my 3D environment for the current school project. I will also update with whatever things I feel like commenting about what I’m doing. You can also follow this same content on the polycount boards where other people might be commenting and giving helpful tips that might work for you too!.
Alrighty, for now and before I do all the blocking, I will just work on the flooring and give it a texture as well. It usually helps me get some better ideas for the environment if I have something already “done”.
For the floor I’ve googled laboratories and whatnot, but most are plain white floors. I will rather go with some sort of tile and a bit mechanical, but not overdoing it. Will edit this post with the results (I’m starting it right now).
Believe it or not, this is the first time doing High Poly to Low Poly normal baking. I still need to learn a few things, but following some videos I found online I made this:
I will do the diffuse and specular, and then start blocking out the whole environment. Wish me luck! :)
Update 2 – Textures done! Used the normal as a base to paint the diffuse, and then used the diffuse noise to paint the specular. I tried placing two tiles together, and it looks something like this:
And this is how the texture looks, and the layers I used for it. I learned about this process from some link I found around. Pretty good way to keep it all tidy and clean (click here for older version) .
Update 3 -
STAGE BLOCKING STEP
Alright. I started today the block out for the stage. I will first decide the size of the level and where everything should go. Each one of the small squares there is about 1.5m. The roof is 6.5m tall but there might be a taller (or maybe shorter) roof on the right area. The small room on the right is for small cargo storage. There will be also small tables on the center and sides of the rooms, and a shutter in-between the two thick columns, and a small door between one of the thick columns and the thin column next to it.
Anyway, it’s 4am here right now so I will (hopefully) finish the blocking step tomorrow. After that, I will start with the modeling.
Update 4 -
After many revisions, looking at many inspirational stuff, playing games that have the similar mood (ie, Halo games, Killzone 2, etc..) and whatnot, I’ve decided the final visual style. I have already started doing actual models based on the initial block out I did (not the one I posted before, but another slightly different).
This piece is the center of a circular room connected to another room. There will be some objects in the center, and slightly covered in plants that have outgrown all over the place.
All these screens are taken from the viewport using Xoliulshader.
This is the part I’m working on right now.
It’s the bottom of 2 parts that will become a window set. As you can see, I plan on just making one and copy&paste-ing it 3 more times to cover the circular wall. The basic mesh is almost done (it only needs one or two extra details). After this I will dive into the high poly model and bake the normals.
Update 5 -
I think I’m mostly done with the high poly model. And it’s probably not even that high poly (close to 4k tris), but it should do the trick. The small metallic bump will be added afterwards. The problem now will be to do the actual normal map out of this object, seeing how it’s my first time I work with this kind of shape. Hopefully it’s not very difficult!.
Update 6 – The normal is almost done!. But it’s almost 7AM here and I need to sleep asap. This is what I’ve done so far. I worked a bit on the diffuse just to take a break from the normal map. That thing was killing me… softly…
And this is how it would look when put together and around the circular base. I put two rows one on top of the other to show one small issue I have. I want rounded corners because it looks nice but if I do that, I get funny shadowing on some areas. I guess it’s an issue with the smoothing groups, but I’ve tried a few patterns and no luck.. I will try more tomorrow.
The non-smoothed version doesn’t look bad either, so I can always use that in case I can’t fix the shadowing. But I think I might know how to fix it…
A close up of the bottom texture:
I would like to add some open storage but dunno which would be better. Also please notice that both versions are not “fully open”.
I tried modelling both versions and I’m still not happy with either…
A) This version has many objects that are fairly hard to reach because the panel is just too big. It also requires more small parts to build. The good thing is that I can place objects inside and give the environment a bit more realism.
B) This one is easier to make, and seems a bit more logic. It would be like some sort of freezer. There are a few bad things though. One is that the items inside would be pretty much impossible to see except when standing right next / on top of it. Also it’s a bit boring to look at.
Ok, after working a bit longer on it, I decided to go with this version: Screenshot!
Now the model is ready to go (the glass will be a separate mesh that I will use for all the glasses around the level):
Update 7 -
Today I’ve been working on a tileable wall. It’s separated in 3 parts, being 1×1, 2×1 and 3×1 meters. I made them with one purpose (to place them above the piece I did earlier), but I guess I will be able to use them around multiple times :)
Here are the pieces:
And this is a gif of the step-by-step of how I did it. I don’t think it’s the optimal way of doing it, but it worked (more or less?) this time.
And this is how it would like in the actual scene:
Update 7(b)-
I’ve spent the last hour doing a random prop to use on the environment. A trash bin!. Still not very happy with it. Also, this environment needs some more color!. I will start making some more variated props soon.
Update 8 -
I’ve been busy with school stuff this week so I didn’t have much time to upload new stuff. I’m finishing the texture on the newest piece so meanwhile I will just post a prop I did at school:
Update 9 -
Here is some concrete walls I just did for the level. All done in Photoshop, including the normal map.
I ended up doing two versions. One with moss and one without it. The moss one will be at the bottom.
And here you can see a half turntable of the wall, to see how the light affects it. BTW, after making this I noticed the dark spot on the left side that makes the tiling so much more noticeable, so I will work on this now.
Turntable GIF (~1.8MB)
After some work this is the final version of the material:
Update 10 -
Today I’ve been working on the table where the plants are placed. The diffuse and speculars aren’t finished so I will be posting just the model and normal map.
