Game Scene Blog 3 - Modeling

Since last week I've completed the majority of the objects I need for my scene. I've finished the nexus, mineral, and pylon and I'm mostly done with the forge. The assimilator and gateway still need a good chunk of work but  I'm making decent progress. Because the assimilator is shaped really bizarrely, I feel I might have more trouble modeling it, however I have some good reference images so I think it will just take extra time.

The current tri count is as follows:
Nexus: 2992 tris and 1659 verts
Forge: 1644 tris and 918 verts
Gateway: 534 tris and 298 verts
Minerals: 172 tris and 108 verts
Pylon: 734 tris and 377 verts
Assimilator: 804 tris and 449 verts

All of my models are well under the poly count so I have some wiggle room to Mesh > Smooth some parts that might need it. Other than that, I'm pretty happy with how my completed objects turned out. Other than the fact the objects themselves are shaped rather oddly, I haven't had too much difficulty modeling. Texturing will probably be the hardest part of this project so I want to have the modeling done ASAP so I can spend more time on it.

By next update I want to have the modeling done and the UVing process started.

Game Scene Blog 2 - Modeling

This is the second post for my Starcraft 2 game scene. Right now I'm working on modeling the major objects in the scene. They are still a work in progress, but I am trying to construct the basic shape before I begin adding edges and rounding them out. Due to the game's fixed camera, it's difficult to get a good read on the object's shape, but I believe I got the basic gist of it. Currently I have started a nexus, pylon, forge and mineral. The nexus is at 1244 tris (limit is 5k) and 684 verts, the pylon is 314 tris (limit is 3k) and 167 verts, the mineral is 134 tris (limit is 3k) and 88 verts, and the forge is 792 tris (limit is 5k) and 426 verts.

In the next two weeks, I would like to have the majority of the low polys and high polys completed, including the ground and cliffs. If I complete those in time, I will then move on to UVing.

Objects laid out in bounding box

Nexus (WIP)

Forge (WIP)

Pylon (WIP)

Mineral (WIP)

Low poly tower

Here is my low poly tower! It was modeled in Maya and textured in Substance Painter. The low poly is 468 tris (limit was 500) and 286 verts and the high poly is 3388 tris (no limit) and 1758 verts. The assignment was to create a tower for a tower defense game on a platform like mobile / portable. I went for an academy styled tower with an observatory and telescope based on some concept art we received as reference.

The modeling part of this assignment was pretty straightforward, however texturing hand painted textures with Substance Painter was pretty tough. I was able to get the basic shading information thanks to some tutorials presented in class. This involves adding a fill layer with baked lighting, HSL (Hue Saturation Lightness), and levels layers based on world space normals information. After applying this fill layer, all that was left was applying the hand painted textures using my tablet. It took me quite a while to get the textures the way I wanted them, especially since - to my knowledge -  Substance is currently limited with its brush types. However, I'm happy with the result!

Finished tower

Wireframe

UVs + Maps

Low poly suitcase

Here is my final suitcase! The mesh was made in Maya, the textures in Substance Painter, and the AO in CrazyBump. The high poly is 4700 tris (limit was 7k) and the low poly is 1450 tris (limit was 1.5k).

I didn't encounter too many major issues with modeling or texturing. I spent a lot of my time making sure the measurements and proportions were correct, so I used the Distance measurement tool and Duplicate Special instances to ensure everything was even. I'm still not very skilled in Substance Painter so it took a while to get my textures to look decent. Using alphas for details like the stitching and the logo on the front really helped the overall appearance. I also used textures from www.textures.com for the leather body and copper pieces.
 

Substance renders

Wireframe front

Wireframe side

UV and maps