House

Ok so I managed to get my fish rigged and a few animations done.

Iv been receiving concerns with the look of my project - thinking more about how the houses are going to look being tier 1 assets.

When I went to West-Stow the buildings they were quite rickety anyway and from my reference I was going to base my modelling upon that.
Here are a few examples;



I think a lot of this is going to happen in the textures but how these houses are made are with quite random and odd shapes, the entire thing slightly slanted and what-not add to their character and to what I was trying to achieve. I was considering trying to concept a little bit to slightly modernize the houses, thinking along the lines of chimneys and windows mainly.

Now iv got just over 40 assets done but I think I will now try to model one of my houses from my reference and see how it goes. As this is a tier 1 asset I will give more triangles to the detail compared to other things which I have done. Ill do the smaller of the houses first to get an idea.

In some cases I may have to exaggerate the rickety quality as some of these houses have been reproduced with straighter planks of wood, the buildings like my planned pub (long yellow building in the above picture) I can do to that style pictured, but some of the smaller ones looked to be more recently re/built where I may have to vary slightly.






This is the one ill have a go at, but ill add a few windows and make the roof slightly higher (like seen in my whitebox mock up for this building)

Just a bit of progression;


Looks terribly basic here but what iv done is made the general shape first just out of a box then to add more detail I decided to draw cut in-half cylinders which I'll then manually line up and place all around the building. Then adding a few loops on certain ones then moving/scaling/rotating to get the effect. The base building iv made I believe Ill keep to give the wooden pieces to rest on, 356 triangles so far.
There will be a beam in the middle of the entire structure with more cylinders going down.
On the reference on the wood also are little metal poles sticking out (for structural integrity im assuming) which ill also model and place.

Also iv noticed that nearer the corners of the house the logs are thicker for support also.





Making houses rickety is pretty time consuming work! Currently at 2928 triangles, Im not entire sure if this is too steep. Briefly looking back at the other buildings they are mainly flat pieces of wood, this type seems more cylindrical and so gives more triangles.. Im guessing this is alright for the important assets. Just gotta keep going - so far im liking the results obviously being better with textures applied.



Cut out pieces near the windows, its going well but the triangle count I am concerned with.. I Cant decide if its a good number or not - though in my triangle budget it'll be fine I don't want to over stretch what is low poly. As I said before this house is more unique as its made from more cylindrical wood... Anyway what ill do now is select a few of these cylinders and delete them/resize a few to again give the effect that I am after. I think after that I will then try and join the edges of the cylinders to make the building compact and get rid of the original box I created.






Yeah, this works pretty well but as ever im concerned with if that triangle count is reasonable. I reckon ill try a baking technique (nothing iv done before)and see how it goes from there - as I said while I can probably afford the triangles it doesn't strike me as good practice to get into.

3848 simply seems too much to me..

Ummm.. well I planned to do the baking thing but I got to this stage and wondered if it was actually worth it for this asset.. It seems like a lot of work to do and since iv about 103 assets to get through I don't think ill have the time for it..
I think I will bake for other assets though but this house as its rather complex with the half cylinders duplicated a few times.. the other houses wont be as awkward as this, which I think I will use the baking technique as the wood appears to be cut properly (still irregular though).


Its all a confusing circle but I think this particular house I will use about 2 times and as Iv said I can afford the triangles.. Will have to see.
For me to understand the baking progress I think my next step is to make another of my houses and try it there. Once I know how to do it properly it should put my mind at ease.

Progress

Now I think it crunch time to get my smaller assets done then I can start on the bigger more important ones.

Right, what is left on my list for the small are;
Apples for market
Corn/Corn for market
Fish/Fish for market
fishcages
fishingrod
logs (few variations)
metalbowl/tray
Oars
Outdoorkiln
Pile of ropes
Pubsign
tree stump
work table
wooden wheelbarrow

Ill work my way down the list until each one is completed.
In terms of fish, it would be logical to get a few names of river types. Getting primary research of the fish will be difficult and as for texturing its likely ill have to paint on based from images from the net. Most of the fish will be seen on the market stall but to have a few in the shallows of the river might be quite good to do and animate.

So from http://www.norfolkbroads.com/explore/the-fishing-guide/
"Bream, Roach, Eels, Ruff, Perch, Rudd, Tench, and Pike as well as estuarine species such as Flounders, Sea Bass, Grey Mullet and Goby and migratory Sea Trout"
Since iv modeled an eel cage I should at least do an eel but to do all in the list wouldnt be feasible - think only well known ones should be done.
Eel, Bream, Perch, Pike, Think they will do.


I think these fish will be quite fun to model actually - again something iv never done before, these fish are quite stylized and I think they will be good displays on the market stalls. In many games iv only seen very basic almost generic fish - im no fisherman by any means but in these RPG games they all tend to me the same sorts of things not that I know the breeds.

Good
I also got some reference of logs from home which I can use for modelling assistance.

Think ill try a few fish, break up my modelling a bit as recently iv been modelling tools and things.

Bit of a blegh day today as I had been feeling under the weather however I did manage to get my fish modelled and the eel rigged at least.
Dodging illness I actually enjoyed making these - texturing should be fun also.
Ill also do variations in boxes of the ones to be sold to market.



Hope this illness is only a 12h thing!

Asset Update

Right, time for a little asset update Since my other assets this is what iv done since then (in between tree tests) Managed to unwrap all also - this is the part of the modelling just before I start with the bigger tier 1 assets (houses and others).
I think iv managed to progress reasonably well though the tree trials - since im unpracticed with them taken a bit of time. Im confident that my next tree I produce will be produced more easily and effectively.

From recent feedback It was suggested that I should try and give all my assets a cruder dimension to them, being made by more primitive tools. As everything is already unwrapped I don't see this causing any trouble, I think opening up each asset again and simply moving the vertices around and bending sections will help. So this is what ill try to do now.

I think what'll benefit the most from doing this are; the little woodenbaskets with lids, the Benches, buckets, baskets, the cauldren maybe, barrel (though not that much) I do not want to add too many more triangles to my models as there other things Ill want to model and make.



^Hardly a pain with time.. though I do not want to rush this. The tier1 assets such as the houses will need a lot of triangles dedicated to this - and will be the most noticable to the player.
With this though, the way iv done this is probably the wisest from a technical point of view. Modelling and unwrapping while its regular and then afterwards adjusting the vertices for the idea of being crafted.

These are assets iv tweaked a little bit, the feedback I recieved was correct, I was a bit hesitant to completly overdo it as they have to functions also. I think a lot of this will be done in the texturing where I can then move vertices with one on them and get it sculpted that way.

It was worth doing and it was done pretty quickly.

NEXT!

Right I think I want to move onto something else for my fmp, perhaps trying to model a few more assets on my list. Iv came a fair way with trees in a few days but if I do anymore right now ill be wasting time.

So hmm on my list... Iv kept an excel sheet up with everything including the triangle count.



I think ill crack on with the remaining smaller assets;
Animal trough,
Broom,
chest,
Chicken house,
Cornharvest tool,
Eel cages,
.... Yada yada yada

If I can get the small ones out of the way and unwrapped then I can crack on with the larger stuff.

Zbrush Trees

Right in this test I will be trying zbrush to first of all model the tree and then get it into max to hopefully speed up the tree modelling process. I have not used Zbrush before but looking and asking around I figured how to do modelling like in max.

Getting used to the interface also, I figured how to start with a 'zsphere' and extrude out like in max. I found it quite a lot easier to do organic shapes like this as you had a bit more leeway where things could go.
As zbrush is a sculpting program there isn't really a way to make it that low poly - you are able to play with the resolution which changes it slightly but I found that it made stray vertices everywhere and simply wasnt that good.

Anyway this was my zbrush result, with the zpheres



and in 'reality' it looks like this.



There are quite a few triangles here, more so than I would like.
I did find out that there was a way to retopologise the tree using the... well retopologise button with a new zsphere. It seemed to work pretty well but some of the quads went a bit skew-wiff and didnt really work.

Just to try an export, I managed to get it in max and made into an editable poly and My plan was to see how long it would take to target weld the verts together to get it back into low poly.

This was a couple of hours later..

It is possible and in Essence this is pretty easy to do using the target weld feature but it takes so long! If possible I would like to be able to set it up low poly in zbrush and import to max to edit a little bit but just having a scout around tutorials there doesnt seem to be a way other than to topologise in zbrush - Which I had difficulty, also thought it would take a while to make quads over the entire model..

I prefer retopologising in 3dsmax but I think i need be able to do it a lot quicker, ill try a few techniques as I try to get this test up to scratch.

This may not make sence but basically after a few tests this way seemed the quickest to retopologise. The idea is that you first of all determine what areas you want as a rectangle then with vertices, target weld each one to the other (and every other one), then select all the faces inbetween this, delete then with the boarder tool select the lowtri sided empty circle, and the other one adjacent and pres Bridge.

Complicated to explain but if done at a moderate speed it takes a couple of minutes to do per section - this is probably my best bet for now at least.



Yes this technique does work but I think you need to be in the correct frame of mind to do it, it can get very confusing if you don't focus and concentrate. With practice its done quicker but its something that needs worked into.
I have a few more segments to do then ill try to get leaves back on it.

And there we go... after a little while I was able to do it pretty quickly and I do like how this has gone, perhaps slower than my 3dsmax test but I think this looks more realistic and it was easier to construct.

650 triangles (from 32000 odd)


I then made myself a little branch which will be used for the alpha, and looking around I found a way to make the branch a little lower polygon (there were still many segments when brought into max but not as many as to cause a headache).
What you do; get your sculpt done in zbrush, then go to 'geometry' and put the resolution slider down (8 is the lowest) then pres 'Dynamesh' above it, Press yes on the following window and it reduces the segments. Then export as an obj as normal, you still have to target weld but not as to the extent which I had to do.



Now for the leaves which I hope to improve upon since last time, Model a few basic shapes and apply a texture to them, and put them all on a stalk. Its good to have reference for what the leaves look like and how they are arranged on a branch first.



After making, make them 1 object and I will be duplicating them all around this little branch iv made.

Ok this is fairly reasonable, now to render with premultiplied alpha ready to put around the tree!.



Ok so now its a case of making an instance of my branches and placing them around the entire tree. For editing later on since they are instances they will work with everything so quick editing would be possible.



This'll take a while..

..A while later..
Managed to get to this stage which is an improovement from my last test but since this is technically a test also I may not be using it, and I only applied very basic textures to everything. I really need better reference for trees to use as textures and right now still being in winter is a little difficult.
The tricount.. I thought would be lower than 1804. It seems a bit steep for what it is as in the level these will be around the level in a lot of areas.
Still as an experiment im fairly happy - it still lacks the realistic tree feel to it but I think that is down to the textures rather than the model.

Review

Alright, I thought now was a good time to do a review of everything that iv done.
So I have a few concept paintings and also a final whitebox for my level - I know what im doing and have compiled an asset list.
I have plenty of research for the village and other aspects, perhaps need more texture reference for trees and leaves though the season at the moment doesn't really help in that area.

Of my list of 104 assets I have about 25 done, though this list doesn't include variations of the types of trees and plants.
My plan for the trees were to make 1 sort with various branches, then skin bones to them and position the tree slightly differently to make the variations faster to create.

Recently iv tried making my own oak tree using extruding techniques to create the trunk, then modelling a separate asset with the leaves on them (high poly) which the plan then was to take a render and use for alpha textures on the tree by moving around planes and placing around the trunk. I stuck a temporary texture on the trunk and also the smaller branches and leafs.

These were the results:




I then tried to place these textures around the tree, and this was the result:



In my oppinion... I really dont like this one bit.. Maybe its the textures, maybe its my branch layout but this simply does not look real. Still.. considering this was a test I did learn a few techniques and I think ill try another test shortly, with any luck have it go faster than it did with this one..

Assets

Ok so now that the whitebox is pretty much done its now time to knuckle down on my assets.
Iv produced an asset list which I am going down and giving figures for my triangle count, also if the asset will require an alpha channel or 2 sided.

These are all my assets so far, I have 21 to date and have modeled and unwrapped while doing to save time later.

These are not to correct scale.