UT3 The Making of CTF-Pipeline

[nELsOn]

Yay, progress
Looking good! Out of curiousity - how long does it take you to make a texture like the one for the pipe?
Nice concept drawing, too

 

[stevelois]

I just can't work with hand made sketch's like that but it's always very cool to look at, specially when you can appreciate the work of art in the game after

Keep it up my Bazz

 

[Bazzwano]

Thanks guys, Its just a rough drawing, not my best

Um I would say it takes me a few hours. 1 hour to clean up the textures generated from max, 2-3 hours (depending on the mesh) to paint and blend the textures to my liking.

I want my thread to be educational, I hope that something that I have learned might be helpful to others.

I'm going to post a series of shots that show some techniques I use when working on the details for my textures. For now removing the silly Gauge I had on my light and adding a kind of panel.



1: I started with a shape (square) then added a layer effect to create a outer shadow.
2: Then I created a black stripe and copied it 3 times placing it evenly. Rotated it and masked it to the square (a quick way to do this is with the wand tool, clicking on the square in the other layer then adding a mask on the stripes layer. I then added a blending mode to help elevate the metal behind it. I also painted on to the mask with a rough brush to chip away at the sides.
3: To make the screw heads I created a circle and added the blending modes you see there, it did all the work for me.
4: this layer was placed behind some grunge to give the final result you see there.
5: when generating the normal its important I turn of all the shadows etc.



The seams and rivets on the pipe texture were made much the same way. you can see the bending options used to make the seam here.

 

[nELsOn]

Thanks for the short overview. And that drawing is just really good

 

[hwkwndl5]

all that work for some detail on a light fixture? you are dedicated. looks great!

 

[Bazzwano]

Thanks guys, Yeah I put allot of love into my work

Here is a wall section I have been working on.

1: Started in max with 3 bricks and instanced them around to my liking.
2: Exported 1 of each brick size into mudbox and sculpted the high poly versions.
3: Exported the HP an a MP version of the sculpts. Grouped the HP an MP bricks into their 3 brick sets.
4: Instanced these groups around as per my original whole brick layout.
5: Duplicated the MP versions, Grouped them, exported them to Meshlab to lower the detail a bit.
6: Cut the mesh in half deleting one side of the mesh
7: Went through a long process of welding vertex points between each brick to create a solid single mesh object.
8: Exported back to meshlab to lower the polys to less then 800 ploys.

still working on the texture.

 

[Jetfire]

Cute, if a little expensive for 16 bricks. If there's going to be a lot of them, and/or they're going to be seen from over, say, couple of thousand units away consider making a lod for them.

 

[HedgeMaster]

Does it mean we'll see first room at Christmas?

 

[minifloppy]

That wall looks really good.

I have a question about #7: I'm assuming you welded the vertexes of the high poly model to obtain an unique mesh, what's the point of doing this? I mean, normal map will bake correctly out of multiple models. Couldn't you just rebuild a single low poly mesh by hand? Maybe you will even save more polygons.

Keep up the good work!

 

[Mr. UglyPants]

Sickness.. That wall mesh and texture looks brilliant.

 

[Bazzwano]

Cute, if a little expensive for 16 bricks. If there's going to be a lot of them, and/or they're going to be seen from over, say, couple of thousand units away consider making a lod for them.

These is a big mesh, these aren't your modern sized bricks, I'm talking people sized bricks, they are on par with the triangle count of some of epics meshes I use so I think it will be fine

Does it mean we'll see first room at Christmas?

Maybe I have been a bit distracted from my work latly but I think I should be able to start working on the first room soonish

That wall looks really good.

I have a question about #7: I'm assuming you welded the vertexes of the high poly model to obtain an unique mesh, what's the point of doing this? I mean, normal map will bake correctly out of multiple models. Couldn't you just rebuild a single low poly mesh by hand? Maybe you will even save more polygons.

Keep up the good work!

yes I target welded some verts and I even collapsed some and also extruded some. I did this because I cut the bricks in half so on the other side of what you see is nothing but a hole. When I did this I had lots of holes between my bricks which I had to fill. I did it this way because I wanted to maintain the shape of the bricks in my LP version, building a LP version from scratch would have been a much longer process and would not fit the shape as perfectly. hope that makes sense.

Sickness.. That wall mesh and texture looks brilliant.

thanks man.

 

[Odedge]

I am trying to commit myself to learn how to make custom meshes and textures (admittedly not to the level that you are achieving right now). Your previous maps were very well done and am looking forward to what you will come up with now.

For people like me, posts like #63 are useful as it will show how things progress from the start to the end.

Keep up the great work and post as often as you can (both for inspiration and instructional purposes).

 

[Bazzwano]

I am trying to commit myself to learn how to make custom meshes and textures (admittedly not to the level that you are achieving right now). Your previous maps were very well done and am looking forward to what you will come up with now.

For people like me, posts like #63 are useful as it will show how things progress from the start to the end.

Keep up the great work and post as often as you can (both for inspiration and instructional purposes).

Thanks man, best of luck to you Ill try post as much as I can for ya.

 

[Bi()ha2arD]

For people like me, posts like #63 are useful as it will show how things progress from the start to the end.

Yes, I really apreciate posts like this too. I want to learn modeling + texturing for my maps too.

 

[HedgeMaster]

Looks outstanding, apart from little intersection glitches.

You said the bricks are human size, will they be climable then?

 

[_Lynx]

Here Is My finished Wall light (I don't know what I was thinking adding gauges).

It's a gas-powered lamp!

 

[Bazzwano]

Looks outstanding, apart from little intersection glitches.

You said the bricks are human size, will they be climable then?

Nope, walls so you will not be able to walk on them, Not unless I have them on a angle.

Hey every one sorry that I have not been posting much and to be totally honest I have not been able to map/model much because I have meet the most amazing girl :-D

I'm still trying to work as much as I can and here is the latest.

I have made a what will be a series of scattered bricks for the floors, the texture is shared by a pillar/single brick which I can scatter about the level here and there and maybe use structurally. I intend on modeling another to use more for the structure of the ruins. Anyway here is some images of the work flow.



I have also made some metal fixtures, I will be making more, I posted the wire-frame some time ago (NOT low poly version) but will re post it.


Re-modeled and re-textured my Brick Arch, Benefits include a model half the original poly-count and better normals.


I also reduced the poly count of my brick wall from around 800 - 400 so it looks pretty much the same as my post above.

And here is another look at my mock level with my assets, now including the latest work. You will mainly only notice the brick tiles

 

[stevelois]

Last post is simply amazing my Bazz, as always

RL is short dude, so have fun with your new girlfriend & no matter what, you'll stay my preferred CTF mapper

 

[Bazzwano]

Merry Christmas Everyone.

Thanks Stevo

 

[Bazzwano]

This is what I have so far on paper regarding my layout. I will go though and sketch each area separately in perspective before I start creating it.