![]() I made the hi res mesh (detailing) and exported a normal map from it in zbrush. Scarlet was made almost entirely in zbrush. Both of them have tangent space normal maps (tangent space is good for meshes that deform, but its a bit more expensive to render than world space, which is good for static objects) These guys are pretty much a work in progress and I am not even near pleased at where they are at the moment. For my little experiment, I used the two characters that I made for the moCap module. I spent about a week in learning from trial and error about normal maps. It might not be as good at handling giant meshes as zbrush, but its good enough to do the job. Since blender has a special multiresolution modifier for its sculpting mode, it is actually pretty damn good at detailing characters and baking a normal map. Mudbox, zbrush, maya, blender- they all have tools to do that. So for next gen characters, one basically tells the software to compare the low poly mesh to the high poly mesh and create a normal map for the low poly mesh. I know about displacement maps, but I wont go there now :D ![]() The only thing that will give it away will be the silhouette of that character. So one can have a really low poly character look very very detailed. They contain information about direction of that depth. While bumpmaps contain information about depth, Normal maps go a step further. There is nothing wrong with that- it's just not good enough for something like a next-gen character. Want to put some cracks on a rock? There is a photoshop plugin that should do it for you, you can also use xnormal. Some people convert textures to normal maps. Some people convert bumpmaps to normal maps ( not much of a difference there lol). Why oh why dont you just make a normal map and bake all that stuff there? It makes me cry a little, every time I see a model that has been subdivided a million times, has geometry to define cloth wrinkles, face wrinkles,creases/cracks/etc, hair detail, etc etc. The details can be achieved through bumpmaps and even better - normal maps. You need geometry only to define the silhouette of a character and to define how the character deforms. you can edit the files faster- its easier to edit the overall shape (especially with maya), its easier to paint weights (skinning) when you dont have to deal with a lot of geometry= that equals faster workflow The playback speed while animating is near normal- no need to playblast it a billion times- its a waste of time. your computer can handle the files, especially if they are part of a giant scene.The files can be used in real time rendering engines. Let me state the obvious advantages of keeping your mesh low on polycount- use geometry only where you need it. Am I just being a cheap bastard here, with today's technology advancing so quick. And whats with that obsession with low poly stuff (!?) some might ask. How do I get a LOT of detail projected onto a low poly mesh. It has been my main interest since the first day I started using a 3d package. I am not the type who would release anything I'm working on without the client's permission. :) I wont go into detail about it right now, as it wouldnt be professional to discuss it in early stages, while the client is very much deciding on how it progresses. ![]() There is also a freelance job (a short 2d animation) that took some priority- I just want to make sure it ends up looking very good. The models for the moCap project are ready now and this article will focus on the technical side of things as normal maps are concerned. ![]() The animation on piggybank has been in the background and I haven't done much work on it since the last post. I've been juggling a number of projects lately.
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