PDA

View Full Version : Next-Gen game character boot-laces

AlfAlpha
05-24-2009, 05:50 PM
Hi all,

I am working on my first game character. I was wondering if someone out there has a nice workaraound for creating boot laces. I am approaching my tri-count limit for this character (budget is 12000 tris) and need a way to create boot laces that wont force me to rob polys from other parts of the model.

I am wondering if the best way is to create a plane that stretches accrossed where the lace holes would be (one continuous plane for the whole boot) , and then just apply a bump map of lacing onto it? I tried taking that plane into zbrush and sculpting laces on it, but didnt really like the results. I have seen folks create really nice laces on models in zbrush-but there is no way they could use a low res version of them without eating into a lot of the tri budget.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks a lot folks.

AA
divi
05-24-2009, 11:10 PM
doing a normalmap for the whole shoe including laces is out of question i suppose?
AlfAlpha
05-25-2009, 02:43 AM
I was trying to avoid sculpting in the laces only because when I tested it, it didnt look that good. I will probably have to go that route though. I was just hoping there was another/ better way.


Thanks
Rumkugel
05-25-2009, 11:04 AM
why would you want to model the laces sperately?
make it part of the texture /normal map.

my personal approach on shoe laces was, sculpt the boot, im port a mid res model into 3ds max as a guide (due performance reasons) and then use splines to model the laces.
might be tedious work, but is the cleanest way.
eldee
05-25-2009, 06:36 PM
Just model the laces separately, and then bake them onto the boot's UV-space. easy like pie, and pretty much every 3D package has some sort of texture baking mechanism (for diffuse, normal, etc). There should be no need to "sculpt" laces in zbrush, it'd probably take longer to get something that looked half as good as an actual separate mesh.
gourmetartist
05-25-2009, 10:42 PM
Just do it the old school way and draw it in 2D then use crazy bump to make your normal map.
eldee
05-26-2009, 04:27 AM
wait a minute, there's an 'old school' next gen method? schools get old pretty fast these days heheh :)
CombineMind
05-27-2009, 10:10 PM
If you keep your topology on the tops of the shoes where the laces go nice, square and even; it will subdivide really well in mudbox or whichever program you use to model your high poly. This should make it easy to get clean looking shoelaces in your normal map. =P

If the topology there is super rectangular when it subdivides it will retain that pattern and you will get that splintery effect when you sculp =).

Hope that helps. Good luck!

-Dan