Dominance War II: 2byts

#61

btw:

What makes modelling in mudbox so fast is when the base poly mesh has well defined edges, the poly crease tool which sharpens the edges that need to be crisp…and selection sets that allow me to increase performance and isolate areas.

#62

the wrist strap is suppose to be flexible…its also an LCD panel for his gadgets.

#63

I am speechless! :eek:

I do not have a clue about normalmaps …
so i really enjoy viewing at your progress.

I hope the lowres version with normalmap
will turn out like the highres version.

#64

Very fast and quality work. I would be interested to hear your mudbox workflow.

#65

I am still working out the workflow as we speak…as this is the first project I have used mudbox on. If you have ever used Zbrush for normal mapping…things are not all that different. Mudbox is 10x better in terms of workflow for me because it provides non-destructive modelling and amazing flexibility with export/import of other meshes including their layer data.

Significant things I have learned so far:

  1. save the real time model for the very end…its a waste of time to do it in the beginning because of any creative changes you make along the way.

  2. model a well defined mid Res geometry that you can smooth and export to mudbox. At this stage, model in hard edges, belts, straps, armor.

  3. I highly recommend UV mapping the mid res geometry. This will pay off later if you want to bake procedural textures, bump maps, or any other kind of shader. Doing this on the mid res mesh will make things a lot easier because the baking process will distort and warp the texture map to accurately fit the real time geometry.

  4. I recommend cutting up the mid res mesh into workable parts…based UV seams and distinct geometry borders like arm and torso and head.

  5. create selection sets from a smoothed version of the mid res mesh…faster and easier in maya then in mudbox. A very easy way to do this is to create sets based on UVshells. The reason you smooth the mesh once, is to eliminate any 5 sided and tri polygons. Mudbox requires quads only.

  6. Model the pieces in mudbox. Probably the most powerful feature is the layer mask in regards to modelling hard edges and patterns. What you do is do a flood of the bulge tool on the geometry…then flood the mask tool…and then remove parts of the mask to get precise paneling, stitching…etc etc.

  7. Mudbox allows you to import other mudbox files…including their layers!! This pure awesome as it allows you to accurately work on different sections to make sure everything lines up…be aware that you can easily get it into the tens of millions of polygons.

  8. optionally…import the hi res parts into Maya and transfer maps and procedural textures. Use the normal map and ambient occlusion map as a guide for creating the color map.

#66

hey 2byts!

i’m enjoying this thread. great picts and workflow-explantions.
i’ll be back later.

-r

#67

i just discovered the mudbox allows for importing of other .mud files with levels data intact.

This allowed me to correct the muscle structure on the thigh to match the hips. The layers system allowed me to non destructively change just the muscles without destroying the straps, textures, buttons …

#68

Great reply. Very insightful.

Could you explain

“6. Model the pieces in mudbox. Probably the most powerful feature is the layer mask in regards to modelling hard edges and patterns. What you do is do a flood of the bulge tool on the geometry…then flood the mask tool…and then remove parts of the mask to get precise paneling, stitching…etc etc.” a little more if you have some free time. I think that is the little nugget I am missing between Z and mudbox.

Thanks

#69

  1. create a new layer with a high subdivision level

  2. use the bulge tool and flood …this will offset all of the vertices along the normals by an x amount. You can do this in the opposite direction as well…if you want to have details that recess

  3. flood the layer with 100% using the mask tool -this works like an alpha channel and will hide the effects of #2

  4. now with the mask tool, invert 100% and paint back the alpha channel…this will reveal, just like an alpha channel…the offset effect.

-advantage: you can paint with controlled depth anywhere on the model because you are only painting on the alpha channel and not the vertices. All other brushes build up on the previous stroke, so a controlled maximum depth is impossible. Fall off and stencils can still be used.

-disadvantage: can only use the mask tool for this effect…which is limited to using fall off and stencils. You cannot blur or smear, or smudge with the mask tool .

#70

Fantastic. Works great. I really appreciate the information.

#71

normal map test with viewport screen capture…this is withought any normalmaps from mudbox modelling

#72

wire…

4200 tris

#73

Good to see that good normalmaps are possible without using mudbox or zbrush.
Thanks for enlighten me about it. Thanks also for the great amount of information.
The next tool in my to buy list will be Mudbox :slight_smile:

#74

some pretty cool stuff you got here :slight_smile:

#75

Fantastic work and great progress 2byts ! I like how you’ve used the layers in Mudbox,looking forward to updates:D

#76

this is the mudbox version…

no textures yet

#77

:open_mouth: awesome work man, besides you work really fast. Good luck! :slight_smile:

#78

that is mudbox verion? it looks like normal map on the low res mesh. its looking good though. i would say you can push some of the mid level details more so that they dont get lost in the final texture screenshot.

#79

^^thats a mudbox normal map…but the screenshot is in Maya.

here is another screenshot…without the normal map. Working on the texturing so I have a guide for the normal mapping.

#80

Watch out the proportions!