WIP Soldier

[Vylaroth]

In xNormal, just load up the low poly mesh into the Low definition mesh menu, the high poly to the High definition menu, then go to Baking options and save the output file, which will be the actual normal map file, somewhere in the format you like (I use tga usually), define the size, edge padding, antia-alizing etc. and then just click Generate Maps on the lower right corner. If you get a lot of artifacts, try adjusting the low mesh's maximum frontal and rear ray distances.

Also, I've sometimes got a lot of "holes" in my normal map for no apparent reason (this happened in older xNormal versions) and I had to load multiple hi-poly meshes in different levels of subdivision into the high definition menu and then the holes disappeared.

Hopefully this helps.

[Jacky-Boy]

Thanks Vylaroth, I can't tell you how grateful I am. I had to muck around with the models in maya a bit before it worked, but it seems to have payed off. I still need to set up the normal map shader in maya, so these tests are just done using a colour map.

Japhir: Yeah I see what you mean about the hips. Hopefully I can go back to this model at some point and sculpt it up a good'un.


I'm gonna have to flip a few RGB values in photoshop, for all the parts to work, which shouldn't be a problem. But there are a few problem areas around the eyes and under the arms/legs. I'm pretty sure my UVs are ok, any guesses as what this could be? and how to remedy it?

[butt_sahib]

NICE
i think youve got some overlapping UV;s

[Jacky-Boy]

Cheers, I'm pretty sure my UV's are good, you can see there's no overlapping occuring on the texture sheet.

edit: I'll mess around with the xnormal setting a bit more, could be something in there

[Vylaroth]

Thanks Vylaroth, I can't tell you how grateful I am.

Glad I could help you out there.

I'm gonna have to flip a few RGB values in photoshop, for all the parts to work, which shouldn't be a problem. But there are a few problem areas around the eyes and under the arms/legs. I'm pretty sure my UVs are ok, any guesses as what this could be? and how to remedy it?

Small creases like eyes, the space between fingers, toes etc. usually tend to cause artifacts (I think it's because of too little space and too sharp angles for the normals to bake correctly) on my models too. The solutions I've used is baking a separate map for the problem area and combining it with the whole normal map in Photoshop or, if the artifact is in a non-crucial place, I'll just use the smudge tool in PS with the "use all layers" function activated. This way you can wipe them out (and of course lose detail).

Digging your stylized sculpt a lot, it has a lot of character. Keep going at it.

Edit: And oh, you can also preview the normal maps in xNormal if you like: 3D Viewer -> load low poly mesh -> set the normal map -> launch viewer.

[biscuitking]

Hi Jacky-Boy, i think your work is totally awesome

[El Scorcho]

Looks like your projection settings are set too far out. This is causing neighboring geometry to be undesirably captured in the normals. Just set the projection distance lower. Normals are looking good, UVs could be better though.

[Jacky-Boy]

Vylaroth: Cheers it looks much better in Xnormal preview. Im probably gonna resort to the photoshop method, I'm running pretty close on time.

Biscuitking: No you're totally awesome :lucky:

El Scorcho: Thanks I've been messing around with the maximum frontal ray distance, and maximum rear distance of the low poly in Xnormal, but it has little to no effect. I dont know if this is the right way to change the projection distance in Xnormal.

[Jacky-Boy]

Ok well I've spent most of today in photoshop cloning over the dodgy normals :yawn:, but it seems to have worked pretty well. I'm gonna start on the textures tonight.

[Jacky-Boy]

I've decided to do the hair using alpha planes, but it seems that the more planes I add, the worse it looks. Are there any tricks to doing alpha'd hair?





Thanks

[Vylaroth]

Don't know if this one helps:

http://www.paultosca.com/varga_hair.html

aper:

[butt_sahib]

Looks real dandy.
Sorry if this has been mentioned before, but whats the polycount?

[ShadyD]

His face looks awesome!
Great character, but the proportions are really off on the lower part of the body.
Is this on purpose?

[Jacky-Boy]

Thanks Vylaroth that's awesome, I'll definetly be using it in the near future

The polycount is 4648 (about 2000 of these are in the head)without the eyes and hair. It could use a lot of optimisation, but I'm starting to think of this as a learning exercise now.

Cheers Shady. Yeah his anatomy is still way off, I feel that I fluffed up the basemesh quite a bit, so this has become more of an experiment.

I'll probably completely redo this character at some point.





I'm still unsure whether i'll carry on with this character, but either way thanks for all the help, I've learnt alot doing this.