Using Mask by Polypaint to add Details

Adding small details can take long time if you try to polymodel the stuff. You can stamps details inside substance painter but you don't get that much control over the shape and also need to add anchors to get edge wear and other generators get working and that might make your scene slower. 

         Instead, In Zbrush you can mask out the shapes & use deformation tools to get details much faster with more control. So here is the small tutorial about adding complex details on tyre with help of polypaint and deformations like inflate, polish, size. 

I created simple tyre mesh inside 3ds max and UV mapped it. 

Now I create a silhouette of shape that I want and place them in the right position. I created a simple tread pattern, made multiple copies and applied bend modifier and centred it to the tyre.

So here the mesh after I have given different material color to patterns.

Now I took render from front view and add circular text inside photoshop using shapes and path tool. Here how text and stickers looking.

But we only need the text so delete every other thing and apply black background and save it as png.

  Now I export the basic tyre geo as low poly and tyre mesh with ID floating details as highpoly and bake the ID map inside Substance painter. After baking ID map I applied it as base color.

Import the previously saved circular text as texture. Put it in base color of new fill layer, align it to UV and set the base color blending mode to screen.

So now export the texture, we only need base color. Here how the final texture looks,

Prepare the lowpoly mesh for Zbrush. Add some loop to make geometry even. Don't worry about the inside.

Now import the mesh inside zbrush and subdivide it multiple times. Go to texture>import texture and select the previously exported base colour map. Turn on the Mrgb.

Polypaint>polypaint from texture.

The UV's are not aligning, go to UV Map>Adjust>Flip V. Now again polypaint from texture.

Now under masking> mask by color and choose polypaint. Just drag and pick the color.

Turn off colourize to view mask clearly. 

Now just use deformations like inflate, inflate balloon, size to get details.

I used inflate by 10 and then -10 on size in z axis the get clean shape at size. Now just repeat the process and add details.

Now dynamesh with very high value. Use polish to smooth out things. Under geometry> Clay polish to sharpen up the edges little bit.

1/5 Before Claypolish

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One final polish,

That's it, very simple workflow to add extrusions and detail without spending a lot of time on topology. Decimate it, export it and bake maps out of it. It's nothing which I invented. I got inspired by the article on https://www.gameartblog.com  by Serge Karpovs where he uses the same method by manually masking out shapes. I am not very good at painting the mask, so I created shapes  inside 3DS max and used to drive the mask.

                                                                                                                                                Thank you

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Metro Last Light Redux (2014)- Fun and Bits

Metro: Last Light is a post-apocalyptic-themed, first-person shooter video game with stealth and survival horror elements. It was developed by Ukrainian studio 4A Games and published by Deep Silver for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in May 2013. A sequel to the video game Metro 2033, its story follows Artyom, a young soldier living in the Moscow Metro after a devastating nuclear war. Tasked with finding the mysterious Dark Ones, Artyom must venture to different parts of the metro system, and the surface filled with radiated gases, and fight against different factions and mutated monsters. The game improves on various gameplay mechanics of 2033, and introduces elements such as weapon customization. .....WikipediaThe first thing I love about this game is the mood and setting of the world. The game just feels immersive. Every corner has some story to tell. Just details everywhere. Your eyes just don't feel tired. 

                As the game boots, that intro with guitar metro theme is just expresses the game's atmosphere. Instead of using typical main menu, the game uses "Spatial UI" i.e. inside game world. This UI is more cinematic and immerses the player directly into the game. Diegetic UI is also mostly used in game as we will see further. 

1/5 1/3

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The In game pause menu is also quite interesting. It portrays itself a book. Like you are narrative through this world with book(more like diary) in your hand. I really like the concept. As we wake up Khan tell us about there is possibility of a dark one surviving a missile attack, and we need to try and make a contact with him. Artyom, We have to report to colonel Miller about it. 

1/5 1/5

❮ ❯

The detail in the environment is amazing. You can just wait and hear to all this dialogue. Someone is playing guitar, playing chess, working out, cooking food, enjoy their meal. Just like everyone has something to say. The props and objects have grungy,dusty look. The mood and lighting is also pleasant to the eye with little dust particle effects. All those small thing make the whole thing look beautiful. The armory nothing special here but simplicity make it even pop out. Flat rectangular board with rusty metal texture and normal maps and a bit of shiny surface makes the picture vibrant.

You can clearly see how models are reused again and again for optimization. Those wooden/metal boards are repeating back and forth. The upper metal sealing tiles are also tiling pattern.

 

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WIP, Breakdown & Other artworks

Using mask by polypaint to add details

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Dying Light (2015) Doodling

Dying Light (Story mode) art tryout, Doodling and Breakdown           

• Game:Dying Light release on 28th Jan 2015 by Techland.    
• Campaign started 15 March 2022.                      
• Difficulty level: Normal Mode.

This page is going to about game art doodling and breakdown. Some stuff may be wrong or my POV on them may be different. But just do it and have some fun, and maybe we learn something new. Will be keep  updating the page.  

15/03/2022

The game start off with a short brief giving the player the meaning and purpose of our existence in the city. So we are Kyle Crane jumping from a plane in a city named 'Harran' as a GRE agent. This floor part of the plane looks interesting. let's go to some art doodling.

From first sight it looks noisy and complicated, but it is nothing more than a tiling geometry pattern. Just manage the position of little bits and pieces, so they tile and just bake the Normal map on a simple flat plane.

• Simple geometry with tiling pattern with different color on meshes for ID maps which will be useful while texturing.

• Checking the tiling of pattern

16/03/2022

Concrete_Debris.

Just quick sculpt inside Zbrush and use physics to create the whole pack. You can also manually place and look more natural. Spend more time on creating variation.

Inside Zbrush. Mostly trim dynamics with alpha on/off randomly. Also drag some alphas. You can also add detailed normal map inside ue4 or substance painter to add small details like cracks and bumps,holes.

17/03/2022

Some generic damaged wall from environment

18/03/2022

Basic geometry inside 3ds max and sculpted some details inside Zbrush.

Triangle count: 424

19/03/2022

Triangle count: 1,356

20/03/2022

Elevator we took an elevator to go to 13th floor. It is just repeating geometry pattern making the box shape. Quickly baked down on plane with some extrusions along with textures in substance painter.

21/03/2022

I like how camera pan across baby stroller and then Crane hears scream and picks up pipe. Very Cinematic. 

Quick cloth sculpt. 

22/03/2022

Did edge chamfer inside 3ds max and played with height channel in Substance Painter.

23/03/2022

Generic_Pot_Quick

24/03/2022

Water pipe( Melee Weapon), You can find it easily in trash tanks or just lying around.

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