3D Modelling Fountain

Week four and to still be working on the Fountain at this stage is kind of heart breaking as my original plan was to allocate 2 weeks to the creation of each of the larger assets. The one process slowing me down the most is re-topologising. I can understand using the built in programme re-topologising tool for more complex models such as full characters. I can see how having full control over the underlying base mesh is vital however I only used Zbrush to get the rounded skull shape quicker and easier than in 3DS max. I feel I did manage to generate the asset with speed but I knew I had no intension in baking the high poly I just wanted to use the basic shape for the low poly to suit the rest of my model. I started looking into ways to re-topologise within the programme that could be done in minutes rather than hours. I found Zremesher.

This tool essentially re-meshes your model close to your desired poly count limit however the first time I used this tool, I was pleased that the Poly count was reduced however I felt the shape of the eyebrow ridge and eye sockets was too reduced and lost.

Unhappy with this result I decided to Zremesh once again but using the Zremesh guide brush which guided where the edge loops for the topology could lie thus preserving the key shape detail, which in my case is the front facial features. I found the first result produced from this second attempt did preserve the detail but was too high to fit with my asset standing at over 5,000 polys. The rest of the fountail including the teeth isn’t that high! Second attempt however spat out under 3,000 poly model which looked great and fit perfectly with the rest of my model. I found the render in game also looked much better. So much happier with the final result.

The only other issue I encountered this week was with the smoothing groups. In my original max file I found they weren’t responding or allocating. The only way I could fix this was to export the model and then re-import it to a new scene. This did work but the smoothing groups have reset a couple of times since I did this. I have managed to re-do the smoothing groups but a few Im still not happy with. I feel I will touch those back up as I work through the texturing process which Im aiming to complete by next Tuesday 9th or Wednesday morning latest.

Towards the end of this week I unwrapped the model. Unfortunately I found myself needing to use one more texture sheet than I would have liked. Ideally I wanted to use 2 per large asset however I can see more complex assets such as the fountain being 3. I justify this by using the same third texture sheet for the blood bind weed I am yet to build. It’s a good thing I started with bench marking this asset. I have a much better understanding of how long other assets will take and how long I should aim to spend on them.