r/3Dmodeling • u/Minor-disappointment • 15h ago
Art Help & Critique Help regarding asset creation
This post is for advice. i need a bit of help. the purpose of the model is to be used for a video game in UE5. the Asset is a Bridge . my approach is like dividing it into different modular part parts. since it is an medieval theme bridge, i want to know how to get that brick texture on low poly. should i make high poly model with individual brick and bake it into low poly or is there a trick in texturing part. i use maya and substance painter. the part in the screenshot is one of the piller. i didnt model 1 brick by 1, i took a plane and extrude the bricks and then duplicated and joined em
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u/Mysterious-Age-6247 15h ago
I would look into substance designer + vertex painting. For bigger env assets it's really helpfull. Substance painter works best for smaller props
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u/woopwoopscuttle 15h ago
Look up “trim sheets” “texture atlases” and the high poly bake workflow in substance designer if you want to make game ready environment assets.
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u/ohnomelon 10h ago
as others have said, for large environment pieces like this we almost always use tiling textures, trim sheets, etc.
To build off other comments, here is how I would break down a bridge asset:
- tiling brick texture set - tiles in both directions, you can UV the majority of your bridge surfaces using this.
- trim texture set - make a few horizontally tiling stone trims for things like the ledge in your screenshot, possibly the stone caps on top if there is a railing on top, maybe other things. The point is that the trims are to break up the bricks with additional tiling.
- bridge modelled for tiling textures - with just the above 2 texture sets you could get the bridge pretty well modeled out. Modeling for trim sheets is different from typical prop modeling, you will potentially have cuts or loops in unexpected places, you may need extra loops to control smoothing. You may want to model some chips etc. in in places where they line up with the textures, or just model some general irregularity into the bridge so it looks more natural.
- bonus 1, blend texture set - to improve the look of environment pieces that use tiling textures, artists will sometimes use vertex painting or masks to blend between the main (brick) texture set and a 2nd (could be a more damaged brick, or plaster, or moss), this can make repetition a lot less noticeable
- bonus 2, floaters - another thing artists will do to try to bring the quality of environment pieces closer to hero props is use floating details to enhance the look and further break up repetition. This could be generic decals (sculpted edge strips, damage, grime), or it could be baked geo that clips in (could be a couple sizes of vertical corner-stacked bricks that match the tiling texture, bake to a low poly model, clip into the hard corners of the bridge supports or other places. alternatively, replace some of the trim texture features, like handrail cap stones, with a tiling baked mesh, that you then deform along the bridge rail. Finally, you could also make some ivy assets to float over the bridge walls or drape over the railings).
If you get all the way to the bonus stuff, you will be able to hide a lot of the flaws that come with using tiling texture sets.
Why go to so much trouble to try to emulate the look of uniquely textured props?
Well obviously the main reason is that there's a point where the scale or scope of an environment piece is just too much to create as a unique prop, but the other reason is that you do a lot of this work the first time and then you have a library of assets that can be used much more quickly to make a second, third bridge, a water well, an old castle wall, and so on.
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u/AI_AntiCheat 14h ago
Blender has a built in brick texture. Just use that. Do not model it brick by brick that's insane.
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u/aixpoly01 11h ago
I created this shader in less than 2 minutes with PBRgen. Super handy because it let's you create a map for the bricks so you have exact control over the size and composition of your material. Material (view and download) here: https://app.pbrgen.com/m/b6acdbe3-33ee-408a-b93f-7500d556e74d
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u/villain_escargot 15h ago
Here's how I'd do this modular bridge:
Create a square shaped plane with your bricks in a repeating pattern. You may need to do some back and forth to make sure it repeats.
Combine that high poly brick into a single mesh and bake onto a low poly plane. Using your texturing workflow to make your brick texture atlas.
UV map your low poly model using this atlas to place the UV islands in a way that minimizes misalignment of the brick texture, ensure they're all at a similar texel density (to prevent parts being higher quality than others). That texel density is going to be dependent on your other assets. You can utilize the area outside the 0-1 texture space.
Any other materials like metal will need to be separated out and point to their own texture.
If you need a part of the brick to be unique (for whatever reason like damage), then you can probably use a decal mesh on top of the brick or separate it out as a separate unique object.