Author Topic: Sharing resources  (Read 5543 times)

Mayo Master

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Sharing resources
« on: 2014-02-26 01:33:24 »
I'm starting this thread as a way to open discussions and suggestions about pooling our resources together. I believe we could get more work done and faster if we would use some re-usable assets (objects and textures). There may be some technical difficulties (we are not all on the same modelling softwares, there may be scaling issues, etc.) but it wouldn't hurt to try. Of course, one strength of Final Fantasy VII as a game is about the unique feel of each scene and the very little amount of reused assets. However, a non-negligible amount of objects and textures were reused in the original game. Additionally, it makes sense that, in a coherent world, you could find the same manufactured object several times at different locations.
Thus, I would like to move on several fronts:
- Examining the original scenes and figuring out what objects are shared across various scenes (for example, I noticed that a chair modelled by anaho for a Mideel scene was also found at the Honey Bee In).
- Sharing 3d objects on the file repository for items which are likely to be reused. Troubleshooting might be needed though. For starters, I uploaded 3 simple .blend files on the WIP repo (3D Modelling resources folder), and the corresponding .fbx and .3ds I could export from my blender file. It may or may not work, I'd appreciate some help in verifying this. The objects I uploaded were done during my sewer scene: one empty beer bottle (amber glass), one empty Shin-Ra Cola bottle, and one can of bug spray.
- Sharing textures. There are two purposes: the first is to provide a "bank" of textures, especially some that would be home-made (for instance, my bug spray label). The other would be to facilitate object retexturing, when passed from a given 3d modelling software to the next. Materials may not be transferable between blender and 3ds, but if the object is already UV unwrapped and there are textures mapped accordingly, it shouldn't be much of a problem to recreate them. Again, for starters, I uploaded the Shin-Ra Cola label and the bug spray label on the repo.
- Node setups for materials (at least in Blender, I don't know how materials are set up in other software). I think it would be useful (especially for beginners) to get some sort of Materials cookbook (what shaders and masks to use for metal, plastic, wood, cloth, etc). We could share these directly in this thread.
That's all I can think of for now, you're welcome to provide some input.

cmh175

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Re: Sharing resources
« Reply #1 on: 2014-02-26 02:13:32 »
This is a great idea. Hell half the game is recycled material, for example several npcs were copied and just recolored, same with the KOTRT. It's just too much to individually model and texture. This could really help increase productivity for this project. It'll also be helpful for new members joining in. For example the process I'm working on has me modeling basic meshes in Maya and sculpting detail and painting in zbrush (very basic right now though lol) so anything I'd make would probably look very different. Being able to incorporate shared resources would help maintain a sense of consistency among the artists.


bluelion

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Re: Sharing resources
« Reply #2 on: 2014-02-26 22:30:32 »
I totally agree, this is a fantastic idea. Especially this will save a lot of time in modelling and texturing the scenes.

BTW: I am nearly ready in modelling my scene and I will start with texturing soon. In the thread where SpooX has posted some pictures of his city scenes, there is one picture with a rusty metal texture. This seems to be the perfect texture for my scene. SpooX, I would really appreciate it, if you could share the texture or if you could give me some hints how do you get the result regarding this picture: Link

Mayo Master

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Re: Sharing resources
« Reply #3 on: 2014-02-27 00:23:37 »
I would encourage you to post some Work-In-Progress pictures, even if non textured. When I started out, I got really useful feedback from other people here that helped me progress. Now, about your texture:
- Bear in mind that SpooX's texturing methods won't necessarily work for you, because he's on 3ds and you're on Blender.
- I very strongly encourage you to get registered at cgtextures.com as to get your main source of textures. You can get lots of stuff even on the free membership.
- You'll need three main components for your textures: a painted metal texture, a rust texture, and a rust map. You can get a base metal texture such asthis one and fine tune the color by multiplying the texture with a color, you can get a rust texture such as these ones, and a rust map such as these ones. The metal texture will have high specularity/glossy and the rust texture would have almost only diffuse reflections. These are examples, feel free to come up with your own texture recipe.
- You can start by applying your textures by cubic projection. However, try to give a go to UV unwrapping. Additionally, it is better practice (in my opinion, at least) to separate objects as much as possible and texture them individually. In the example of your scene, this translates into making your walls and floor as separate metal plates, use the same metal textures, rust textures, but a different rust map for each individual plate. It will be also much easier for you to work on each section individually, for instance if you want to add a texture for the red writings or the yellow and black stripes.
I hope that helps. By the way, feel free to start your own forum thread regarding your Work In Progress.

SpooX

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Re: Sharing resources
« Reply #4 on: 2014-02-28 17:00:48 »
In the thread where SpooX has posted some pictures of his city scenes, there is one picture with a rusty metal texture. This seems to be the perfect texture for my scene. SpooX, I would really appreciate it, if you could share the texture or if you could give me some hints how do you get the result regarding this picture: Link

I think the material you mean is:

This has also some very usefull resources, note that Maxwell is using a different material setup, but you can get the maps out of there.

 8-)

anaho

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Re: Sharing resources
« Reply #5 on: 2014-03-01 15:21:59 »
For those using Blender and struggle with render times, you should take a look at sheep it! .
It is a free online renderfarm. How cool is that ?