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Post by beartobear on Aug 29, 2023 0:52:26 GMT -5
Hi,
I want to make some intricate curtains and while I can easily do it via cloth animation, they are very high poly. Even after I retopo and use edge looping on them, together the package is still high poly. I tried looking and EA curtains and they seem to be mostly flat (shrinkwrap type?) with textures giving them that curtain-y look. Is it like baking to active method EA uses? Baking textures on high poly mesh and projecting onto low poly mesh (again, I guess shrinkwrap?).
Am I in the right direction?
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Post by Fwecka (Lolabellesims) on Aug 29, 2023 0:55:48 GMT -5
Share your files, please.
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Post by beartobear on Aug 29, 2023 1:24:43 GMT -5
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Post by Fwecka (Lolabellesims) on Aug 29, 2023 2:44:42 GMT -5
Well, it looks pretty low poly, already but there are other things you can do.
*Don't use a decimated mesh for your LOD 0. Decimate will murder your topology and create issues. Start with a high-poly mesh and dissolve edges (X > dissolve edges) you don't need.
*Before dissolving edges, select your mesh, tab into edit mode, and press alt + J to turn your tris to quads (this means fewer edges in your way). In the little window in the lower lefthand corner put a checkmark next to "compare UVs." This will preserve your UV layout. Sometimes turning tris to quads messes up the UV map.
*If you encounter a face that isn't in quad form select the face and press F.
*Dissolve some edges in each of your plane meshes. There aren't any folds to preserve in those meshes so you can dissolve a lot of edges in them.
*In Plane.001 focus a lot on the top edges. There is a lot of unnecessary geometry there. Depending on your needs, you could just delete some of those faces altogether.
*You can delete geometry via the UV editor. Enable UV sync selection first. This way your UV islands will be visible and you won't have to select anything in the 3D window.
*The curtains that have backsides also have rims that aren't needed. Select and delete the backsides and the rims. Because of the topology, I can't find any quick way to do this so selecting these faces will be tedious.
Edit: One thing you can try. Select a mesh that has a rim, tab into edit mode, press A, in the UV editor select UV > seams from islands. Your edges will be red though the result won't be perfect. Then go to edge > mark sharp. Apply an edge split modifier and be sure to uncheck edge angle. Your seams will be split now. Select a face on the rim, ctrl + L, X > faces. Do the same selection and delete process on the backsides. This won't be perfect and won't work on every mesh because of topology problems.
*Round part 1.003 has a lot of unnecessary edges at the top and bottom.
*Round part 1.002 can be reduced further.
*Dissolve any edge that isn't needed to create a fold. If an edge is not helping get rid of it.
*Delete anything that won't be seen. Anything faces that are covered up by another mesh.
*If you need to add an edge loop. Do so with ctrl + R.
*Once you've deleted the backsides and rims, and dissolved unneeded edges, try to straighten the edges. Press G twice and your movements will be constrained to an edge.
*After this, select the meshes that need backsides and add a solidify modifier. Uncheck "fill" and set the thickness to whatever you need to keep the backsides from clipping into the front sides.
Last edit: the more I look at your meshes the more problems I find. Some vertices need to be removed. Select a mesh, press A, mesh > clean up > delete loose. Remove doubles with M > by distance (select your mesh first.) You will need to dissolve vertices that are left (X > dissolve vertices). You will need to merge other vertices (M). Again, if you have a high poly version start with that and manually remove edges as I explained above. This is actually quicker to do than cleaning up a messy mesh.
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Post by mauvemorn on Aug 29, 2023 5:16:46 GMT -5
Hi. Your retopologized mesh is not particularly high poly, so you dont really have to re-do it. In the future, just try to follow the edge flow of the mesh, it will give a more low poly result. Heres a good tutorial on thisFor example, this part was 880, with this edge flow it is 112 and yes, maxis developers bake ( or draw) elaborate textures on the low poly mesh. Before doing this, make sure to remove Decimate modifier and make the original mesh look very nice and smooth
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Post by beartobear on Aug 29, 2023 6:23:36 GMT -5
Thank you Fwecka (Lolabellesims) (Lolabellesims) for answering but that wasn't exactly what I was looking for. I was going more after the actual technique with wich I could make EA-kind curtains, lowpoly and retaining all the details. My file was merely an attempt, not the finished result. I hope I didn't sound too ungrateful because I really appreciate your answer!
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Post by beartobear on Aug 29, 2023 6:25:08 GMT -5
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Post by mauvemorn on Aug 29, 2023 6:51:59 GMT -5
If you do indeed want to preserve the folds, then you have to retopologize the mesh with the edge flow in mind. You just need to place edge loops strategically
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Post by Fwecka (Lolabellesims) on Aug 29, 2023 6:53:24 GMT -5
Thank you Fwecka (Lolabellesims) (Lolabellesims) for answering but that wasn't exactly what I was looking for. I was going more after the actual technique with wich I could make EA-kind curtains, lowpoly and retaining all the details. My file was merely an attempt, not the finished result. I hope I didn't sound too ungrateful because I really appreciate your answer! In all honesty, I would bet EA used Zbrush of some sort of sculpting software/technique. I think Zbrush is industry standard. Even if nothing I wrote seems to help you I do still stand by what I said about the solidifier modifier. Rims in a mesh won't really be seen and add to the polycount for basically no reason, so at least that's one thing to keep in mind. And you can make a high poly mesh and bake a normal map from it that you can then use for your low poly mesh.
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Post by mauvemorn on Aug 29, 2023 9:45:44 GMT -5
In all honesty, I would bet EA used Zbrush of some sort of sculpting software/technique. I think Zbrush is industry standard. Even if nothing I wrote seems to help you I do still stand by what I said about the solidifier modifier. Rims in a mesh won't really be seen and add to the polycount for basically no reason, so at least that's one thing to keep in mind. And you can make a high poly mesh and bake a normal map from it that you can then use for your low poly mesh. They retopologize everything by hand, you can tell by the edge flow. Zremesher is not suitable for making low poly gaming assets, no automatic retopology tool is. It is a tool in a sculpting program and quickly turning sculpted objects made of millions of faces into something unwrap-able/editable/render-able is the only time it is useful. If an object needs to move or morph while being of reasonable polycount, it is pretty much useless
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Post by beartobear on Aug 29, 2023 12:31:09 GMT -5
Would you be so kind to check the remade meshes? No pressure tho! blend
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Post by mauvemorn on Aug 29, 2023 13:37:03 GMT -5
Everything looks great, as intended
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Post by beartobear on Aug 30, 2023 4:35:33 GMT -5
Thank you!
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Post by Fwecka (Lolabellesims) on Aug 30, 2023 5:53:20 GMT -5
Would you be so kind to check the remade meshes? No pressure tho! blendLooks really good, beartobear! Much, much better than the other. There's a little bit of clipping that I'm sure you're aware of. It can be easily fixed with proportional editing. beartobear, I just wanted to add that I tried using proportional editing in your file just to test things and the...circle thing...kept selecting the 3D cursor. I have never encountered that before. It was weird. Anyway, the solution is here.
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