How to Create a Video Game Dumpster: The Complete Current-Gen Workflow
Tutorial Details
- Program: 3DS Max 2009 (or equivalent), Photoshop
- Difficulty: Advanced
Twice a month we revisit some of our reader’s favorite posts from throughout the history of Cgtuts+, and what better place to start than with a tutorial by ex-site-editor Kaleb Aylsworth. This tutorial was first published in June 2009 and proved immensely popular. Let’s take a look…
As technology evolves, the tools and requirements for creating current-gen game art are constantly changing. In this tutorial we will learn the current game art workflow in its entirety, from the low-poly model all the way to final game-ready asset. We will create a realistic grimy dumpster suitable for any urban setting.
This mammoth video training series features over 194 minutes of video instruction on all aspects of game art creation, including creating the low-poly and high-poly models, the UVW unwrap, baking normal maps from high-poly, and creating diffuse, specular and detail bump textures.
Final Effect Preview
Contents
- 1. Creating the Low-Poly Model: 3DS Max 2009 (or equivalent).
- 2. Creating the High-Poly Model: 3DS Max 2009 (or equivalent).
- 3. UVW Unwrap: 3DS Max 2009 (or equivalent).
- 4. Baking Normal Maps From High-Poly: 3DS Max 2009 (or equivalent); X-normal; CraziBump.
- 5. Creating the Diffuse Texture: Photoshop CS2 (or higher); Photo texture source.
- 6. Creating the Specular Texture & Detail Bump Texture: Photoshop CS2 (or higher); CraziBump
1. Creating the Low-poly Model
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Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.
2. Creating the High-Poly Model
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Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.
3. UVW Unwrap
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Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.
4. Baking Normal Maps From High-Poly
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Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.
5. Creating the Diffuse Texture
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Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.
Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.
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By Kaleb Aylsworth
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Hey Kaleb, nice to see experienced pros here, but in your next tut could you describe what each button does when you click them, just abit more considerate of newbies. Maybe you could do a beginners quide to 3Ds max, I just graduated as an Architect and iv been using Sketchup through out my degree,… i gotta learn this fast, and its all unnerving.
Yes, you’re right. This tut was an advanced level one, and focused more on overall workflow than on individual modeling tools. I’m thinking of doing an intro to 3dsMax for beginners as my next tut…so stayed tuned!
and btw stick to video tutorials, they’re much more effective, *am waiting for next tut* cheers
I forgot to say, Case studies are also make a good read and 3D world does this really well.
It’s good to have an insight into films or advertising projects created with 3D software or use compositing techniques.
Yep, you are working really fast sometimes, using Hotkeys and so on.. OK I am able to follow you – and I’m from Germany and understand only ~90% what are you saying but what about a Display in the Video which Keys are Pressed for future Tuts?
I would say this great entry Tutorial is for Advanced Users – I think beginners are not able to follow you ;)
But almost great, Please make more Videos, if you have enough time for this :)
And a personally question: On the top I read you have 3 Years prof. Experience – what did you made in the past with CG/Modding stuff? And was it hard to get to Digital Extremes?
Yes, you’re right. This tut was an advanced level one, and focused more on overall workflow than on individual modeling tools. I’m thinking of doing an intro to 3dsMax for beginners as my next tut, and I’m going to incorporate a hotkey display as you suggested;)
As for my experience, I was the lead artist at a London based company called big blue bubble for 2 years, and I worked on several titles for the Nintendo Wii (Most have not been released yet, so I can’t say what they are). As for getting into DE…the application process was easy…the 6 years of education, and prior work experience I needed to get there…not so much:)
Hope that helps!
3DS MAXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Xcellent tutorials!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BTW: I have a question:
The module MoGraph for Cinema 4D generates very cool stuff through
Clone, Effortless Effectors etc ……
http://www.maxon.net/index.php?id=62&L=2goodluck_euro04.jpg
Is it possible to generate that kind of animations with 3DSMax? or is there any 3rd party plugin or scripts to do so?
Thanks ……
Very interesting, advanced tut. Would like some “basics” tuts as well.
Also, as mentioned above, audio and video didn’t match up making it difficult to follow. A good presenter – you and Jeff are a good match for screencasts.
Yes it’s true about the audio (see post above). As for the difficulty level, I’m thinking of doing a beginner intro to 3dsMax for my next tut (with the audio issue fixed of course;)
Nice! Thanks for adding CG to your arsenal.
…I’d love to see some tuts using MAYA
Great Tutorial .. It´ seems to be perfect to get CDTUTS also in the NETWORK …
Wish list:
MAYA Tuts
Mudbox Tuts
Thanks!!
very nice, but for some of us you need to describe how you are doing things… not all of us know the basics ;) thanks alot anyway!
Yes, you’re right. This tut was an advanced level one, and focused more on overall workflow than on individual modeling tools. I’m thinking of doing an intro to 3dsMax for beginners as my next tut, and I’m going to incorporate a hotkey display as well:) Cheers!
anyone maya?? xD, cool tut man, anyway there are somethings i would love to do in maya…yep im a begginer dude
hi
What plugin did he use for the uv part!?
It’s a free plugin called “Unwrap Tools v1.50″. Sorry…shoulda mentioned that.
Thank you.
I can’t believe this. I just told one of my boys I wanted to learn some 3d modeling. Wow! This is great….the whole ‘plus’ sites are awesome…thank you guys.
Awesome thanks very much!
nice job man.could you please explain the tools and steps.
Outstanding Tutorials.
The voice seems a little off with the video
I giggled at the “Hope you enjoyed yourself” part at the end ;)
always been dreaming of playing around 3d. this whole thing is great!
nice
It’s called CrazyBump, not CraziBump.
Oops…nice catch:P
Can’t wait for Bioshock, yall! Cheers Kaleb!
Very good tutorial, good all round coverage and whets the appetite for more.
It’s ashame about the audio sync, it’s slighly off putting.
Are you reuploading the tuts with synced audio? As I had downloaded all the tuts and find them so useful I’d nearly spend time and effort resyncing the material myself but if you’re going to to it for us I’ll practice some patience.
great stuff. Thanks
Great Tutorial. Btw, I have a quick question about UVW unwrap. Your unwrap editor interface is different than mine. Is that a plug-in? Where do I get that? Thanks.
Idea is taken form Modo tutorial entirely (backyard alley) :) but nevertheless great one.
Something’s not right. I follow your steps and create the low polygon. But when I’m about to start working on the high polygon a certain step isn’t working. When you are selecting the bottom front and back edge and click on “ring”, yours say “4 edges selected” but when I do it, it says “2 edges selected” so when I click on “connet” to get the parts for the “bumbs” in front nothing happens. Can someone help me?
One other thing. One of the last things you do in the “low polygon” version you select the dumpster and “convert it to editable poly” and the “symmetry” on the modifier list disappears but then in the “high polygon” version the symmetry modify is back in the list….what’s up?
Cheers!
Other than that, great tutorial , so far that is ;-)
Hello Kaleb, great work :)
Would be possible getting the files of every step? I know how to model but would like to practice the texturing and rendering.
Hehe… by the way, almost same dumpsters in L4D (:
Very nice tutorial. Thank for sharing it.
Attn: Envato we are waiting for your 3D marketplace.
You can download the videos.
Copy-paste the links of the vids into a flv dowload site like http://www.keepvid.com
part 1: http://blip.tv/file/2202880
part 2: http://blip.tv/file/2203319
part 3: http://blip.tv/file/2206886
part 4: http://blip.tv/file/2207106
part 5: http://blip.tv/file/2207434
part 6: http://blip.tv/file/2208074
Great tutorial, thanx a lot !
oops use http://dys.lexal.net/flv/downloader.php to download the links, keepvid doesn’t seem to work.
A tutorial i’d really like to see regarding Game Modeling:
Animate something and get it going in a real game. (e.g. a new weapon for HL-2 or something like that. that would just kick ass)
Keep on doing this videos, i think they work out much better then just text with images.
Tuts+ is the BEST!!!
Nice and very clear to understand :)
How were you able to keep the image viewer over the active 3ds max window?
I used a nice little free app called “always on top maker”. You can get it here: http://gosoftware.org/always-on-top-maker_software/
Great asset for the community. Thanks, Kaleb!
Instead of filling 50% grey and overlaying for the shadows, you can fill it with anything and set the fill to 0%. Fill affects pixels only, not effects.
great! I hope you make some more tutorials, I really enjoyed this one, hope you will make more tutorials with all your good general workflow comments!
this one is a great refresher for me that have been away from the industry for a while…
hope to see more!
I’m on video #2 and when you select the bottom edge in the front and back and hit ring to create and then hit connect to make an edge loop. mine will not create and edge loop once i hit ring and connect
basicly what im tying to say the ring option is not doing its job for some reason.
I’m on video two and the part im stuck as is after we turn the mesh to an editable poly once you get to the part when you select the bottom edges
from the front and back side when you hit ring and then connect to make the edge loop. my ring function want do anything and I tested it out on a box object and selected the bottom edges and ring works for that but with my dumbster it will not work
I need some help
Make sure that you don’t have any extra vertices on any of the contiguous edges in your ring selection. If any of the polygons that make up your ring have more than 4 sides, then it will break your ring function. Some other things that can break the ring function are: edges in your ring that are not welded (or the verts on the ends of those edges); polygons on the inside of your mesh; geometry that is otherwise unclean (not properly triangulated).
Hope that helps:)
How you put that image window to foreground? THX :)
Ooo i have it “always on top maker”
Great tut, Can you quickly explain what I suppose to put in the material editor in max for the final render
Thanks!
Under the “Maps” section of the Material ball:
Diffuse Color – Click on “None”, choose “Bitmap”, and then browse to your diffuse (color) texture map.
Specular Level – Click on “None”, choose “Bitmap”, and then browse to your specular (shine) texture map.
Bump – Click on “None”, choose “Normal Bump”, select the “Normal” slot, and then browse to your normal (bump) texture map.
Note: You will need to set up a light in your scene and render your view in order to properly see the effect of the normal and specular maps. A standard omni light should work just fine for testing purposes, although you will want to set up a proper light rig for a final render. If the normals are not showing up very clearly, just increase the value to the right of the “Normal” slot (I find that 3 is a good number for most situations).
Hope that helps!
Doesnt work for me, for some reason quicktime is messed up. sounds cool though :(
having a probelm with the baking when i add the normal map and preview it in crazy bump its a lil messed up, cant seem to find the problem, please help!! this is once i have created them from x normal.
Sometimes when you bake a normal map the green channel gets flipped. To fix it, try bringing the normal map into photoshop, opening your channels window, isolating the green channel, and going “Image > Adjustments > Invert”, or “Ctrl + I” on your keyboard. Then preview it in CrazyBump again to see if it worked:)
its not the green channel i sorted that fine as you explained in the tutorial i flipped all the green channels, im getting funny lines and shading in areas its not suppose to and as i rotate around the object some parts look fine but then i change the angle and they get all messed up?
its not the green channel i already flipped them all in photohop, when i preview in crazybump theres lines and shading in places it shouldnt be, also parts of it look completely fine but when i go to rotate around the dumpster it gets messed up?
Could it be a problem with the UV mapping?
When i render the normal map in 3ds max it seems fine, but not in crazy bump, should i be worried?
Great tut but, there’s something i do not understand, the right, left, front and back polys of the dumpster have different smoothing groups, you did not chamfered the edges, and yet, you connected the front and right polygons in the same uv island, why you didn’t get errors in the normal map? as long as i know, polys with different smoothing groups should not be connected in the uvw…
Another thing that confuses me is that your low poly is noticeable bigger than the high poly in some areas, you know, because of the smooth, all the chamfered lines get rounded and underneath the low poly ones…but again, your final normal map is flawless…i mean, every time i have a low poly bigger than the high one, get weird shadows on the edges…did you tweaked the models or something like that?
Sorry for asking so many questions, and thnx for the great tutorial.
yo, nice tutorial, loving it just what i needed:) would love to see what people have created from this, post some images please;)
Anyone knows if Autodesk is gonna make an OS X version of 3ds Max anytime soon?
How to make a Game
thx
great tut, any chance of getting a downloadable version?