Strap all the things?!
Those are the strap segments for the “untied” looks of the various bits and bobs. I also finished the end of the left sleeve so it can have a friction buckle (the right side will have the strap part).
Now the low polygon model is 99% complete, the only remaining part is the arm connecting strap, I reserved a bit of texture space for it and I’ll make it once I get the folded version of the arms final.
Next steps:
- Make the materials.
- Make a semi final “test” texture set, to double-check that I haven’t messed up anything with my UVs).
- Rigging (first pass at least).
Buckles, straps, …
Friction buckles low-poly mesh is done, it looks.. okay I guess, from afar. I’ve also unrolled the crotch strap so I can bake it with minimal lighting artefacts, which should, in theory, allow me to use it on a flexi prim when untied.
Also realized that I forgot working on the buckle locking mechanism…
I hate myself sometimes.
Most of the UVs done!
So I’ve finished the second sleeve creasing today and I think I’ll be able to share texture between the different strap, that’s the good thing.
The bad thing is that I’ve forgotten to secure some UV space (again) for the “buckled” straps. So I’m not out of the sand yet.
Face slapper hotfix
There was a little issue where the emote text would delay the slapping animation.
Get your V2 copy from the updater today!
Quick update on the arms
I’ll get more done later but I need to “gather some feedback” first. I’ve sculpted the arm a little more and to give it more definition.
I really like how the elbow “cap” bends (#4), that’s the best part so far.
I’ve tried different approaches for the inside but I’m not 100% satisfied. #5/6 doesn’t collapse at all but it looks weird and deform way too much.
#4 I tried to hard weight the inside and I like how it bends but it starts poking out at extreme range, that’s not great.
More unwrapping and delicious early bake
So my grand plan for texture recycling ended up not really working that well, so I will do some regular diffuse baking instead.
Now as you can see that’s some seriously compact UVmapping :P, save for that empty bit in the top. Don’t you worry there will be stuff in there eventually.
I haven’t unwrapped those back straps yet because I really want to use the same texture for the tied/untied versions (and even the same texture for all four straps) and that will require some planning.
But the rest looks okay, save for the glitches which will obviously be fixed.
Now I really have to finish those sleeves…
You daily dose of low polygon mush
Alright, most of the gaps are now closed, I even capped the openings. I also finished the “buckled” version of the straps. This is hovering around 6000+ triangles. It’s not making me happy but I needed the strap geometry to be “texture recycling friendly”. You can’t have it both ways I suppose.
The sleeves are still on symmetry, and I need to make the low poly version of the buckles (this is going to suck).
Some more cleanup might be required before I can call this good.
Refining garbage
It’s getting there, I’m making a bunch of mistakes that I thought I wasn’t gonna be making anymore… like NOT COMPLETING THE MODEL before going into detailing and optimization.
Oh well, what’s done is done.
Left upper back is just a clusterfuck that I’ll probably end up trashing.
Blocked out the arm so I could work on the hands and then I’ll fumble something together something for the elbows. The shoulders should work okay with this geometry I hope.
Jacket low poly, first pass
Since texturing is a bit pointless if I can’t test the baking quality, I’ve started the low polygon model. It’s really rough in places and not all that great in general. I initially started in mirror mode, but because all the creasing was done out if symmetry mode, there is not much point in doing that.
Initially I tried to follow the main peaks and valleys of the creases, but I ended up switching to “peaks only” to keep the polygon density low. You can see in picture 2 and 3 the “improvements” in the topology (yeaaah… not there yet)
Oh yeah I also added the mandatory collar trim.
Canvas first pass
I’ve done a rough unwrapping of all the pieces and straightened what needed to be. I’ve also reused some of the maps I made for the KDC Institutional straitjacket.
Not entirely sure how I want to proceed, unless I want to blow up the texture budget, there is a pretty big chance that the weave of the fabric will be invisible.
Alternatively, sl does allow to use different repeat values for the diffuse and normal maps so I could use very small but very efficient repeating textures for the diffuse and do most of the detailing in the normal map.
I might also try to come up with different fabric weaves that don’t have to be so fine.