Turn your high-poly mesh into a GAME-READY asset!

[@126Natethegreat]

As an aspiring game environment artist. This was so damn helpful. It's hard to find these type of tutorials that aren't behind a paywall.

[@EnnoWinter]

Thats so true, awesome Stuff as always Josh !

[@PrefoX]

dont do it that way please, its just wrong for games.

[@FarQuZeDesigns]

@@PrefoX Huh? Every big game company uses normal maps. Are you ok buddy?

[@bobross9370]

@@FarQuZeDesigns Think he's referring to the bevelling part, which he would be correct, most game assets are triangulated and majority of 3D software don't do a great job at bevelling raw triangulated models. Bevelling is not optimized either.

[@R.Daneel]

@@bobross9370 Doesn't really matter either way. Anyone who leaves a troll comment with no clarification like they did can just be ignored outright. People worth listening to don't do that.

[@cedricj5476]

Quick tip @4:24 To select any kind of patterns of edges, for example every two, or every three edges, or any other pattern, just select two edges matching that pattern, and then just press, ctrl+shift+'+' on your numpad

[@thismanrocks]

thank you

[@okie1630]

thank you!

[@TTTristan1]

HOLY SHIT thank you

[@TehAntares]

Doesn't work for me. Do you use the default or the industry settings ?

[@Logalactic]

@@TehAntares What version of blender are you using?

[@DeputyChiefWhip]

Nice tutorial, I work in the game industry, as a mostly hard surface artist. This method is good if your focus is on high poly models using your boxcutter and Hard ops style workflow... I mostly find it better to work my models up rather than back. So, I would model my low poly, until happy with the structure and polycounts etc, Then duplicate the low poly model to make the high poly, and continue working it up. Either way, very nice workflow Josh, Im sure it will help alot of people, you've definitely helped me while learning blender.

[@diegorevuelta5218]

Excellent video on this topic! I would like to point out something for people who will bake normal maps using flat shading in the whole model. When baking with flat shading all of your normals are gonna be perpendicular to their respective faces and since that's the direction that rays are gonna follow when baking the normal map, you are going to create 'gaps' at the edges without rays being traced onto them, therefore you are gonna lose details on the edges and get seams on your normal map as each face will try to bake onto the hard line. The solution to this is to mark as UV seams ALL of your sharp edges, with the disadvantage of using many more UV islands. A better approach is to use smooth shading so as not to have to mark so many edges as UV seams, however using smooth shading will give you 'averaged normals'', not perendicular ones and that's going to create skewing on your normal bakes. To prevent this skewing effect you can add support edges, add bevels + weighted normals or manually cut geometry where needed in order to keep their normals perpendicular to the faces and avoid any skewing. This is VERY important in 'hard surface' bakes. Don't worry about the bad shading in your low poly since the normal map will make the low poly mimic the perfect shading of your high poly independently of its own shading. Remember to always triangulate your model before exporting it since Blender has the triangulation into consideration and it bakes the normal map specifically for that triangulation. If you export your model to, for example, Unreal Engine without previous triangulation, Unreal will do its own and if it differs from Blender's triangulation it will create the so called 'X-shape' errors in your normal maps when applied, specially at low resolutions. Thank you for your videos Josh, greetings from Spain ;)

[@kisstepan]

Oh man thanks a lot! More helpful than a video👍🏻🔥

[@Richard930713]

If you'd like to select every 2nd, or 3rd, or any pattern, select 2 points, and press ctrl+shift+ '+' on the numpad. It's a smart select, works really well. Detects patterns from 2 already selected verts, edges or faces.

[@xavvey]

This will save me so much time! :O

[@CryptMhg]

this is EXACTLY what i was waiting for

[@JoshGambrell]

Super glad! I had a feeling you guys were.

[@nbamol5453]

Same

[@Eener1000]

Last time I messed around with 3d modelling was around 2002 and now I am looking up tutorials to get back into it again. Hearing you call out the number of polys for the "low poly count" model made me go "wha...." How times have changed since back then that would be a super high res model.

[@Genebriss]

TLDW: remove half the edges.

[@Auti3D]

Can also try using the Decimate modifier, this will remove Geometry depending kn the value you set in a ratio. 1 will remove nothing, 0.9 will remove 10% of the mesh, 0.1 will remove 90% of the mesh. This works well and really quickly, although make sure before applying modified its exceptional, as using this method will probably make the shading of the object bad, but sometimes you can get good results by messing with the value. Keep in note only do this method when the model is final, editing the model after applying this modifier is near impossible

[@RetrovexAmbient]

Yeah the topology is ruined after applying it ​@@Auti3D

[@legally_blind]

leaving another comment cause my guy, you are a life saver Ive been looking for cool tricks like this for ages :) Subbed ofc excited for more

[@JonathanGilmer]

6:25 whaaaaat that's an awesome shortcut that I wish I knew way sooner!

[@TictacAperture]

It would be really helpful if you could make a real-time video where you make a game-ready asset from A to Z. Going in-deep with UV mapping, texel density, maybe texture atlases, in-engine tweakings and all the things we rarely see. Like your videos by the way, they're pretty useful.

[@TictacAperture]

Lightmaps too, they're a pain in the a** to understand.

[@BobJones-cd9mt]

I use limited dissolve and or decimate and then just add loop cuts etc where its needed where the texture is being affected by bad top. As long as the mesh is holding enough form so to not affect the texture. Im happy. great vid btw.

[@jtvj8423]

Modelling is one thing but UV perfecting is it's own beast. Project from view, project cube, project cylinder etc., can work very well for hard surface when selecting specific faces. If your normals are all good and you think about where to hide seams, things can look amazing once you get it into Substance Painter or other texturing methods. Great video, once again gives me confidence that I'm on the right path.

[@JoshGambrell]

Glad to help! I have a video on UV unwrapping dropping tomorrow :)

[@tothemoon7438]

11:33 can u please tell, how did you do this symmetry ?

[@MZONE3D]

Nice video. Just to point out, for hard surfaces, I mostly turn off "average normals" in the substance bake. That will get rid most of the blurry edges especially on panel indents. Try average normals on and off to see which gives the best result

[@WillFalcon]

How did u get a color gradient on edges of selected object? Front edges are green , then yellow and back edges are orange.

[@Remowylliams]

Thanks for the tutorial. I'm a bit disappointed that you baked in Substance but I'll look for a similar video where Blender is used.

[@upowlnight]

I dont understand how you "just go ahead and run a symmetry". It seems super useful and quick without adding any modifiers or anything, you just hit a hotkey, and select your axis. I've searched for hours and havent seen anything else that works like this Edit: Ohhhhhh I see now. Part of Box Cutter or Hard Ops. Looking at those now. They do seem super useful.

[@HaloWolf102]

What shortcut did you press in order to get the results at 5:30 & 6:50?

[@Kinosei30]

28:50 - You can also use a fully smooth shaded low poly object to get rid of that sharp edge on the bevel without the need to add a 1 step bevel. However, that will mess up some other normals, for instance, those holes you have on the corners would not look very straight down if looking from the top, they would be good looking only if the camera is facing on the face of this smoother normal of the face. That is a solution for some of the cases. It works very well for very simple objects.

[@teainastorm4357]

Thanks a lot Josh - your tutorials are level headed and comprehensive. Very grateful!

[@GaryOlsenThomas]

Very cool tutorial, interesting I just find you now. I wanted to ask about nGons and then you started talk about it.. amazing timing..

[@isabel5066]

this was super helpful and made me understand more of 3d.. as a student x) ! awesome video

[@OmarFloydd]

man you covered all the questions around the topic i really apreacaite that thanks a lot that was really helpful

[@clementkirton]

the shape edge is because there is not enough padding in your UV island if you add more padding it should not show up. hope this helps someone wanting to do more bakes (also for hard surface baking marmoset toolbag has a lot better tools to make bakes look a lot cleaner )

[@JoshGambrell]

Yeah Marmoset seems to be the best option all around. Good note - I usually do my 1 segment method so I am not as familiar with baked bevels.

[@JoshGambrell]

@Tester 1 I have it, pretty good from using it so far, but I need to play with it more.

[@mercartax]

This thread is a good read about all things related to normal map baking: polycount.com/discussion/107196/youre-making-me-hard-making-sense-of-hard-edges-uvs-normal-maps-and-vertex-counts Any hard edge results in more vertices because normals are stored per vertex. Adding extra 1-segment bevels to the edge of your mesh should not increase vertex count in the end because you smooth out those edges instead of making them hard as you would do with the "true" low poly version of your mesh. Thus the same vertex can be used to store normal information for adjacing faces. But: Overdraw caused by thin triangles might become a problem when many beveled edges are on screen but take up very few pixels. I will cite from humus.name: "[...] whenever a polygon edge cuts through a 2x2 pixel area, that quad will be processed twice, once for both of the polygons covering it [...]" www.humus.name/index.php?page=Comments&ID=228 As with most things - it's complex. :)

[@Y0uDude]

Do you mean the annoying edge in the bake can be avoided if there is more space between or in islands on the UV map? Also without marmoset? Sorry, I don`t get it, but I am also not a native English speaker.

[@everlastingmedia]

You could save a few clicks with "checker deselect" under the Selection menu when dealing with those bevels.

[@vaclavfliegel703]

14:54 But smooth, beveled cube has, in teory, 24 vertexes in Unreal as well as flat, un-beveled flat-shaded simple cube. Only smooth un-beveled has 8 (should-it has 14 though) As far as I know that is because engine counts hard edge as double vertexes. UV seams does that too but not on top of it. So after UV unwrap, beveled cube still has more vertexes, but not that much more (36 if nicely unwrapped, 26 really messy unwrap, compare to 24 of flat shaded cube). Unwraped beveled cube from Blender to Unreal somehow import as 50 vertexes-probably because the default unwrap. If you do not have much or any seams, there is almost no reason not to bevel. For some reason, Bevel option "Harden normals" unfortunately multiply vertexes too, in my experience at least, so Weighten normals seems to be better way for low poly.

[@toolazytobeoriginal4587]

"...bevel bakes, it's a normal thing." I see what you did there and I love it

[@julianbridges838]

Best video Iv watched on this, showing a genuine workflow. Thak you sir, very much :)

[@AmandeepBlender]

At 6:25 ctrl+alt click should select all the edges

[@JoshGambrell]

Amazing, thanks for the tip!

[@Lucius.Hercules]

don't forget checker deselect is a feature now lol idk when it was added but i'm grateful.

[@taminaion]

Think you just taught me more in 30mins than my university has taught me in 3 months...... Thank you :3

[@JoshGambrell]

Happy to help!

[@BlendtutsES]

About duplicating the name from object to mesh: Most software only have one name for the same object, but Blender has two names. When exporting, if the name of the object and the object data is exactly the same, it will get just that name; but if the object's name and mesh's name are different, they will be added, like "Amazing_Model_Cube.001". There is usually no problem with that, except that if you bake maps in Substance using the match names option... the names will not match ;P And that's why it's important. I remember making a little script when I used to work a lot with Substance to just run the script and automatically apply all the objects' names to their meshes before export :)

[@НиколайМарачук]

u can use "select next element" function (shift+ctrl+numpad+\- default. Better change to ctrl+middlewheel up\down)

[@tamasorvos8882]

Finally found a video explaining this process. Really great stuff, thank you!

[@handsomeman-child8751]

6:12 an easier way to select all the edges along a side is to press ctrl + alt + shift while clicking the edge. This works fine even if for some reason the edges are different lengths and keeps you from accidentally selecting unrelated edges in your topology that happen to be the same length.

[@CEndamist]

nice video. a lot of what you show I was already doing but I did learn a few things from this that I was not using. thank you for making and sharing this video.

[@erikm9768]

These videos are so so good

[@danford6678]

Your videos are great Josh keep up the great work! Something I did notice though is you could have deleted 3 / 4 of your model did your editing work on the last 1/4 and saved yourself a mountain of time by mirrioring everything back later.

[@dash9655]

Hey Josh, thanks for this video, it was great. Maybe you could do a follow-up where you have an asset made up of a few objects, and/or a few materials? I have been struggling to build assets like this, then use SimpleBake to atlas them together, it's not very well described out there. Even further, adding decal machine on top and trying to atlas the decals and texture them is currently really tough going.. seems like most of the hard surface tutorials completely ignore the steps in getting to a game engine.

[@ollie4859]

thank you Josh！amazing videos！

[@JoshGambrell]

Thanks Ollie!

[@noureldinahmed4953]

what shortcut does he use to symmetrise like that? please help

[@xavvey]

I can't give more than 1 thumbs up for this video... thanks a lot for this vid Josh!

[@AWHMBMI]

Thank you so much Josh.

[@fsava6324]

Amazing! Nice work Josh, this tut really helped!

[@danskinner8533]

do you have any dvideos or tips on retopology a female body in blender 2.79

[@davideblonda6159]

Man i was thinking ok i will press one button and than the magic will happend, but the decimate modifier still sucks i guess xD...I must also say i'm so glad that there isn't an automated tool, because working on the 3d model is just so relaxing.

[@curlybrace6694]

just wanna say, that your videos are very cool and informative! thank you!

[@JoshGambrell]

Thank you!

[@qaxt8231]

I have a question, should i join objects ( ctrl + J ) before or after applying modifiers?

[@Meteotrance]

Ngons and boolean operation are usually banned for low polygon triangulated workflow , retopology is essential if you want to make your game able to work on tablet and smartphone device , using repeat and symetrise asset and texture are something to master the less polygon and texel resolution you use the faster and more object you can have , now on high end graphic card and game console it's became more permissive, but you need to keep as low as possible and bake high detail on texture to perform well especialy for high frame rate gaming.

[@jowhee8519]

You can use Ctrl Shift Num+ to select next active on these rings or bevels.

[@Pizzaguy2]

where can I download this example 3d to practice myself. thanks great video

[@i5ten]

One tip for baking in Substance from Blender, is to allways have the lowpoly be smooth shaded this way the Bake comes out alot cleaner and the shading of the low is going to be replaced with the shading of the high so it will look fine either way, try it I have found waaay better baking results with smooth shaded Geo when coming from Blender

[@clementkirton]

This works on some shapes but it will make metal or shiny flat areas have a weird reflection just smooth shade with a 30 to 45 auto smooth normals enabled

[@i5ten]

@@clementkirton that sounds weird, baking should never bake any reflections. What settings were you using?

[@i5ten]

Also Autosmooth will negate all benefits from baking in smooth shading

[@JoshGambrell]

I have found both work pretty well, but you are correct!

[@clementkirton]

@@i5ten ​ kzbin.info/www/bejne/eKq2m6uvjbhskJY I made a video to show the shading errors its not a big error but it does show on metallic or very reflective objects and can make things look really wrong in realistic renders

[@zlazher]

Nice tutotial!!! you should paint the asset in substance in another video.

[@FritzHugo3]

Is there not an automatic converter tool to bring a high polygon 3d Modell to an easier 3d model without to much lose from details? Maybe converts rounds in vetorgrafics, make the mashes bigger in flat big areals, kompress stuff. Offcourse you lose the individual flexibility after this step but you do design all with high poly and than converting for Unity oder other gameengine and only place it at the map (only make bigger the hole objekt but dont manipulate the details). Is there not a automatic way to convert this high polygon blender Objekt in a easier 3D obpekt without bisg optical loses? (Eg. if I make a sphere in Unity its an very easy objekt, very smal and quick to load)

[@mikelittlenz]

Really cool tut josh, I learnt a lot!

[@Manimanocas]

This video is 1 year old but I forgot, how did you merge that vertice that you slided along the edge on legs?

[@MixieMew]

these are the tuts we like, keep up the great work.

[@JoshGambrell]

Thanks bro, will do!!

[@TheMrTysiek]

You are so helpful bro, greetings from Poland :)

[@JoshGambrell]

Thanks man. Best wishes to ya

[@Melon69420]

how do you slide verices like in 7:49 ish?

[@damjanzugic6343]

Hi, great video and tutorial. Just have a quick question, how to you access that menu on screen for symetry when you can click on X,Y,Z? When I select my mesh, then go into Mesh>Symetrize I dont get that at all, the only thing I get is a small menu to choose from -X to X for example, which result is breaking and deleting faces from my mesh. Anyone has an answer, would appritate it a lot! Thanks :)

[@strangerturtle929]

23:35 what is the app you are using for materials and is it free?

[@Linus_YouTube]

this is substance painter and it costs around 15$ a month. You can also buy the yearly version on Steam for about 150$.

[@norteenx]

How do I make the object become rey-x in blender game

[@Y0uDude]

Thx. Now, what I really like to know is 1.: If you use the one segment bevel, you don't unwrap it again? Cause it causes nerves to deal with tris or unclean quads from the bevel mod. doing UV`s. And I ask myself do you avoid triangles then? And 2nd: Do you need sharp marked edges for the bake? I have contradictory informations about that like some say wherever a hard seam is you need a sharp edge. And some say: always deactivate "average normals" in SP. Is there an easy way out? Thx man :)

[@chronicallytired02]

YESS josh did it this is just what i need

[@alanbrody3223]

I'm sure mine is a noob question, but why did you keep the faces where the barrels go? Wouldn't it be better to have a hole there?

[@winnie8614]

Is there a reason to create textures on low poly in SUbstance, instead of creating them for high poly and than bake them in? Normals and other maps can mess with it? I gess in this case we won't need Ambient Occlusion map?

[@L6PODskipper]

really really good explanation!

[@JoshGambrell]

Thanks Fabian!

[@Usual_User]

That exactly tutorial what i search for a long time! Thank you!

[@JoshGambrell]

Perfect, I'll be making more on game assets then!

[@Usual_User]

@@JoshGambrell thanks, that will help allot!

[@xavvey]

Yes! Please do!

[@magedafra]

nice workflow pal

[@ZygimantasJurevicius]

I cannot wrap my head around it... How is it okay to have so many Ngons? It should be quads, or I misunderstand something? Thank you in advance for the reply!

[@delko000]

What if you want to use a displacement map for example? Would you have to retopo the whole thing to have square-shaped quads rather than ngons/triangles? What would be the workflow if one wants to sculpt organic scratches at the surface also? Wouldn't a quad topo be better? or instead keep it this way and sculpt with dyntopo and bake these scratches?

[@thefreshest2379]

You could add checker deselect to quick menu and speed it up a bit

[@anastasiamoskvina3288]

dont we need to apply modifiers before export ? 23:00

[@animalcolors005]

No need to apply Modifiers, it works just normal

[@djosrx]

This is nice but incomplete. You just made the low poly version of geometry (of one part of the model) and baked height information onto it. What about other maps? Albedo, Reflection, Glossiness, Metallic... This is far from finished. Is there a way to use the same maps from already finished high poly model? Since you unwrapped the model during the process, it is not possible to use original maps. Is there a way to keep the original UVs? Or everything has to be done manually in substance after low poly geometry is made and unwrapped again?

[@protools3000]

Thanks Josh! For better polycount visualization in further tutorial videos would be appreciate to turn on *Statistics* in the *Overlay* options.

[@JoshGambrell]

Yea, I realized my banner was covering it after the fact. My apologies!

[@9l_Kendr]

Very informative,please more videos about game assets

[@JoshGambrell]

Will do!!

[@schoolhomevrtechnologyassi6286]

I wonder if Checker Select and Symmetry are available in 3ds Max? Probably on the modelling ribbon bar,

[@R.Daneel]

I'd only do a 1seg bevel on the 6 primary edges of the main "cube" of this object. It's reasonable to assume the camera may get close to those in basic use. They are also the edges that get worn for a real object. If someone kneels down to inspect the bevel of one of the cutouts and sees a hidden sharp edge, whatever. Beveling all those curves and flourishes just wastes polys imho. I'd also try deleting the entire top circles and baking those in. Once the barrels are "installed", you might not see much difference. They are right "in your face", though, so maybe not.

[@jackmaguire8634]

Awesome for porting existing assets!

[@cerberus8666]

Do you mind using screencast keys? And pls.

[@nicholasjarecki6529]

Considering all of the components of the final asset (barrels, container, and handles), how do you handle the modeling process when you consider exporting? Say for example that the barrels and handles are not meant to detach from the container in a game environment -- they just remain static. Do you boolean the low-poly assets or join them so that they become one single-component asset, or do you parent the parts so that they don't separate (in the event that they aren't meant to do so)?

[@bestpranks7852]

you're awesome, i love your totorials

[@whipivy]

Curious, with the stretched UV situation, why not just separate the mesh in that area and create a face to the sides? Is there anything in practice that is against separate meshes?

[@ivanpeluffo2841]

Josh, how do you select the complete edges with just one click? Not the single ones but the ones with several edges

[@JoshGambrell]

Ah which part? I assume you mean ALT click?

[@ivanpeluffo2841]

@@JoshGambrell Thanks. That was the one.

[@JP-rb2or]

What do you do after you bake it and texture it?

[@SkemeKOS]

Is this still relevant with Unreal Engine 5 and Nanite?

[@luizfernandonoschang8298]

I would like to know if you really use this workflow in a daily basis. What you do if you figure out you need to make changes to your model later? Do you need to repeat all the process of simplifying the model again?

[@husaruser6594]

hi, why didnt you triangulated the low poly mesh before exporting to substance? im asking cus you said to always triangulate mesh to game assets

[@s4nder368]

Hey Josh, great video, but I have a question, what symmetrization tool are you using. It doesn't look like standard blender interactive mirror or something like this

[@BernhardRieder1]

isn't there any better, faster and more automatic approach to get the low-poly mesh? Especially when using Plasticity, and you need a low-poly mobiel game asset. Curios, if there are no better options today. Thx Josh, keep rocking and happy new year, cheers

[@wolfpawz321]

Thanks for the tutorial, by the way your patron paged says it’s moved and comes up with a not found. Also are you having any sales on your courses? Sorry to ask that but just curious, thanks

[@creativecorner2071]

Another amazing tutorial! No surprise here

[@JoshGambrell]

Thanks!

[@srychok7550]

How r u make symmetry? Is this an addon?

[@skynliner3434]

You can select every other edge in the bevel using ctrl+numpad +. Select 1st and 3rd edges and press ctrl-numpad+ multiple times, it will select 5th, 7th, 9th edge... . Especially useful for decimating cylinders - select 1st and 3rd edges and just hold ctrl-numpad+ until it loops Btw isn't it quite dangerous to dissolve first or last edge of bevel? Imagine a bevel on 90° corner. By dissolving last-bottom edge of bevel you will lift up a bottom face so corner won't be 90° anymore

[@JoshGambrell]

Right, if I did that it definitely wasn’t on purpose, an oversight on my end. It’s fine if the second edge in the bevel is on a planar surface, but then it wouldn’t be part of the bevel would it...

[@Vibhu_Kishan]

hey i make hard surface models too! now as u know we have multiple pieces that make up an entire Hardsurface model! how do i go about baking Normals for them? individually or i should uv unwrap them then join em all together? how would you go about it please help im breaking my head here!

[@JoshGambrell]

It really depends. I usually join things together unless they’re meant to be separate physical objects. In this example, I would probably leave the barrels separate since the object is a separate, exclusive entity :)

[@mr.rationality5349]

I've found that smoothening your low poly geo for baking really helps with the beveled edges. Sometimes you will get funny artifacts around the edges when it's sharpened.

[@JoshGambrell]

Yep, it does actually work better in a lot of cases, should have mentioned that!

[@520theghostskullgamingchan7]

Awesome thank you thats so helpful & great to understand.

[@LiquidMark]

Thank you very much for this video!

[@owenkegg5608]

What did you use to do that symmetry?