Sculpting Tennogen

[iNoone]

I am using the modeling application called Zbrush, and it is given the "daynamash", is this part where is the maximum amount of polyguns or in the total part of the body / helmet?
1) What is the maximum number of polyguns to make the helmet?
2) What is the maximum number of polygons to do the rest of the body (not counting the amount of the head)?

Please help me, I already researched a lot but for not understanding much of the language I did not find the answer!

[RobWasHere]

https://www.warframe.com/steamworkshop/help/index.php?page=technical-specifications

5000 for the helmet. Body cannot be remodelled, only change of texture is allowed, but you can use Zbrush to model the surface and crevices, then burn it into normal map to make it look like its super detailed.

Whatever you sculpt, you have to simplify it so game engine won't choke every time it's on the screen.

[iNoone]

Okay, but abrupt strokes like Nyx's tennogen called "Technopsyche" are allowed? If so, do you know how much dynamesh is put to have these features in the dashes?

(https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1712960940) <- Technopsyche skin

Thanks for answer. ☺️ 

Edited May 5, 2019 by iNoone

[RobWasHere]

They are allowed because they are baked as a normal map, as I said before. You are free to sculpt whatever strokes you want, but the result has to be turned into texture anyway, so too much added volume or too deep fissures will look unrealistic and ugly. The surface of the model is flat.

[Max_AKC]

I love the Technopsyche skin, can't wait to get it!

Ok here's a few things, just sharing what I've learned so far. Rob makes very good points here, and well illustrated! Props for that

High polygon modelling is where you make your design happen and add details. You can designate tint zones in Zbrush as well, using polypaint. Or paint materials on your model later in Substance Painter. The polypaint method is faster but can produce more artifacts (undesirable faults).

Low poly modelling/retopology - this is where the triangle limit applies. Use programs like Topogun or 3D Coat for this step. It has it's own science and rules. I recommend watching FlippedNormals on YouTube

You'll need to retopologize your high poly model, to create a low resolution version that can be used in the game. Then you project the details from your high poly mesh onto the lowpoly model in a process called baking. This can be done in Substance Painter, but there are other programs including free ones that can do it as well. Also search Tennogen on YouTube, look for the videos by Hydroxate.

The body of a warframe is the only thing you won't ever need to retopologize, this is the upside of being restricted in what we can do with the warframe body as it needs to be kept relatively flat; we can't change the UVs of the body at all. Hitsu San seems to make the most of normal maps and has familiarity with how far one can go with a normal map without breaking it. You can check whether or not your sculpting has breached the limit of the image maps by running a test bake, and finding the possible artifacts produced by sculpting too deep or such

Polycount is your main measurement for mesh density when working on your high poly model. The polycount here in Zbrush is not the same thing as the triangle limit for the lowpoly. The high poly model won't be used in game, but you fake the detail for use in game through image maps

It's good practice to start low and subdivide for more resolution as you need it. You shouldn't need millions of Poly's until you do your detail passes (look up Hitsu San on YouTube, it helped me a lot and there is a lot of information in the many long videos from his streams to pick up)

To do this well takes a lot of time, effort and pure skill qualification, which can be learned by anyone almost free of charge but it takes years and years

From what I've gathered, many of the pro artists sculpt between 20-80 million Poly's, depending on their preference. Hitsu San, for example goes to about 80 million, at least from what I've seen. led2012 won't go past 20-30 million (I think) as he doesn't like the long bake times generated by a large high poly model. Once you reach millions of Poly's, the .obj tends to reach several GB. So this can take a long time to bake maps from

Dynamesh is a tool that is useful for certain things, check this out of YouTube as well. It shouldn't be used as your main method for reaching a higher poly count, just subdivide for that

I hope this was helpful, I still have a lot to learn myself and have discovered that I must grind fundamentals so I can git gud to have any chance of making something awesome

 

[iNoone]

Thanks for the answers, Youtubers recommendations really helped me in my modeling. Hitsu San really is great.

But about "normal map" do you have any youtuber teaching?

Edited May 6, 2019 by iNoone

[Max_AKC]

There is some info on it in that series, Hitsu talks on his stream about how it all works and why baking is needed. It can be daunting as there's several days worth of video content there. But this takes years to succeed at anyway, unless you're already working in the games industry

You learn the most from doing it yourself, but tutorials help a lot. Search Google for online courses, sites like Udemy have courses on programs like Blender, which you'll need alongside Zbrush unless you have Maya/3DS Max or something of the kind. I picked up courses on Blender, Unreal Engine 4 and Photoshop. Topogun can be learned in 10 minutes from YouTube, 3D Coat can do what it does but also does a lot more and is more expensive because of that

You can bake the texture maps in Substance Painter, Marmoset Toolbag, Knald or xNormal (free), all others have perpetual licences available.

Michael Pavlovich has videos on YouTube as well as courses on Zbrush, Substance Painter etc