/3/ — PS2-Era Graphics

>>995160 (OP)
Dual UV sets in conjunction with camera mapping.

Model your character, rig and unwrap your UV to a UV set 'UV1'. Now pose your character infront of a camera to an angle you wanna texture from.

Render out your character model with a camera mapped projection UV set UV2' and use as a template to paint ontop of in your paint editor of choice.

Assign the result as a texture for UV2 and bake the result down to UV1.

Now change the view to cover dead angles that are still untextured or areas that has too much stretch due to the projection
and keep render new templates and repeat. Bake and combine down to your UV1 texture til you've covered your entire model.

Advantage of texturing like this is that you get pixel perfect placement of all your details and the end result will look exactly as you painted it.

File: 26.jpg (526 KB, 1440x786)

>not good at texturing
oh no

>>995238
Magic
Wizard shit

>>995238
I'm a work in progress lol. I'm getting better at texturing but I'm pretty slow at it and it never comes out exactly as I'd like

Also that's a sick model

>>995160 (OP)
Japanese fighting games from the PS2 era have beautiful character models. That is all.

File: fiona.png (1.88 MB, 1623x898)

>>995160 (OP)
So I was able to find the actual in-game model for this character. The model is pretty low poly but I'm having alittle trouble understanding it.

For example, how would they get the split that happens on the front of the shirt, about where the nipples should be? Everything else around it seems to be a loop cut, which makes sense but I dont understand how they would have done that without using like the knife tool. Is this all from edge modeling or am I just an idiot?

>>995345
they didnt make it split. they combined a row of edges between nipples. it gives that part a slightly crisper crease and importsntly its also a clever way to lower your poly count.

>>995345
>Is this all from edge modeling or am I just an idiot?

Geometry is just geometry, who knows how the modeller that built that one preferred to work but any and all methods that you can use to generate useful geometry is valid, you have a knife tool and it makes sense to use it; use it.

>>995350
>>995352

Thank you! I appreciate the help. I'm trying to take modeling seriously so I probably get too into the weeds and worry about random stuff I shouldn't

Again, thanks! And sorry for the probably simple questions

>>995354
>apologizing to chuds on 4chan instead of leaving the thread forever
You are too white for this board

>>996274
Change towards increased compassion gotta start somewhere, and those posts weren't delivered in any chuddy tone, they where helpful.

Why is it that being anon should require one to be a dick all the time?
Even if no one else know who the asshole behind some unnecessary angry post is the author know.
Embrace voluntary politeness and discover the inner love for your fellow tr/3/pot beings.

We can still grow the love within ourselves as tho selecting the scale-tool in our software of choice
press ctrl-i to invert select all our love instead of hatred and just crank that motherfucker skyhigh.

File: firefox_LtRijazgfn.png (1.24 MB, 1743x943)

I wanted to ask about something a bit more complex in regards to this. I've wanted to know how to do water/river/beachfront texture work using mainly diffuse and maybe some gloss? There are plenty of examples in the PS2 library, but it seems like every dev had a slightly different way of handling it. does anyone have a general workflow for this?

screenshot from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhlmYuOJa_0

>>995160 (OP)
>developing some games in my spare time
>(but also because I’m solo and don’t have the time and resources to make too many high poly things)
How feasible is this? make a 3d game with ps2 style graphics seems like a task too big for one guy.

>>995160 (OP)
I'm thinking sofimage xsi or the autodesk implementation of it have what you are looking for. Renders come out on the gray side, desaturated colors and such. Maybe use VMware to install W7 and either version of the program, when the trial ends you can alwaysnuke the vm and reinstall it or just clone a base vm with windows only before installingany trials.

>>998055
It is *feasible*.
Although if you want it to not be half-assed nor released after the Heat Death of the universe, it would probably be better to find a code monkey while you focus on modelling.
PS2-style graphics are in high demand among amateurs, shouldn't be too hard to find one.

>>998073
I actually recently started looking into that. I think I could do everything in modern software but I found out sofimage is how this exact model was made in the first place. Either way, it'll be interesting to see

>>998055
OP here. I'm sure its highly improbable but not impossible. I'm not so delusional to think I can do everything in a reasonable time period. I'm also not looking this to be a career. Its more of a experiment for myself at the end of the day

>>998080
This is sort of what I was thinking as well. I can code but at this point the modeling (and drawing) is more fun for me so a code monkey is probably in the future if I really get serious about this stuff. We'll see

>>998073
>>998093
Why use old software? It can't make that big of a difference, does it?

>>998098
OP here. For me, mostly to just look into it. I figured, at least from an educational perspective, it would help see the limitations of the era first hand, as opposed to just hearing about it. And then in doing so, it'll help me to maybe find ways to optimize my own work in the more modern software.

Ultimately, I will just use blender/maya/zbrush anyway but I dont think it could hurt to spend alittle time in it.

So no, ultimately it wont make a big difference, but I just think it would be interesting.

>>995238
What's the secret to actually learning shit like this? There's not that many resources on Youtube compared to pretty much everything else about 3D

>>998206
Well first you draw how the character looks, shocking yes for many 3D artists but it’s easier to follow your character style than remembering.

Slowly build the character in the worst way possible because why not, the world isn’t going to peek. Fix the problems and you’ll be ready for rigging or material.

The material needs advanced design skills, this is unavoidable. Many would give up and stay a modeling career and help the technical team. Corporate will always judge your talent on how you drew your character UV so at least know a little.

Rigging is another place people would give up because of rules. It matters not what program or software you use, rigging a character takes skill to help the animation team. You kinda expected to learn python. When your done with rigging, animation should start.

Animation, production, promotion, etc. that’s outside of your question so I’ll leave it as that. The only thing you can do is learn at this point.

>>998206
>>998207
Yeah anon likely meant how to texture it, not about the rigging and other technical stuff. I'm trying to texture low poly characters in substance painter aswell and they look like shit because I can't fucking get how they painted such realistic looks by hand onto a low poly mesh.

All tutorials are for high poly, AAA PBR stuff which honestly looks easier to do than low poly. The first has higher poly characters and more details for support.

>>998263
Substance won’t help, it’s not a design program, no matter what Adobe keeps saying about it. You really do need to learn how to draw, UV professionally and learn lighting.

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>>996779
I made this a long time ago in Unity. Animated waves.
The sand is a tillable texture.
There's a darker sand layer meant to represent sand underwater too
The sea layer is an animated tillable texture and has an opacity texture near the shore so it's see through.
The waves are 2 planes that scale back and forth

File: SandLayer.png (213 KB, 302x240)

>>996779

File: bandicam 2024-10-14 07-15-35-334.webm (1.57 MB, 480x376)

>>996779
Here's a video but 3dsmax fucks the transparency

>>996779
That ocean effect seemed kinda mind boggling to me at first but I think it is just a pre-rendered animation. Then they used vertex colors to make it shift colors and go transparent at the beach. Then the beach foam is done like that anon said.

But anyways, I think this animated ocean texture is quite effective because it omits highlights and specular lighting.

>>998143
But wasn't the look of the era a product of the limitations of the consoles and not the limitations of the tools the devs used?

>>998280
>>998281
>>998282

Hey, Thanks for these! it helps to understand things a bit better. Though, I do feel it would be better to use a texture scroll effect with a sine or something instead of bones? that's the old-head in me talking though.

Sounds like a cool project!

File: SkullDrunk.webm (2.53 MB, 1920x1080)

How would I go about texturing this in that old school PS2 style?

>>998263
>>998851
There’s no secret sauce to it. You just gotta unwrap your UVs, paint them in photoshop, and use your editing skills to add dirt, grime, and other details from photo sources. The only people who still use this workflow are the mega autists who manually create HD texture mods for RE4 or a Zelda game by hand.

>>998971
Well that’s too god dang bad because Blender and Maya both lack the necessary tools for painting, no such plugin exists to directly paint it.

>>998994
Substance cost $5000 a year and buying the Steam version is outdated with no other features. Only a matter of time until it’s useless to both Blender and Maya.

>>995160 (OP)
>(especially textures because I’m still terrible with them)

Unfortunately for you, this style is literally all about texture artistry. So you've either got to learn to paint, learn to photobash, or both.

>>999011
>buying

Rofl nobody pays for Substance.

>>999069
Yeah I know. It forces me to get good at texturing or fail trying

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>>995160 (OP)
I'm in the process of creating a PS2-esk looking game myself. Picrel isn't finished yet but I've got the base details down. So yeah I know he has no nipples lol. Anyway, I say -esk because the painting workflow is the same I'm just using higher res textures (512 instead of 256) but with a generally lower poly count (my faces are static for instance since). I've studied a ton of PS2 models over the years, specifically from Rockstar Games and from games like Def Jam: Fight For New York which has AMAZING looking characters.

Anyway, I'm not that great at painting yet but the advice I can give is definitely use something like 3Dcoat for texturing. I've tried painting in blender with many different add-ons over the years and its never as good. You can also bake your AO really quickly in 3dcoat to use as a lighting guide before turning it off. For realistic looking clothing like the pants I've done here, you want to find a base texture for the material it's made of from an image and create a seamless texture from it to fill the clothing with. Once you've done this you create 2 layers above it. A shade layer set to Multiply and a highlight layer set to Screen. Use a base color that matches your material when painting in both, shades being more saturated and hue shifted toward blue and highlights being desaturated and shifted toward yellow/orange generally.

It really fucking sucks theres pretty much zero tutorials online for painting REALISTIC textures by hand into a single texture. Almost ALL hand painting tutorials are for the World of Warcraft stylized look.

File: 1714979183507401.webm (3.11 MB, 970x784)

>>1000762
Oh I forgot to say, use the same highlight/shade layer setup for the skin too. But then on top of it add about a 2% white/black noise layer Multiplied on top of it at about 20% opacity or so. Then over that apply a Red/Yellow/Blue "Render Clouds" texture over that set to Overlay blend mode to add randomness to the skin color.

I normally flatten the shade/highlight layers down into the base color at some point then start color picking from that to add more colorful flesh tones to it. Its far from perfect but I'm still experimenting with it. I'm still hunting more tricks and ideas on making the skin look more realistic, other than just getting better at painting in general.

>>1000767
Quite interesting, thank you for mentioning the "Render Clouds" texture, I was bothered by how overly basic my skin textures looked so this'll fix that a bit

>>1000797
Speaking of, here's a tut video I found
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g47eGdURUc

>>1000797
Yeah it's pretty good trick I seen on
http://www.poopinmymouth.com/tutorials/character-tutorial.html
theres a few other tricks he talks about at the bottom that I haven't used. Like a desaturation layer and such.

I just ran into this book today that goes through skin painting and seems to use the same layer system I was talking about but his painting ability is way better.
https://issuu.com/kukkii/docs/3dtotal.com_ltd._-_swordmaster_-_lo_5d93f13ed71d5e
On page 79+

Anyone has any examples of sixth gen era characters with long hair or long beard?
I can't think of any right now and I really want to study how the hair was done

God I love 6th and 7th gen Japanese vidya models

>>995160 (OP)
Ps2 or heavily stylised, less realistic graphics with more modern physics/animation/movement is the best way to go

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>>1001461
Kimahri from FF10 is an example I can think of off the top of my head that would be the most readilyt available.
I'd also suggest looking at models that have alpha fur, like monsters and such, as it's going to be the same general workflow as a thick beard or long hair. Some hair models from PSO2 also still use these methods (but don't bother with New Genesis, just the original release.)

>>995345 #
Where'd you get it, could you post the link? I've been looking for it for a while now but I couldn't find it.

>>1001944
This is where I got it from. The guy I think is a modder for the game. He also has other characters from the game as well:

https://www.deviantart.com/xmastergeorgechiefx/art/Fiona-Belli-All-Her-Costumes-515792394

>>995161
Won't some parts of the model be hidden away from the camera pov

>>995161
Sorry for double replying can somebody pls make a video for this.

>>1002045
Never mind I'm a retard the last part went over my head.

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I'm a beginner and absolute shit so don't listen to me, but I followed guides to making PS1 looking shit and just didn't make it crunchy. I obviously have a long way to go in all respects but in principle I feel like this looks pretty PS2. Keeping the textures low res, turning off shadows and using only a diffuse area light seems to do a lot.

>>1000762
>>1000767
Godly. Thanks.

>>1002053
got any recommended guides?

File: ss soldier example.png (214 KB, 373x620)

If your bad at texturing a really effective technique is to photobash then touch up the texture with added shadows and highlights. The pic rel is a 512x512 texture done by using Blenders stencil feature and was edited with Clip Studio Paint. Since your a solo dev this technique would probably be the best as it's quite quick while still being able to produce that early to mid 2000s style. I go for a more 2000-2005 style but you could definitely make some stuff more akin to model posted in the OP with some trial and error, although you would definitely need some more texture painting. As you said its really difficult to find resources on this era of graphics but I've done some digging and here is some stuff I've found.

This channel is from a guy who is versed in the style and has a lot of good resources on his website too. Specifically has a really good character tutorial that's even using the software that was used during the era, 3D Studio Max and Bodypaint
https://www.youtube.com/@videogamemaker

I've also found some books on the subject, particularly one from 2006 called "3D Game Textures: Create Professional Game Art Using Photoshop". It might be hard to find torrents of books like these due to the age and lack of interest but they're a resource straight from that era. I haven't started reading them yet because I'm working on a project atm so I can't say how effective they are but there is certainly some techniques to be gleaned.

Also study the models and environments from games of that time, I take a ton of screenshots from games like Oblivion, Postal, RTCW, and the like. I'm glad that other people are passionate about this style, so many games are based off of PS1 but this "mid poly" era gets skipped over entirely it seems.

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>>995160 (OP)
what do you call this look when the characters are white but very clearly made by an oriental game studio?

>>1003136
just to clarify, the OP image is also an example of what I'm talking about. the game, haunting ground, is made by the japanese Capcom

>>1003136
I doubt there's a specific term for it. I guess the best way to describe it would be an asian/anime style face shape with white complexion?

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>>998851

The PS2 polycount is probably a touch higher, and the texture size a tad lower, but the following might help

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6AIWMWhXLA

>>995160 (OP)
i thought this video was interesting although it doesn't really answer your question.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_-K56PVeh4