Game Development Community

Grainy Skin

by Nate "Nateholio" Watson · in Artist Corner · 12/14/2004 (9:03 pm) · 2 replies

Ive been trying to skin a model several different ways. I started by making a complete skin on a single 512x512 image. This didnt work well at all. Then I decided to make a seperate skin for each group in the model - which would be about 20 512x512 images. So I decided that would be a waste. I then tried to use a 1024x1024 image for the entire model, but my system didnt like that too much and was slowed WAY down. So, Im stuck with a 512x512 image for the skin, which looks like this

Its obviously not even close to complete for one reason - if each red line is 1 pixel wide and shows up that big on the model the skin wont work at all.

Now to my question - how does everyone end up with kick butt skins using only a 256x256 or 512x512 image? Im not asking for the texturing side of things here, more like the correct skin size/technique to use so I wont get a huge blob for each pixel in the image.

Edit: and yes I did group similar shapes onto each other to save space
NextNext Thread
PrevPrevious Thread
More from Artist Corner


Torque Owner Nauris Krauze
#1
12/14/2004 (11:12 pm)
Hmm, for object like this 512x512 skin should be enough. It depends on where you intend to use the model, though. From the looks of it - its for some kind of RTS thingie, which means you'll watch the model from some distance most of the time anyway. So maybe you shouldnt sweat so much about.
Another thing - if its for RTS, you'll watch it from top, which means, main detail has to go into the top part and textures at the base of the structure can be stretched and whatnot and nobody will notice a thing. How the model is unwrapped is very important, it might make or brake the texture side of things. (Not that I'd know, the stuff I have skinned has always been unwrapped for me by Craig Fortune who does terrific job, that's why he's chained in his basement and receives instructions by untraceable cell phone, while we keep his relatives hostage).

Other than that, its hard to tell. Texturing is weird thing, its basically just cheating:)

Torque Owner Kirby Webber
#2
01/03/2005 (11:24 am)
For starters, a large part of how the model appears after skinning is in the mapping process.

For starters, isolate areas that are of particular uinterest - meaning those that will contain more detail, and experiment with the mapping method used.

I generally tend to work from a planar or decal perspective but also tweak the vertices on the UV map by hand to get the effect I desire. (I 'stitch' certain parts back together and whatnot so that I always know where I'm at when painting the model.)

Also - you don't generally want to use the 'raw' texture map on the model directly, and larger textures maps eat your memory like a kid eating candy at Christmas.

The best answer I've found to this is to start big (I generally create my skins at about 768 x768) and then resize the finished product down to 512 x 512 or smaller if need be.

If you're using a decent graphics app (I use Paint Shop pro) you won't loose much detail and will get a very advantageous "softening" effect.

~ Hope this helps. =)