Read on Twitter
Ok, finally got the stuff together to write this up!
Here's my high-speed low-effort low-poly model/UV method in Blender, useful for bashing out placeholder models or objects for game jams, which we used during #7DFPS for this project: https://liamsauve.itch.io/the-dead-prince-and-the-pacifican-express
Thread:
Here's my high-speed low-effort low-poly model/UV method in Blender, useful for bashing out placeholder models or objects for game jams, which we used during #7DFPS for this project: https://liamsauve.itch.io/the-dead-prince-and-the-pacifican-express
Thread:
0: Grab a public domain image, put it into a square texture. Open Blender, and Add the image as a Reference. Select and delete (Right-click, X) all of the back vertices of the cube. Switch to Front Ortho (Num1) and move/snap (G, Ctrl) the vertices to the edge of the ref image.
1: Select one of the remaining vertices, and 'trace' the ref image by extruding vertices (E) sequentially. Add more vertices to trace internal details and lines as needed.
Then select 3 or 4 vertices at a time (Shift+Right-click) and Fill (F) the entire shape with tris/quads.
Then select 3 or 4 vertices at a time (Shift+Right-click) and Fill (F) the entire shape with tris/quads.
2: Select all vertices (A), rotate to Right Ortho (Numpad 3), and move so the faces are a couple grid lines left of the Z axis. Switch to Object Mode and add a Mirror modifier. Switch back to Edit mode, select the outer ring, and extrude towards the axis to get a solid model.
3: Switching between Front and Right Ortho, select some vertices and adjust them to refine the shape. For the grip, I selected the outer ring and scaled/moved (S, G) it inward to create the curved shape. For the cylinder, I deleted the existing faces and extruded new faces.
4: Now the UV: switch to UV Editing mode, rotate to Front Ortho, and in the model view, Select All and select [UV > Project From View]. In the UV view, select Open at the top and import the same reference texture. Select All and scale and move the UV layout to match the image.
5: In the upper right of the model view, change to 'Look Dev' to see texture. In the right-side inspector, select the Cube's Material (checkered sphere icon), find 'Base Color' in the properties, click the white circle on the right. Select 'Image Texture' and choose your image.
6: Anything not mostly facing the Front view will look stretched, but you can fix it quickly. To fix the cylinder, I selected only the cylinder faces in the model view, which let me select them in the UV view, and I moved those over to line up nicely with the texture's cylinder.
7: For the stretched faces at the edges, I moved them to a textured area of the reference image and unfolded them so the texture would be visible. Some areas, like the hammer, I used the barrel texture to get some shading. This gif only includes the first half of the whole model.
And that's it! Good enough for a game jam, and only took a bit more tidying to look kinda great. If you can snap vertices around in Blender, you can do this.
Until I can get a full tutorial up, here's an HD timelapse at a much easier-to-follow speed:
Until I can get a full tutorial up, here's an HD timelapse at a much easier-to-follow speed:
