Here’s my first attempt at low poly modeling and texturing. I’ve chosen an object that had fairly simple geometry, so I decided to model a rubbish skip as it’s very box-like in shape and had some interesting texture on it.

In the modeling stage, I’ve tried to keep the poly count as low as possible but still retaining the basic shape. I’ve applied the unwrap UVW modifier to the object which took awhile to do and then exported the UVW template to photoshop ready to be textured.

Beforing texturing, I’ve rendered an Ambient Occlusion map using Mental Ray renderer which helps bring out the shadows and gives depth to the map. This was applied as a layer in Photoshop which made it easier to texture as I could identify which area where sticking out and which were hidden in.

All of the texture where done from scratch apart from the rust which was taken from a stock photo. I’ve emphasised the rust by duplicating the layer and added a motion blur underneath to give that drippy effect. I’ve greyscaled the diffuse map to create the specular map and altered the levels. The normal map was done using the Photoshop plug-in to add the bump effect.

A few areas that I could improve on are the edges on the skip which could of been chamfered to give it a smoother finish, but as this was also my first time at unwrapping UVW I didn’t want to complicate things. Another area would be to add the extra poly to the inside bolts to make it stick out abit more.

Overall I’m pleased with the result and I’ve learnt quite a few new techniques along the way.

Tags: 3D, Low Poly