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LOW-POLY ART

polycounter lvl 19
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hawken polycounter lvl 19
This is the sweet spot for your low-poly models. Post 'em if you've got 'em!

Low-poly hasn't really been a requirement in the games industry for a long while now. This thread is for low-poly art style appreciation, so please take note of these rough guidelines:
  • Keep models under 1,000 triangles.
  • Scenes are fine, if all models are low poly.
Some dedicated low-poly modelling tools now exist that make this art style a lot easier to produce; Crocotile3D & Blockbench

Here's a handy list of ways to make your art look right in mainstream 3D software: Low-Poly Art Style Guide

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  • ZeroCartin
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    ZeroCartin polycounter lvl 16
    @lean @Delko those are incredibly cool! :DDD
  • FeatureCreep
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    Whoa, dude, how big are they supposed to be on screen, exactly? 512 is still way overkill, you could probably get the same level of detail with a 128 easily, even less depending on how big they appear.

    haha yeah fair enough, there were supposed to be several close up shots of the props which were going to take up roughly 1/4 - 1/3rd of the screen space (ipad/ iphone) for close up's, figured I could always down rez quite easily if I felt the desire too, which clearly I didn't lol.

    Anyways, you're absolutely right with the style/look of the textures I could have easily gotten away with making many of them much smaller while achieving close to the same level of detail, however performance wasn't really a concern, plus vectors and smart obj's down rez quite nicely.

    But if you wanna see some of my best work, check out a game I developed for the iPhone and Android, it's called "Ball Crushers" it's an innovative, and original dodgeball game! I designed it and made all of the artwork including ui.

    By the way, thanks for your comment :)
  • Delko
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    Delko polycounter lvl 15
    consoley.png
    WIP for lundum dare jam. Not in game yet, im on the art end of things.
  • Mr_Drayton
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    Mr_Drayton polycounter lvl 14
    Delko wrote: »
    [cut]
    WIP for lundum dare jam. Not in game yet, im on the art end of things.
    Really nice. Ahw, Ludum Dare, I wish I had more time to partecipate... :(
  • 9skulls
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    9skulls polycounter lvl 13
    @lean Thanks for sharing!
  • diffa
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    My little xmas game is ready :)
    you can download it for free from http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blast-em-elves/id483212363?mt=8
    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGcR5-5CZvk"]Blast 'Em Elves - Gameplay trailer - YouTube[/ame]
  • Micah
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    Micah polygon
    diffa: that is sooo cool! now to get an Iphone...
    Delko: still banging out some awesome sauce.
  • katzeimsack
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    katzeimsack polycounter lvl 17
    Nice screen Delko, reminds me of the old arcade games :)!




    Nuns N' Guns Splash screen :)
    nuns_g_guns_logo_final.jpg
    n_n_g_zombie.jpg
  • Nick Carver
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    Nick Carver polycounter lvl 10
    Hey, that fat, little nun looks familiar!
  • katzeimsack
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    katzeimsack polycounter lvl 17
    Hehe, of course you timesplitters nun was a big inspiration :D
  • MikeF
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    MikeF polycounter lvl 19
    diffa, fantastic work, hopefully the perfect time to release plays in your favor, keep us updated!
  • ToothyMang
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    Moesly wrote: »
    @lean: really cool N1nj4! Totally dig the retro NES style.

    Finished texturing and for now I'll leave this as it is. Maybe I get back to it next year and make some animations because I really enjoyed making this.
    @9skulls: Thx for posting you "Edge Splitters" Idea. :)

    I would recommend moving the bat's holster up near the front of the rear tire, like the Terminators in T2. It looks a little unnatural way back there as it is. Tried to find a good reference of it from T2, but this is the best I could find.

    t2%20shottie.PNG
  • Delko
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    Delko polycounter lvl 15
  • spbrunson
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    spbrunson polycounter lvl 11
    Hello, this is my first posting on polycount. Looking through this most excellent thread inspired me to create some low poly artwork. I hope you guys dig, please feel free to give me some crits on what I could do better.

    This is based on my own with a few extra wishful thinking red Mazdaspeed suspension parts and white lettered tires. I only see white letters on trucks and SUV's as far as street cars go, I'd like to see them back in style for sports cars.
    MS3_Demo.gif

    This the Golden Fox from the FZero game on SNES. I played the hell out of FZero as a kid and this was easily the hardest car to beat the game in. I always liked it's shape, though my dimensions and colors are a little changed, I tried to stay true to the original in game look.
    Golden_Fox_Demo.gif
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    My ludum dare 22 entry:

    www.eldpack.com/ld22

    Short, rushed, but finished!

    screenshot4_small.jpg

    screenshot3_small.jpg

    wip3.jpg

    FBQqx.jpg
  • daphz
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    daphz polycounter lvl 13
    I'm a sucker for dudes in spacesuits, eld that stuff is beautiful!
  • lean
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    lean polycounter lvl 5
    It looks great, delko. nice effect on the screens!

    eld, I like the environment pretty much. the purple-pinkish box looks specially cool.
  • TDub
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    TDub polycounter lvl 13
    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zVIY0ymLlI"]Hardwell_Park.mp4 - YouTube[/ame]

    Cross post from my work thread. UDK mobile level for 2013 - Infected Wars. Optimized for all A4 apple products.
  • Saigo
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    TDub wrote: »
    Hardwell_Park.mp4 - YouTube

    Cross post from my work thread. UDK mobile level for 2013 - Infected Wars. Optimized for all A4 apple products.

    Great video, reminded me of Fallout 3 a lot, mixed with a bit of Collapse and maybe some Freedom Fighters style mixed in.
  • MattFall
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    That looks amazing eld ! curious about the wall texture, could we see the texture sheet for it ? :) This thread is full of epic stuff, hopefully one day I'll manage to pull of this kind of low poly :D
  • Wells
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    Wells polycounter lvl 18
  • Mr_Drayton
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    Mr_Drayton polycounter lvl 14
    Spbrunson, I dig them both, expecially the Golden Fox, because F-Zero is probably my favourite racing game ever. :D

    Eld, amazing style! I'm trying to play the game, but can't get past the second door... The white aim dot won't go over the control panel to open the door, no matter how I move... :(

    Anyways, here's an actual screen from my iOS game, not 100% definitive (I'd like to change that ugly AlphaTest shader on the vegetation).

    secondscn_02.jpg

    Beach marbles racing, yeah!
    Devblog here!
  • Tigerfeet
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    Eld, that looks awesome. Been a fan of your minecraft texture pack for a long time, been using it as the base for adding my own things and pulling from other packs I like.

    Mr_Dayton, I love the foreground and the marble, but the background is a bit underwhelming. I think the rocks especially need some work. The game premise sounds really cute, but I think it would be a lot more interesting if you really pushed the beauty/picturesqueness of the background.

    Bunch of revisions on my villager. The dev didn't like the hood or the tunic and thought he was too fat (boo I thought he was super cute with his hood!) So I remade him and now the dev is much happier. Starting to lay down shading and wrestle with the face. I'm still not sure exactly how I want to handle the face (for one thing the features need to be farther apart and generally larger)
    RedVillagerProof2-Shade.jpg
  • Delko
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    Delko polycounter lvl 15
    Awesome Eld, got my vote.
  • Snader
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    Snader polycounter lvl 15
    ^ Yeah for the most part they are 1024x1024's and I agree it most certainly is overkill. However the smaller props like the weaponry are on 512x512s. Much of the texturing was done using vectors, and everything was converted into smart objects, so I don't think I'd be losing out on much detail if i needed to reduce the sizes of the images.

    http://kotaku.com/5869257/is-rubber-ducky-the-one-in-ibath

    seems lately there've been more art posts from here that make it onto Kotaku.
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    Thanks everyone!

    Here was a bit of a postmortem on the game: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2011/12/19/and-then-alone-at-epsilon-1-the-post-mortem/
    It should explain the goods and the bads :P
    Delko wrote: »
    Awesome Eld, got my vote.

    Means a ton! :), but what happened to the entry you were working on, was it for the jam? It really popped out when I noticed it in the compo blogs.
    MattFall wrote: »
    That looks amazing eld ! curious about the wall texture, could we see the texture sheet for it ? :) This thread is full of epic stuff, hopefully one day I'll manage to pull of this kind of low poly :D

    The whole game asset and project source is available as by compo rules here: http://www.eldpack.com/ld22/andthenalone_src.rar
    Create a new empty unity project and pop that into the assets folder and it should all work.

    Some stuff is very sloppy though, lots of unused uv-space and unfinished textures :)
  • Helba
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    Work in progress shoot of Equipment+Inventory UI

    Inventory_wip.jpg

    _________________


    indiedb.png youtube.png twitter.png
  • Delko
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    Delko polycounter lvl 15
    but what happened to the entry you were working on, was it for the jam? It really popped out when I noticed it in the compo blogs.
    We got something in, but its like 10% of what we wanted. I posted all the models I made on my blog, but they're all kind of crappy and rushed.
    crashedship.png
    We might try and finish it, so Ill probably go back and redo most of it.
  • MattQ86
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    MattQ86 polycounter lvl 15
    Eld, your game reminds me of Air Fortress for some reason. Might be the protagonist's design.

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8d2XL-3_sU"]Air Fortress (Nintendo NES) - YouTube[/ame]
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    Delko wrote: »
    We got something in, but its like 10% of what we wanted. I posted all the models I made on my blog, but they're all kind of crappy and rushed.
    crashedship.png
    We might try and finish it, so Ill probably go back and redo most of it.

    I liked it, but I know that feeling of doing this kind of a project, I was ready to give up on sunday morning, with only a piece of hallway and a main character done.
  • hobodactyl
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    hobodactyl polycounter lvl 18
    Great job, eld! I really love how it turned out, much more fleshed-out than my entry :) I'm planning on tweaking a bit more but here's the link to mine:
    http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-22/?action=preview&uid=2079

    I think it's great that you got some nice gameplay elements while keeping it straight-forward and quick to play through, I always love your Unity stuff.
  • hawken
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    hawken polycounter lvl 19
    eld wrote: »
    My ludum dare 22 entry:

    www.eldpack.com/ld22

    Short, rushed, but finished!

    Very nice little story. Those having trouble rotating the view; this doesn't work with wacom input for some reason.

    Out of interest, did you use any plugins from the marketplace to do the camera etc?
  • Gungriffon Geona
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    Gungriffon Geona polycounter lvl 18
    everybody's always doing crates. why not a crate that can fight back?
    ANens.png
    EDIT: rigged and posed for the sake of interest.
  • Mr_Drayton
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    Mr_Drayton polycounter lvl 14
    hawken wrote: »
    Very nice little story. Those having trouble rotating the view; this doesn't work with wacom input for some reason.
    I first tried the game on my Mac (with mouse), I tought the view wasn't supposed to rotate at all, so I only moved with QWEASD keys (and somehow Unity switches W with Z on Macs, don't know why).
    Then I tried the game on a PC, and it did work perfectly (with mouse). Weird...
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    I'm going to work on an extended fixed up version of the game, with more proper controls, polished up artwork, and most importantly, proper puzzles to go with more worked through mini-games.
    hawken wrote: »
    Very nice little story. Those having trouble rotating the view; this doesn't work with wacom input for some reason.

    Out of interest, did you use any plugins from the marketplace to do the camera etc?

    It's just two scripts I wrote, one that handles a pivot attached to the player which the camera is attached to, and another that handles the rigidbody of the player (and where I ended up squeezing most of the game into as well)

    The camera collision (which doesn't work too well) is a ray shot out reverse of the cameras direction to measure where it will stop, and just positions the camera there with some padding distance.
    hawken wrote: »
    Very nice little story. Those having trouble rotating the view; this doesn't work with wacom input for some reason.

    Out of interest, did you use any plugins from the marketplace to do the camera etc?

    Oh I didn't test that at all, it's possible the way I've set it up that it wont work.
    Doesn't using the wacom in some cases count as constant directional input when you're off centre?
    hobodactyl wrote: »
    Great job, eld! I really love how it turned out, much more fleshed-out than my entry :) I'm planning on tweaking a bit more but here's the link to mine:
    http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-22/?action=preview&uid=2079

    I think it's great that you got some nice gameplay elements while keeping it straight-forward and quick to play through, I always love your Unity stuff.

    Thanks!, I'm gonna try yours out and vote :P
  • felipefrango
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    felipefrango polycounter lvl 9
    eld, just played your game, it is awesome! I love the lighting you did, can ya give us some details on how you achieved it? Is it dynamic lights, lightmaps, or did you bake the lighting to vertex colors or something?
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    eld, just played your game, it is awesome! I love the lighting you did, can ya give us some details on how you achieved it? Is it dynamic lights, lightmaps, or did you bake the lighting to vertex colors or something?

    It's point lights in a fairly ambient-lit environment, with a ton of shading painted in the textures, and the player model being completely unlit, so no lightmaps, I would've used vertexpainting if I had some more time though.

    The pointlights themselves light up the environment per pixel though, as the polygons are quite huge.

    The player itself has a blob-shadow that adjusts height to land on the surface below it.
  • felipefrango
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    felipefrango polycounter lvl 9
    Cool! Shouldn't this many dynamic lights kill performance, though? Guess stuff like the simple geometry, non-overlapping light ranges and simple shaders (no normal maps or fancy stuff) make up for it?
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    Cool! Shouldn't this many dynamic lights kill performance, though? Guess stuff like the simple geometry, non-overlapping light ranges and simple shaders (no normal maps or fancy stuff) make up for it?

    If it runs with the deferred renderer it's pretty much non-existant, and you can have as many lights as you wish, even with all the fancy shaders in the world :)

    Otherwise when in regular rendering mode, unity is smart enough to figure out what lights to prioritize.
  • spbrunson
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    spbrunson polycounter lvl 11
    Mr_Drayton wrote: »
    Spbrunson, I dig them both, especially the Golden Fox, because F-Zero is probably my favorite racing game ever. :D

    Thanks man :) For me FZero is the best as far as fantasy racing goes.
  • Mr_Drayton
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    Mr_Drayton polycounter lvl 14
    spbrunson wrote: »
    Thanks man :) For me FZero is the best as far as fantasy racing goes.
    Awesome! Then you could be interested in this old thread I opened over a year ago: [3DS Max] Hint for modeling/texturing a futuristic racetrack?
  • felipefrango
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    felipefrango polycounter lvl 9
    eld wrote: »
    If it runs with the deferred renderer it's pretty much non-existant, and you can have as many lights as you wish, even with all the fancy shaders in the world :)

    Otherwise when in regular rendering mode, unity is smart enough to figure out what lights to prioritize.

    Nice, we've tested deferred lighting in our game and performance sucked, it was much better in forward mode, even with several dynamic overlapping lights. I've seen other people complain about the performance with Unity's deferred mode, so glad to see it working out for someone.
  • katzeimsack
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    katzeimsack polycounter lvl 17
  • 9skulls
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    9skulls polycounter lvl 13
    DUUUUDES, did you catch the news? It is now possible to deploy your own Unity projects to --- ADOBE FRIGGIN FLASH! Ohmygod Ohmygod Ohmygod Ohmygod Ohmygod, so many opportunities...

    @katzeimsack Loving it! Texture looks really good. How many tris is he?
  • katzeimsack
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    katzeimsack polycounter lvl 17
    More Nuns N' Guns
    n_n_g_zombie02.jpg

    Fat zombie is fat..
    9skulls wrote: »
    @katzeimsack Loving it! Texture looks really good. How many tris is he?

    ~ 1000 tris room for optimization if needed ;)
  • lean
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    lean polycounter lvl 5
    katzeimsack: it looks grat, I like your textures.

    9skulls: cool, hope cool games come up from that.

    ok. I felt like making colossi from shadow of the colossus in the same style I did wander. Just making this one got me kinda tired so, I don't know if I'll make others...
    so here it is, the first colossus from the game:
    b216d.gif
    I got to make some nice poses of wander on top of the creature, so maybe i'll try animating later.
  • Seyhk
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    Seyhk polycounter lvl 11
    lean, i'm your fan! very stylish your remake in 3 colours.

    i started to use gimp so i wanted to share my very first painted texture ..

    forumEstatua.pngforumEstatua.png
    I know it's very simple, but yea, it's cool at least for my eyes :):)
  • Seyhk
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    Seyhk polycounter lvl 11
    Fail.
    So here it is. (I think)
    a%3E
  • Seyhk
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    Seyhk polycounter lvl 11
    i was having trouble to post my image, so moderators you can delete my two post above.
    Here is the image.
    Estatua.png
  • barnesy
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    barnesy polycounter lvl 9
    Here is a Ork Choppa axe that I made yesterday. I set myself the task of creating the whole asset over the space of a day so that I could see where I am in terms of modelling speed. Hopefully I should be able to get more of these short studies out before committing to a big project, They are really fun :)

    choppacopy.jpg

    The texture holds up quite well when reduced down to 128 aswell.

    choppapresentationcopy.jpg

    [EDIT - The concept art was found on Warhammer Online]
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