How to Use 3ds Max to Make a Game Environmental Scene

Hi, this is Cassie from the best cloud render farm and fast cloud rendering services provider, Fox Renderfarm. This time, I will share with you an article about how to use 3ds Max to make a game environmental scene.

Observe and analyze the original painting and asset allocation

This is a case of the PBR process, specifically used 3ds Max to complete the low-poly model, ZBrush to complete the high-poly model sculpting, V-Ray rendering during the high-poly model, Substance Painter, Photoshop to complete the texture production, and finally using UE4 rendering.

In order to ensure that everyone can match the model proportions after the division of labour. In the early stage, the rough model was constructed based on the original painting and used as a reference for proportion. We divide the modeling work into three parts according to the overall situation, including house, props and environment construction.

Making of Mid-poly model

House: As the main body of the scene, the time-consuming experience is naturally the most. I divide the house into three parts: roof, wall and floor.

Props: The props of the scene include a three-faced Buddha, stone lamps, wood carvings in the house, etc. There are not too many types of props, but they basically require ZBrush carving and production.

Environment: The main part in charge is the stone steps at the door, the green plants at the door, the mountain behind the house, the spider webs in the house, etc. My requirement is to find the available materials according to my needs.

The production process of the mid-poly model is to continuously refine on the basis of the rough model, adding more details, and try to use the loop line as the main wiring in the wiring, mainly to facilitate the card line in the later high mold stage. When making a mid-poly model, you must not forget the relationship between a single part and the whole, and the ratio is constantly adjusted and optimized. Because I made the house model separately, I need to compare before I refine it, otherwise, it will be a big disaster for the proportion in the later stage.

The high-poly model production process is relatively smooth, and everyone is doing their own work step by step. Because the proportions are the most basic before, it is relatively easy to adjust the scene.

House sculpting

Because the whole house is made up of boxes, the mid-poly model is relatively simple. Its highlight is the high-poly model sculpting. To restore the original flavor of the ancient architecture, there are more places to carve. Because the style of the overall scene is rather dilapidated, my idea of sculpting is to try to ensure the hardness of the wooden structure and make it old with more surface details. Due to lack of experience, the sculpting was relatively slow at the beginning, and some patterns could not be restored. The method used for sculpting many details may not be correct. After many attempts, a lot of time was wasted; in the end, I found a way to use grayscale images, which saved a lot of time. First find a suitable grayscale image, which is conducive to mask generation in ZBrush.

Prop sculpting

I also need to hand in homework in the high-poly model stage! Because the scene models are all high-poly models during rendering, and in order to ensure the rendering effect, it was decided to copy and place the recurring models of flowers and plants. Use VRAY to render directly in 3ds Max. But I didn't expect it to be that simple. The two pictures were rendered on two computers for more than four hours.

Making of Low-poly Model

For those early stages, the topology production of a low-poly model is actually more like a test of operating specifications and file sorting, which is mainly obtained by using the previous mid-model addition and subtraction lines. The human headstone lamp and statue in the scene used Topogun. Low-poly model topology is simple but patient work. There are two ideas,

1. Simply use editing and adjustment tools, and patiently realize the silhouette and structure.
2. Use the automatic topology tool, and then manually adjust the wiring slightly. Low-mode production wiring requirements are more stringent, the wiring is as simple as possible, in line with the wiring principle, but without losing the structure.

There are not many difficulties encountered in the low-poly model topology stage. The difficulty lies in the development of UV and texture distribution. After the entire low-poly model is finished, it is time to show the UV. Before the UV is displayed, the smooth group needs to be distinguished, and then the UV is exploded according to the smooth group, and then find the place that needs to be disconnected again and cut it. A good seam problem, because if the seams are too obvious or too broken, there will be many flaws in the post-production of the texture. After all, you haven't collaborated on the production of scenes before, so they are relatively unfamiliar with the unification of checkerboards and the allocation of texture resources.

Finally, I used 1m³/256 pixels as the standard to make textures, and the house was divided into more than 30 textures. When I first divided the shader, I was divided into a circle; secondly, although there is an automatic placement to adjust the size of the checkerboard to just right, it is still necessary to check carefully. UV is a normal job; it is easy because it is moderately good. A minor error occurred, so that rework was needed to adjust the UV later.

The next step is to bake the normals and other textures. I need to match the high-poly and low-poly models in 3ds Max. The edge silhouettes must be carefully matched and overlapped. Then the high and low-poly models of the same part are named and matched, and then the normals are baked in SP. I use Substance Painter to name the baking method for baking. In order to get a better normal map, I will bake an average normal and a vertical normal, and then retain the inner part of the vertical normal and the edge part of the average normal in PS. Although I have been careful in the early stage, some of the baked normals will still have problems. Most of them are due to the wrapper problem, but some need to be manually changed. The modification needs to export the UV selection in 3ds Max, and then go to Select the area in PS to modify the normal of the problem.

For the distinction between different materials, I still use the method of making ID maps. For the part of the model of different materials, I use different colored shaders to distinguish

Materials

As a next-generation realistic style work, the material is actually good. However, some special experiences can be summed up in scene cooperation. For example, the material of some props can actually be packaged into a shader and used directly on another prop of the same material. In addition, in order to ensure the harmony and unity of the final results, communication among the team is extremely important, and you must not do it alone.

When making materials, our plan is to do the volume first and then the details. After all, after the volume comes out, adding details will make the effect easier. First of all, I first separate out a few materials and create a few large layer groups to make selections. One point worth noting here is the occlusion and dirt relationship between objects. When the material is almost the same, I will sharpen the top edge to make the details more obvious, that is, create a new layer and add a sharpening filter, and change the overlay method to pass through.

Rendering

First of all, the file organization must be done well, otherwise, it will be messy when rendering the textures and the work cannot be carried out. Qualified file organization can make the rendering work twice the result with half the effort, and it will be more convenient if you want to replace the textures later.

Fox Renderfarm hopes it will be of some help to you. It is well known that Fox Renderfarm is an excellent cloud rendering services provider in the CG world, so if you need to find a render farm for 3ds Max, why not try Fox Renderfarm, which is offering a free $25 trial for new users? Thanks for reading!