Continuing my practice, I’ve started going through the previous Worldskills briefs, starting with the passive brief from 2018. The task was to create a skateboard model with PBR materials with these limitations:
- 8,000 tri count limit
- Single UV tile at 4096×4096
- 6 hours (self-imposed, the passive briefs usually don’t have strict time constraints)
- No internet use (aside from selecting a few references before starting)
Modelled using Maya and textured in Substance Painter
Final model (screenshots from the Sketchfab viewport):
Mesh + UVs:
Some takeaways from this task:
- I mirrored the the wheels/wheel mechanism to the other side of the board, this gave me mirrored UVs which was effective at saving UV space and avoided the previous problems I’ve had with AO bakes.
- I feel the materials are accurately represented, there’s a lot of variation in roughness values, the shiny/scratched up wheels, dirt on various areas of the model, scratches and scuff on the surface of the board, etc.
- I tested out a new approach to UV mapping, particularly in the straightening of UVs, which I learned previously from this video
- Trying to keep to the poly limit while still having a relatively smooth/detailed model was difficult with this theme, I really focused on getting the skateboard wheels accurate as well as the metal part that connects everything, however this came at a cost to the polycount of the actual board. I tried reducing the polys on the wheels/metal part but I felt it lost too much information. In the end I settled for keeping the wheels, etc. more high poly than the board.
- I’ve been focusing on the technical parts of 3D modelling in this practice task as opposed to the creative/imaginative aspect, so the skateboard textures/design is as unique as I would like. I’ve been experiencing a bit of creative block as well.
- I still think the UV layout could be more efficient…
Feedback from my previous college lecturer:
- Prioritise the largest and most noticeable aspects of the model in the polycount budget – Here there are some higher poly small assets around the trucks, while the curvature of each end of the board has a jagged silhouette as a result of too few edge loops.
- Look at the bolts through the grip tape on top of the board. The hex pattern of the grip tape is showing over the bolts. Try to avoid normal details bleeding through the layers by overriding the normal with the bolt layer, or by masking off the grip tape material in these bolt areas.
- There’s one small seam in the normals in the wood at each end of the board.
Changes after feedback:
