This video will be the first in a

three-part series going over

a king and knight chestpiece.

Part one will go over the

low and high poly of the king

and the beginnings of the high poly for the knight.

The second part will finish up the knight high poly

and part three will cover the knight low poly.

To start out I'm making a low poly

for the king from an edge that will

be used to create the full silhouette with a spin.

Because of the workflow I'm using

I don't need to worry too much about rounding the edges.

I just need the extremes which will be smoothed after

applying a subdivision surface modifier later.

Adding a "spin" will create a lathe

type effect that will create the full

shape I'm going for.

You should adjust the number of steps or vertical edges

based on the size of the object

in engine or in relation to other objects.

These pieces are going to almost be

player size so it needs a few extra steps.

You can see I get ahead of myself

and duplicate, then delete.

Before duplicating the mesh I need to make it

watertight because it can be flipped over in engine.

Once that's done I can

then duplicate and make a version that

will get a sub surface modifier.

Starting on the high poly version now I

switch the mesh to wireframe so i can

see through to the reference and then

add the subdivision modifier to start

with the control loops.

A large chunk forward is working with control loops to

get harder edges where the sub surface

modifier is smoothing or averaging

I try to have a chunkier, smoother edge

than what the asset may have in real life.

This will give the normal map a larger

range of pixels to work with resulting

in better base with less artifacts and seams.

I often do a few passes on spreading

out the control loopd until I think

they're good for baking which will then

get tweaked further after a test bake.

You'll also notice not everything gets

a control loop.

There's a few different ways I manipulate the high poly

and meshes in general.

The initial creation

of the mesh and I'm focusing on the large, main shapes.

These are the secondary

details the bevels and medium shapes.

For sharper control on edges, I'll drag a

control loop towards the edge from both sides.

This will reduce the amount of

subsurface modifier has to average

effectively making the end sharper.

For larger rounder shapes you can bevel the

edge creating two or three edges.

Then scale or remove the center edge for

varying results until you're happy.

To make deep cuts, grab an edge or create

one with Ctrl+R wherever you want the cut to be.

Then bevel the edges to

make a total of at least three edges.

The center edge is what will get scaled or

moved in the direction you want the cut.

Support loops may be needed depending on

the result you're after.

With that high poly done we skipped

forward to the base of the knight.

For all the pieces, after the king I duplicated

the bases and modified accordingly.

The knight has a slightly different base so

needs edits before starting the actual horse.

I start the horse head with a simple cube

For a more accurate

placement i select an edge ring at the

top of the base and center the pivots

at that location.

I slice down the middle, delete half

and mirror but end up using just a plane.

Less verts to keep track of in a side orthographic view.

From here I’m starting out

with the big general shapes again.

I want to work with as few verts

as possible to stay loose.

From the plane, I select verts or edges and extrude,

remembering to create polys and not tris.

This helps immensely later on in the finer details.

It's also important to

note a difference in similar hotkeys

for this workflow.

When connecting verts across NO face

you can select the two and hit "F".

If you are connecting two verts across a face,

you must use "J" otherwise the face will

not split into two phases.

I'm filling out the silhouette a little

now by pulling edges and verts out along the Y.

This will help with shadows and

visualization while working.

Ultimately I'm not super concerned with

being accurate to the final thickness yet

but the general idea can help.

From here I can continue to pull out verts

generally following the curves and lines

of the reference.

Personally I like working with just the

verts initially and then going through

to add in the polys.

It feels faster to me and I can still see the reference

without switching the wire mode.

There's a lot of orbiting going on at

this point and moving forward which is a

direct result of adding in some depth or

thickness to the mesh.

I want to make sure it's looking right from all angles

especially since it can be picked up

and looked at in VR.

I’ve now added the sub surf modifier so I can see what

the geometry I have so far is doing.

I end up just turning the visibility off

and continue modifying the mesh.

Also important to note that I'm not working

from the reference as much as other pieces.

I have a concept I've doodled

that more closely represents what I want

which is then supplemented by an

additional reference on another screen.

At this point there's a lot of small

tweaks all over getting closer to a silhouette I want.

I want to get these base shaped figured out

and solid before I move on to the

smaller details and start adding in more loops.

These edits are coming from the

reference I have scene, the concept I made

which is on my desk and reference

of horse anatomy on another screen.

Another useful tip is working all over

the model and being as loose as possible,

much like you would in the early stages of a painting.

This helps me keep all the verts moving and useful.

Now working a lot on the thickness of

the mesh trying to be somewhat

respectful to the underlying musculature.

I don't want this horse to be super

realistic more of a smoother stylized

representation to go with the set and

keep dev time down.

Another quick session of orbiting around

the mesh to check all the angles of

silhouette before moving on to more

general tweaks.

I'm adding in a Matcap now so I can see

shadows and highlights a little easier.

This helps with seeing exactly what your

shapes are doing especially on a high poly.

As said earlier, I want to make sure

every vert and edge doing something.

I don't like a lot of flat surfaces on

an organic model, which is why I go through

the neck and start lifting verts.

Important to also note I'm shaping the

geometry to bend with the curve of neck.

This helps out later when adding

in control loops for the finer details while

maintaining a fairly clean mesh to get a low poly from.

And with that we conclude the first

video of the Low and High Poly Workflow.

Check out part 2 where I'll go over

creating the hair and ears.

Then I'll finish up the high poly with some edge loops

and small tweaks

Be sure to let us know what you thought of part one! of

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