3D artist - Mirek

[Mirek]

Position:

3D artist

Do you understand that Wildfire Games is a non-commercial project, work for 0 A.D. is volunteer, and work is done for free?

Yes

Do you agree to distribute all your work for Wildfire Games under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license?

Yes

Name:

Mirek Rysan

Email:

name . surname (as is written above) hosted by google mail

MSN Messenger:

For now jabber only. But if needed, I can create a new account. PM pls...

Location:

Czech Republic, GMT +1

Availability:

I think I can guarantee 5 hours/week all the time. If everything goes well (work, family..) 10+ hours should be no problem.

Age:

27

Occupation:

technical support assistant

Skills and Experience:

Blender 3D (modeling, unwraping, basics of texturing). The problem is that I have never been working in dev team and I am not sure if I unwrap models in a user-friendly way for texture artists. On the other hand, if you can send me one or two finished models as dummies, I think that I can crawl through and become accustomed to your standards.

Oh and I must warn you - my English is not very good (I was not paying attention in school O:) ). But in case of emergency, the gestures are one of the oldest methods of communication .)

Motivation:

I am not a 'pro'. I just like modelling in Blender and would like to give a hand (I´ve been using an open source OS and various applications for a while and want repay ). Unfortunately, I am not a good programmer. I know how to program smaller apps in C#, slightly in bash and sometimes I'll have a cup of Java ME + I am currently trying to learn Haxe these days. With Blender I can probably be more useful. Oh and one more rather selfish motive - collaborating with pros like you is a great opportunity to grow and learn some new skills

Personality:

I'm pretty outspoken, friendly, sometimes a bit pedantic. And I hope teachable.

Short Essay:

I never heard about 0 a.d. until I was looking for some fine linux games for my little article on our Ubuntu wiki. The game and its spirit impressed me so much that I would like to give a little help too. I have also some experience with LH (living history), old-style archery (as is described in Toxophilus for example) and making of old-style longbows & arrows (I'm not an experienced bowyer though). Oh and my friend is an elder (about 30 year old ) of a local Stone Age settlement

Interests and Hobbies:

From IT sphere: I am trying to contribute to our ubuntu loco team, help on our local wiki, sometimes write some more or less useful posts on my blog about Ubuntu (aimed mainly for new users). Oh and when I miss some features I program small utilities (app for logging cpu, memory usage; app which prevents Win from locking the screen etc.).

Staff:

nope

Community:

From IT sphere: our ubuntu loco

Favorite Game:

Now I don't have too much time for playing games and I usually prefer to do something more "creative". But when I remember my high school gaming times? Rome: Total War and Space Empires IV forever

Work Examples:

[Enrique]

Hello Mirek! welcome to the forums.

Thanks for your application, don't worry for your english,

Blender is the main application used by Art dept members, so we can help you out if needed.

What would be your primary interest modelling? Nature/organic, hardsurface/buildings?

We have currently moved our Art department forum to public and there you can see an approximate roadmap our Art Dept Leader made: http://www.wildfireg...showtopic=16220.

There are several things already done and it has to be updated but you can get an idea.

As you can see, you have a ton of gaia/flora assets to choose as well as some buildings for our last civilization included currently in developement: Mauryans.

I recommend you to pick a little asset/building to get to the working pipeline and once you feel comfortable, jump to a more complex one .

If you want to take a look to some 3D assets currently in-game, you can open them in blender once you have downloaded the game, or downloading them from our SVN repo:

http://svn.wildfireg...hes/structural/

In blender you open them at "file/import/Collada" (.dae)

-Depending on the 3D asset imported, you'll have to apply its corresponding texture. Textures folder here

(i.e. Roman structures will use rome_struct.png or rome_struct_2.png and Persian structures will use pers_struct.dds)

You can ask here as many questions as you want as well as WIP images of your progress for the team to show/ask/review/suggest/critique

EDIT: *Note: .DDS images on last blender version (2.64) are flipped on the Y direction. This means that you'll have to invert the Y texture coordinate setting to -1 in order to show them correctly on the model. (PNG textures works as usual)

[Mirek]

No - I thank you

Well I'll take a look at some structures in the repo for the first time. May I ask you for a little help? How can I import textures from .dds files you use properly? I've never worked with them :[ and Google did not help... so I can not even search myself really bad day today.

[Enrique]

No - I thank you

Well I'll take a look at some structures in the repo for the first time. May I ask you for a little help? How can I import textures from .dds files you use properly? I've never worked with them :[ and Google did not help... so I can not even search myself really bad day today.

I guess you open them in GIMP or Photoshop and save them as PNG, this way you do not need to invert the Y axis on the mapping coordinates. But blender can handle .DDS textures anyway, the only thing in the last version is the Y axis inverted thing

If you are referring to get them working in blender, You have to create a new material, go to textures tab, add a new image type texture, select the texture image, and use UV as mapping method.

[Mirek]

...I am sorry, never mind. Problem is desribed here - Exporting Collada models to use in 0 A.D. I read it three times and still was not able to remember fail.

What would be your primary interest modelling? Nature/organic, hardsurface/buildings?

As you can see, you have a ton of gaia/flora assets to choose as well as some buildings for our last civilization included currently in developement: Mauryans.

You're the boss I think that animals are not good for my first steps. I am inspecting the trees, rocks and other gaia stuff. For now I can bether imagine buildings, but I understand that they have higher prio so it problably is not a good idea for new guys.

So the choice is yours...

Edited October 20, 2012 by Mirek

[Zaggy1024]

You're the boss I think that animals are not good for my first steps. I am inspecting the trees, rocks and other gaia stuff. For now I can bether imagine buildings, but I understand that they have higher prio so it problably is not a good idea for new guys.

If you don't do it right, we can always ask you to change the things you did wrong (which is what usually happens in applications), so don't worry about that.

[Ludo38]

Hello Mirek, and welcome !

Your english is rather good, seriously no worry here.

Have a good time making your first steps in the work on 0AD. There are here many good advisers!

[quantumstate]

You're the boss I think that animals are not good for my first steps. I am inspecting the trees, rocks and other gaia stuff. For now I can bether imagine buildings, but I understand that they have higher prio so it problably is not a good idea for new guys.

More little stones would be awesome, I was trying to use some to decorate a quarry and the selection was small. Also more trees would be nice for varied forests.

Welcome, and I look forward to seeing your work .

[Enrique]

I think that animals are not good for my first steps. I am inspecting the trees, rocks and other gaia stuff. For now I can bether imagine buildings, but I understand that they have higher prio so it problably is not a good idea for new guys.

So the choice is yours...

You can do whatever you want/feel comfortable/want to gain experience with.

There are prior lists, but it's better that you enjoy modelling the asset rather than being tasked to do something.

My suggestion is starting with something that can be finished faster or requires less time to get used to the workflow (because probably we'll ask you to change something or you'll find problems/have questions)

Your choice

[Mirek]

@Zaggy1024 & Ludo38: Thank you. Hope I won't disappoint you..

@quantumstate & Enrique: I start playing with some stones before I read your posts so be it

First render...

1. (14 vertices) tiny angular one

2. (29 vertices) small - still quite angular - flat stone; on sides of smaller stone you can propably see, that sides are UV mapped to follow stone texture

3. (33 vertices) small stone rounded by desert winds.

Angular to much? Do not want to waste vertices so I keep it too low maybe. Sure I can add more details. There is (green colored) iberian house and stone_granite_la_a and stone_granite_me_a so you can bether compare if is the scale right (stones are quite small as requested above). Oh and it is allowed to use any textures from gaia? Or there is some order I should follow?

btw what's the difference between rock_, stone_, quarry_ and wrld_rock?

And question - should I use "triangles" when connections vertices to each other or squares are fine? And about shading, it does not matter in final export if I use smooth/flat in editor, becose final shading is Pyrogenesys work, true?

Second render inspired by http://i.istockimg.c...k-at-sunset.jpg from road map. ..

1. (130 vertices) - sure needs some improvement to look more relistic.

2. (114 vertices) - solid rock, somewhere round, somewhere sharp

3. (116 vertices) - it looks like an alien maybe

original - 650 vertices, geo_rock_set_01_temperate_stonemine

[Enrique]

First render...

1. (14 vertices) tiny angular one

2. (29 vertices) small - still quite angular - flat stone; on sides of smaller stone you can propably see, that sides are UV mapped to follow stone texture

3. (33 vertices) small stone rounded by desert winds.

Angular to much? Do not want to waste vertices so I keep it too low maybe. Sure I can add more details. There is (green colored) iberian house and stone_granite_la_a and stone_granite_me_a so you can bether compare if is the scale right (stones are quite small as requested above). Oh and it is allowed to use any textures from gaia? Or there is some order I should follow?

Hey Mirek! that looks really nice!

About the vertices/polygons, those numbers are nice.

What you can do, is make two or three variations of the sizes you already made. Then use them randomly to make "small" "medium" and "big" groups of rocks to put them in-game instead of a single rock

You can use textures from gaia as you please, we can later apply other rock textures to fit the biome or have more color variety.

btw what's the difference between rock_, stone_, quarry_ and wrld_rock?

I think quarry_ textures are used for mines of stone where the player can gather resources, and it's better to use other texture than that to avoid confusion. Not 100% sure though.

And question - should I use "triangles" when connections vertices to each other or squares are fine? And about shading, it does not matter in final export if I use smooth/flat in editor, becose final shading is Pyrogenesys work, true?

-Yes you should use triangles. Pyrogenesis works with triangles, BUT, you can use quads in blender, because I think in the latest version the exporter automatically converts the quads in tris before exporting to DAE.

- Smooth/flat in blender does matter on Pyrogenesis. "Smooth groups" are supported, take advantage of that to make the rocks have some hard creases and such (i.e. using edge split modifier and play with the angle degree is a nice technique to quickly have organic look in rocks)

Second render inspired by http://i.istockimg.c...k-at-sunset.jpg from road map. ..

1. (130 vertices) - sure needs some improvement to look more relistic.

2. (114 vertices) - solid rock, somewhere round, somewhere sharp

3. (116 vertices) - it looks like an alien maybe

original - 650 vertices, geo_rock_set_01_temperate_stonemine

Those are also nice!, I think Gen.Kenobi made some of those rocks, but it is always nice to have more variations

For these "big rocks" or "big rocks group" You should try to extend them a little "underground". Below ground plane. This is because sometimes the assets are placed in uneven terrain, and the "ends" of the rock could be seen.

Very nice work so far Mirek! keep it up

[Mirek]

What you can do, is make two or three variations of the sizes you already made.

Ok, so if the scale is right (I hope it is), I'll create some friends for those lonely stones

You can use textures from gaia as you please, we can later apply other rock textures to fit the biome or have more color variety.

And it is bether when I try to texture them myself, or this can be done later and more important is to focus on having a lot of "marble" untextured stones

-Yes you should use triangles. Pyrogenesis works with triangles, BUT, you can use quads in blender, because I think in the latest version the exporter automatically converts the quads in tris before exporting to DAE.

When I export and import simple cube in Blender, it is still the same - no changes. I try to remember it and next time fill in triangles manually.

-Yes you should use triangles... ...is a nice technique to quickly have organic look in rocks)

Thank you for tips!

BTW: May I ask you for help with Blender? Just for my fun I try to create something similar to this pillar (pic1, pic2). Final render is this...

...poor fat-cat consisting from 230 vertices including the pillar. But as usual I duplicate some vertices over each other and it is not nice and clean now.

I'll be more carefill next time while using extrude and duplicate fuctions, but when this happens, is there any tricky-way to remove all duplicities? I have problems even find them manually.

[Enrique]

Ok, so if the scale is right (I hope it is), I'll create some friends for those lonely stones

And it is bether when I try to texture them myself, or this can be done later and more important is to focus on having a lot of "marble" untextured stones

If you imported an iberian house, you can have a nice scale reference if you didn't scale it after importing That's the method I use.

It's better to try UV unwrapping and setting up the UV islands inside the texture space. Unlike blender, Pyrogenesis does not tile the texture if the UV island is out of bounds of the texture space.

When I export and import simple cube in Blender, it is still the same - no changes. I try to remember it and next time fill in triangles manually.

In edit mode, face selection mode, select all with "A" and then CTRL+F -> triangulate faces I suggest to be the last thing you do before exporting.

BTW: May I ask you for help with Blender? Just for my fun I try to create something similar to this pillar (pic1, pic2). Final render is this...

...poor fat-cat consisting from 230 vertices including the pillar. But as usual I duplicate some vertices over each other and it is not nice and clean now.

I'll be more carefill next time while using extrude and duplicate fuctions, but when this happens, is there any tricky-way to remove all duplicities? I have problems even find them manually.

Our team member Eggbird already made ultra detailed highpoly and lowpoly versions of "ashoka pilar", but it's nice to see your modelling skills in action

To quickly fix doubles: In edit mode, vertex selection mode, hit "W" and select "Remove doubles". This will remove all duplicated vertices and "tie" the mesh together. CTRL+N to recalculate normals after removing doubles is a nice habit

[Mirek]

Thank you very much for your advices. I'll go and try to turn them into a bunch of fine stones

Brb in few days - work is coming

PS: Eggbirds pilars are absolutely awesome. Is it possible to download the source for lowpoly version?

[Gen.Kenobi]

Hello Mirek!

Welcome! Nice to see that you're also working on some rocks!

If you wish some advice or to know how I did my rocks, I made a tutorial about it a while ago: https://vimeo.com/46526749

Keep them coming!

[Mirek]

Hi, finaly I am back. Some rocks for your judgement...

1. about 200 vertices&faces

2. about 250 vertices&faces

3. about 400 vertices&faces. Is it too "round" for a rock? Or you like how "desert winds" smooth the stone surface

...are they big enough? And is there enough of stones (for game usage heaps of stones like img 1& img 2 and some lonely ones like the last one seem best from my point of view)? What should I improve? If you like them, I can make some other versions and use UV texturing...

• I would like to add some vegetables growing from cracks... I can create plains, unwrap them and create UV maps. But I have to use transparent background properly - can you help me?
  

• I used "slab_desert_badlands.png" as the texture and let blender to generate it with cube projetion now. But for final objects I have to use UV maps, right?
  

• Oh and I have few question about number of faces. Is it more important for performance to check number of vertices or faces? Or both? And is good behavior to delete faces which are hidden behind other object or visible only from bottom view? And finally, how many faces should have object like my stones for good performance?
  

Gen. Kenobi: nice video, thanks! It was very helpfull for me watch profesional stonemason in work

[Ludo38]

I would like to add some vegetables growing from cracks...

I believe you mean "plants" ! "Vegetables" are what we grow in the kitchen garden

-I love the 1st set, very credible, feeling natural. Perfect work!

-The second has a very good shape but I find the texture can be improved. We see a texture connection on a side, and over all, I find that the texture makes too much parallel repetitions. Don't know if I'm clear. It just don't feel random/natural enough to me.

-And the third set : same remark as above about the too visible texturing, but more important, I'd say that this shape of rock formation is extremely rare in real life and IMO would look more natural if less vertical, not looking that much like a column or a tower. Also, the slabs on the side feel like left here by humans. I think it should be more messy.

But basically all that is very cool. Good work !

[zoot]

I believe you mean "plants" !

Or "vegetation"

But indeed, nice work.

Edited October 24, 2012 by zoot

[Mirek]

sry, "vegetation" of course. Making my dinner, I was not focused and really hungry

@Ludo: Textures were only simply generated. Final version should look more close to that:

-And the third set : same remark as above about the too visible texturing, but more important, I'd say that this shape of rock formation is extremely rare in real life and IMO would look more natural if less vertical, not looking that much like a column or a tower. Also, the slabs on the side feel like left here by humans. I think it should be more messy.

You're right, it should be more random. About that shape... I have to stop watching Westerns

[Ludo38]

Waow, that last rock picture you sent is just perfect! OK then for the texture issue, fine.

[Enrique]

Hi, finaly I am back. Some rocks for your judgement...

...are they big enough? And is there enough of stones (for game usage heaps of stones like img 1& img 2 and some lonely ones like the last one seem best from my point of view)? What should I improve? If you like them, I can make some other versions and use UV texturing...

• I would like to add some vegetables growing from cracks... I can create plains, unwrap them and create UV maps. But I have to use transparent background properly - can you help me?
  

• I used "slab_desert_badlands.png" as the texture and let blender to generate it with cube projetion now. But for final objects I have to use UV maps, right?
  

• Oh and I have few question about number of faces. Is it more important for performance to check number of vertices or faces? Or both? And is good behavior to delete faces which are hidden behind other object or visible only from bottom view? And finally, how many faces should have object like my stones for good performance
  

Hey Mirek! very nice work!

I like the 3 sets except the small rocks on the third set.

I think they're big enough, but I guess it's better to judge the scale of them with a house or building next to it.

The texturing method should be UV mapping.

-Yes, you can add vegetation, it'll give a nice detail touch. However, we'll not use the vegetation on the "desert" variation of the rocks.

To preview transparent objects in blender (GLSL shading and renders) you have to do the following:

- In material tab, check "Transparency" box, use "Z transparency" and set the alpha value to 0. (the object will no longer be visible on 3D viewport, GLSL shading and rendered)

- Unwrap the vegetation object and use a texture with transparency (there are plenty of them in "textures\skins\gaia" folder of the game.

- Finally, on the texture tab, in "influence" panel check the "alpha" box and leave the value at 1. And you'll have the transparent object showing correctly.

Some notes about transparency:

- I have to select the alpha objects to show the transparency correctly in blender, but it may be my config (it doesn't happen in-game)

- If you get weird results rendering the object, check the "premultiply" box in the "image" panel of the texture.

We usually count the triangles in the mesh rather than the vertices. Not-animated meshes are more cheap to render than animated ones.

The actual polycount in your rocks is great

[Gen.Kenobi]

Hey Mirek!

I'm far from professional but here are some remarks about your rocks (which do rock! )

Well, rocks are basically static meshes. The number of vertices depends on the number of details we want to add in and how big would they look ingame - although we seen to have some work in progress regarding LOD, which may help us to get some more HD models ingame.

Anyways, in big stonemines formations you can extrapolate - by that I mean, 600-700. But, don't go overdetailing.

I like the first one, but somehow I feel it could have more details - more vertices - specially in the minor rocks. Of course, as I said before it depends if you wish to make it be a big rock or a small formation.

Second ones looks good, but somehow I feel they don't fit the desert biome - I could be wrong, since I'm no geologist or biologist, but in desert areas you'll mostly get physic weathering and mechanic erosion by wind, what would make the rocks look more pointy. Take this statement for your third formation

That's it. You're in the nice direction!

Keep it up or you can try other stuff to model, since rocks are quite boring But it's also fun when you get the hang on it.

EDIT: Enrique replied faster again!

[Mirek]

Waow, that last rock picture you sent is just perfect! OK then for the texture issue, fine.

I am glad to hear that. Happy customer is our goal, sir

...

Thanks for the tips & feedback. I read them carefully and I hope I'll repay them in the future

I did not know how much polygons can I afford, so details suffered sometimes. I try to keep polygons count as low as I can. But on the other side not at the expense of details (I feel, that it was happening now).

About transparency - Very nice guide, I think it will be useful not only for me. Actually, this is important only for rendering, or transparency in game also depends on this setting?

UV mapping - one stupid question. When I texture detailed objects (before, or in this game houses for example), I unwrap every single face (or few faces together) and assign it to texture image by hand. But objects like rocks have single uniform surface and I have to avoid visible seams. Before I was using blender projection, but for this purpose it is useless. So I use simple seams like this...

...and unwrap and "cut" whole object at once. Seams are hidden in a bottom of rocks, but textures are streching, working with them is not comfortable. How do you do it?

_______________

About biome..

Those rocks were not intended to have any specific purpose (biome). Some rocks (like something similar to my secound piece) hopefully be quite universal, depending on used texture. But others do not, I undestand.

Let's try to keep it more objective. Which biome you need? I try to focus, google for soem reference images and make the meshes more real.

[Gen.Kenobi]

When I started with 3d, I was given this advice: Always use references

Doesn't matter if you're just making your very own cell-phone which is standing right in from of you. Always get more references. The more you have, the more your model tends to reflect the reality.

About the biomes, rocks need an overall update through the entire game. Since I started back with desert ones in this thread - which you're free to hijack - (also started a temperate set, but never really got around doing it, since I'm out of free time) you are free to take some of these reference I was given and do another desert. Of course, there are some priorities like for more cold environments (as far as I'm aware of, we really need to get some snowy rocks out ) "You must do what you feel it's right of course." - J/K.

Do what you feel like doing

About UV, well, some textures already are seamless and others needs to be transformed into, but just uses Blender's "Smart UV Pack" and edit it around as you see fit You don't even have to cut seams. Not for rocks, at least

[Enrique]

...

The transparency guide I wrote is just for displaying in blender a preview of how it will look ingame. (Also for Blender Game Engine and rendering in blender internal [Cycles needs a different setup with nodes])

Once you finished your models and they're ready to import them in-game, you'll see how we "tell" the engine which parts use transparency

UV unwrapping.

Yes, It's tricky. It's one of the fields I learned a lot working for 0 A.D. and being limited to use only one UV coordinate. I thought on making a tutorial (hopefully a video-tut) explaining some of my techniques to UV unwrap. But I usually spend my free time working on 3Dmodels/textures for the game

I'm not giving you a tutorial now (actualy yes, about UV overlapping ), but here are some nice tips (quoted for easier reading):

- Always before unwrapping: "CTRL+A => Apply Scale"

This is crucial. Is for "updating" the mesh scale and therefore, having UVs that correspond with the real scale of the mesh. (try adding a new cube, scale it to be very thin, and then unwrap, and you'll see that blender still thinks that the sides are a square, applying scale fix this)

- "Angle based / conformal" Unwrapping.

These are the two main methods for normal UV unwrapping. You can access them on the lower part of the panel that you open with "T" key on the left of the 3D viewport.

I use "Conformal" 95% of the times, it has cleaner results for hard-surface objects.

"Angled based" is sometimes better with organic objects such as rocks, animals, smooth-surfaces... (but conformal is also good)

- Removing hidden geometry before unwrapping

This depends on how you model. I normally unwrap the mesh before removing hidden triangles. But it usually help to get smaller and less stretched UVs

- Marking seams

This topìc is huge. Practice is best through trial and error, but each mesh is different and it varies a lot where they should be. I also learned from video tutorials like this one (it's not the best, but maybe you learn something) I also think that on the last blender versions there are some UV sculpting tools to relax the UVs and minimize stretching, but I haven't worked with them too much yet

-UV overlapping technique for texture tiling within the texture space.

I use this technique for tiling a texture within the texture space. It's hard to explain, but I'll try anyway.

1.- Mark seams and unwrap the mesh. look for an edge loop that is almost straight and around the middle of the UV island. (Alt+right click to select the whole edgeloop)

2.- Rotate the UV island until the edge you selected is almost vertical on the UV editor:

3.-Scale the selected vertices on the X axis until is totally or almost a straight line. Key "S" for scale, "X" for scale on the X axis, and number "0" if you want them totally straight. (may cause a tiny bit of distortion, but it's ok)

Once it's aligned, with them still selected, "Shift+S" => Cursor to selected. And the 2d cursor will snap to the vertical edge selected.

4.- Select the 2D cursor as the pivot point (left image). Select the right (or left) side of the UV island and hit "S" to scale, "X" to scale on X axis, and on the num pad hit "-" (minus) and number "1". This will make the right part of the UV island to overlap over the left "bending" on the straight line we accomplished.

This is the result:

Pros: You avoided a seam and there's more texture info (texels) per polygon (more detail)

Contras: Depending on the texture, UV overlapping (or UV mirroring) is more noticeable. If it's a complex mesh you may get noticeable stretching. Practice makes perfection.