Approach for Texturing Complex Objects for Unreal Engine 4

[Anonymous]

Hello Everyone.

I am currently learning how to create objects for Unreal Engine 4.

While creating smaller assets was pretty easy and I got into it pretty quickly I now have absolutely no idea how to approach far more complex objects. In this case it's a space probe. (screenshot)

I followed a Tutorial that goes through all the steps, like low poly, high poly, rendering Normals, Ambient Occlusion etc. but in the Tutorial it's for an object that's a lot simpler.

I tried to follow all the steps anyway, created the lowpoly mesh and did the UV Unwrapping and here's the problem.

I tried my very best to keep all the smaller and bigger pieces "natural" in size, meaning that small piece on the mesh -> small UV piece. I then rendered a normal map (not really because there was anything useful to do with it, just to try it and get used to it) and of course it really doesnt look good. And that also translates to textures... quite hard to create a good looking texture for a UV shell that's only 3x3 pixels big. And that was on a 4096x4096 size...

Now I really don't know what to do. It needs to be one object for the Unreal Engine, but how do I get nice looking textures on that thing? And also things like a Normal map or AO.

What would be a good approach for that kind of situation? I feel like simply increasing the file dimensions even bigger than 4096x4096 would be a no-no.

[sean.heasley · Accepted solution]

Hi @alkuh15

I went ahead and made a quick video on how I handled a similar workflow for my own prop.

Please let me know if it helps!

If one or more of these posts helped answer your question, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

Kudos are greatly appreciated. Everyone likes a thumbs up!

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous

I'm just checking in again to see if you need more help with this. Did the video I provided yesterday work for you?

If so, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

[Anonymous]

YES! Thank you very much, that was very helpful and much needed input!

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous

No problem I'm happy to help !