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Anyone else love good, low poly art?

Log4Girlz

Member
Man, I love good, low poly art. More powerful PC's and consoles make simple art styles really pop (great lighting models and ultra sharp IQ makes a world of difference from the PSX days...where everything was ugly)

Anyone else wish there were more adventure games with low poly art? I want to make a huge, open world Skyrim-esque action RPG with these fucking graphics:

QIu8aLb.jpg



6qoxEfI.jpg


E6xdMBW.jpg


a6LGeyJ.jpg


Vzv81Q0.jpg


DrbaNis.jpg


http://www.behance.net/turnislefthome

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Low-Poly-Animal-Kingdom/7494147

Who's with me?
 

Vilam

Maxis Redwood
When I think beautifully stylistic low poly I think Interstate 76. I believe it was the first game to use in-game characters for its cinematics.

interstate-76_intro_3.jpg
 

Brashnir

Member
When I think beautifully stylistic low poly I think Interstate 76. I believe it was the first game to use in-game characters for its cinematics.

interstate-76_intro_3.jpg

Everytime I see a shot from Interstate '76, it makes me wish there was a sequel.

And then I remember that there was a sequel.

And then I sadly reflect and realize that it's best to not wish for another one.
 

Paz

Member
Some of that isn't really low poly, but more emulating that style.

I dig it though, the solid feeling it gives is really unique, like marble sculptures.
 

Vilam

Maxis Redwood
Everytime I see a shot from Interstate '76, it makes me wish there was a sequel.

And then I remember that there was a sequel.

And then I sadly reflect and realize that it's best to not wish for another one.

Yeah :(

Interstate 82's worst offense was changing the damage model from being locational based to a generic health bar. I'm confident they were forced to go in that direction to try and appeal to an audience beyond hardcore simulator fans... sigh; it's a shame. That said, I76 was still a perfect standalone experience that didn't leave any loose ends.
 

Log4Girlz

Member
Some of that isn't really low poly, but more emulating that style.

I dig it though, the solid feeling it gives is really unique, like marble sculptures.

Low poly, angular, polygonal, flat, blocky...most people understand the low poly description :p
 

JordanN

Banned
How do I make this art? What programs should I use. Someone edumacate me.
3DS Max, Wings3D, Maya, Silo. There's a bigger list of 3D programs that show which ones are free or you have to pay for (3DS Max and Maya are used in the game industry and film so I recommend those but they cost money unless you're a student or want the 30 day trial).

Follow tutorials (like on Youtube, Gnomon Workshop, Digitaltutors or attend college) to become a 3D modeler.

Polycount wiki also has good resources.
 

Skinpop

Member
How do I make this art? What programs should I use. Someone edumacate me.

these(the landscapes you posted) looks like they've had some mesh optimization modifier(kinda like a filter in PS) applied to them.
Basically you'd model focusing on getting the shapes right using whatever tool you are comfortable with/does it quickly, resolution doesn't matter you could even do it in zbrush. Then you'd apply an optimization modifier (or use meshlab) to get that stylized facetization.

Modelling low poly like this by hand can be quite time consuming, so the above method is what I would use, also as a bonus it ensures consistency(since you can define optimization algorithm, density and so on).

As with any kind of art that is abstract or minimalist in nature it's usually harder to make it look good than regular "art" since poor composition, bad choice of colors or lack of theme/atmosphere is much more apparent. This kind of stuff is really good practice for learning to see the "whole picture" though.

Any 3d-package should be able to reproduce the above images. Blender as mentioned above is free so you could start there. Be warned that it will take months before you're even able to make stuff that doesn't look like complete shit.

As for character models. It just takes a lot of practice, even though I've been doing 3d for more than 15 years I still find good looking low poly models to be some of the most difficult to model, especially if you want to animate them.
 
Everytime I see a shot from Interstate '76, it makes me wish there was a sequel.

And then I remember that there was a sequel.

And then I sadly reflect and realize that it's best to not wish for another one.

Haha, so true. I would have preferred it, if they went back to the 50's or 60's.
 

Blizzard

Banned
The art style of The Witness or No Man's Sky makes me think of this sort of thing -- simple art but polished presentation. I do think the low-poly thing can occasionally be cool.

I love really clean graphics, but unfortunately I feel like very few games and graphics cards provide easy-to-use and easy-to-screenshot perfect anti-aliasing solutions. It'd be nice to have very high-quality MSAA and/or supersampling options for games with simple art styles, without having to mess with driver/override utilities and manually resize screenshots.

It'd be nice to not have FXAA and have "cleaner" anti-aliasing, but it feels like to me that the world is moving away from that direction.
 

vareon

Member
Yep, there's certain charm in a simple but effective low-poly models that I love, and this isn't a nostalgia thingy. Mostly I respect how modelers/animators convey emotions comparable to high poly efforts.

It's not an easy choice, though. You don't go low poly just because you can't create high poly models.
 

Frosted

Member
Amazing stuff. I would love a tower defense game with this type of graphics. Like pixel junk monsters.
 
I love low poly. My favorite thing is seeing PSX graphics but cleaner and crisp. A good example is the Mega Man Legends graphics that which I like calling "Crispy"
 

Vilam

Maxis Redwood
I'd love to some indie devs aim for a PS1 or N64 feeling sometime, as opposed to the more common SNES/Genesis style.

When indie games start moving on to that style I'll likely start picking up more indie games. I feel like I'm definitely in the minority that still appreciates that era.
 

Gun Animal

Member
So glad you made this thread OP. I love low-poly art and especially when the artist tries to describe objects with as few polygons as possible. Can't wait for the 5th Gen Retro Indie game trend to start already.
 

Log4Girlz

Member
I love low poly. My favorite thing is seeing PSX graphics but cleaner and crisp. A good example is the Mega Man Legends graphics that which I like calling "Crispy"

Yeah what I like is taking graphics like those and making them super crisp, clean and clear. There is something so appealing.

I also love Pixel art, hate the 2D Flash look everything has. Its like, my brain enjoys trying to figure out what i'm looking at.
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
Honestly, I've always had a thing for mid-90's early 3D game graphics from before developers discovered shaders. Particularly the graphic style of Star Fox 1 and Virtua Fighter 1.
 

Gun Animal

Member

GuyKazama

Member
Low polygon art w/o textures is great. I grew up on TIE Fighter and X-Wing... You'd also love the 32x. Star Wars, Shadow Squadron, Virtua Racing, Virtua Fighter...
 
I do like seeing low poly models with awesome hand painted textures. That's a big reason why I like the graphics in WoW and Torchlight and some DS games. I don't particularly care about that high poly with flat colors and hard edges look, though. They're 2 very different things too. Those look more like they're trying to emulate that Saturn Virtua Fighter look.
 

Log4Girlz

Member
I do like seeing low poly models with awesome hand painted textures. That's a big reason why I like the graphics in WoW and Torchlight and some DS games. I don't particularly care about that high poly with flat colors and hard edges look, though. They're 2 very different things too. Those look more like they're trying to emulate that Saturn Virtua Fighter look.

I like all that shit lol.
 

Gun Animal

Member
would something like windwaker count?

I would say Wind Waker's entire art style was built around making polygons unnoticeable despite hardware limitations. I'd think that any art style that takes it's own polygon budget into consideration (or sets arbitrary polygon budgets as a stylistic choice) should be considered low-poly art, so yes, I think it does count.

edit: also, the definition of "low-poly art" will change with the times. I don't think most people consider 6th gen graphics to be low-polygon right now, but by the end of this console generation most will.
 

GorillaJu

Member
I feel like anyone who likes this art would adore Tearaway. It's all designed to look like paper craft and thus the models have this N64-esque quality, but obviously at a much higher resolution.
 
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