Nice!

thanks, was it you whom I said I would explain all this game design stuff?

If i remember correctly, yes

You see, the wonderful part is game are an illusion when you play them. You've probably heard people talking about games that have a high "poly count" (tri count is the game industry correct term)

If you build an item in lets say, Maya: my 3D program of choice. You build an object that is 3d dimensional and requires "Polys" so it can 3 Dimensional, the more polys, the more detail you can sculpt in. Its very easy to compare to sculpting: the more clay, the bigger and more detailed the sculpture will appear. The problem is the game project I was working on gives us a limit on how many polys (Clay) we can use. Give me a couple million polys and I can sculpt everything down to the detail of the wood: but that would never work in engine and it why would be wasted on something as trivial as a crate?

Instead I was given a 100 polygon limit and this is where the magic comes in, What if I told you for the most part the sides are just 1 giant flat poly? that the entire thing is only 100 polys and not the 1 million poly detailed piece, yet it still looks like it has all the details of a one million poly model? that is thanks to first off, the diffuse map, that brown 512 by 512 square you see in the corner, I did a process known as "unwrapping" I'll explain that later if you like.

The diffuse is responsible for all the color and detail on a model, most people create their diffuse in the industry standard: photoshop, its essentially the pretty picture that gives the model the purty appearance to fool players.

Next to give it life you have what is known as a "normal map" that blue square you see in the column with the diffuse. This is the illusion you see, where the magic happens: a normal map is completely flat, but it appears to have depth. A normal map is used to fake detail and high poly modeling where there is none. Its a secret trick used by 100 percent of the industry to fake detail and save millions of polys, so the polys can go towards the more important stuff (Hero Object, character models, vehicles)

The reason why I bring up tri count though is because in the game industry its not "Poly count", its "tri count" because the game engine triangulates everything when you import it from the 3D program of choice into the game engine. So if you here anyone talking about what a badass game modeler they are and they sat "Poly count" that can only mean 2 things:

1.) They are a n00b
2.) They are lying and realy dont have any fucking clue what they are talking about.

But, that is the magic of game modeling, You know know the game industry's dirty little secret.

YAAY, SECRETS!

I think I understand what unwrapping is, but a little more detail would be appreciated.
As for the Hero object, is that the stuff the player’s character is using, holding, or interacting with?

If I understood correctly, for the crate, you’re basically making a physical wireframe box and slapping on a picture?

This is so much interesting information!
Thank you for explaining this to me!

"If I understood correctly, for the crate, you’re basically making a physical wireframe box and slapping on a picture?"

pretty much, only its a bit more complex than that though and it ties in with unwrapping...

Unwrapping is the most tedious part of any game modeler's life, whether it be for characters, weapons, vehicles: nobody I've ever talked to likes unwrapping anything. I even have a program that does most of the work for me (Roadkill). Unwrapping simply put is flattening your object's "skin" so it can be brought into Photoshop and edited. An example of an unwrapped character for example looks like this:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uL3lCQxtA.....s1600/uv12.jpg

Very few programs allow painting of the model itself, so you have to rely on things like Photoshop to create texture on the unwrapped page, We call the place where you put the "skin" of the object the UV space and the "skin" is called "UV" essentially your goal is to bring the UV page into Photoshop, color the UVs, and slap it on the 3D model. Think of unwrapping as the idea of peeling the skin off an orange, painting the orange skin, then slapping it back on the orange when you're done.

The "Hero Object" on the other hand can be one or multiple characters/buildings/or weapons that the game designers want to be the focus of the level/game. This will be the item, character, weapon, ect that the player is drawn to the most. My crate for example even in a next gen game wouldn't be a hero object. To even give something as trivial as a crate 100 Tri's would be generous unless it is absolutely essential to the plot. The extra Tri's would be saved for important characters, weapons, vehicles, ect. The Hero Object is essentially the plot device that gets the most detail.

"This is so much interesting information!
Thank you for explaining this to me!"

No Problem

I figured unwrapping was something like that, but I had no clue it was to that degree.

For the hero object, thank you for explaining that to me, I would not have imagined that much.

As interesting as this is, I’m going to stay a grease monkey. I mean no offense by this, it’s just that I understand machines more.
And thank you for explaining in such great detail! It’s a nice change from having people tell me the title and a one sentence explanation, I greatly appreciate it!

Also, good luck on your art skills!

thank you

Ya, it was your "Dropping out of college to go to a different college" journal were we talked about this.