Creating Weapons for AAA Games. Model Optimization and Texturing

What the talk is about

Evgeny Petrov talks about making weapons for AAA games from the viewpoint of an artist new to studio projects, focusing on the low-poly stage and texturing. First, polygon budgets for first-person weapons are now much larger, so small details and cylindrical forms are worth modeling in geometry rather than only baking. Second, he covers shading, balancing extra geometry against hard edges, calculating texel density, aligning UV shells to the pixel grid, reusing mirrored parts, keeping enough padding, and triangulating before baking. Third, in texturing he advises avoiding gradients in the normal map, adding edge wear, dirt in recesses, variation in every channel, and adding unique markings only on top of a solid base. He also stresses gathering many references and learning to read them properly. Useful for beginners in 3D art preparing to work in a studio.