Jason Salekin's Portfolio - Game Items
I wanted to create assets that could be used in a game. I wanted to keep the polycount of the objects low so they won't slow the game down.
I wanted the items to fit into a fantasy setting. Common items like swords and shields have a limit of 300 to 600 polygons. More epic or unique items have a limit of around 1000 polygons. Environmental items also have a limit of 300 to 600 polygons. Any helmets or armour pieces have a limit of 500 to 700 polygons. These are the upper limits and I aimed for the models to have half that number of polygons.
Each of the items were modeled by myself, though I used reference images to get the correct look. Each item had textures applied to them using the built in textures of 3ds Max as well as textures that I have made. Each texture is under 1mb in size though I aimed for the textures to be under 200kb.
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Crate
Crate: 6 polygons.
Total: 6 polygons.
Textures:
crateside.jpg: 209kb.
Crates and boxes are a staple of fantasy environments. The model is simply a cube with the same texture applied to each side. The complexity is all from the texture.
Battle Axe
Head: 214 polygons.
Handle: 26 polygons.
Total: 240 polygons.
Textures:
axehandle2.jpg: 20.3kb.
Metal texture from 3ds Max.
One of the difficulties of making this axe was to keep the axe head symmetrical. Instead of drawing a spline and extruding it, I started with a box and manipulated it to achieve the shape. Another difficulty involved rendering the image. The axe head uses a built in metal texture from 3ds Max which is very shiny. You can see some of the surfaces seem to disappear as they are reflecting the plane I used as the background.
Below is the texture I used for the handle. I manipulated how it was applied to the model to get the wood grain look.
Barrel
Barrel: 146 polygons.
Total: 146 polygons.
Textures:
barrel.jpg: 144kb.
barrellid.jpg: 155kb.
The barrel is another simple shape with the textures making the complexity. The barrel is simply a cylinder that has been deformed to get the correct shape. A bump map was used to get the appearance of the texture on the rings and lid.
The texture of the lid is the same as the barrel but without the metal bands.
Books
Each of the Books: 24 polygons.
Total: 96 polygons.
Textures:
greenbook.jpg: 32.7kb.
redbook2.jpg: 32.2kb.
Plain color texture from 3ds Max.
Marble texture from 3ds Max.
Each of the books are the same model with different textures applied to the covers. To create the appearance of the paper I used the marble texture from 3ds Max and stretched it to form the lines of paper.
I made two simple book covers for two of the books but kept the other two plain.
Brazier
Bowl: 236 polygons.
Each of the Legs: 58 polygons.
Total: 468 polygons.
Textures:
Metal texture from 3ds Max.
The brazier was made from a hemisphere that has been shelled. The difficulty in making the legs of the brazier was making the scroll at the bottom look good but not have too many polygons. After I got that looking good the rest of the leg was lofted to get the shape. The brazier only used a metal texture built into 3ds Max.
Back to TopEpic Sword
Sword: 240 polygons.
Inset gem: 12 polygons.
Handle: 20 polygons.
Total: 272 polygons.
Textures:
crystal-outlinered.jpg: 23.5kb.
Metal texture from 3ds Max.
Wood texture from 3ds Max.
I wanted to create a magic or epic weapon within a fantasy setting. Since it is an epic fantasy weapon it is not the most realistic. I tried to make this sword more realistic by removing the center of the blade to reduce the weight. The large pummel is also used to balance the sword.
I used the metal texture from 3ds Max for the blade and the wood texture for the handle. I have the lines on the crystal as otherwise you could not make out the edges.
Winged Helmet
Helm: 307 polygons.
Each Wing: 44 polygons.
Total: 395 polygons.
Textures:
helm-wing.jpg: 17.5kb.
Metal texture from 3ds Max.
While having wings on a helmet is nothing new, I drew inspiration for the winged helmet from classical greek helmets as well as from Thor's helmet from the Marvel comics. I found it difficult to keep the polygon count on this item below my set limits. This difficulty came from all the curves involved. You can see the clear seams between the wings and the helmet. I was unable to merge the two without the helmet protruding out of the wings. On many examples of winged helmets the wings are clearly added to an existing helmet so seeing the seams is not without precedent.
The hemet uses the metal texture from 3ds Max and the wing texture I made as a coat on top of the metal.
Shield
Shield: 82 polygons.
Handle: 32 polygons.
Total: 114 polygons.
Textures:
shield.jpg: 39.9kb.
shield-2bumpmap.jpg: 75.8kb.
Wood texture from 3ds Max.
I made the shield based off of the elven shields from Lord of the Rings. The shield is similar to a kite shield from history but with more curves and the design has elements from the art nouveau art style. The model started as a spline of one half of the shape which I mirrored to get the symmetry I wanted. The whole shape was then extruded and bent to get the final model. The back of the shield is plain with a wooden handle. The handle is horizontal which is one of the handle configurations a kite shield had.
The texture on the front of the shield is meant to represent a gold embossing and it has a bump map to raise the design from the surface.
Sword
Sword: 82 polygons.
Handle: 38 polygons.
Total: 120 polygons.
Textures:
Metal texture from 3ds Max.
Wood texture from 3ds Max.
Swords are another staple of fantasy games and this is an example of a simple sword. I only used the textures from 3ds Max. A problem I ran across when I was trying to render the image was the edges of the sword kept reflecting the background plane. To solve this the sword is actually far above the background.
Back to TopWood Axe
Axe head: 31 polygons.
Handel: 50 polygons.
Total: 81 polygons.
Textures:
axehead2.jpg: 37kb.
Wood texture from 3ds Max.
As opposed to the battle axe I wanted to make a simple wood axe.
The texture is only on the blade of the axe. The back of the axe head is a solid colour. The handle of the axe uses the wood texture from 3ds Max.
