Lower Poly Dinosaur Creation

I'm currently working on completion of a set of lower poly dinosaurs. Currently I have two models completed, the Tyrannosaurus and the Pteranodon. The Pteranodon mesh came in at 570 polygons. The Tyrannosaurus mesh is 1,800 polygons. They utilize 1024 x 1024 layered file textures. Each layer group is organized and appropriately named.

This is my current list of dinos:
1.) Tyrannosaurus Rex
2.) Pteranodon
3.) Brachiosaurus
4.) Velociraptor
5.) Stegosaurus
6.) Ankylosaurus

Of course each will have proper idle animations, walking, running, eating, and attacking.
Here are some preview images of the meshes and current textures.






Finished up the modeling and texturing part of the Brachiosaurus as well. 1,560 polygons, 1024x1024 diffuse texture. Moving on to modeling the Velociraptor shortly




And a very high resolution screen capture from the Unity viewport.



This cuddly little guy is now modeled. 1,900 polygons. UVs and texturing in Photoshop left to do for today.

 

Gotta call it a day at some point on some art assets. This one is done. Came in at 1,980 polygons and painted up a 1024x1024px texture in Photoshop.

 

Finished the modeling/sculpting portion of the Stegosaurus. Tech specs, he came in at 1,600 polygons so pretty well optimized. Next on to UVs and doing some nice texture painting for the creature.

 

Stegosaurus finished up last night. Came in at 1,600 polygons and uses a hand painted 1024 x 1024 texture.



One of the big parts of optimizing for platforms like mobile or web is making sure the asset is versatile in some lower end situations. One of the ways to tackle this is to make sure to paint nicely detailed textures that will hold up without any pixel lights. I paint all of my textures in flat shaded mode, i.e. no lighting whatsoever in the 3d app, just self illuminated. This way in a mobile game project you could use an unlit or vertex color shader (cheapest performance-wise) and the asset would still look really cool. So here is what an asset would look like using an unlit shader.

 

The rig and the bind are working inside of Unity as of today. The animations will need more polish, but it's a solid start.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izWykdCSZ4U

 

By the way guys, I fixed that Youtube link now. Sorry about the snafu

I do intend on doing a quick crowdfunding campaign for the entire set to be completed, animations and all. The entire set (of 6) would be $35, half of the set (3 dinos) would be $20, and a single dino choice would be $10 bucks.

I will be tailoring only one aspect to be Unity unique and that's by offering a Unity package file for easy import. Other than that aspect they will be delivered as standard model and texture files. For example delivered as FBX, OBJ and source Maya .MB formats. The OBJ and FBX formats should be usable in just about any engine out there.

I've seen that game before, looked badass. I myself played a lot of DinoWarz on the original NES. I am considering setting up a system in Unity, scripts and prefabs for a dinosaur fighting game much like Primal Rage. I saw this video doing my research and my mind was blown with the possibilities. I didn't care for the animation in this game, but the idea was stellar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB1vMyVnFNo

 

I've officially launched and am sending my babies out into the world! Check it out and see if it's something you could use. I'm taking feedback and critiques over the next 30 days while I work on this project. Anything that can be improved or polished or modified.

Low Poly Dinosaur Pack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xRouhdV_Qc

 

I did a timelapse recording of my modeling sessions for the Ankylosaurus. Model came out nice and clean. UVs are done, now on to the texturing aspect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH6f5maAJec

 

Ankylosaurus modeling/texturing is completed. I'm now officially entering the rigging and animation phase for the entire set of dinosaurs.