10: Optimizing & UVing

Optimization  

Here, i reduced the low polygon props even more, creating triangles where possible to reduce the number of vertices.

In the image, on the left you can see a more optimized version of the generator and on the right a higher detailed with the floatters.

In the case of the wood plank, once i had a low and a high poly version in Zbrush, i imported the lower version into Maya.

Here i reduced the polycount a little more, still making sure it held the silhouette and i didnt get any bad artefacts and edges. I could have optimized it more, reducing the center edges and leaving the ones that held the rounded areas.

Uving was very straight forwards. 

I placed the seams in areas where they wouldnt be as visible and hard areas like edges.

I also made sure some of the uv islands were as straight as possible to make it easy when texturing.

Something important that i always try to remember to do is, to unfold all islands and when i lay them out, to make sure they're not too close to each other. Otherwise, when i start texturing, there would be textures overlapping.