In this Creating Props for Video Games workshop, Nick emphasizing how successful game asset creation relies on a methodical, iterative approach where early validation and problem-solving prevent late-stage complications. By investing time in proper blockouts, quality high-poly modeling, and systematic baking workflows, Nick demonstrates how to avoid having to fix fundamental issues through manual texture painting or other workarounds.

Duration: 11m 36s

In this lesson, Nick provides essential knowledge of normal mapping and baking for games, and how modeling choices, such as scaling primitive tops inward, smoothing high-poly meshes, and creating overlapping geometry, directly impact the quality and readability. By combining properly baked normal maps with ambient occlusion maps, Nick shows how artists can create convincing illusions of complex surface detail on simple low-poly geometry.

Duration: 28m 26s

This lesson looks at the optimal workflow for baking normal maps on simple objects, which combines hard-edged low-poly models with averaged cage meshes and properly padded UV layouts. The cage allows the baker to search for high-poly detail as if edges were soft, while the actual low-poly retains hard edges for proper shading; this results in capturing the most accurate detail possible.

Duration: 42m 21s

In this lesson, Nick goes through the process of baking normal maps for cylindrical shapes, presenting unique challenges compared to box-shaped objects. By understanding the relationship between vertex placement, normal projection, and mesh density, Nick shows how artists can employ various strategies, from adding geometry and bevels to using the flat-to-bent workflow, to achieve clean, professional results.

Duration: 23m 26s

This lesson wraps up the fundamentals of normal map baking from the past lessons, looking at a wardrobe as an example for handling the skewing issue that occurs with surface details. To fix issues, Nick demonstrates Marmoset Toolbag's paint skew feature, which offers a particularly user-friendly solution for quickly correcting normal map artifacts without repeatedly re-baking or modifying geometry.

Duration: 20m 36s

In this lesson, Nick starts from scratch modeling a "pack mule"-like drone, progressing from concept to blockout to testing. He works in a loose way during the blockout phase, and constantly evaluates the work from different perspectives, like through silhouettes, lighting, and most importantly, in the actual game engine. By testing the asset in Unreal Engine with a playable character, Nick shows how he can verify that the design works at the intended scale.

Duration: 31m 49s

In this lesson, Nick shares his high-poly modeling workflow. By strategically modeling reusable components flat before bending them into place, utilizing floating geometry, and maintaining clean high-poly models that can be textured multiple ways, he creates a production-ready asset that balances quality with practical time management. The approach ensures maximum flexibility for creating asset variations without rebuilding geometry.

Duration: 35m 52s

In this lesson, Nick create a low-poly model and bakes the high-poly model down to it in Substance Painter, with thoughtful planning across multiple stages, including laying out UVs, proper naming conventions and bake settings. By following these processes, he demonstrates how artists can efficiently create game-ready assets that maintain high visual fidelity through normal map detail while keeping polygon counts manageable for real-time rendering.

Duration: 1h 6m 34s

In this lesson, Nick talks through his process for asset optimization techniques that balance polygon count with visual fidelity. Using the same method from the last lesson, converting high-poly models to low-poly versions and baking normal maps efficiently, he shows that artists can achieve high levels of detail suitable for real-time rendering on highly optimized models.

Duration: 41m 57s

In this lesson, Nick points out a side wall section of his drone model to work on, a unique piece as it's used multiple times around the circumference of the model, requiring pieces that can visually fit together and reuse textures. He works completing one section correctly before the final assembly, while continuing to prioritize clean topology and efficient UV usage.

Duration: 26m 28s

In this lesson, Nick picks another part of his drone model to work on, this time using Maya’s Quad Draw tool to efficiently retopologize his highpoly asset. Combined with strategic planning for edge flow, mirroring, and component matching, Nick creates clean and low-poly meshes that are significantly easier to UV unwrap and prepare for baking. He emphasizes staying zoomed out, working in sections, and maintaining awareness of how pieces connect when doing any retopology work.

Duration: 36m 12s

With the modeling done, this lesson focuses on proper UV preparation before texture baking, which requires careful attention to spacing, resolution consistency and UV shell orientation. While automated tools handle much of the heavy lifting, Nick highlights that identifying and fixing errors through iterative test baking is crucial for achieving clean results.

Duration: 44m 7s

In this final lesson, Nick finalizes his model after verifying that all baking steps are working correctly. He emphasizes the importance of UV consistency, proper channel packing, and cross-platform compatibility to ensure the asset is truly production-ready. By validating the model across multiple renderers and game engines, Nick confirms that baked details read clearly at gameplay distances and that a modular workflow supports efficient iteration.

Duration: 31m 32s