Alien Leech first pass. The total tri count is around 5300. Two 2k diffuse/spec/normals were used for the main body and the tentacles themselves. It was a bit rough to stay close to the tri count and some compromises had to be made, mainly in the body as some edges aren't as smooth. The tentacles themselves have overly complex UV islands and I tried to give enough pixel space for the frontal view, but I don't think I can push the fidelity without using more 2k texture sheets (maybe even a sheet per tentacle). Both 2k diffuse were created as 4k and then downsized. I do like the color choices though, especially the bloody/puss color tentacles.
Good job! I wouldn't go beyond 2× 2k textures for performance reasons and I think the tentacles look fine like this, especially since a lot of detail will come from the shading/normal mapping. The only point I'd criticize at all about the model and texture is that the tentacles just clip into the main body without a significant visual distinction in the contact area but I don't think this should stop us from using the model as-is.
This work is licensed under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license, attribute it to Ted "SyphonX" Chow
There were originally some adhesive contacts to the main body, but it might not have translated well after the retopology and or I was being mindful of the polygon budget. By the time I got around to retopoing the tentacles, the polygon budget was getting exceedingly high. The tentacles are also separate polygonal meshes not attached to the main body in terms of UVs/geometry so it didn't have a more natural feeling of attachment. This was necessary to give the tentacles their own UV texture sheet and for the current texture work.
Awesome work! Though there are some issues. It's clear that you wanted to keep tris count low, but you shouldn't have cut the bottom of the model(same goes for egg too). And on leech there is a texture seam that looks like a bug of baking, could you please take a look on it and tell us if that's something you can fix?
It's totally fine if you need to add a few more triangles to close the holes. You were already doing pretty good with the polygon budget on both models.
The seam disappears if you flip y for the normals, I got the same issue, but its solved by doing that. It also depends on the game engine and 3d program you are using, for me marmoset needs me to flip my normals. I am filing the hole right now, I will give the updated models to Kharnov once im done.
