Environmental Panels Design

Greetings Everyone. I have a newbie question to post. When creating the walls whether it be for sci-fi or inside buildings, what would everyone’s approach be for creating panels. I understand the hi-res / low-res process for baking. My question is this, create the hi-res panel on a plane or a box? It is simple to explain but which is easier to create? Any help I appreciate.

R.

I would probably use a plane with lots of divisions, then extude faces from it to get panels that stick out. Then bake normal map from the the hi res model to a flat plane.

Thank you for the response. Some of the tutorials I found in the meantime were a little confusing. I am considering buying a tutorial from . He has a video on Environmental Art for UE4. Thanks again for the help.

Another think that occured to me. Have you looked into programs like Mudbox? You can sculpt surfaces there and then generate normal maps. Its easy to learn and you can get great results.