April 25th update - general polish and issue fixing

This week I was able to export my model into Unity to get an idea of what the final product would look like and to see if there were any obvious faults in the textures, seems or other things of that nature.

Upon importing my model into Unity and taking a look at it the first thing I noticed was how over the top shiny my model was, my first thought was that this was due to the brightness of my specular map, upon turning it down my model is still extremely shiny but this seems to only be on the face, the clothes are not shiny as such, just have a mild glow of warmth to them.

Here is an example of the model in Unity:

And here is the full model rendered in Unity:

With the model imported into Unity I encountered a number of seeming issues with the hair as well as the textures on the shoes looking somewhat poor, I have fixed 1 of 3 issues with the hair and I fixed the shoes issue, 

I also dimmed the brightness of the Specular in hopes that my model would have not as much glow as before, this did have some effect but not enough, however I think if I dim the specular a touch more and change unity's lighting settings I should get the desired effect I want on the model.

Here is the new updated Diffuse: 

And here is the updated Specular:

As with this week, next week I will be focusing on Polishing my model even further and I will be baking an ambient occlusion map and uploading the results here.

-J.W

April 18th work update - Diffuse+Specular

This week has unfortunately not been a very productive week, with my other modules starting to take over the work flow, my final project has taken the back-seat for the moment, right now I have a work in progress specular map and a slightly more updated diffuse map.

Here is the updated diffuse:

It may not be very clear what I have changed as it mainly looks the same, however what I have done is change the skin colour of the arms to match the head so that there is not a contrast of colours and cleaned up the overlaying textures.

Here is the W.I.P specular: 

Very short update this week however I hope for this to change soon when I get my other modules under way and then my focus can go back to the final project taking the front-seat.

-J.W

April 11th - Diffuse continued

I have now added the face to the diffuse map and re-baked my normal maps, both the face and the normals have came out much better than I expected. Because of the length of time that it took to get the head texture looking right I was not able to polish up the other textures as I hoped to do, so that will fall to this week.

Here is how the diffuse map currently looks:

The head that I used is an actual photographed head of a Caucasian male, edited in Photoshop.

(Reference: David Vercher, Modelling and texturing head tutorials)

Here is how the new normal map is looking:

The new normal map has given the object much more noticeable creases and extra details around the head which is exactly what I was going for.

And finally here is a render of the model itself with the new normal and diffuse map:

The plan going forward for this week is as follows:

• Polish the diffuse colour and add minor details where needed.
• Create a new texture for the arms that match the faces colour range.
• *If there is time* Start work in the Specular map.

-J.W

References:

David Vercher. (2016). Modeling & Texturing Head Tutorials (Autodesk Maya & Mudbox). Available: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/XGwQa. Last accessed 9th Apr 2016.

Revising my Marking Criteria

With the end of the Final Project fast approaching I believe I should go over my marking criteria again to ensure that I and the markers of my work know how my final piece will be marked.

Here is my marking criteria as stated at the start of the year in my project proposal:

An exploration into the design and creation of a 3d character to be created in 3D Studio Max following the topic of animation.

For my final project I plan to design and create a 3d character that will be created as if they were to be a main protagonist in the video game Uncharted. This will involve looking into character design, 3d design, and most importantly, the creation of a fully designed 3d character in the appropriate 3d and sculpting software.

Marking criteria: Because I do not plan to rig or animate this model, all the criteria will be focused upon the modelling and texturing of said model.

            The quality of the models topology, does the topology of the model freely flow round the areas that are likely to be animated? E.G, mouth, eyes, stomach.

            The structure of the model, how well has the anatomy of the model been formed? The proportion, weight, and correct size for different anatomy.

            The UV unwrapping of the model, are the UV’s unwrapped in a professional manner? Are they unwrapped using sensible space, and being wielded appropriately?

            The quality of the textures, do the textures look realistic? Are they appropriate for the theme?

            The theme, how well does the model keep with the theme? E.G does the model match the Uncharted main protagonists look, explorer clothes, leather, t-shirt, boots, etc.

            The final render, the model must be imported into a game engine and rendered with appropriate lighting.

Most of the marking criteria I have made for my final project is rather clear and self explanatory, however I would like to draw attention to one of the points and re-address it and clarify what is meant by this section.

The theme, how well does the model keep with the theme? E.G does the model match the Uncharted main protagonists look, explorer clothes, leather, t-shirt, boots, etc.

I believe that because of the way I delivered the above sentence (does the model match the uncharted main protagonists look) that the markers of my work may think I am trying to re-create Nathan Drake from the Uncharted games, this is not true, I am creating a character that could replace Nathan Drake, a character that fits the theme of Uncharted and could potentially take the main character role in place of Nathan Drake. 

I state at the top of my project proposal "For my final project I plan to design and create a 3d character that will be created as if they were to be a main protagonist in the video game Uncharted." I stated this to justify my choices for the poly count and texture resolution I would be using, as if I were to create a background character, or an enemy that is not significant, the poly count and texture resolution would potentially be less.

Because of this mix-up I would like to change the wording of the marking criteria to show that my final product will not be Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series.

The marking criteria will now state:

The theme, how well does the model keep with the theme? E.G does the model fit into where the game is set (tomb raiders, explorers of dangerous places), explorer clothes, leather, t-shirt, boots, etc.

As such the new marking criteria is as follows:

Marking criteria: Because I do not plan to rig or animate this model, all the criteria will be focused upon the modelling and texturing of said model.

            The quality of the models topology, does the topology of the model freely flow round the areas that are likely to be animated? E.G, mouth, eyes, stomach.

            The structure of the model, how well has the anatomy of the model been formed? The proportion, weight, and correct size for different anatomy.

            The UV unwrapping of the model, are the UV’s unwrapped in a professional manner? Are they unwrapped using sensible space, and being wielded appropriately?

            The quality of the textures, do the textures look realistic? Are they appropriate for the theme?

            The theme, how well does the model keep with the theme? E.G does the model fit into where the game is set (tomb raiders, explorers of dangerous places), explorer clothes, leather, t-shirt, boots, etc.

            The final render, the model must be imported into a game engine and rendered with appropriate lighting.

I hope this clears up any confusion about what I was making in my final product.

-J.W

April 5th - Diffuse update

My diffuse map is now around 90% complete, the only thing left to actually create is the texture for the head of my model, after that is complete I am going to spend the rest of this week polishing up the textures in general. I am also going to re-bake my normal map as I believe I can achieve a higher quality normal map than I have already if I bake it using appropriate lighting and spacing. 

Here is what my diffuse colour looks currently:

And here is how my model looks when rendered:

As I stated at the start of this post, this week I shall be:

• Starting and finishing the head textures
• Polishing up the textures adding minor details.
• Re-bake my normal map

-J.W