CAGD 320 - Digital Texturing

 

Final Project Micro Scene

     This assignment is a continuation of a previous assignment, where we must expand it to make a small scene. We can choose between our VW bus, charcuterie board, or sci-fi assignment and build upon it with 10 new props that fit well together in a scene. I chose to add to the VW bus with a small camper scene, including things like a foldable table, coffee bot, and ice chest. This is a simple project that just lets us get creative and practice things we learned earlier in the semester. After modeling 10 props, we UV them and use three materials for them when going into Unity. Then we texture all of them in painter and bring them into Unity as normal. Then we just have to arrange the props in a nice scene with a small platform and take renders.

     There were very few problems with this assignment, as I decided to make simpler models to make a small, cozy scene. Making the lamppost was the only huge problem, as something was getting messed up after I first modeled it which made UVing a huge pain. I believe I double extruded somewhere and that was what caused the issues. To fix the issue I just started from scratch and rebuilt the lamppost with no problems.

     I definitely want to make more small scenes like this, being able to quickly go through several objects is a great way to practice all the steps of modeling and texturing without the stress of messing up a large model.

Normal Stamps and Low Poly Wall

     Unlike the other assignments from this semester, this one was shorter and focused more on learning and practicing different things we had discussed earlier. We had to first make two 1x1 walls, one medieval and one sci-fi, and give them detail by modeling high poly pieces and baking them onto the walls. Textures and details were added in painter, and emission was also added to the sci-fi wall. After the walls, we had to make normal stamps by creating objects in Maya, taking the normal render, and bringing that into painter to make a stamp. We used booleans to easily cut out or add complex geometry and quickly make interesting shapes.

     This assignment also had the fewest problems, as the whole project was very straightforward and easy to understand. The only obstacle that I did come across was with the normal stamps, as when I would paint them onto a wall, they would be stretched. I realized that this was because substance painter was looking for a square image, but mine was still a rectangle. Once I cropped the image into a square, the stamps worked perfectly. Other than that, I had little to no issues and this was one of my favorite projects because it taught me a lot of skills without being a large amount of work.

     I definitely want to work on my baking and high poly modeling, as they are an amazing way to make detailed models without having tons of polys. I also want more experience with booleans, they were really fun to use and are great at making very unique geometry quickly.

VW Bus Micro Scene

     In this assignment, we were tasked with making a small scene that involved a VW bus. First was the bus, which took up most of the time spent on the project, as we had to fully organize, UV, ID, and texture it. We were free to use any colors or textures that we wanted, as long as the bus looked good. Next was making two additional objects to go with the bus that would fit a theme, for me this was a bench and surfboard. We had to UV and texture those objects, put everything together in a scene, and take renders. 

     This assignment did come with a few problems, the main being UVing the bus. While it was easy at times, there were a lot of pieces and some of them were very hard to unfold. This made the UVing take up way more time than I wanted and I had to grind hard to get the project done on time. The only other big problem was IDing the bus. I have never had a problem with IDing before, but this being a large model, it makes sense. Some parts of the bus needed different colors, such as with the doors and main body, but with so many faces, it was hard and time-consuming to select all the necessary faces.

     Time management was an issue with this assignment, so I hope to improve on that in the future by starting earlier and planning out what needs to be done each day for the project to be done smoothly. I also want to get better at UVing, as while I can do simple shapes easily, I want more experience with complex shapes.

Sci-Fi

     For the sci-fi assignment, we had to make a scene that contained a futuristic crate and spacecraft. At the beginning of the project, we were to pick from either a tie interceptor or x-wing model. I chose the tie interceptor, and we then had to UV and texture this object. Along with this, we had a premade crate, which we also had to UV and texture, with a focus on deleting and duplicating similar parts. With the crate, we also had to learn about emission and add it to the crate. After that, we just had to put everything in a scene, add the emission and an HDRI, and take renders.

     My main problem with this assignment was getting emissive to work, as this was the first time we had done it. After enabling the emissive channel and painting it onto my object, it still wasn't showing up. It was after watching a quick tutorial that I realized it was the shader I was using, and once I switched to a shader that supported emission, it worked right away. It also took a bit of work and adjusting to get everything looking good in Unity, such as the emission and depth of view, but the tutorial made everything easy to understand.

     The biggest thing I learned from this assignment is how useful duplicating can be, as I was able to duplicate almost half of the tie interceptor and shave off a lot of UVing time. In future projects, I will be more prone to looking for similar objects that I can delete and duplicate to help make UVing go faster and smoother.

Charcuterie Board

     In this assignment, we were tasked with doing several different tasks in order to complete a charcuterie board. The first step was using retopology to take very high poly nuts, make them low poly, and bake the high poly details onto them. Next, we had to UV and texture several premade objects, including the board, bowls, and different foods. Lastly was to make and texture two new objects that fit with the rest of the theme, for me this was a knife and fork. After all of this was done, we simply had to arrange the scene, set up lighting and cameras, and take renders, one of which with a depth of field.

     I had a couple issues during this assignment, the first was with the retopology of the acorn. It was very difficult to retopologize the odd shape, but my solution was to start with a solid base and just build on that as best as possible, which did end up working well. The other main issue was with the salami texture that I created for the slices of salami. It was hard for me to get the randomness and colors of salami, and took up a bit more time than I wanted it to. I was able to get a good salami texture after rewatching previous designer videos and following some of the steps in them. I was able to eventually get a good salami texture that I am very satisfied with.

     From this assignment, I learned to start my project earlier to make sure that I can easily complete the assignments instead of doing a lot of work at the end. I also plan on improving my retopology skills and substance designer skills, as they are both very valuable and it would be nice to get better at them.