Advanced Hard Surface Modeling Assignment – Finishing Up
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Final week for the Advanced Assignment is this week so I have been focusing on textures and just making the model presentable in different ways. Last week I had problems getting the color for the diffuse texture the way I wanted it. That problem continued and I kept digging a deeper hole of disappointment with it and I just could not get it right! After many frustrating hours I decided to risk it and begin all over with the texture. But I made sure to make it easier for myself by utilizing the “stencil” from the previous texture. I also knew how I wanted to place the textures which made the whole thing a lot easier! I placed the same modified phototextures in the new version as I did with the old. But before I started to add dirt, scratches and what not, I started to color correct from the beginning! This gave me a better result and the added touches and modifications were not compromised. Below is the result! The diffuse texture I got the sand color down fairly well and it instantly looked better and more like the way I wanted it to look. (More similar to an Abrams tank!) Apart from the metal base of the armor and the clearer metal for the frame of the legs, I also added dirt all over the model, but I focused on parts where dirt and sand would stick, like the underside of the mech, the legs, and nooks and crannies around the model. I also added metal scratches and what could be perceived as damage from incoming bullets. I focused these mostly on the front of the mech to give the feeling as opposing soldiers would have seen the mech coming towards them which caused them to try to shoot it down. I also added a lot of damage to the turret tower as if the opposing soldier had tried to focus their shots towards a gunner sitting there. Normal Map Specular Map The get the detail from the damage, I used a normal map to create the indents that would be caused from bullets hitting the armor. Looking at the map when it’s this size you cannot see any major details coming out from the map. I did this on purpose since the damage would just create scratches and not much else. So the normal map might look fairly bland, but it works for the model in a game engine! As for the specular map i studied the specular properties of the abrams tank and saw that the actual armor is pretty matte. So that became my focus, to try to create a matte finish for the armor and also create a contrast between the shinier metal frame of the legs and barrel. I also spent some time arranging and renaming everything in the scene to follow a structure which, hopefully, would make it easier for a completely new person to understand if they would be tasked to modify my Mech. Everything is grouped or parented to a main group called “Mech” which then leads to Mech_Head, Mech_Body and Mech_Legs, etc. I love this! For objects that have a copy somewhere in the scene I named them with something that would explain further exactly which object you have chosen. I.e. if Mech_Leg_Front_R is chosen, you have clicked on the front (_Front) right (_R) leg. This will hopefully make it easier to navigate and to understand where everything belongs!
Below is a showcase of how the different texture maps and combinations of them look within Unreal Engine 4! Only Diffuse Texture Diffuse + Specular Diffuse + Normal Diffuse + Specular + Normal |
