Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Lux-Update 7-17: Base Textures In!

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Since I have been back over the last week or so, I've been able to do alot of experimenting with painting the textures.  Yet again my brother had the critique or, "Keep the Cartoony/Realistic ratio consistent throughout."  One way I implemented that was to keep the fall-off consistent on the color border.  I had the varying gradient to elude to the fur-factor without adding dynamic hair before.  Now I have a painted fur-border to give it the fall-off and fur-factor.  It's barely noticeable from a distance, but on close-ups it really makes it pop.  I have also started to mess with eye-materials.  This is another area I know almost nothing in, so expect it to change.
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Speaking of materials, this was completely thrown together as well.  Right now its a Blinn with Diffuse, Spec, and Ambient mapping.  The spec and ambient give it a pseudo-sub-surface, but if I figure out real Mental Ray materials I will most likely use them so that was it looks nice in renders AND in the ViewPort when animating.  Because as animators, we will look at the ViewPort more than we look at the renders.
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With all this on Lux now, I think its starting to get its unified look.  And with the exception of Mental-Ray its all pretty much in Maya.  I want this to be easy enough for anyone to download and use, so that is one thing that is causing the constant R&D.

------BUT!  Without further-to-do.... Content:------

(Uploads have been really dark, see the detail pics for good quality)


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(I dunno why this one didn't get an alpha, nor did I care enough to investigate)



Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Lux-Update, textures have started!

Hey guys!


So, I thought I would have more time to work on Lux over the past week, but as soon as I got back from Texas, and into the office they told me I was going out to Delaware later that week.  So now I'm here on our last day of this project with a little bit of work I can show.  I unwrapped the puppy over the week, and while I was in Delaware with any kind of downtime, I was working on some files to show you guys.  Point of me mentioning my work situation, is that this is still really early and really rough, so you can keep critiques broad, or let me know what you were looking forward to in the texturing.


Firstly!  Here is the turn around with the wireframe as a texture so you can see how UVs are laid out on the mesh:


And then here are the UV Layouts for both the body and the head --


Head:


Body:


Lemme know what you guys think of the layouts, UV and texturing are not exactly my strongest areas so I will listen to any and all critiques.

Here's the diffuse maps corresponding to the UVs --

Head:

Body:



And now here is the mesh with the diffuse applied to it:


So like I said, this is super early, and this is the first time I've actually looked at the diffuse on Lux with a background different than black.  So with lighter backgrounds I am noticing his face-markings don't pop as well, and I may want to reconsider some of the softer borders of colors. Let me know what you guys think!




~ Jacob Funk, The PreAnimator




Monday, July 1, 2013

Final Mesh! Now time to unwrap!

Hey guys,


These past 2 weeks I haven't been able to put much time into the Lux-Mesh.  But when I did have time I decided to work on Lux's mouth, with his jaws, teeth, and tongue.  When I got back from my trip I worked on connecting it to the existing mesh, as well as polishing some of the edge loops.  I guess the only other noticeable thing I did, was that I shaped the silhouette of his back leg a tad.  I made it look a little bit more extended since its back a bit.  So, unless I get some feedback I hadn't thought of, this thing is DONE!
























Lux_Rig: Mesh Turn-Around Version 3 on Vimeo.


I'll let you guys know how the unwrapping goes, its been a while so wish me luck!





~The PreAnimator