Texturing
Same process applies for all objects, modeling-uvs-textures.
Here I am using BodyPaint but this could be done in ZBrush or mudbox, I just like the brushes in BodyPaint.
You will need to go to projection mode if you intend to work smoothly over UV seams. So it means a lot of projections for cylindrical parts. Therefore whenever I can start from an existing texture or photo the better, as I will only have to fix the seams.
I used a photo with lots of manual paint over for the ground, and then re used that texture for other background elements. You can create brush presets from customized alphas, which I find very handy.
The highest resolution texture I used was for the ground, an 8k map, most of the time I use 2K.
Again, I am only focusing on visible from camera areas.
I must confess, I am only using few texture layers, color, ext dsp, bump and spec (from color channel).
Here are some screenshots from BodyPaint:
Here for the creature I am dealing with different pieces so I import them all as obj using the merge option in BodyPaint. This ensures good texture continuity across the different objects.
I like to get the shader working as I am painting the maps so let's talk about shading network.
I am re using always the same blinn shader as a base and tweak the specular, bump and reflection. I am using these maps channels:
- displacement
- bump
- spec
- subsurface
- color
And I tweak the reflection intensity in the blinn shader, also adding a reflection blur attribute so it doesn't look too shiny.
It is now time to get the environment light in play with the HDRI maps.
After trying a few free hdr maps I found on the web, I found a sunrise which was the right atmosphere I wanted for this picture.
So I create my env light in renderman for maya using a HDR map and baking occlusion using point clouds.
Here is a screenshot of my settings.
and a first test render:
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