zBrush Alien Head

The Alien Head was a texturing exercise using zBrush and Maya and taught us how to texture models in zBrush, take the textures created into Photoshop for editing and then place those onto a low poly model in Maya.

We were given a high poly alien head zBrush tool. When opened in zBrush it looked like this:

We were then given a tutorial on how to use the brushes and Spotlight tool to allow us to paint onto the model using photos. After using various photos from different animals (as seen below), the result in seen after the references.

 

This mesh was then exported along with the texture and placed into Photoshop for editing.

Seen above is the Diffuse of the texture. I decided to change the eye used from the original in zBrush. This is a useful feature of putting the texture into Photoshop first.

This is the Diffuse with the AO map applied on top for simulated shadows. This is now ready to be used as a diffuse in Maya on the low poly.

Along with the Diffuse, I used the High Poly and Low Poly to create a normal map to be applied to the Low Poly in Maya to create definition.

The final Low Poly Maya render is seen below.

Cottage Pt 2

The next piece was the front of the house. Starting with some base materials (Plaster, Wood and Brick)

I baked out an AO from the high poly and applied it on the diffuse.

Then, by isolating each individual layer, I baked a normal map with varying details and overlaid them on top of the original High/Low poly normal.

Below is the result alongside the door.

The same process was used on the rest of the building (pillars, side panels and roof) to result in the following:

Cottage Pt 1

The cottage was an interesting texture assignment. The assets were given to us and were already UV mapped. The first part of the model to texture was the door.

I started with a wood texture that can tile along with some worn metal for the handle. I added some dark lines across the wood where the door is placed to achieve a plank effect.

Next, I applied some patterns to the borders of the door. These will later be normal mapped so no FX were applied to achieve an emboss.

I baked out an AO from the high poly using xNormal and multiplied this over the diffuse for shadow simulation.

Along side this I added hinges to the side with a outer glow to simulate shadow and applied a moss decal along the bottom of the wood to show wear.

Finally, I baked out several normal maps and overlaid them to give variations in detail across the model which gave it a nice effect of grooves in the wood and scratches on the metal.

Photo Manipulation Pt 2

The 2nd part of the task was to edit a scene with various other images. 

This is the original image, firstly I began adding some simple details and removing those I didn't want.

I added some moss along the base of the wall and duplicated one of the window panes across to the one with the label on to remove it. It required a slight colour correction to match.

I then took a crack decal and applied that to the floor and wall along with a smashed pane of glass. Finally I took a different door that looked grimy to fit the moss and replaced it over the old door and resized the signs to fit.

Photo Manipulation Pt 1

Using the Photoshop tools and an image provided, we were assigned the task of replacing the sky with another and colour balancing the picture to make it look as though it was the original.

This is the original image. By using the channel panel (specifically the blue channel), I created a mask of the sky which allowed me to manipulate it without damaging the original image. 

I then chose a picture with a sky and went with the one below. 

By placing this in the layer mask of the original layer and colour balancing the original layer to the colour of the sky in the 2nd image, it made it seem as it was an original picture.

Tiling Textures Pt 2

After the brick tile texture, we had to create a Sci-Fi floor that can tile.

Starting with a grey fill, I overlapped 2 circles and took the center of it, filled it with black and rotated it 45 degrees. This gave me a single tread that could be repeated across the floor as seen below:

This would be the middle portion of the floor. The next portion was the outer edge. I added some 'Caution Stripes' to the edges and added a texture on top with overlay applied. This texture was also applied to the middle portion.

The final stage was to create a center piece.

This portion has alpha applied in the white gaps to allow light to pass through them like a mesh floor.

Normal maps were then applied to these and assigned to 3 separate planes in Maya. This was then duplicated and a simple corridor model was built around the floor. The result is below:

Tiling Textures Pt 1

The point of this task was to take a regular texture and change it into a texture that can be repeated across a model seamlessly.

Our first task was to make a brick texture tile.

This was my starting texture. Using a high pass filter, I removed some detail but balanced the light. I then offset it by half of its dimensions to see the seams and started cloning out the edges to make it seamlessly repeat.

Shown is the result:

After this, I converted it to greyscale and adjusted the balance slightly to give a shine to the cobbles on a Specular map.

Finally, I used the specular as a heightmap for xNormal and converted it to a normal map.

Sci-fi Crate

This task involved us normal mapping a high poly to a low poly model along with an AO, Diffuse and Specular map applied. Both crates (High poly zBrush and low poly Maya) were supplied to us.
Only the Low Poly model needed UV's.

Here is an AO bake from xNormal using the zBrush model as the High Res and the Maya as Low Res. This was placed over the top of the base texture for the diffuse layer.

Next I added some variation in colour to the material. I went with black and blue...

It can bleed over the edges as it will only use the texture within the UV lines. After adding colour, I then added some text for some interest.

I used a layer mask to slightly scratch the text off to make it look worn away. There is also a slight Bevel/Emboss to make it seem as if it is pushed into the surface.

Finally, I added some scratches and paint flecks to the material to fit the text of being worn away. Along with the scratches on the edges of the box, I added a normal map of the scratches to the normal of the crate to push the scratches into the surface.

The final result is shown below:

Spellbook

Our next big texture task was to create a hand painted book using no Normal or AO Maps. This meant we had to manipulate the layers to 'fake' these maps all on a Diffuse map.

We were given the starting model but had to UV it ourselves in such a way to maximize usage of UV space and joining edges to create a seamless model. 

After laying it out, I took the UV layout into Photoshop and began with some base textures and patterns.

Adding a Bevel and Emboss onto the text and patterns made it look as if they are pushed into the surface. I added some lines with outer glow to show the grooves of the spine.

Next, I added some wear and tear around the edges of the book and added a slight glow to the right side of the book to balance the colour.

I then added a light to the spine using a small opacity airbrush and set the layer to Overlay. I also added more patterns to the clasp in the upper right corner.

Finally, to simulate an AO map, I added some dark patches where shadow and dirt would be.

The final result is above. You can see the painted light from the clasp and the painted AO on the edges of the pages.

Cloud Brush

A small task was assigned to us this time, mainly to get us used to Photoshops Brush Dynamics. It was to create a Cloud Brush.

Starting on a 500x500 canvas, we set up the tablet to have a reasonable pressure sensitivity and to only spread across one monitor to give more control. The brush dynamics were then set by changing a default soft brush and hard brush by activating Shape Dynamics, which allows the pen pressure to control the size of the brush, and transfer (AKA Other Dynamics) which controls the opacity of the brush.

This allowed us to start creating the cloud by mixing together the brushes. After laying down the dots across the canvas, I began smudging them together to create a softer edge as a cloud would have.

The completed brush is below:

Our next task was to save that brush and, only using that brush, create a skyscape of clouds by layering shades one on top of another.

Below are two examples of using the cloud brushes.