CAGD 320 ePortfolio

 Post 1: Final Project Microscene

For the final project, I had to make a microscene that included a model from the previous assignment(s). The objective was to create ten of our own models and then apply textures to them. We had to use Substance Painter, Sampler, and/or Designer.

Problems and Solutions

One of the first problems I came across was poor UV shells for the VW Bus. This was due to poor planning and incomplete UVs from the last project. The UVs did not have equal texel density, so the UVs were not uniformly scaled. This led to poor textures. I fixed this by redoing the UVs and making them as efficient as possible in the 0 to 1 space in the UV editor in Maya.

Another issue I ran into was having the dirt generator on props that were not supposed to have a generator. For example, I wanted the bus to have a generator to show dirt on its edges, but I did not want my guitar model to have dirt grunge around its corners. To fix this, I grouped the textures in Painter to what model it is for. I then put the guitar and other models at the top of the hierarchy so that the generator on lower layers did not get applied to the guitar model.

One other issue I had was with the speaker topology. I had an issue because I used boolean modeling to make the round circles on the speaker. I did not plan ahead and I had N-gons when I combined the meshes with booleans. I redid the model and this time I set up edge loops with the multi-cut tool. I lined up the edge loops with the vertices of the shape I was going to use for the boolean. Then when I combined, I merged vertices and this made the topology better and eliminated N-gons.

Going forward, I plan to improve project time-management by setting small goals throughout the course of the assignment. This will make the tasks much easier to handle and will decrease last-minute cramming and stress. This will also give me more time to do touch up work for my models and make better results.

VW Bus, Sci-Fi, Charcuterie Board

VW Bus

For the VW Bus, we were given a VW Bus Maya model that had not been Used. We were responsible for creating all the UVs for the bus by using all the prior knowledge we knew about UVing and texturing. We needed to make four 4k UV maps for the bus and then texture them in Painter. Then, import the model and textures into a Unity HDRP project.

Problems and Solutions

The biggest issue I encountered was not finishing the UVs. This was due to poor time management and having to redo the UVs due to poor UV shells with stretching. I fixed the stretching by making strategic cuts and testing out which cuts were effective. If the cuts were poorly made, I sewed them back together and tried another way.

Another issue I ran into was stacked UVs that were causing baking errors in Painter. I did not keep track of duplicates and spent longer than necessary trying to find stacked UVs in Maya. I resolved this issue by redoing some UVs that had duplicates so that I could freeze their transformation correctly and move duplicates outside the 0 to 1 space in Maya.

I plan to improve with time management in the future by setting aside a certain amount of time each week that is dedicated to UVing and texturing.

Sci-Fi

For the Sci-Fi assignment, we were given a sci-fi crate and spaceship model that needed to be UVed and textured. We needed to use the UVing and texturing methods we previously learned and apply emissive channel in Painter. Given three 4k maps for the ship and one 4k map for the crate.

Problems and Solutions

Was not able to complete the spaceship with textures. Duplicated UVs were moved but did not select all of them when moving. Also did not flip duplicates that were negatively scaled and frozen transformation. Solved this by going back and making sure to freeze transformation and flip all scaled duplicates.

Moving ahead, I plan to improve time management by setting goals to achieve throughout the week and attend office hours to receive assistance for issues I have for UVing or texturing.

Charcuterie Board

For the charcuterie board, we were given charcuterie board models where we needed to create UVs and textures for all the models. Needed to use the retopology and quad draw tools for the acorn and walnut. Create one new texture in Sampler for one of the foods.

Problems and Solutions

One issue I had was retopologizing the acorn. I could not get the quad draw function to work for the acorn. I was able to solve this by rewatching the tutorials and was able to get it to work the second time.

Another issue I had was making a new texture in Sampler for the food. I resolved this by rewatching the tutorials on Sampler and then finding good references of food.

Going forward, I will improve project management by following tutorials and rewatching them to understand how to apply these techniques to my projects. 

Normal Stamp, Low-Poly Wall

Normal Stamp

For the normal stamp assignment, we had to make stamps in Maya and then export them into Painter. From there, we made them into normal stamps. We had to make sure they were PNGs so that the background did not affect the stamp. With the stamps we were able to apply them to models and replicate a 3D effect with normals even though the texture was 2D.

Problems and Solutions

One problem I had was that my stamps were not showing up on the models I was applying them to. The stamp was converted into the corrected files to make it a normal stamp. What I learned was that the normal stamp models I made had no beveled edges, so the stamp was completely flat. With no change of height there was no way that the stamp was going to make a 3D effect.

Going forward I will improve project management by giving myself time at the end to add touch up details for assignments and projects. I was able to complete this assignment in a timely manner, however I could have gotten it done sooner so I could add nice details to have better results.

Low-Poly Wall

For the low-poly wall, we needed to make textures for a plane made in Maya. There were no polys or models added to the wall, so we needed to add textures on the flat plane. We had to do this by making another plane with models on it and creating an ID for the plane. Then, in painter increase the min and max distance to get the models ID on the flat plane.

Problems and Solutions

One issue I had at first was the textures from the ID were looking very flat and did not have any depth to them. This was an easy fix in Painter. I increased the min and max distance for the baking options of the ID. This gave more depth to the textures even though they were still 2D.

Going forward, I will improve project management by collaborating with my peers and professor to understand UVing and texturing concepts. I can learn new techniques by talking to them about what they did and why.