Portfolio Piece 01 - Week 04

 This is the final week for our first portfolio piece of the Summer semester. Or as I hoped. Even though I had a great head start with this project, I ended up falling short of my timeline when it came to keeping up with it and completing everything I had hoped on time. However, what this project did let me realize is how much time I should properly a lot to each task and how each task would end up taking me. Even though I am behind when it comes to a finished product for this project, I ended up learning a lot on a new workflow when it comes to hand painted 3D models which combines usage of baking normal maps while still having that personal touch through handpainting by hand. 

For this week, I spent a long time when it came to UVing, not because there was anything wrong inherently wrong with the geo, but rather I wanted to follow some "rules" per say when it came to handpainted texturing akin to what Riot does for League:

1. Optimize UV space to be as efficient as possible

2. Make sure everything has proper texel density as much as possible

3. Layout UVs to where it can identifiable rather than just auto layout

4. Try to keep UVs as straight as possible

5. Try to use symmetry as much as possible to save space/time (For Riot, a lot of times, heads are not symmetrical for they are usually unique for both sides as well as the main torso, because the head could cast shadows that are asymmetrical.

With that in mind, I was able to get decent UVs established and I was able to use Marmoset to try baking my maps this time around and I must say I liked how simple it was to bake compared to Painter.

Baked Mesh

After getting my bake done, I proceeded to follow this workflow when it came to the texturing process:

1. Combine AO map and green channel of the bent normal map

2. Fix any AO bake errors and grayscale value paint in details

3. Apply gradient maps for base colors

4. Paint in more details/fix any errors

5. Polish textures

GIF of the texture process up this point

Turn around of current texture progress

As far as the remainder of this project goes, I will need to do these four things to be portfolio publishable:

    1. Finish texturing (polish up details and paint in final lighting)

    2. Rig and pose character

    3. Create a diorama base for renders

    4. Stretch goal: display character in League's Summoner's Rift