CAGD 320 Digital Texturing

Micro Blacksmith Scene
Final Project

Week 6

(5/07/20 - 05/14/20)

Although I turned in my project two days after the initial due date, i'm finally satisfied with what I was able to accomplish from all the late nights working on this project.

Before discussing what I accomplished, let's get the problems encountered out the way first.

Problems in the work process

Leading up to the hard deadline, there was still much incomplete work left to be done. At the time, I needed to import all my .fbx files into Unity, as well as including a ground texture for my boxed pedestal, renders of my scene in using Unity HD Render Pipelines and a few other missed requirements in due time.

I was also very unfamiliar on the process of importing, setting things up in Unity, and post processing my final scene. I tried to import everything in a recently updated Unity version 2019.3.12, but after numerous crashes and attempts to import, soon I realized this version didn't support the builds of Painter and Designer. Unfortunately, with the project submission about to close, I had to turn in what I had done at the time, which was only texture maps from baking in Painter, and a blocked out primitive scene. I was left very unsatisfied with the results as there were still a chunk of tasks left incomplete. Thankfully, the professor opened up a folder for after submissions so I took clear advantage of that.

What I have accomplished from Week 5,

Before due time, I was able to texture/import 10 of 12 modular objects from Maya to Unity. I imported everything into an .fbx file except the sword and Pole-arm because I ran out of time. In Substance Painter, I successfully baked 10 normal and base color maps, and modified a few texture maps (ground texture, pedestal, and furnace) from Substance Share.

2k maps

1k maps

512 maps + Glass Shield

After the due date, I was able to finally arrange my scene in Unity. First I applied the following textures and added transparency to my glass shield. Afterwards I imported my HDRI (Hiker's cave) into the scene. Now came the post processing effects, and so I messed around the different lighting effects, shading, bloom, and more.

Here are more renders of my scene:

I missed the preferred theme I initially wanted due to distortions and confusion managing around the post processing functions. I had a difficult time matching my scene's lighting with the HDR background, the lighting/glow effect from my furnace, and the lack of object shading.

In the end, my final renders did not match the God of war theme I wanted to, but gives off more of a Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild feel, which I am perfectly fine with. I am satisfied with the work I was able to accomplish and am humbled with the skills learned. I look forward to working on further projects in the future.

References:

Texture Material from Substance Share

Stone Tiles 001
https://share.substance3d.com/libraries/705

Magma
https://share.substance3d.com/libraries/5301

Designer Metal Pattern
https://share.substance3d.com/libraries/3919

HDRI: Hiker's cave
https://hdrihaven.com/hdri/?h=hikers_cave

Modulars

Objects provided from the professor.

Week 5

(4/30/20 - 5/06/20)

Week 5 is another week of UV'ing due to the fact I forgot to save and hours worth of UV progress on a few objects. This is very frustrating to deal with as plans are set back yet again. I try to prioritize this class as much as I can, but it's challenging for me to find the time needed in the midst of everything in finals week. There is still a lot of work to get done and I'm getting concerned I won't be able to export my file into Unity in due time. Looking forward, I must try my all to stay productive, efficient, and take advantage of the time available until the project's deadline.

What I have accomplished

11 of the 12 objects done UV'ing.

Hangar

Furnace

High poly table bench

High poly bucket

Barrel partially done

Problems during the work process

Other than losing valuable time from forgetting to save, one problem that delayed my work process is this weird bug in UV editor where I can't delete or select the red UV's stuck in the 0-1 space. This all happened when I hid a few objects before deleting all my history. This may be problematic importing fbx's into Painter in the near future.

Tasks to do

Clean/Finish UVing all objects
Glass Sword object
Double check all UV's before exporting to substance painter
Add another high poly object(?)
Apply high poly ids(?)
Add overhead n-cloth to hangar
Apply necessary textures to objects in Substance painter
Duplicate objects with textures on primitive scene
Apply ground textures in Substance Alchemist
Import to Unity

Future Updates

With little time left, I must double check to see if my UV's are correct (clean jagged lines, check for red, if anything's stacked/touching), add high poly id's or add another high poly object. I hope to finish all UV's,

and get some texturing done before the weekend. During the weekend, I will try my best to get as much texturing done, add a glass object (either a glass sword or lantern), add a n cloth material to hangar overhead after texturing, add a ground texture, then eventually import everything to Unity on the day of turn in.

Week 4

(4/23/20 - 4/29/20)

For week 4, I was able to get some significant progress done, but it still isn't enough to get back in track. My pacing for this class a bit slow, since my knowledge of the skills learned is a bit rusty from focusing on other class projects. To get myself back on class pace, I would have to assign myself more tasks to do, and leave more time in general for this project.

What I accomplished

I was able to finish UV mapping 7/13 objects assigned. Towards the end of my work schedule, I learned how to 3D Cut and Sew modular pieces with repeated patterns more efficiently. Hopefully, I will be able to get the rest of the assigned objects before the end of this week. I was also able to add a base foundation to my scene, and have a better grasp at what my final scene would look like. I chose my base to be a cube/diamond so it would fit the theme I desire.

Future Updates

Going forward, I must get done UV mapping as soon as possible so I can get started on textures using Substance Painter/Alchemist. I spent as much time possible on the work load required, but I didn't expect UV mapping to be would be very time consuming. Out of all the objects, the majority of the time spent was on the small crate. It was on this object where I learned the process of deleting repeated patterns and duplicating its original geometry.

In the meantime, I temporarily added a few objects (sword, shield and bucket) to add to the poly count. However, to make the process faster I may delete a few low poly objects (crate, shield, wheel?) and keep the scope low. I also would need to find a glass object with another high poly object to fulfill requirements.

Week 3

(4/16/20 - 4/22/20)

Not much of a productive week as anticipated due to other class hassles, but I still got more work done compared to last week. For this week, I was able to make a basic primitive scene to get a better feel of what objects go where in the scene, and decide if I should add more necessary objects or not. Side note: I'm still not sure what to do with the empty hut. I have to decide whether or not to keep it, or have it switched with another object. I also may need to resize the main hut to overarch the other objects.

UV layout of objects

On top of the primitive scene, I was able to finish cutting, sewing and unwrapping the double hammer, but with the assistance of another student. I was given helpful advice on the whole process which gave me clarity on some problems I had, such as which areas to cut/sew and what not.

In the meantime, I almost forgot to fix objects with obscure edges such as the small bench. I will put this as my priority on my to do list before or after UV'ing objects with correct Geometry.

Future Updates

On the following week, I plan to get a majority of 3D Cut and Sew done, figure out which objects are essential to the concept of my scene, and hopefully get started on texturing. I also may need to lessen the scope of this project, in order to provide more quality work with each object.

Week 2
(4/9/20 - 4/15/20)

In this week, I hoping to arrange a primitive scene to see where everything lays out for the final render, as well as getting started on UV's. Unfortunately due to projects from other classes, I was unable to leave time intended for initial completion, resulting to little progress made.

Objects I plan to UV/be included in final scene:

Barrel

Box

Sword

Two-sided Hammer

Pole-arm

Wagon Wheel

Wooden Benches (2)

Weapon Rack

Furnace

Grinder

Huts (2?)

I added two more unique objects for backup in case for number of poly's required. Intended objects may change in the near future.

Future Updates

Towards the next blog post, I plan to get back in track with a complete primitive scene, significant progress to UV layout (appropriate positioning in UV maps), a majority of geometry done using 3D Cut and Sew (achieve rough estimate on poly count), and eventually get an idea on what textures I should use.

Week 1
(4/1/20 - 4/8/20)

On our next project, we are assigned a micro scene with the provided assets to create a blacksmith's scene. First we are to retopologize/UV at least 10 of the following models, texture the scene in Substance Painter, then take the scene to Unity, so we can add on to the atmosphere to our liking, and render our final scene.

For the first week, I must conceptualize my own idea of a blacksmith scene from inspiring blacksmith scenes from movies and video games. Brok's shop taken from God of War 4 is the first scene to catch my attention.

Knife Retropology and Texturing
03/22/20

What is Retopology? Retopology is a method of creating a model similar to the original with drastically less detail and less polys using a tool called Quick Draw.

For this assignment, we are required to retopologize, UV, texture, then render three provided models (knives) into Unity HD Render Pipeline. However, the catch is the simplified model cannot go over 2000 polygons, except for the second Bone handle knife, which can go up to 3000 polys due to its unique shape. For knives one and two, we are assigned to use Obsidian Material from Substance share. The other models we are free to use any other material.

Retopology - Lower Poly count from high to low using Quick Draw tool

Low Poly Knife 1

Substance Painter - Apply texture to low Poly then bake with high Poly .fbx file

Bone Handle Knife 1

Normal Maps, Metallic Smoothness, Albedo Transparency

Unity - Apply baked textures

Knife 1 in Unity

Other finished models

Knife 2

Wooden Knife 3

Lion's Head (Extra)

Problems I encountered and how I resolved them

Throughout working on this assignment, there was many problems I encountered that took longer than expected. There was minor problems in the Retopology process, such as uneven/exposed edges using the Quick Draw tool. But the biggest obstacle that took the most time was figuring out what caused the out of proportion results from baking the first knife high poly fbx file. Originally, when I tried baking the high poly fbx file into the low poly knife, the details of the high poly knife appeared to not fit appropriately into the low poly, showing details in the wrong places or not showing anything. This problem was eventually solved after looking through the size measurements in Maya. It turns out that my low poly knife was slightly smaller than the original.

Substance Painter

In this assignment, we are to explore Substance Painter's interface and learn how to apply textures into the provided models by watching the tutorial listed.

Lantern

Tutorial Link: https://academy.substance3d.com/courses/getting-started-with-substance-painter-2018/youtube-IGGQl9kVB1M

Guitar Amp

Tutorial Link: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/substance-painter-2019-essential-training/introduction?u=57692737

Substance Alchemist & Designer

The similarities between Substance Alchemist and Designer was the main purpose of creating useful textures for models. I feel like Substance Alchemist has a way to utilize photo textures or scans more efficiently while Substance Painter is more procedural based

Substance Alchemist: Ground

Substance Designer: Designer

In this assignment, we learn more about PBR metallic Workflow to create unique textures to be used with the actual model.