3D Computer Graphics – Blog Post Week 05

This is a blog post that will showcase my final object for assignment one in the 3D Computer Graphics course that I’m taking. My object is a medieval themed chest and I have created a diffuse texture and both a specular and normal map to enhance the details in the texture.

The diffuse map is the most frequently used texture mapping method. It wraps the bitmap image onto the 3D geometry surface while displaying its original pixel color. Any bitmap image, such as scanned images or images captured by digital camera, can be used as diffuse map to represent photo realistic quality.

In 3D computer graphics, normal mapping is a technique used for faking the lighting of bumps and dents. It is used to add details without using more polygons. A common use of this technique is to greatly enhance the appearance and details of a low polygon model by generating a normal map from a high polygon model or height map. A normal map is made from a high polygon model. Its color representation will affect surfaces like a regular bump map while providing higher degrees of detail.

When creating a normal map it’s important to know the direction that each point on the surface is facing. The direction that a point on the surface is facing is called a normal.

In my models case all the small details like the nails and the indentation in the wood on the chest are details that I chose to visualize using a normal map.  There are off course things that can’t be highlighted using normal maps, such as the some of the larger details like the legs or basically anything that involves the silhouette of the object.

Specular maps are the maps you use to define a surface’s shininess and highlight color. The higher the value of a pixel (from black to white), the shinier the surface will appear in-game. The color of a pixel is also used, to calculate the resulting color of the surface. A very saturated specular map will have a very different visual effect than a grey specular map. If you need a more ”neutral” highlight on a surface, your specular map should use the inverse of the diffuse map’s color. Using the same color on the specular as on the diffuse will result in a more saturated highlight when viewed in the game. When creating a specular map it’s important to consider the material you are working with, surfaces such as dry stone or cotton fabric would tend to have a very dark specular map, while surfaces like polished chrome or plastic would tend to have lighter specular maps.

Since you can use contrasts in specular to make a surface appear more visually interesting in the game I would say it is one of the more important types of maps that you can use.

Above is all my maps in their ”Photoshop form”
First is the diffuse texture. The second one is the normal map, and the third and last is the specular map.

Above is a few screenshots of my chest in it’s final form with a diffuse texture and also a specular and normal map applied to it.

3D Computer Graphics – Blog Post Week 04

This is a blog post that will illustrate some of the thoughts behind the visual style and shed some light on the coloring of my medieval chest that I have been modeling and texturing over the last few weeks. I will also attach some images showing my crate in its final stages, with and without a texture.

At first I wanted to do  the a textured sci-fi crate using a crate I had already created but ultimately I made the decision to go with a medieval theme because honestly, it seemed like much more fun and it’s something I wanted to try for a while now. I believe that anyone can make something look new and polished but to make something look old and withered is something that requires a bit more work and time to accomplish.

The color scheme I went with was several shades of brown to simulate old, unprocessed wood.
I went with black charred metal for the support strips lining the edges of the chest.
The reasoning behind the colors is in fact quite simple. I haven’t worked with this kind of asset before and when I thought of a medieval chest, these were the colors that came to mind.

The dominant color of my chest is a darker shade of brown, I wanted to emulate old wood that maybe hadn’t been properly oiled and finished, I wanted it to look like the wood had a rough look and feel to it, like if you touched it you would get a splinter.

The colors that I used for my chest are warm colors and they are in their full hue, there are however some areas that I chose to brighten in order to give the wood some diversity and to give it a “uneven” look.

This is how my chest looks when rendered in-engine with only the basic texture applied.
What you see is the mesh and the complete diffuse texture. I have applied basic lighting and aligned the camera in order to get a nice shot of the object.

This is the final diffuse texture for my crate as seen in Photoshop, it has all the parts that will be used on the final object. The parts are all painted individually in Photoshop and then applied in 3DS Max using the UV editor. There are some things that I could have done better however, my UV’s were not packed correctly and that is why you there is so much space in between all the different parts.
When dealing with textures it is very important that you make sure that all the pieces are of relevant size and that you pack them tightly.

This is my final model in wireframe-mode, in 3DS Max.
The wireframe view can be useful when you want to give your model a good look and when you want to go over your final topology.

This is my final model in 3DS Max with a UV checker applied.
The UV checker is used to check and adjust the sizes of the different parts in your UV editor.