Robot Drone: UV Unwrap and Texture – 9/11/20

In todays session, we were looking to get feedback from peers on our Robot Drone’s and also UV unwrap our drones ready for texturing. The one criticism I got for my Robot Drone was to be more careful when it comes to 3D modelling. I had a few faces on my drone that intersected with other faces, not visible to the human eye until I cut my model in half for UV unwrapping.

To texture this model, I cut the model in half as it is symmetrical and makes it easier to model one side of the drone as opposed to texturing everything twice. Although the layout isn’t perfect, this is my drone UV unwrapped.

Notice there doesn’t seem to be many components to my UV, this is because they are layered on top of one another, aside from the center part which is the camera, this will require a different texture to seem more realistic. For comparison, I have done an automatic unwrap as well, whilst this does look like double the work, I think it might yield in better results with my texture.

So with that out of the way, I took my UV to Photoshop for some texturing.

To start, I looked for a camera lens texture on Google and came across this royalty free camera lense vector. I imported into photoshop and applied a color overlay of Blue.

https://image.freepik.com/free-psd/psd-camera-lens-icon_30-2147.jpg

I then started to look at the satellites on the drone as they are also an integral design piece of the model. I googled some satellite panel designs and attempted to mimic it using the gradient tool and shape tool in photoshop.

I then moved onto the camera back panel and outer ring. The outerring is going to be silver and the back panel is going to be carbon fibre. I looked at carbon fibre patterns to use on my drone but instead went for a simple grey colour with a scan line pattern overlay.

Then for the camera outer ring. I started off with a gradient and then created my own brushed metal effect. This was achieved by creating a new layer and filling it black, I then went to filter – noise – add noise and made it monochromatic, finally added a motion blur for the finishing touch.

I then set the blend mode to soft light and this is the result of my camera ring texture now. Because I have this whole layer that fits my canvas, my brushed metal effect will be the same direction for every other mesh component in my UV.

I start to work on the body next, I applied the same gradient and brushed metal effect to the body. And then for a bit of personalisation, I added a ‘serial number’ which is just a alphanumerical version of my surname.

23/11/20 – Tidying the Texture

So far my drone is looking pretty neat however the texture does seem to be a bit rough and kind of all over the place, what I’m going to look at is tidying the texture up a little bit, to make the model look cleaner.

As seen in this image here, with the UV map left on in my texture file, the blue ring crosses onto where the metal should be, it doesn’t sit right, and it is like this all the way around the face of my drone. I am also going to be looking at my brushed metal effect as it doesn’t seem uniform in a couple of places on my drone.

I have disabled the gradient metal effect for now until I can find a more suitable option, the difficult part is where there are many mesh shells, they are rotated and not aligned so the gradient for now is just trial and error, but for the most part, I was able to tidy up the camera ring and add some more texture to my drone.

I have given the satellite’s rims now and also started work on the underneath of the drone. This is where the charging bay is going to plug into. I am going to be completing the wings next before adding a few finishing touches to the overall design of the drone. These will include a couple of vents at the back and maybe a little bit of rust or wear and tear under the wings.

After playing around with multiple textures, even attempting substance painter, I have found A nice texture to compliment my drone. This gives the drone a scratched metal texture which I think helps tell the story of this drone. It looks like its been in a few mountains, maybe even rolled down a couple.

I set this to overlay in Photoshop and mixed it with my custom made brushed metal texture. It gives off a nice effect, I’m going to look at adding a little bit of rust here or there. I started to work on the face of the drone a bit more and added a few minor details.

I looked for a rusty texture to apply to my drone and came across this one from EveryTexture.com (LINK). It was a free download, so I have downloaded and imported it into photoshop, set the blend mode to Colour Burn and reduced the opacity which created a nice rusty effect.

This is a digital screen that would have information rotating around the camera lens such as co-ordinates, the current renter of the drone and battery percentage. I also added some vents to the back of the drone, we don’t want this baby overheating.

And that is pretty much my drone complete, I started working on the charging pad texture next. Simply designed, featuring a screen with the last saved data from the previous drone charge.

Remember that subject of Texel Density? The charging dock is a poor example of this as the texture is stretched onto the UV. This is fixable, I simply need to make a new UV to scale of the shape of the model. This is where automatic UV unwrap might fail sometimes.

Overall, I have enjoyed this project as it has allowed me to explore my creativity by having numerous concepts. There were some challenging parts however that included texturing the drone’s body with a texture I was happy with and also sticking with one design. It is great to have multiple designs but sometimes when you have too many you can over-complicate things.

Another challenge I had was the UV unwrapping, I had never unwrapped a sphere before, especially a one that has had parts extruded. The original unwrap I did wouldn’t of allowed me to texture the drone this way so I’m happy with the automatic result, if it was my manual UV, the drone would have looked a bit plane as the texture would mirror to the other side, I’d also run into a host of problems with the way I have textured my drone, an example would be my serial numbers would be flipped, making it backwards when read.

SketchFab

November 23, 2020November 30, 2020 by nextgenjordan Categories: 3D ArtTags: 3D Art Leave a comment

Colour Wheel – 16/11/20

The colour wheel, such a simple yet innovative graphic. The colour wheel helps us distinguish tones and a colour palette to work from. It features a spectrum of colours that can be lightened to darkened to create multiple shades of the same colour.

This could be particular useful when we are texturing as if we have too many different colours, it may not look uniform on the finished model. In support of colour theory, the colour wheel also tells us what colours compliment each other. The way this is determined is by the colour opposite the colour we’re using or the colour next to it.

November 16, 2020 by nextgenjordan Categories: 3D ArtTags: 3D Art Leave a comment

Isometric Art: Grids and Shapes – 9/11/20

In todays art session, we looked at drawing isometric art. I took to the internet to find an isometric grid pattern to make things a bit easier. We then had to draw an L-Shape in isometric view.

I used the pen tool after laying down my isometric grid and formed an L in 3D space.

Then we looked at shading using a 1-2-3 method, which in a way translates into highlight, mid-tone and shadow. I chose to use shades of blue for this effect.

As a test, I duplicated the layer and moved it across to see if it would ‘fit’ together, and because we used the isometric grid, it fit like a glove.

I then looked at adding some decor to create a story, for example this sludge would depict that this platform could be in a sewage pipe.

We tried our hand at mapping 3D shapes into this isometric space through photoshop. To make a 3D model, I made a new layer and then using the rectangle selection tool, I held shift and dragged so it constrained my selection. Once I was happy with the size, a swift Shift-F5 to fill was on the cards as I picked my colour of choice. I then went to the 3D menu and clicked Create Extrusion.

After some playing around to get the 3D grid to line up, this was as perfect as I could get it. I then had to rasterize the 3D layer and duplicate it to achieve the same effect.

For some final practice, I made a quick 3D model in Maya to import into photoshop to also achieve the isometric art style.

November 9, 2020November 9, 2020 by nextgenjordan Categories: 2D Art, 3D ArtTags: 2D Art, 3D Art Leave a comment

Robot Drone: Update – 02/11/20

As previously mentioned in my Robot Drone post, I felt a spherical body would probably be more beneficial for my model, and with that I have decided to restart my drone, same concept, but different design. In relation to this I have also updated my concept art post.

The first drone I felt didn’t really capture my original vision for this project and seemed like it couldn’t fit into the real world with its body shape, this one however looks more ergonomic and approachable.

It is worth noting that the drone takes inspiration from the previous one with the satellites, but it also includes more subtle details such as an indent for a handle to open the storage compartment, the camera bump is now more recognizable and again, it looks ‘friendlier’. To accompany the drone, I will also make the dock that it charges on.

So now that the drone is modelled, it is time to start UV unwrapping and mapping textures to the drone. Looking back, I am happier that I have decided to make this new drone, as with the previous one, it wasn’t falling in line with my original vision for the drone.

To start, I made a sphere and then changed and rotation of it, I then selected some faces to extrude as the wings on the drone.

Keeping the faces selected, I then chose the bevel option and then reselected the inside faces for extrusion and angled them upwards using the translate tool. After this, I rotated the faces to make them point upwards and then extruded again.

I then extruded the faces pointing up and extruded it a little bit more, then selecting the faces on the two longest sides, extruded them out to create my satellite plating.

So far so good, that is one side of the drone done, all I had to do then was mirror it, but before that, I started working on the back of the drone. I selected the inner circle faces and extruded them into the model.

For the drone of the drone, I done the same thing, selected the inner circle faces and extruded into the drone. I then selected the edges and moved them towards the original position, creating some sort of bump in the face.

From there, I then mirrored the model and that was it. The basic model was complete.

November 2, 2020November 30, 2020 by nextgenjordan Categories: 3D ArtTags: 3D Art Leave a comment

Robot Drone: Texel Density – 02/11/20

What is Texel Density?

Texel Density essentially exists so that when you come to UV modelling a 3D object, you can have the correct scale of texture’s for size and resolution purposes.

Why is it important?

Texel Density is important because if we’re creating 3D assets for a game or for a movie, you wouldnt want the textures to look as if they were stretched or looked blurry. By understanding Texel Density we should be able to create clean looking textures that look as if they are to scale and not stretched.

Why do we want to maximize Texel Density?

By maximizing our Texel Density, this will result in finer, more crisp looking textures. If we’re looking to create a realistic effect, we are going to want our textures at maximum resolution and UV’d appropriately.

Below is an example of what good Texel Density looks like and what poor Texel Density may look like. (Source)

November 2, 2020 by nextgenjordan Categories: 3D ArtTags: 3D Art Leave a comment

Spaceship: Final Model and Texture – 15/10/20

My model and texture for the Spaceship is finally complete, after many hours of UV unwrapping and texture mapping I can safely say alot has been learned. It isn’t a particularly steep learning curve however, it is a time consuming one, especially for more complex models like mine.

After I finished unwrapping the model I took the UV Map into photoshop with a basic idea of what I wanted it to look like, I am set on the green and white colour scheme because it matches with another project I am working on, so I will be using this model in that.

As seen in my previous post, I originally mapped the ship front to back and then left to right which in theory, to me, would have made the texturing a lot easier. Once the layout tool was used, the map organised it so I couldn’t immediately tell what piece went where.

UV mapped front to back, left to right.

UV map after layout tool was used.

So originally, my UV map had mesh components all over the place so figuring out which part was what on my model wasn’t particularly easy. However using a dual monitor setup I was able to select faces and see where they were and then texture it appropriately in Photoshop. So what started off as this.

A few hours (8-9 in total) later became this..

I coloured everything within this map and then applied a texture over the top. The texture I used, which is like a lowpoly camoflage texture was this one found here. (LINK). The UV itself isn’t perfect as some of the faces are scaled differently and shaped differently, despite it being a mirrored part of the model, which I think is fairly evident here…

So even though the 3D model is the same shape, the UV unwrapped differently for these two components and for that reason, for me, the most challenging part was UV Unwrapping, even though there is an automatic option which may or may not have provided a better map, the learning experience to take the ship apart piece by piece, is an artform in itself.

A lot of trial and error went in to the texture but I think that’s just part and parcel of the process anyway. I wish I was able to get the texture to be perfect in every way, there are some parts where the texture’s don’t link up on different parts, even by a pixel, but deleting those pixels in photoshop yield in a worse result. Take this as an example.

No matter what I do in photoshop, this texture will never align with the other face. Problem lies with UV unwrap.

Overall, for my first proper unwrap and texture, I am fairly happy with the outcome of my ship, it would have been nice to add more materials such as making the blasters glow or the indicators glow as well just to add a bit of drama to the model.

The skills I have taken away by completing this exercise only marks the start of what is yet to come, as the saying goes, practice makes perfect. I could have spent days trying to get every little niggle on the UV pixel perfect but its already pretty tight, I just make sure to expand the texture’s past the UV map but not to intersect with other parts of the map.

Now that I know how to box model, UV unwrap and texture in photoshop, I feel a lot more confident when it comes to creating future assets and I believe I have showcased my development well across my blog. The final model can be viewed over at Sketchfab.

https://skfb.ly/6VJoN

October 15, 2020October 16, 2020 by nextgenjordan Categories: 3D ArtTags: 3D Art Leave a comment

Robot Drone: What is Topology – 12/10/20

What is Topology? In the 3D Modelling world, Topology is all about a 3D models edges and structure. In a resource article from 3D modelling website TurboSquid (LINK) They mention that Topology affects many aspects of 3D modelling and rendering such as how highlights might react to a model, how easy it is to edit the models shape, how easy is it to UV unwrap and also how easy it is to rig and animate a model further down the line, they also mention that quad’s seem more favourable over triangles when it comes to meshes.

In this example from TurboSquid, linked above, they show the same model but with different meshes. It’s not even a contest as to which model looks cleaner and easier to work with.

On the left – Quads, On the right – Tri’s

So what is a Tri or a Quad… what even is an NGON. A tri is a face on a 3D mesh that has just 3 vertices and edges, a Quad is a face on a 3D mesh that has 4 vertices and edges and a NGON is an abomination, it is a face on a 3D mesh with 5 or more vertices or edges. However, it can always be subdivided into a tri, quad or combination of the two. This is an example of a NGON.

As we can see with this mesh in particular, we can divide it horizontally to give the selected faces 4 sides or we can divide it in 3 directions to make it all into tri’s which is probably a better idea since the rest of the faces on this mesh are made up of tri’s.

So should we avoid NGON’s? Absolutely. NGon’s can subdivide poorly and produce unwanted topology, even on a flat surface, they can disrupt work flows by making edge loops harder to select. Also when exporting models for use in a different 3D software, or maybe even a game engine, the model might not import the same as the model you made it to be.

October 12, 2020 by nextgenjordan Categories: 3D ArtTags: 3D Art Leave a comment

Robot Drone: Modelling – 5/10/20

In todays session, we began to model our Robot Drone, firstly in a low poly state. This is because its easier to create a basic shape of what we’re looking for aswell as mistakes that are easier to fix. To begin, we imported the reference plane’s we sketched up last session. I used Ben’s method of going to Orthographic view for the front and side and then in the view port window, selected View > Image Plane > Import Image.

From this point, I started to Box model from the side. I started with the side first because in my sketches, I was more happy with the side profile then the front profile. Up to now this is what I have so far.

Very basic low poly. The challenge I have for now is that I’m wanting a bulged sphere coming out for the camera and the laser. So far I have only use the circularize tool to create a circle in my mesh and brought it forward a bit.

So far I’m fairly happy with my basic low poly drone. I look forward to making the drone look better when it comes to using more polygons, but for now, the shape is coming on nicely.

The only thing I could possibly improve on would be the scaling of my reference planes. From the side, the drone doesn’t line up but the shape I have now I am happy with. From the front, its all well and good. Hopefully we can up the poly count to try and get a smoother shape.

It’s probably worth noting that I’d prefer a spherical body whereas what I’ve done here is made it all from one cube which has given me a desirable result, but the sphere would probably be more beneficial for my shape.

UPDATED POST

October 5, 2020November 30, 2020 by nextgenjordan Categories: 3D ArtTags: 3D Art Leave a comment

3D Spaceship: UV Mapping – 01/10/20

In this lesson today, we are going to be looking at UV unwrapping and texture mapping. I am going to be working on Spaceship 3 from my previous blog post. LINK.

So to begin with I started to work on the body, I selected all the faces on the top of the body of the ship, and then pressed Create > Planar and then Unfold > Unfold.

Alright, so the top looks great, just a load more to tidy up now. I then done the same to the bottom and the sides of the ship excluding the wings. This is the result so far.

It looks good, but before we get to the more complicated shapes, I started to do the front of the space ship. Starting with the window which was fairly straight forward.

Then started to work on the front of the ship and the window frame. I can’t see anything dodgy with this UV Map so far so I continued along to the back of the ship and the wings.

One eternity later, my UV unwrapping was complete. This has taken me a total of 9 hours and it is absolutely, a big mess. Nevertheless, here it is.

The way I have laid this out is at the bottom at the front and towards the top is the back of the ship, almost like a birds-eye view, left and right also taken into account.

UV Unwrapping isn’t the easiest thing to do in the world, and now I have to try and find a way to texture every part of my UV Map. After talking to a class mate, he alerted me to a button called Layout. This is what it looks like with that button applied.

This looks way tidier than what it was before, however it is harder to work out where or what some shapes are of my model. I look forward to the next step in this journey of modelling this spaceship.

October 1, 2020October 2, 2020 by nextgenjordan Categories: 3D ArtTags: 3D Art 1 Comment

Robot Drone: Plane Referencing – 28/9/20

Normally, whenever I think of a concept, I have always drawn them from the front and from the side so this is nothing new to me, however, Plane Referencing is. Plane Referencing is where you would use your images // sketches to help build your models to be like the shapes used in your images // sketches. So you would use these images // sketches in your 3D package to look at when making a 3D model to make your workflow more efficient.

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Drawing from the front and side definitely helps, it gives you a rough idea or visualisation of what you model might look like from the front and from the side. As mentioned above, I’ve always drawn my sketches like this when planning a 3D model for this particular reason.

Previously, we had drawn thumbnail sketches and other concept art which can be found here. LINK. From my thumbnail sketches, I would say the drone I’ve chosen has the most in common with them, the same kind of shape and figure as seen in the thumbnail sketches.

September 28, 2020October 5, 2020 by nextgenjordan Categories: 2D Art, 3D ArtTags: 2D Art, 3D Art Leave a comment