Week 3 introduced UV mapping through dice. We unfolded simple cubes and similar polygons and took the UV as a .png into Photoshop. This was highly useful in understanding how textures work. A key takeaway was the idea that anything in 3D space (real life or virtual) can be unfolded into a large 2D origami set of sorts. This is a daunting thought for the more complex polygons – especially those with loads of sub-divisions – but emphasises the importance of extruding carefully and modelling sensitively in respect to the UV mapping process. I nearly filled an entire notebook with ideas like this in one day which I will refer to going forward.
In Week 4, we were introduced to Adobe Substance, which requires even more a well-done UV map. It can be very useful in pointing out when a UV is simply unworkable as Faces may not appear or textures may appear warped.
I completed this texturing of Mike’s hammer model:
In Week 5, we went into Sketchfab, texturing Henry’s model and uploading it in order to explore the vast amount of 3D settings. I was particularly drawn to grain, depth of field and glow as they added a cinematic quality and style to the presentation of the model, which felt unique and artistic.
Below is how I rendered it:
