UVs
UV mapping for me is always very difficult, however I found the mapping experience mostly okay with this project. I did come across a problem I had in Animated Narratives of accidentally splitting my UVs into many many sets across many many objects which is mind-boggling, but I simply was able to select the faces and copy them all into Map1 – the default set that is used when transferring into Substance.
Most of my UVs I achieved by sewing, creating a Planar view and cutting somewhere that was appropriate, then unfolding. During retopology, I tried to draw my quadrants in such a way that set up easy loops for UV mapping later – I remember Henry making this clear during our retopology tutorial so I stuck by this.
It did absolutely make a difference as it meant I could simply double click an edge and it would cut the entire way around.
A lot of my UVs were of clothing so it felt natural enough to have seams anyway, plus, the inclusion of my props meant that I could innovate and use seams in positions that I knew would never be seen.
The final outcome UV’d perfectly and I was able to begin texturing.
Here is my final UV map:
**Note the red on the bottom right is intentional as it is the inside of the camera lens cylinder that is not seen at all in the final outcome.
Texturing in Substance
For the first time, I actually went in with the paint brush to create some interesting textures for my character. I began by blocking out materials on each UV, and then went in with a brush to create a dynamic sense of depth for my character that I believe in the end really brought him to life.
I used leathers for the shoes and camera strap, wool for the sweatshirt, metals for the camera, plastics for the travel coffee mug, and I actually ended up using a rough plastic for my character’s fur.
This was absolutely a stylistic decision as I believe the bumpiness created the illusion of fur which is absolutely what I was going for – not lifelike fur itself. Painting was this further enhanced the illusion as I was able to create a sense of nuance and variation within the colours of his face as well highlighting and enhancing certain areas with the use of brighter and darker tones.
Baking
I baked my character to the original Blender sculpt of my character as well, which enabled me to make any detail adjustments in a smooth, fluid manner that didn’t affect either my UVs or my face count.
The next step was posing my character and uploading to SketchFab.