Summary:
In-Class Task: Our In-Class task was to UV Map a Warhammer designed by Mike.
BELOW IS MIKE’S EXAMPLE DESIGN: (NOT MINE!)
Homework: (A TRAGICOMEDY OF BLUNDERS, ERRORS, & LESSONS LEARNED)
TASK: Design and UV Map a “Helmet…using Substance painter…should include a single colour/diffuse map, a metallic map, a roughness map and a Normal map to be applied in blender as shown in the class videos”.
INDEPENDENT RESEARCH:
I also watched various tutorials on how to design a basic helmet and used some of the advice to help construct my own.
This tutorial was very helpful:
PROGRESS PICS:
Base Model:
This model consists of 3 main shapes:
- Wings – shaped from a Plane Primitive (Mirror modifier applied)
- Visor – also shaped from a Plane Primitive
- Cowl/Head-Piece – shaped from a Sphere Primitive
PROBLEMS I ENCOUNTERED:
The main two problems consisted in the Visor and Cowl.
- The Visor was too complex a shape and I didn’t give it enough proper planning or thinking. It would have been far better to do a less complicated shape. Because the setup of it’s geometry was so poor – that lead to further complications at EVERY NEXT STAGE OF THE PROCESS including unwrapping, texturing, and importing back into Blender.
- LESSON LEARNED: Having a solid foundation for your model is ESSENTIAL and if you mess it up it can have a knock-on effect on every next process you try to push it through.
- The Cowl had a similar problem. I suspect something went wrong with it during the process of splitting the Sphere Primitive and then applying a mirror modifier to it so I could morph it symmetrically into the shape of a head. Whatever went wrong, I didn’t realise it until I got to the stage of texturing in Substance Painter, by which point I tried to go back into Blender and correct the problem but couldn’t trace the source of it’s dysfunction. Perhaps it was something to do with my proportional editing – still not sure.
- LESSON LEARNED: There were/are simpler ways to have gone about this; instead of using a Sphere and a mirror modifier, I could have just used a Cylinder Primitive and more easily turned that into the shape of a human head.
References used for Helmet:
The “Ancient Falmer Crown” from “The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim”.
As well as, the “Helm of the Crusader” from “The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion”.
Model with Checker Texture:
Model UV Map after Unwrapping:
PROBLEMS I ENCOUNTERED:
- This map is faulty and very difficult to work with. It resulted from my model’s poor geometry which made it difficult to tell where edges began and ended (This may have been contributed to by the “merge” setting on my “mirror” modifiers – as well as my “solidify” modifier). This in turn made it hard to tell where to place seams in order to unwrap the objects – resulting in this incredibly faulty UV Map. Even to the degree that certain UV Islands are splintering off and crumbling into individual disconnected faces at their edges.
- LESSON LEARNED: The geometry of a model (it’s mesh) needs to be as simple and clear as possible in order to create a simple and clear UV Map
UV Colour/Diffuse/Albedo Map:
PROBLEMS I ENCOUNTERED:
- The problem exacerbates further. As you can see here, when I tried to export and paint the UV Map in Substance Painter – it was incredibly hard to texture. I tried initially to apply a cloth texture to my cowl but quickly realised that because of the way my map was set up, one side of the cowl showed up clearly with the texture and the other one was blurred. I realised that that very large UV Island (which I ended up colouring Gold) was actually mainly made up of the Right side of the cowl. The Left side of the cowl (THE BLURRY SIDE) was actually smushed right at the centre of the large UV Island which meant it didn’t take to the texture the same way – because the texture was applied evenly across two unevenly sized sides on the UV Map.
- Not only that, but the model was so poorly unwrapped that even trying to colour directly on the UV Map meant that (somehow) splashes of colour were leaking onto other UV Islands that I didn’t want to be leaked onto.
- LESSON LEARNED: EVERY STEP MATTERS. I have to repeat again. Geometry affects unwrapping affects texturing.
Model Material Nodes:
There honestly weren’t as many problems plugging in all of the nodes, it’s just that the result was heavily messed up due to all of the aforementioned problems
I want to acknowledge how important the help of my friends was here. There were so many times throughout this particular project that I REALLY needed help and it ironically lead to a powerful bonding experience between me and my fellow classmates (who have become some of my dear friends). I want to give special thanks to: Miller Elston, Emily Cole, James Miskelly, and Lauren Connolly.
FINAL MODEL:
With my textures I ended up leaning into the messy and abstract look – which looks kind of cool – but overall I think the model and it’s Mapping are relatively unsalvageable at this point. The model couldn’t properly be rendered into an image because it seemed that whatever I did the object just wouldn’t even LIGHT UP. It would either appear very dark or blindingly white regardless of the lighting setup. The image you see above was gained by turning off the “The Scene World” and “Scene Lights”.
SLIGHT SURPRISE IMPROVEMENT SOLUTIONS:
Me and my friends contacted each other last minute and suggested some solutions to the remaining problems.
They recommended I change the “Colour Space” of some of my nodes from “sRGB” to “Non-Color”. Doing so did improve the look of the Helmet somewhat: (Though we do see that clear split in the quality of the texture right down the centre of the golden cowl)
When I look at the model in my “Viewport Shading” Method in my 3D Viewport – this is the image I get:
But when I try to render that same image through blender – this is the image I get: (Strange)
“And so ends this strange eventful history.”
SHAKESPEARE, “AS YOU LIKE IT”
