This week, we were introduced to the technique of using UV mapping to implement more complex textures into our 3D modelling projects.
To begin, I added a dotted texture to the cube to create a dice. Although the design didn’t wrap the cube correctly at first, I was able to adjust the cube’s faces on the UV map on a separate display on blender.
Moving onto a different object, the coke can, I realised that I would just wrap the entire cylinder with the coca cola design, instead I set the base colour by creating a metallic silver in the material tab for the can, before selecting the mid-section of the mesh and setting it as the UV map, therefore allowing the silver at the top and base of the cylinder to show through, creating a more interesting design.
The most complex object to wrap was the hammer design, mainly due to the wrapping being warped on either side of the hammer’s head. I learned that the checker pattern was used by 3D modellers to ensure that future textures won’t be warped when displayed on the object.
By gradually progressing to practice on unwrapping and mapping more complex designs, I was able to get a better grasp on the shape language of different parts of the model. This, in turn, allowed me to understand the integral ‘building blocks’ of the 3D structure, and gave me insight as to how the texture would look on the final product.