Texturing Challenge!
 

Texturing!

The goal is to take one (or more) of the provided models and texture AND light them to the best of your ability. They can be textured as if for games or using all the Sub-Surface-Scattering-bells-and-whistles your heart desires!

The guidelines:

1) This is a texturing and lighting challenge, so SOME kind of texturing must be done. Your textures are not limited, but if you'd like to go for game type work, feel free to limit yourself accordingly.

2) The models provided are BASE models. That means you are free to modify them if you wish. Some of the character models provided don't have eyes, for example. Feel free to add them. Also, several of them have some sort of UVs applied. Feel free to modify and edit them to suit your own needs.

3) The deadline is June 4th!

4) All work must be done by the artist submitting. You may submit one entry per model. So if you want to texture each and every model provided, you are free to do so and submit an entry for each one. Only one submission per model worked on though.

5) This one's important. If any of you decide that you really like the work you've done and want to include it in your portfolio, I must be credited for supplying the base model! This is just common courtesy and should be done even if the base models are heavily modified. :) I can be credited as Michael McKinley and you can link my name to my website (link in my sig).

6) There's no limit as to what software you can use to create your textures. From Photoshop to MS Paint, they're all applicable.

7) A finals thread will be created toward the end of the challenge. Finals should be posted there, with screens/renders of the final result along with a (watermarked if desired) image of the textures created.

If you have any questions, ask them here. Keep a look out for any addendums or additions to the guidelines as issues are brought up and answered.

Prize to be determined.

Provided Models
-------------------------
http://www.mtmckinley.net/SimplyMaya/May/Cadbury.jpg
http://www.mtmckinley.net/SimplyMaya/May/Cadbury.obj

Sir Cadbury is a cartoon-style knight. Feel free to make him up to be cartoony or realistic or any style you'd like!

http://www.mtmckinley.net/SimplyMaya...artoon_Gun.jpg
http://www.mtmckinley.net/SimplyMaya...artoon_Gun.obj

A cartoonish, futuristic weapon. Feel free to make it as realistic as you'd like!

http://www.mtmckinley.net/SimplyMaya...wgirl_Head.jpg
http://www.mtmckinley.net/SimplyMaya...wgirl_Head.obj

The head from the Calamity Jane project of my second book. Unfortunately, I'm unable to provide the entire model.

http://www.mtmckinley.net/SimplyMaya/May/Patches.jpg
http://www.mtmckinley.net/SimplyMaya/May/Patches.obj

Patches is Sir Cadbury's trusty horse and also done up in his cartoony style. Again, make him realistic if you'd like to!

http://www.mtmckinley.net/SimplyMaya/May/tank.jpg
http://www.mtmckinley.net/SimplyMaya/May/tank.obj

A simple object can sometimes be the most challenging to texture. Here is a simple cylindrical shape. I'd like to see what you guys can do with it!

Sounds like fun,

I'm nearing the end of my university year so I think that I'm up for this one.

I'll start a thread shortly.

Good luck folks,

Mat.

You may need to right click the save links and "Save File As..." as sometimes when just left clicking them, they open up as text files.

Count me in!

*Puts on some techno/trance/rave music, cranks up the base to "ear-bleeding" and get's to work*

Thanks Mike :D

FYI:

If texturing for renders (not games) you don't have to try to fit an entire mesh's UVs onto one texture or anything. You can have a texture for the face, a texture for the eyes, a texture for the hands, etc if you wanted.

If texturing for game type stuff, that's when you want to try to fit as much as you can onto a single texture map. Typical game texture resolutions are:

1024x1024
512x512
256x256
128x128
etc.

Normal maps, spec maps, etc are all free to use. Feel free to zbrush the heck out of these things if you'd like. :)

ooo this looks fun (must try and organise time around uni work....)
thats a nice selection of models mike :)

Si

Whats that cylinder supposed to be, Not very child safe :eek:
But seriously, can i do that (You know what i mean)? I'd keep it clean...ish

It was originally made to be a canister worn on someone's back, like a scuba tank.

Or those wierd green-stuff-filled canisters that were on the back of Calamity Jane? :D

or that ;)

if anyone has any questions about how to texture or anything, feel free to ask here. :) That's what the community is here for.

Thanks to Severinianthony, I can somewhat UV texture map. For times sake, I would like if someone could instruct me how to use shader's or textures that I download from the web. More specifically, once I download, where do I need to put the files, or does it matter?

You're supposed to make your textures yourself for the challenge. :)

But anyway, color maps apply to the color attribute, transparency maps to transparency attribute, bump map to bump attribute, etc.

I understand we're supposed to make our own textures. But what about using images from the web in the creation of those textures. i.e. downloading wood panelling for a wood texture?

how to open .objs?
 

how does one open the .obj file in Maya 7 on a MAC? I get an "urecognized format" error message when trying to import the file [which shows up as a .txt icon on my desktop even after changing the extension to .obj].

Cheers!
Adam

sure you can go get photo sources for your textures. I'd recomend trying to avoid simply taking photos from the web and slapping them on your model as-is.

I don't have a Mac so I'm not sure about your problem abstainer. Can you "Save File As..." on a Mac and save it straight to your computer as an .obj?

You may need to turn on the .obj plug in in Maya under Window > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager

figured it out...had to use Firefox browser and then did have to add that plug-in...thanks!

Hmm, IÕm thinking about joining the challenge next month. Do they rotate from Modeling and Texturing every month? :confused:

no, the challenges don't follow any kind of order. This one just started, why not join in now? :)

Why not join now? Because I absolutely suck at UV mapping and my texturing skills arenÕt as good as my modeling skills. ;)

BTW, are there any other challenges besides the Modeling and Texturing?

In my opinion, that's all the more a better reason to join on in while you have the opportunity (this month). You'll be surrounded by people doing the same thing, willing to lend a hand or some advice; I say take advantage of it.

If not for the sake of winning, at least do it for the sake of learning. :D

We also just moved into a new house, and schoolÕs ending this month, so IÕll be much more busy this month than usual.

Make my own textures? I don't think I like you anymore Mike (hehe). Just kidding, will be good for me. Thanks for the info.

Final image
 

What should the final image be like?
Must we do a render of the model textured standing on e.g. a Grey plane or should we do a full scene, posing the character in a better pose and portray some action?

either way is fine, present the model and textures the best you can.

No.

We have had animation, dynamics etc...

Maybe a cloth challenge next month.

a cloth challenage would be very hard to set up as it really is verson depedent. Not everyone has the full version of maya, and if they do, it might be 8.5 which now has ncloth which is alot different than maya cloth (and a lot easier).

even if it was a syflex challenage it does not surport any verson of maya under 6.5 and as yet no 8.5 surport.

Don`t think we`ll ever get a cloth challenge really going here.

its been awhile scene a animate challenage was set !!!

thank you man

So, I've a question for you guys. Considering this challenge was to end in just a couple days and several people are just now getting their UVs completed, would you like more time? The textures should be the main focus of the challenge afterall, not the UVs (although very important).

Just curious. I want you guys to all have entries you can be proud of.

I'm pretty much done with mine but I'm totally okay with lengthening the deadline to give others time to finish. Good idea mtmckinley.

Wouldn't mind a few more days to explore all the venues made possible through the hard and mindboggling labour of UV'ing. Namely Alpha, colour, spec and bump. For me the challenge is complete, but doesn't stop here no matter where you set the deadline haha. I've UV mapped something fully and I am so glad I did, meaning it's all fun from here on.
But I hear you. It'd be nice to have time to leave an endresult to be more proud of, and something that is more flattering to the great base models provided to us.

It's also great fun to see all the nice designs the participants are coming up with.

What a long way to say, I'm easy.

I'd personally like more time to work on it, but my plane's taking off tomorrow, so I'd be out of luck, but feel free to give the other users more time; I'd still love to see more from AlphaFlyte, for one :p

Any chance a "finals" thread could be put up, even if you do give the other users more time? I'd still like to be able to put up whatever I can get done in my last day. :D

And just in case you didn't see my Spain thread in the Lounge, would you like any specific pictures of anything from Spain, Mike? :D

I feel I`m almost done so .......

Completed challege
 

I'm almost done - will finish off tonight.
I will rather have a new challenge earlier next month than have the current challenge extended.

Well, I'm out of town the rest of this week, so I'll just extend it through this weekend.

June 4th is the deadline!

The Final Entry threads are now up though, so feel free to post your finals at any time.

damn, work kept me away from finishing my canister...

hope to be up for the next run...

curious,

Badger