AlphaFlyte - May - Texturing - Page 3 - Simply Maya User Community

# 31 31-05-2007 , 02:53 PM

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Mmmm that's a little too out there and out of control. Let's settle for something more inbetween and far more comfortable.

I'll work from something like this. Feel free to critique btw. It's in the refining stages. Still struggling with the alpha mask for the eye lashes and I can't get the glasses to read as cheap- shit-plastic-70s enough. A project for tomorrow user added image

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Last edited by AlphaFlyte; 31-05-2007 at 02:59 PM.

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# 32 01-06-2007 , 06:12 AM

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Test mode on. Can't get my head around matte lines in alpha masks just yet. Experimenting on cubes. It's not very exciting and pretty much hit and miss so I won't post any test screenies here until I know a solution with a controlled outcome. Thought it was due to anti-aliasing on the edges of the alphamask but no. Tried with crisp hard edged brush as well as gaussian blurred edges. It's still there. Been playing with alpha gain and default colour in balance tab. When alpha drives luminance they disappear but you also loose control over what's transparent and not. The on or off state that is desired for control.

Here's a bumpamp verifier to quickly check what direction white or black dictates. Somewhat useful. Right-click->save as if you want.

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# 33 01-06-2007 , 02:04 PM

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hmmm... what's the problem that you're having with your alpha mask? - if it's that you can see the edge of the plane, it's probably because it's reflecting specularity - all you need to do is apply your alpha mask / transparency map to the specularity and it should solve it....sorry if i'm completely off base - i had a bit of a trouble following you. user added image

Edit: Lavender?? what women have you been talking to? Martha Stewart?! user added image

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Last edited by arran; 01-06-2007 at 02:08 PM.

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# 34 01-06-2007 , 03:31 PM

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ahaha. Martha Stewart killed me. You nailed what I eerily felt somewhere subconciously but could not name.

Anyway here's the matte lines I am referring to. It's a blue single color map with a black V on it. The transparency map is the exact same, only in black and white. See the darker blue matte lines? This becomes a problem around UV edges and more importantly for overlapping areas such as hair, eyebrows, eyelashes. Now to make clean edges for the outskirts of the hair l I figured out all I have to do is make sure it's either 100% white or 100% black. It seems obvious but it's very easy to get uggly straight bands of some semi-transparent mush.

Thanks for the input arran. I'll try and plug the transparency map into specular color and see what happens. Cheers for the help m8.

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# 35 01-06-2007 , 03:39 PM

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hmmm - i'm afraid this is all still new to me - i've only used alpha maps once before - so i'm not sure what's going on. maybe you could post a question in the basic forum - just to catch those too lazy to get over to the challenge forum....

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# 36 01-06-2007 , 03:45 PM

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That could have something to do with lighting or AA. Try rendering it out i a higher setting and adding a few lights to the scene.

"If Less is more then think how much more more would be..."

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# 37 01-06-2007 , 03:58 PM

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Cheers Some Guy but that's not it. The result is the same on production quality and with stadium lighting. I've tried a multitude of the settings for filtering, anti-aliasing etc throughout the day. It could be some setting that I've missed.
It looks like some kind of multiply problem, gain, offset problem. Gah. I wish I was born technical :p

The problem may look minor in this context but it looks terrible on the hair and eyelashes (then again that could also be my sloppy and badly painted textures ontop of the matte problem user added image

)

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Last edited by AlphaFlyte; 01-06-2007 at 04:15 PM.

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# 38 01-06-2007 , 06:26 PM

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Closing in on final. The eyelashes probably as good as I can get them with my current know-how, but they're bugging the crap out of me.
Here's my take on Bond-babe sidekick romantics. Became more of a technical exercise than a solid concept. Had fun though. Tons of it.

Any last crits are more than welcome. Be brutal. I can handle it user added image

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Last edited by AlphaFlyte; 01-06-2007 at 06:33 PM.

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# 39 01-06-2007 , 06:52 PM

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And with zem funneh looking glasses of the 70s

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# 40 01-06-2007 , 07:07 PM

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You've come a long ways Alpha. I love your determination! Keep pressing on man

Don't be satisfied with what you can do but rather strive to do the things you can't do!
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# 41 02-06-2007 , 11:51 AM

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Cheers Perfecto. You know it's a lot of fun doing these challenges alongside others in the same boat. Learn from eachother and pick up tricks here and there. I think we've learned tons to be honest user added image

This challenge was perhaps the most important one yet coz it's a fundamental part of 3D. UVs are not flashy, not extravagant but it unlocks a huge door to the next level.
I am surprised not more participated coz it's one of the most reoccuring questions in Maya Basics and Texture part of the forums.

One of the goals I set early was to make it obviously different than Mike's girl. That requirement has not been met. I naively thought this whole UV thing would be overwith in a week and then onto Mudbox or something fun to really start playing around with those epilepsy maps that Severini used (normal maps). That's something I really wanna come to grips on.

Most important from this challenge I learned a way to UV map. I would do it differently next time. The sides of the head for instance wastes way too much texture space in my current layout. It would have been neat to have only the front of the face in a as true representation of the model as possible and downsize the sides of the face a whole lot. A more oval shaped UV map.

Next time I will start with the alpha masks before anything gets painted at all. It becomes too much to juggle when you have alpha, color, spec, and bump map to debug.
Will definatily look into more ways of doing more interesting hair and think more in terms of outline and silhouette. Form first. Still a ton to learn in this department.

A note I must keep in mind. Have a plan. It's so easy to get lost in technical things and loose the idea. Concept must drive everything. Modeling, UV'ing, painting. Failed at this for this challenge and the result is a weak concept.

It's been a sweet sweet learning experience and the outcome well, it looks like bad CG, but next time I have more foundation to do better user added image

Thanks to all of you who've shared their experiences, input and encouragements, and hopefully see you next challenge user added image

Currently working on reclaiming Space
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Last edited by AlphaFlyte; 02-06-2007 at 12:07 PM.

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