Ok, this was really hard to get the old head around, but this technique is mostly used in Games, but useful for what I’m doing at the moment.
Say you need to combine 2 different diffuse maps for a character that has a large UV island for a hi-res Texture and the other for low-res.
A good example would be a full character UV where the heads UV would need to have more space to use a 2K map, and the rest of the body just needed a 1K map.
In my case I needed a 4K texture map for one single tentacle and a 2K map for the rest of the serpent. ( see example below )
-1 to 1 UV space for multiple resolution textures
the darker tentacle has the 4K map
To achieve this requires that you move one portion of the UV to -1,0 and the one would remain on 0,1. to move the texture you need to;
Create a layered texture node
add the 2 textures
make sure the first texture is using ‘over’
make sure the textures “Default color” is black.
in the place2dtexture node, change the translate frame to -1 , 0
turn off any wrapping, stacking
to see the updated result you have to change the view > image range in the UV editor menu to -1 on both minimum
select the texture you want to preview, make sure its in the right place, as Maya will not preview the texture properly
Do a test render, if all is well you should be able to see both textures on the model
If you are getting any weird alphas check the default color and turn of alpha is luminance
The scales will eventually be scaled down and multiplied to achieve the smooth effect, as this is only a test i didn’t want to waste too much time on processing.
Notes
Using nurbs patches I manually covered the Poly geometry ( which has been rigged and skined, doing this avoids breaking things )
Created a wrap deformer to the poly Geo
Tested the rig to make sure everything was OK
Modelled a single polygon scale, making sure to create the UV as well
Applied Dodo Master to the Nurbs patch and adjusted settings as needed.
Mudbox to Maya IBL render
Next was to make sure I could generate various maps from the hi-res mudbox sculpt; textures were 2k and 4k in size and rendered with a HDR IBL
Diffuse
Ambient Occlusion
Specular
Gloss ( spec fall off )
Bump
Vector Displacement
Everything but the vector displacement map was pretty easy to hook up to a Blinn shader network below.
Why vector displacement
A lot faster to render ( by a factor of 2 – 3 )
Not just limited to up and down displacement, which would provide a smoother deform.
A ‘lot’ easier and faster to generate from mudbox.
The problem is that Mental Ray 2011 doesn’t support vector displacement maps! Seems crazy that something so good should be left out…
But thankfully to another great script by Wayne Robson – vector displace shader - DL I was able to hook up and use the vector displacement map no problems.
notes
when extracting the vector displacement map from mudbox use either world, or object space tangents.
add a mental ray subdivision approximate to the geomtry
Connect Wayne’s shader to the Shading Group’s displacement input.
That’s it! Previously I have had major headaches with extracting and rendering standard displacement maps, but using VDM made things so much easier. The still render took only 1 min with IBL and Final Gather switched on to 256. Optimising pipelines FTW.
So for a little fun I comped the render in photoshop for some monster action! Cheesy I know, but what the heck
Want to create a holograph with Maya? I designed this very easy to use hologram shader for a personal project and now I’m pleased to share it with you to use on your personal projects.
This is a simple procedural hologram shader for MAYA SOFTWARE renderer. The shader renders very fast and has a cool stylised look.
It uses a lambert shader as its base with a samplerInfo node controlling the dropoff thus emulating a fresnel effect, this gives greater control to the artist by adjusting the holo_dropoff_ramp visually while making sure the fall off always faces outward.
A perlin noise map ( Holo_noise ) is used to add depth and contour by mapping it to the bump channel. You can control this effect bump adjusting the holo_noise_bump depth.
As a hologram is generated by emitting light you will need to add a light source to get the full effect as seen in the provided scene example. This will add more depth and contrast.
Try using light linking to control the style without effecting the rest of the scene.
Looking forward to my trip to Canberra this weekend, but I needed some new music for my iPod – so I snuck out of class early today to record this short 60 min mix.
Click on the CD cover above to start listening or download the mix on soundcloud
Everyone loves free stuff and I’m certainly no different. Since taking up 3D animation & Modeling I have been busy collecting free textures for material shaders from the internet and magazine CDs. But the problem with using these textures is that everyone else has them too!
So to get a bit more flare and creativity into my models nothing beats hand making your textures using programs like photoshop & my latest love – ImageSynth 2. I will be covering imageSynth in another post soon but for now in the spirit of file sharing.
I would like to share with you 40 free textures of trees, bark and interesting rock formations.
I took these textures around campus today, the weather was perfect for photography – overcast and cloudy and just after a light rain shower.
Enjoy the freebies, these are shared under creative commons – so if you enjoy or use the textures, please spread the word and link to my site.
VFX Artist for Hire ( Wordwide )
I need to work - doesn't matter in which department or pipeline as long as I'm working in Visual effects, post production or CG related areas with passionate like minded people.
Willing to relocate and pay for my own way if the right project is offered.
Email: webbyeasy@gmail.com
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