Visual Development: Scraper

This month, I took two classes. One of them was Visual Development, a follow up to Shading and Lighting (nine months after the first class...). The class was essentially creating different effects on objects using one material in Maya and how the lighting on them would create different results. We also needed to properly UV an object and create a texture map for that object.

We worked on the final scene for the last three weeks of class, starting with the object we were going to texture. We were given the choice of working with a gear, or a paint scraper. I chose the scraper, because the UVs were not easy to lay out, but the textures were not too difficult to create. We first started by assigning a surface shader to the object with a number grid laid out. The purpose of this is to line up the edges of the object to create seamless lines on the scraper, so that when an actual texture is applied, the it is seamless.

The plain scraper with no textures applied

Scraper with the number grid laid out

The UVs for the scraper laid out in the 0 to 1 space, using all available space

Our next job was to take our UVs and bring them into Photoshop, where we would use the tools there to create a texture for our object. I was given basic shots of the scraper, and needed to use those to create a final texture map using the original images. Using the clone stamp tool and masking, I was able to duplicate areas of the texture to fill in areas, and also remove highlights.

  Texture for the scraper created in Photoshop

Finally, we brought our textures back into Maya and applied it onto the scraper model and adding a basic bump onto the model to give the appearance of depth.

Final render of the scraper with bump added

All in all, this project helped me learn a lot more about properly creating UV maps, as well as using tools in Photoshop to create a realistic texture from reference and applying them in Maya properly. The second half of this project will be posted soon!

-Drew