- Collecting References
- Background Templates and Key Facial Zones
- Step 1. Creating the Initial Design
- Step 2. Dividing the Work Into Zones
- Step 3. Plotting Points in 3D Space with Rail Molds
- Step 4. Developing the Cage Further with Key Facial Zone Object Rails
- Step 5. Modeling Isolated Key Facial Zones
- Step 6. Connecting the Key Facial Zones Together
- Step 7. Creating the UV Map for Painting
- Step 8. Mixing Mediums for Texture Creation
- Step 9. Applying the Fur
- Step 10. Fur Combing
- Step 11. Fur Coloring, Shading, and Shadowing
- Summary
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Step 8. Mixing Mediums for Texture Creation
With texture creation, you get the opportunity to work in a 2D environment with your favorite paint package. This can be photo manipulation or entirely hand crafted to get the results you are after.
Because you know that the UV map is going to work the way you want, you can move on to texture creation. The color texture shown in Figure 9 (probably the most interesting) uses both photographic and painted pixels. I choose to use a photograph as a starting basis because of its tones. Photographs seem to hold a large tonal variation that can be difficult to emulate by hand.
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Figure 9 The face texture.
When using photographs for texturing, you have to watch out for a few things, but I believe light equalization is most important. Most photographs have been captured under normal lighting conditions, i.e. they have shadow direction shown on the map. That's where the painting side of things comes in, to try and equalize or eliminate the light and shading on the photograph.
TIP
Paint the parts for one half of the head and then mirror them to create the whole map. Then manipulate the parts on one side of the head making it asymmetrical. Much the same as the steps taken to mirror the isolated parts except applied in a 2D nature.
The model at this stage with open GL textures applied should look like the model illustrated in Figure 10. The texture is applied to the face surface using the UV point information.
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Figure 10 Open GL screen grab.
It may have seemed difficult to get to this stage, but in doing so you deserve some credit. Take a step back and try to digest a few of the techniques that made life easier (or at least should have) in the previous sections. If you have learned anything it should be that planning can make daunting situations more manageable ... tackling the fur is no different.