Building a water tap model and adding UV mapping on it
Result
And put it into a scene
Work In Progress
Metal texture from lostandtaken.com
I would like to apply the texture to my model.
The UV for my tap goes wrong ..
I shouldn’t cut it that way…
After severe hours of the cut and sew surgery … Sometimes, Maya don’t know how to unfold my UV and crashed.
That one is much more better.I fixed my tap !
The Result
With bumpmap and color correction
Other color and bumpmap testing
Reflection
I suppose I will not very keen on this topic of UV mapping in my future career, as it gave me such a huge frustration after hours and hours working time. Even I can fix my tap in this assignment, hard to imagine another task for UV again with aims of as distortion-free as possible. As UVs are vital because they provide the link between a surface mesh and how an image texture gets applied onto that surface. They are basically marker points that control which pixels on the texture corresponds to which vertex on the 3D mesh. But still I am gonna say, I hope I can be a specialist in other fields other than UV mapping.
Modelling objects for the dinner table scene, including cheese, bread, plates, wine bottle and window curtain.
Result
Work In Progress
Lighting Design
I need to stand out the bottle from background
Adding back light to it
Different light and texture testing for the objects
I think this one is much better
Reflection
I enjoy working on glass texture the most, even it takes longer rendering time. The important thing is to make the reflections look natural. And I am quite satisfied with my result , which reflect and refract light around the room, while the purplish wine color can also be able to reflect though the greenish bottle. However, the object of liquid has been scaled down slightly, hence, the gap between the glass and the liquid is quite obvious to cause the rendering does not look realistic. I will definitely put more efforts on this issue later on.
In my second 3DE tutorial, I have to apply the tracking method into a human face.
It is also essential to place the tracker point in most recognisable area.
How to identify good reference points in sight to locate a tracker point : 1. High in color contrast. 2. Clearly defined edges. 3. Limit the track region within a same depth. 4. The search region should have sufficient distinction from the track region.
Take my tracking point as an example in below (Figure 2.1):
Figure 2.1 – Tracking points in background. Figure 2.2
Especially for trackpoint “02” and “14” (in Figure 2.2), they are high-contrast and obvious stickers of the pole. I also resize the tracker region within the pole area as a long vertical rectangle.
And when all these principles apply to a human face, basically they are the same. With some friendly reminders for myself :
1. The centre trackpoint in the middle of forehead is quite an essential point to determine the rotation of the head.
2. The points for left and right sides on face should be even.
3. Be aware the points which are close to the edge of the face. For example (Figure 2.3), on the right hand side of the main character, trackpoint “17” is a point that lost its way for a few frames.
Figure 2.3 – Tracking points, which I select to optimize my tracking in my 3DE on a human face.Figure 2.4 from Insider.com to show the face trackpoints in Pirates of the Caribbean
Looking at the Pirates of the Caribbean movies as an example (Figure 2.4), the trackpoints on Bill Nighy’s face showing the same technique for animate the facial expression of the character in movie.
Result
Figure 2.4 – The result of the classwork of matchmoving on face track
The rotation movement is not sensitive enough, as there are no sufficient trackpoints on the character right hand side. But so far, I am quite satisfied with the result.
Lighting source from HDRI , a light portal for each window, and fill light for the furniture.
Testing for different lighting angle and HDRI :
Night sunset scene
Morning forest scene
Warm sunset – front
Warm sunset – Side
I quite enjoy working on the light shape on the wall, but for other areas are either overexposure or underexposure ,which are not easy to adjust with the same lighting setting. Maybe I will need other lighting source for them. Also, the lighting shape is still softer than I expected, as it comes from the HDRI, that I still want to look for a harder lighting one. My tutor suggested that I can adjust the lighting with separating passes in Nuke later, which I will learn it in next term. So, let me shift my focus on other aspects in Maya at this moment.
My first tutorial of learning how to use 3D Equalizer to do matchmoving, and here are the things that I should always bear in mind:
Adjust the gamma and contrast in image control setting, which is non-destructive to the footage, to find the most recognisable area for the tracker points.
Avoid water surface and glass reflections.
Place tracker points evenly from inward to outward. All the x&y axis and z-depth should be covered. ( as image belowed)
A capscreen from 3DE tutorial on class.
From this tutorial, I have experienced what a matchmove artist will do in his/her daily job routine.
According to the description on screenskills.com, “Matchmove artists match computer-generated (CG) scenes with shots from live-action footage so the two can be convincingly combined. They recreate live-action backgrounds (plates) on a computer in a way that mirrors the camera on the set in every way, including lens distortion.”
And I have learnt matchmove artist is an entry level job position in the industry, thats why we, as the students, should practise the skill. Perhaps it is one of the positions I would like to work on after my graduation.
Here is my first maya modelling lesson in this week
Classwork
Here is the modelling result after following the first tutorial.
Self-practise
After that, I have to build more furniture. I found a set of table and chairs on Ikea quite affordable.
Work In Progress
Chair in 360 degree
Table in 360 degree
‘Insert Edge Loop’ and ‘Extrude’ (Ctrl + E) are the main two functions that I used for building the models. More realistic by adjusting uneven edges and faces for imperfect human touch.
More realistic by adjusting uneven edges and faces for imperfect human touch.
Also, I used grab tools to create the softness for the seat.
The result of modellingRender result with physical sky light.
Result
I am quite satisfied with modelling result, but for texture and lighting, there is still a long way to go. The main learning objectives for this week included: adding imperfection to models, get familiar with Maya’s interface and using ‘Extrude’ to extend a piece of model.
