Maya tutorial/Evaluation

Now that the textures has been made in photoshop, I can now look into how to put theses textures object in maya which hopefully should not be too difficult to do but will most likely take a while to do  because I dont work a lot in Maya...I have only done basic modelling and some animation which I will do for this project also.

I have been looking at a few tutorials online and the best one I came across was this one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQKdfJ1vVnQ

I will learn the basics and use this to texture the structures later in our project once who structures have been modelled. I am very pleased with how this unit has gone, the progression of learning a new subject (metal) in depth is very rewarding as I can confidently painting and soon will be able to texture the material. Learning the basics is really vital then to express myself and explore within that area is my favourite part also the progress or journey that it takes to reach the final outcome, I find more interesting than the final outcome its self. Learning how to paint and texture this metal will be invaluable for me not only for my 2 final projects but also for my future paintings.

Test with colours

Now im experimenting with the colours for the two chosen materials I liked, by changing the contrast, saturation and colour it can create very different looks of the material. The colour and Light book defiantly helped me creating different varied looks...

After creating six variations I decided to narrow it down to three (3, 4 & 7) and see how they will look on an object when texturing in maya...

Photos

I took some photos of metal around the house specifically how the light would reflect the fictional material however the I think the rough rock texture will be interesting how it affects the light reflection.

Combinations with rock materials

I started to experiment with different types of Rock textures with the two cerium type metals.

I mixed the two materials together by changing the layer type to 'Overlay' or 'Vivid light'. The mix of the two blend quite well gives a shiny rock look, I like the reflectional light of the metal and the cracks, scratches from the rock. I like the look of no. 1 and 2 of the first page. I will experiment with those two further.

Textures

I found some texture for the cerium metal and found some other metals that have the same properties and merged the textures together with rock/stone textures

Cerium suitable texture.

Metal with similar properties as Cerium

Properties of The metal Cerium

On deciding on what metal to choose I did not want to use a common metal such as steel or aluminium,  our environment is unique and undiscovered, therefore I decided to choose a rare earth metal that found in the lanthanide series on the periodic table. 

The metal is called 'Cerium' 

Symbol: Ce
Electron configuration: Xe 4f1 5d1 6s2
Atomic number: 58
Melting Point: 795° C
Boiling point: 3,443° C
Atomic mass: 140.116 ± 0.001 u

It is a soft, ductile metal that easily oxidises in air, which gives a hint about our environment, it has no oxygen.

Reason for focusing on metal

The reason why I decided to focus on metal is because for both of my projects metal is involved. 

The texturing in maya for 3D and for the concept art  for 2D.

I would like to try and mix two materials materials one being a rare earth metal and possibly wood or stone which I can already draw and paint comfortably. I think this would be very interesting for my main project (environment one) to create a fictional material using the characteristics of real materials combined. 

Robot Metal Painting

This is a concept painting for my other project (Jeromes robot one) and I used the knowledge learned about metal so far and implemented textures etc.

I really like how the final robot looks in terms of how real the metal looks...the rusty, battered look really makes the robot look more convincing and I used darker shadows around the bottom area to really make the top half shine more...I will texture this robot when it is modelled in maya at a later date in the project. 

Tutorial on Painting metal

I found this tutorial on http://www.deviantart.com about painting metal, this helped me a lot with the two metal study paintings. Learning about the different types of lighting on the metal really is what makes the artwork convincing such as bounced light and specular light. A key fact that I did not realise is the less texture on a surface, the more light is reflects and vice versa.

 

Reference photos for metal paintings

These are the metal references photos I observed while doing the metal so I could really understand the material visually.

I also use a very good site for textures called http://www.cgtextures.com 

I implement textures whenever possible within my artwork because its adds a lot of depth and saves time then manually drawing each little detail on a surface.

Studying painting masters

I am a firm believer in learning the fundamentals in any subject your interested in doing, also learning the history of the topic is just as important. I constantly look at the greatest painters in history and study their work and try to implement something from their workflow into mine.

Few of my favourites are :

Alfons Mucha

John Singer Sargent

Anders Zorn

I look at various aspects of their workflow depending on their style from colour palettes to  the strokes. Most professional artists today still reference the traditional painting masters and transfer their knowledge to the digital field which I think is a huge benefit for artists today.

Metal study 2

I decided to do another metal study, I did the same method as the first study however this one was more complexed during to more little details such as the nails on the arms etc.

I am starting to feel confident in painting this particular material and with implement this into the final project.

The final result came out better then I expected I used a lot more darker and lighter tones so there is a good use of contrast within this piece which I think makes metal look more convincing. The ball on top of the suit is something i wanted to add because I did not want to draw another helmet, so I simply created a ball and painted a glow effect so it compliments the lighting off the suit. The textures is really what makes this piece believable. So now I will look into finding the metal right texture for our environment. 

Different textures

I then started to collect textures and materials to see what would suit our project...deciding if the floor would be sand or grass etc.

I also wanted to mix and blend certain materials to experiment on potentially a new material e.g wood and metal combined. 

Concepts for the project using Textures

I Then started to use textures on the concepts I created for the project since a lot of the structures will need texturing in 3D

Metal Study

I wanted to test out some of the techniques and tips from the book... so I decided to do a painting of a metal helmet focusing on the lighting and materiel, trying to make the painting as believable as possible.

Started with a sketch of the helmet

Work on the lighting of the helmet...

I then found a texture and experimented with the layer options till I was satisfied with the result I used 'Overlay' and 'Hard light'

Then finalised the painting with more contrast and highlights.

I am very pleased with the end result, this is actually my first attempt at painting metal. I am quite critical with my work as I always look to improve, I do see a few things I could improve if i wanted to like adjusting the 'curves' better to distinguish the highlights and shadows better but I will move on to the next study and work on the improvements there.  

Book on colour and Light

Because I am primarily a concept artist, I wanted to read some more books on traditional painting and use the knowledge to my digital workflow.

I stumbled across a book called 'Colour and Light: A guide for the realist painter' by James Gurney.

It is a great book that goes into great depth about the fundamentals of painting, such as composition  mood and lighting. 

Texturing and Lighting

For this unit I will be focusing on Texturing in mainly 2D (photoshop) and possibly some on 3D for the final project (Maya).

I will experiment with 2D first since that is my strongest area and want to focus on more to improve my work my portfolio and further concepts for this project.

Basic Overview for our Project (main one)

Our idea is to create a fantasy 3D environment using historical structures based on indigenous extinct civilisations. We want to focus on the visual and design aspect of this project. The environment is extinct but has evolved over thousands of years.

Civilisations such as;

Aztec
Mayans 
Toltec

Inca 

Ancient Egyptian

We wanted to loosely base our environment on an extinct civilisation because that way it has historical believability within the environment and we still have creative freedom to change up the designs and put our own style in it. The time period is set more towards the future.

We also have a little narrative of a lost soul that is wondering the environment, going through interiors etc so it will create nice lightning within the environment. 

The camera will follow the lost soul venturing through to display the mysterious unknown environment. We will mix and fuse cultural  designs to create new unique structures that will infuse with the environment. We also want to add a more modern twist so a few modern elements such as sci- fi inspired features.

Alternate concept is that time has not reached this place, this creates a surrealist look where everything has stopped mid action. So the lost soul is travelling through this time neglected environment which creates a sense surrealism.