Modelling Research

As part of our project brief, Lothar asked us to look into a variety of tools available to us, as well as look into the various techniques used to make high-quality models.

Tileable Textures

Making a tileable texture is not only about making an image which can fit next to itself seamlessly. It also means making textures which don't have any strong defining features, which when tiled, will make the effect obvious. What Doylle suggests is that your photos be taken as a 90 degree angle (or as close as possible), but seeing as I'm going to photograph my textures myself, I shouldn't have an issue with that.

With photograph in hand, I can then use the Offset filter in Photoshop (or do it manually in other programs) to cut the image into 4 pieces, tying each corner to the opposite one on the canvas. Lothar suggested using the clone tool to meld the seams together, which now form a cross in the centre of the photograph. On top of that, however, I found that using the Dodge and Burn tools on a greyscale version of my texture can help to eliminate any extra brightness or darkness which would prevent the texture from tiling seamlessly.

Modular Meshes

A modular mesh is a section of your asset which can be repeated over and over, and is usually coupled with a tileable texture. By making several parts of the asset modular, it reduces the time needed to make the asset, as well as file size if the meshes are to share the same textures. On top of that, if you unwrap the model's UVs before duplicating it, each part will share exactly the same UV map, making texturing much simpler.

The aspects that Thiago Klafke highlight when creating tileable textures are ease of use, composition, shapes and form, and repetition. If the model is too difficult to modularise well, then its likely not suitable. If the composition, shapes or form are too memorable, the model looks lazy. If the repetitions are too obvious, it looks clumsy. When making my Castle, I will keep these aspects in mind, and together will tileable textures, will hopefully make a model I'm happy with, with the aspects I''ve described.

Normal Maps

A normal map is used to make a flat piece of geometry seem high-poly. It uses the RGB channels to give a vector to the plane it is placed on, giving the face fake detail. When viewed from the side, though, the shape and silhouette of the object appears as normal. Lothar suggested using CrazyBump to make normal maps for our models, so I plan to look into the software more. 

Terrain Generation

There are a variety of ways which I could make the terrain for my model. Maya's capabilities include terrain, and I could use the Sculpt Geometry Tool on a flat plane to sculpt mountains and trenches, projecting a texture from above onto the shaped plane. Alternatively, I could also make use of the UDK Terrain generator, which allows for additional effects such as realistic water and simple collision. Online, some recommended tools such as Planetside's Terragen or World Machine, and they look impressive, however they aren't free (or are very limited when free), and so I will most likely experiment in UDK without plugins and Maya to make my terrain.