Animation, Texture, Tracking Test

Here is an update of the snake in its current state. I feel this scene is nearing completion now. The end of the video is clearly not complete and the track becomes extremely unusable. These frames were meant to be omitted from the render but as a test I don't feel this is too important. I think the final shot will end with the snake facing/approaching the camera, so I may alter the timing on the animation to better fit within the areas of effective tracking.

Texturing - Diffuse Texture

Using the ambient occlusion as a guide, I painted a diffuse texture in Photoshop. I experimented with different ideas in order to find the look I wanted. Here are some of the different textures I created.

The final texture is the one I have chosen as I feel it is the most effective, it is nice and simple and fairly convincing as a snake texture. Here is the unwrapped texture painted in photoshop:

Texturing - Projecting High poly onto Normal and Ambient Occlusion Maps

After unwrapping the snake model, I used render to texture to project the High Poly detail onto a normal map and also created an ambient occlusion map to add subtle depth to the diffuse texture when it has been created.

This is the low poly geometry with the normal map applied.

There are slight problems where the maps haven't baked properly however these will be painted out and less visible once the diffuse texture is applied.

This is the normal map generated through the render to texture process:

This is the ambient occlusion map created through the projection process, this will be used as a guide to paint the diffuse texture in photoshop.

With the ambient occlusion map applied, the model appears to have a little more depth in the face.

Main Character “Crowe” – Texture Baking

First, there has been a small update in that the main character has now been named 'Crowe'. His full name and background are still a mystery for the purposes of the story, but we felt he needed a name other than 'The Protagonist' or 'Main Character'!

I have spent the past few days baking texture maps for Crowe, which has proved a lot more difficult and fiddly than I found it before. I had problems with the high poly meshes from zbrush being too decimated or too thin, so shadows and backfacing polygons were showing up and causing problems all over the mesh. I also tried using xNormals as I have heard a lot of good things about it, and I especially liked the idea of being able to project the full quality of the high poly sculpt into the normal and ambient occlusion maps, however this presented errors.

I took steps to resolve the errors in both methods so I could use them both and compare the results. However, the problems with the 3DS Max method I am accustomed to were resolved first, so I decided this was the best option to save wasting any more time.

This stage of the project has been extremely tedious and stressful, but I am happy to say I now have usable normal and ambient occlusion maps. I will use the ambient occlusion map as an overlay on the diffuse texture.

Here you can see the effect of the normal and ambient occlusion maps on the white coloured model.

Main Character - Retopology

Here are some wireframes of the finished low poly mesh.





The polycount stands at little under 18,500 triangles not including the eyes. The eyes have rather high poly counts at the moment so this will likely be reduced.

Main Character - Progress Update

There has been a lack of posts on my part since the completion of my high polygon sculpt. I have been spending time retopologising and unwrapping the character to prepare for texturing. With these stages complete I am now ready to create texture maps and rig the character for animation.

This stage of the process seems to be taking a lot longer than I would have liked, mainly as I have been taking extra care to research and test different techniques to ensure the best results possible, particularly concerning the topology and managing the separate elements of the character when baking the textures.

My aim now is to get the character rigged as soon as possible so the basic animations can be blocked out. This can be done before the textures are finished but I would at least like to have the ambient occlusion and normal maps applied to the character before the animation stage.

I will post updates shortly showing the low res character's topology and the character with the normal map and possibly basic diffuse textures applied.

Snake Animation Shot Test

I created a simple animation to test both my animation method and proposed shots for the footage.
At this stage I am happy with the results, however the snake looks very small and thin in comparison to the tree. If the snake was bigger I would need to use smaller bones and increase the amount to ensure the snake followed the path effectively without any extreme bends in the mesh.