Cheating Textures

I'm not sure words can really express how excited I am to be finished with modeling. Not to say I wasn't having fun, but now that the modeling is finished it brings about new challenges to breath life into this character. It's funny how simple things like skin folds or wrinkles can make so much difference, but it says something about who we are. When we see an older gentleman with harsh lines across his forehead and deep creases stemming around his cheeks, we see someone who loves to laugh and has marked his body with his tales of joy and love throughout his life. It's a sublte but visual sign of the person before us and in many ways this is true regardless of if you're human or even a dinosaur. The little details speak volumes about us.

As you can see from the photo above, I didn't get too far with the texturing last night. In fact the majority of the night was setting up for this process. To texture a 3D model like a dinosaur, is a lot like drawing on an Orange. It's way easier if the skin were to be removed and flattened out. Now, assuming you cut the skin in such a way that it would be easily wrapped around the fruit again, you'd be in a pretty good position to create some really stunning artwork when the peel is flattened out. This is essentially what was required of our Gallimimus. Her skin was unwrapped and flattened. The pieces that belonged together were re-stitched together and after hours of work, she lied out flattened before me. It was a very important step, because next I began to hand draw the detail back onto the dinosaur.

Which is pretty close to where I left off last night. While she does have a basic color attached to her right now, that's not really my focus. There's this certain truth to Animation in which states 'Never do more than required'. It seems lazy, but there's an honest truth in that. The audiences will never know what you didn't do if you plan ahead to know what they'll be looking for. Adding texture follows much of this same thought process. When I modeled the dinosaur I knew I wouldn't be forced to create an over zealous amount of detail because for one: the animal would be in motion, and a lot of detail would be lost in the blur, and two: the animal wouldn't be in any extreme closeup position.

There's two aspects to the texture which are really important. The first is called a Bump Map. Which works to create the illusion of thin creases in the skin, much like the ones you'll find on your own hands. These are low intensity creases. The next step is using a Displacement Map. This is unique in that it actually displaces the mesh itself and will react properly with lighting. You can see this most notibably at the moment if you look around the arms of the Galli. But the combination of the two tactics creates a pretty well done skin texture.

The downfall in all of this of course, is simply the fact that it has to be hand created. While there might be an automated process for it I'll find in the future. At the moment I can take credit for every wrinkle you see before you.

More to come!