Maya

This tutorial will is split into 6 chapters and will endeavour
to give you an insight into how a fully realised 3D scene

may be arrived at from beginning to end. The tutorials
will attempt to address the key issues and techniques
appropriate in achieving this, from concept sketches
through to building the 3D scene, mapping and unwrapping,
texturing and eventually to lighting and rendering,
culminating in a fnal render. The emphasis over the course
of the series will be on the texturing, which will be covered
in two of the six installments, and principally the aging and
wear of materials.

The schedule is as follows:

Chapter 1 - Page 003
Importance of Reference
The series will begin with a look at the gathering and
importance of reference material, and then transposing
these into some concept sketches and a concept /
production painting.
Modelling Overview
This chapter will go on to deal with a general modelling
overview, which will be non-software specifc, and then
follow with a look at Photoshop and some general
preparation of textures, along with tips on removing seams
and tiling problems.

Preparing the Textures
This chapter will focus on Photoshop and more specifcally,
the job of preparing textures, including painting out seams
and making images tileable.
Texturing Principles
This chapter will focus on texturing principles such as
mapping and unwrapping, bump specular and normal maps
along with combining textures.
This chapter will cover using masks and adding dirt and
grime.
Lighting & Rendering
The fnal chapter will discuss lighting and rendering
techniques and show how a simple lighting rig can be set
up, along with different render passes ready for a fnal
composite in Photoshop.
Resource fles for this
eBook are within the
Aquarium eBook
download folder
Chapter 1
Importance of Reference
The series will begin with a look at the
gathering and importance of reference
material, and then transposing these into some
concept sketches and a concept / production
painting.
Page 4 www.3dcreativemag.com Chapter 1
Chapter 1: Importance of Reference Aquarium
Introduction
As is usual with any new piece, the frst step
is to try and establish the overall theme and
setting for the project. In this case I started
thinking about an exterior scene and one with a
sense of scale. This was almost all I had in mind
initially and so I began doing some research
on a number of topics to help form something
more concrete. At this stage, it is always good
practice to look at a variety of different subjects
across a broad spectrum. Not only architecture
but photos of objects and everyday things
almost anything that can spark an idea. I liked
the notion of a dam, which is quite a dramatic
structure. I began looking at various images
such as Fig.01 and thought that it would make
sense to design an old and abandoned structure
as the tutorial would be focusing on weathered
textures and worn surfaces such as Fig.02 and
Fig.03. These textures form another branch of
the research; its good to look at not just scenes
and structures but also surfaces and anything
that may help clarify the quality and mood
you are after ideas can literally come from
anywhere! In the case of Fig.02, the green band
along the bottom of the photo implied a structure
that is sometimes used to hold water; similar
to a dam, but one that had since been drained.
This led me onto thinking about harbours and
a more aquatic line of research and notions
concerning the sea, such as lighthouses (Fig.04
and Fig.05). I really liked these two images and
somehow wanted to include them in my theme.
I realised that they would not be valid as actual
lighthouses, but they are also used as viewing
platforms which was something I could exploit.
Fig.04 is a photo of a Victorian lighthouse and
Aquarium Chapter 1: Importance of Reference
so I began to imagine my scene originating
during this period. I started to do a few simple
sketches of towers and dam like structures to
form the basis of the scene (Fig.06). The bottom
left image had some shapes in it that I quite
liked on both the tower and the large wall, in
particular some of the curves on the far right and
the two large vent shapes. This sketch led to the
idea of an outdoor aquarium that when fooded,
would allow fsh and sharks etc. to enter the
arena through the open mouth of a large stone
carving and be viewed from a balcony and
viewing tower (Fig.07). The theme and setting
for the piece was now settled, but the details
had to be refned. The fsh carving in Fig.07
looked too literal for my liking, rather similar to
a salmon (and the building looked too Oriental),
so I looked at some stone carvings and found
an example carved by Eskimos (Fig.08). This
gave me an idea about the tail supporting the
principal balcony and so I made another sketch
to explore this idea (Fig.09). Because I liked the
curves from the previous drawing, I decided to
use some infuences from the Art Deco period.
I imagined that the aquarium had been built
by the Victorians, but was later neglected and
then revamped during the late 30s to raise
morale caused by the Great Depression, hence
the Socrates quote in the bottom right. I also
experimented with the notion of a frieze in the
form of a character looking skyward to the
heavens. With the decision to include some Art
Deco infuences I found a couple of photos on
the Internet which looked to be along the lines of
what I was after (Fig.10 and Fig.11).
Chapter 1: Importance of Reference Aquarium
I made a few more sketches to explore some
potential designs for the building, based upon
the research that Id done so far (Fig.12).
With the research pretty much done, and a
vision of the scene in my head, it was time
to start on the concept painting which would
become the basis for the 3D scene.
I think it is necessary to have a number
of issues unresolved in your mind before
starting any painting, as the brush marks and
unforeseen incidents that begin to appear as the
image evolves can suggest things which help
to add an energy and vitality. In this way, the
image will hopefully produce its own momentum
and then suggest ideas in a more intuitive way
than if everything is pre-determined.
At this stage I was not sure about the mood of
the piece or indeed the fnal colour scheme and
lighting this is where the concept would fll in
the gaps. I knew I wanted a high wall supporting
a building with a fsh head and a tower, roughly
in an Art Deco style with some Victorian
remnants. This was enough to get on with
without having all the details worked out.
The concept painting that emerged can be
seen in Fig.13. You can see that the tower has
incorporated elements from Fig.04 in the form
of the metal panels and I have also included the
Aquarium Chapter 1: Importance of Reference
some extent. Something that is not included
in the painting, but I knew would feature in the
fnal 3D render, is a covered walkway which
will connect the tower to the wall balcony (see
Fig.06). I wanted this to look very Victorian and
so looked at some wrought ironwork, as well the
supporting struts under the balcony from Fig.05.
I have modifed the tower canopy from Fig06
and added the Art Deco detailing on the building
faade which can be traced to the two example
photos. The wing on the characters helmet
is reminiscent of a pelvic or dorsal fn and is
echoed in the pectoral fn on the fsh below. I
also carried this design through the detailing
on the building to maintain a consistency and
sense of design. The railings that surround the
tower platform have been infuenced by a design
I found in a photo (Fig.14). You may also notice
that the main wall supports a balcony / walkway
which was apparent in all three sketches to
classic palm houses typical of the period (Fig.15
and Fig.16). These two infuences can be seen
in the fnal render.
This concludes the key research and reference
points for the concept piece that I decided to
entitle Aquarium.
I hope in this tutorial I have provided a brief
glimpse into some of the processes involved
with developing a concept. You can see that
the image has been inspired by a number
of references that vary in their formats, but
ultimately combine to create something new.
Next month we will continue with a look at a
general modelling overview, which will not focus
on any package in particular, but will offer some
general principles instead.

Richard Tilbury
For more from this artist visit:
http://www.richardtilburyart.com
Or contact them:
rich@3dtotal.com
Chapter 2
Modelling Overview
This chapter will go on to deal with a general
modelling overview, which will be non-
software specifc, and then follow with a look
at Photoshop and some general preparation of
textures.
Aquarium Chapter 2: Modelling Overview
Introduction
This month we will look at a general modelling
overview and some of the techniques that can
be applied universally across a number of 3D
packages. I shall address some of the ways
in which certain aspects of the scene can be
created and outline some of the common tools
that are used. Leading on from this I will look at
how Photoshop can be used to prepare images
for a 3D application and deal with some of the
issues that are raised.
Modelling
When starting to build a 3D environment it
is a good idea to look at the concept art or
drawing sheets for a few minutes and try to
assess what shapes and forms make up each
component in the scene. For example, in this
case we can see that the buildings, balconies
and their supports are essentially boxes, whilst
the tower is cylindrical. The fsh head is a little
more complex, but can still be conceived as half
a tube with a narrower top (Fig.01). The foor
and walls are obviously boxes and can be made
from said primitives. The tower walkway could
also be made from a box and the canopy from
half a tube etc.
First of all we will look at one of the most
prominent components in the scene: the
foreground tower. Now this could have been
made from a simple cylinder, with various edges
moved to create the curvature and then the
canopy and struts added as separate objects.
However an effcient way of quickly establishing
much of the fnal shape is by using the line tool
followed by a Lathe modifer. In Fig.02 you can
see in the top viewport that the silhouette, or
outer edge of the tower, has been drawn using
the line tool. You can see that it is made up of
nineteen vertices and the panel on the right
shows the sub-object selection with the vertex
mode highlighted in yellow. Notice that the
two inner verts are parallel, which is important
otherwise when you apply a Lathe a hole will
appear in the top. Here you can modify the
shape of the line by manipulating each vertex as
well as adding or subtracting the total number
along the spline.
When the shape is satisfactory then the Lathe
modifer can be applied (outlined in red),
the result of which can be seen in the lower
viewport. You will notice that the original spline
is still visible here in orange.
Now because the tower is symmetrical, we
can go ahead and fnish adding the details to
just one quarter of it. When this is done we
can duplicate this piece three times and rotate
each section by 90 degrees - thus creating a
complete 360 degree object. In order to do this
we need to consider how the details on the
tower can be divided into four equal sections
and therefore make sure we specify enough
segments during the Lathing. In Fig.03 you
Chapter 2: Modelling Overview Aquarium
can see in the right panel that there are 24
segments which divide into four equal parts of
six segments each (highlighted in red in the
viewports).
We can now delete the remaining parts of the
tower and add the detail to this single quarter.
In Fig.04 you can see the fnal quarter with the
balcony supports, windows and metal panelling.
All of these details were created from various
extrusions which can be seen in Fig.05. With
this done we can then copy and rotate this piece
90 degrees, specifying the number of duplicates
to three, which will complete the tower. The
balcony, canopy struts and vertical panels at the
base can be made as separate objects.
For the purposes of texturing it is sometimes
worth attaching separate pieces of geometry
into single objects in order to restrict them to a
single texture. In Fig06 you can see that I have
attached the vertical panels and canopy struts
to the tower (purple section on the right) and
made a single mesh which will only use one
texture. The red geometry on the left shows
that although these sections are attached, they
exist as individual elements in sub-object mode.
Therefore the tower comprises of three meshes
altogether: tower, balcony foor and circular
railings (green object), each with their own
material / texture.
The main reason that the balcony foor and
railings were not attached to the tower is that
they use tileable textures and hence do not
need to be unwrapped.
One of the more detailed parts of the scene was
the tower walkway that bridges the gap between
the tower and the main balcony running
around the wall. This is made up of a number
of repeated sections, as shown in Fig.07. You
can see here that the entire canopy and railing
structure is a repeat of the section highlighted in
red. The foor uses a tileable texture, as did the
tower balcony and so this remains a separate
object - but the rest of the walkway uses
one texture. As such, many of these various
components have been attached into a single
mesh but remain as elements in sub-object
mode. If texture space is an issue and identical,
geometric units need to be unwrapped, then
it is worth mapping a single section before
duplicating it. The reason is that a duplicated
mesh retains its mapping co-ordinates and
means that any number of copies will share the
same texture space. This saves mapping each
piece individually and means that for an entire
section of seven pieces (Fig.08) we only need
to unwrap a small part of the fnal mesh. You
can see here that the whole canopy of seven
sections is restricted to the upper left corner
of the texture in the form of a single piece.
The downside of this is that any detail is also
repeated across the entire mesh and therefore
creates an unrealistic symmetry in the form of
tileable patterns (eg: blue spot). The way around
this problem is to minimize any obvious patterns
and then apply a composite map or an overlay
in a different mapping channel. You may also
notice here that the texture includes the small
circular details on the railings (a) along with the
arched foor supports (b).
This method of unwrapping and texturing
components was also used on the tower to save
texture space. When rendering a still it is always
worth considering which parts of the scene will
be most visible and thus focusing attention on
these areas. There is no point spending hours
on a high res texture if it is in the background
and barely visible!
Another key focal point in the scene was the
fsh head, which is probably the most complex
shape overall. There was no strict formula to
follow with this. It was a case of manipulating a
basic Tube by deleting one half and converting it
into an Editable Poly.
In Fig.09 you can see the progression from the
original shape through to the fnal version.
You can see from the extra geometry that
the version on the right has been smoothed.
This particular mesh needed unwrapping, but
fortunately it is possible to map geometry before
smoothing without losing the co-ordinates.
Therefore when the low poly version was
fnished I then mapped / unwrapped the model
and applied smoothing afterwards (Fig.10). You
can see that TurboSmooth has been applied
after the model has been unwrapped and so
there are far less polygons to consider when
texturing. This saves time and makes the whole
process less arduous.
The actual character that can be seen on the
wall was constructed from a shallow box that
was then converted to an Editable Poly. The
verts were then transformed to create the
general shape and then further subdivisions
were added to refne it.
Chapter 2: Modelling Overview Aquarium
Selecting Photos and
Initial Preparation
Before beginning the texturing it is necessary to
search for the kinds of images that will suit the
kind of render one is after. This generally comes
down to fnding the right materials, i.e. stone or
concrete in this case, and ensuring they are a
suitable resolution and scale. Because some
textures can be tiled they can in fact be smaller
in size, but for areas such as the large wall it is
important that the textures are reasonably high
res. The scale of the image is also important
as this dictates whether tiling is necessary and
the extent to which this is employed. In Fig.11
for example, imagine that the height of the
image is the actual height of a wall compared
to the fgure. If the stones were an average size
then this photo would need to be tiled far more
(around three times) than the right version where the scale is larger. It
is good practice to make textures tileable, as this means there is more
freedom to experiment in the 3D package. No photo is perfectly tileable
and so requires some editing in order to make them useable.
In Fig.12 you can see an image in the bottom viewport that is not tiled at
all and above it, the same image tiled by a value of two. You can already
see a problem in the form of a dark vertical line which constitutes the two
adjacent vertical edges of the photo (red lines). This is because each edge
is different and so we need to use the Offset Filter in Photoshop to solve
this issue; something we will look at in Part 3 of this tutorial. This flter will
alleviate the problem of visible seams, but another issue to consider is any
distinguishable feature that may be conspicuous when the texture is tiled.
In Fig.13 you can see a texture on the left that has been made tileable,
but there is one dark-orange brick that is very noticeable. This needs to
be edited so that it blends in better, however this will not eradicate the
problem entirely. It is always a battle of Tiling vs Detail in the end. The
more an image is tiled, the more apparent tileable patterns become. On
the right we can see the same image tiled four times and we can see that
even if we had blended in the orange brick, we would now be more aware
of the three beige bricks above it in the form of a broken line, as well as
the dark vertical band that runs through next to them.
Obviously we cannot keep tiling the image in order to remove all
discernable patterns otherwise we would reduce the texture to something
very bland indeed, but at least this highlights some of the issues to
consider when selecting and preparing photos.

strong shadows. The balance is good without it
being too bland and symmetrical, but even when
it is ready to be tiled in our 3D package there
will be some evidence of a pattern.
This is where a Composite map comes in and
helps disguise the problem. In Fig.15 you can
see the original map in the top left corner (1).
Below this is the same map tiled by a value of
2.0 (2). What we now do is take another texture,
which is not tiled (3), and apply it over the top
of the image, setting the blending mode to Soft
Light or Overlay. The texture in the bottom right
(4) shows the result: the overlay has helped
Some of the main things to consider when
choosing photos for texturing are:
1. Scale and resolution
2. How close will they be to the camera?
3. Area / size of geometry that uses them.
4. Do they need to be tiled and by how much?
All these factors determine how you choose
your photos, but one other important aspect to
consider is the lighting condition of the image.
This is something that can be altered within
Photoshop, but it is far better to use an image
that shows a soft, general ambient light than
one that shows strong highlights and shadows,
as this is something that will be the reserve
of the 3D package. In Fig.14 you can see a
bad example at the top and a good example
below. The top image has a strong highlight
in the upper right corner and this would cause
a very obvious seam even if the stonework
matched up. It is a good rule of thumb to
avoid using images where the lighting is not
evenly distributed, otherwise your workload will
increase.
When you have chosen a suitable photo, tiled
it and removed any obvious detail then you will
end up with something similar to the bottom
example. You can see this has a good overall
consistency, with evenly coloured stones and no
add a more natural and asymmetrical look to the
wall and helped hide the tiling.
In Chapter 3 we will go on to deal with how to
solve tiling problems using the Offset Filter as
well as look at the tools to help solve some of
the issues mentioned above. We will also show
how photos can be combined successfully as
texture maps and some of the techniques used.
Richard Tilbury
Or contact them:
rich@3dtotal.com
Chapter 3
This chapter will focus on Photoshop and
more specifcally, the job of preparing textures,
including painting out seams and making
images tileable.
Aquarium Chapter 3: Preparing The Textures
Preparing Textures
In our previous tutorial we ended by looking
at some of the factors that affect the choice of
photos to be used as textures. We discussed
the notion of scale and resolution, as well as
tiling issues and how lighting conditions can
impact on the success of a texture. You may
recall that a soft ambient light, without any
strong shadows, is crucial in order to achieve an
ideal texture, as we will rely on our 3D package
for further lighting effects. Even under these
conditions no photo is able to tile perfectly and
this is where the Offset Filter comes in. In order
to test the tiling of your chosen photo head
to the menu: Filter Other Offset. A small
dialogue box will open, similar to that seen in
Fig.01. Enter a horizontal and vertical value that
is exactly half the width / height of the image
(this image is 1600x1200). The horizontal and
vertical seam lines that are visible across the
centre represents the four outer edges, and in
order for this image to be tileable these seams
must be made invisible. You can see the dark
band down the middle and why this needs to
be eradicated. This is typically done by using
the Clone Stamp and Healing Brush tools in
Photoshop and by sampling other areas of the
image to hide the seam.
In Fig.02 you can see the same image, which
has now been made tileable through the central
region. The small conspicuous white spot
middle left has been removed, along with the
two dark bricks on the right hand side which
would have caused a problem. It is important
that you do not alter the outer edges, as these
will revert to becoming the central section of
the image again, which is initially seamless.
With something like brickwork or ceramic tiles
you must obviously make the pattern of the
grout or mortar match up by way of skewing
and transforming sections of the image, but
even when this is done there still remains the
problem of hue and tonal variation. With a
less ordered image, such as dirt or gravel, it is
easier to cure the problem of a seam and the
process can be broken down into three stages.
These are also the stages that would follow the
tiling of brickwork once the issue of matching
up the mortar is resolved. Assuming the Offset
Filter has already been applied, the frst step
is to copy and paste one half of the image into
a new layer. This can be horizontal or vertical
depending on which seam is the most severe. In
the case of Fig.03 it is the vertical line. With the
left hand side on a new layer, switch to Quick
Mask mode making sure the foreground colour
is black and the background white. Drag a linear
gradient from the centre edge to the outside
Chapter 3: Preparing The Textures Aquarium
The fnal stage involves using the Clone Stamp
and Healing Brush tools to sample various
areas of the image in order to manually patch
up the two halves (Fig.07). This process can
be applied to any image and by frst using the
Gradient and Lasso tools we can reduce the
amount of manual work necessary when tiling
a texture.
When any necessary textures have been made
tileable, it is then a case of putting them together
edge (white arrow). The image will resemble
the top half of Fig.04. Now turn off Quick Mask
and you will see a selection area encompassing
the left half of this layer. Delete this section and
you will be left with what you see at the bottom
of Fig.04. This exercise constitutes stage 1. By
manipulating the Brightness/Contrast (Image
Adjustments) and maybe Curves under the
same menu, it is time to match the tonal values
as closely as possible (Fig.05). This has been
done already in this instance and you can see
here that the top area is almost seamless, but
there is still a noticeable seam line in the bottom
half. Using the Lasso tool drag a selection area
around this area (highlighted in white) and
then Feather it by around 20 or so. This value
depends on the size and resolution of the image
the bigger the image the higher the value.
Now using the same procedure, we reduce this
seam as seen in (Fig.06) stage 2.
in the 3D scene and testing their relationships.
As our perception of everything is dependent
on light, I fnd it is often helpful to establish this
aspect of the 3D scene early on. This provides
a good indication as to which areas will be
more visible and which parts of the scene will
be less so. For a still image there is no point
spending time texturing an area that is barely
noticeable in the fnal render. In Fig08 you
can see an early light test where both scenes
use exactly the same material. The top image
utilises a pure white light, but as you can see,
it does not refect the colour scheme of the sky
nor the concept painting for that matter. To help
bind the background to the geometry I therefore
added yellow to the lights. This inevitably affects
the way we perceive the textures and any
that contain a lot of green and yellow will be
enhanced.
As all photographs differ in terms of the
brightness and contrast, as well as the overall
hues and tonal ranges, it is rare that a selection
will work together without some intervention. As
a result, it is necessary to use an application
such as Photoshop to refne the images and
ensure they relate successfully. In the upper
half of Fig09 you can see the base texture
that I chose for the two main walls. I decided
Aquarium Chapter 3: Preparing The Textures
on this because it tiled well and possessed
the right scale for my purposes. The colour
was obviously wrong as I wanted a general,
tertiary grey, so it was necessary to tone it
down by way of Image Adjustments Hue/
Saturation. This, combined with altering the
Colour Balance on the same menu, usually
solves the problem; however, with a raw
photograph that has not been prepared in any
way (unlike this example), the frst port of call is
usually Image Adjustments Curves and/or
Levels (same menu). In Fig10 we can see two
examples of unedited photos. If we imagine that
the tiling issues and uneven light were fxed, the
two images would still not appear consistent in
terms of their brightness and contrast. In Fig11
I have altered the top photo using the Curves,
Levels, Brightness/Contrast and also the Colour
Balance, rendering them far more compatible.
There is no formula to this process it is a
question of experimenting with the above tools
until you get the required results. With all this
said and done, the base wall texture in Fig.09
was altered along with the building support
(bottom half) so that they worked together in the
3D scene (Fig.12).
Perhaps the best example of why making
adjustments to base photos is vital for a 3D
project can be illustrated in Fig.13. On the left is
the fnal version and on the right are the same
textures but mapped in their original format.
There are numerous layers combined in the two
maps, including dirt and rust which are the same
on both, but this still conveys the importance of
good preparation. The stone work in the fnal
render has had the blue toned down and the
two metal areas, which were initially blue and
pink (along with the rivets from another photo),
have been made more consistent and more
closely resemble the concept. I hope in this
tutorial I have shown the importance of using
tools such as the Offset Filter and the various
Image Adjustments and also how the transition
of photos into textures is a crucial stage in the
3D pipeline.
In Chapter 4 we will cover mapping and
unwrapping and explain how these methods
enable a greater control over the texturing
process. We will focus on the different mapping
techniques, such as Planar and Cylindrical, and
show how mapped geometry can be duplicated
to save valued texture space. The tutorial will
conclude with a look at how the unwrapped
geometry can then be exported into Photoshop
as a wireframe guide, in readiness for the actual
texturing.

Richard Tilbury
Or contact them:
rich@3dtotal.com
Chapter 4
This chapter will focus on Photoshop and
more specifcally, the job of preparing textures,
including painting out seams and making
images tileable.
Aquarium eBook
download folder
Aquarium Chapter 4: Mapping
Introduction
In this part of the tutorial Part 4 I will cover
the basic method of UV-mapping on polygons
inside Maya, and I hope this will be of good use
to those of you who are following this tutorial
series.
In Maya, the general methods of mapping in
use today are Planar Mapping, Cylindrical
Mapping, Spherical Mapping and Automatic
Mapping; you can fnd these under Menu >
Create UVs (note: after Maya 8.5 there are
some changes to this menu). I will introduce
these mapping methods together with the UV
Texture Editor based on this scene (Fig.00).
When we are working on UV-mapping, we
will usually apply a chequered map to our
object. Inside Mayas Material Editor, you can
easily fnd a chequer under the 2D Textures
section just apply it to the colour section of the
Maya shader and choose your favourite colour
(Fig.01). By default, under Hardware Texturing,
the Texture resolution will be set to low, and
this will make your chequer appear blurry inside
your scene just switch it to a higher level in the
drop-down menu: Hardware Texturing > Texture
resolution > Choose either /Low/Medium/
High/Highest, depending upon your personal
requirements.
Planar Mapping
This is a common mapping method which is
a projection method based on the direction of
the axis. Here is an example of planar mapping
on the foor (Fig.02). We can see that the foor
has lots of gaps in it which are facing different
directions. After hiding those objects which are
currently not in use under Display > Hide >
Hide Unselected Object we will frst of all do a
Chapter 4: Mapping Aquarium
general Y projection on the foor (Fig.03), and
after this we will select only those faces which
have a different direction and then do another
projection followed by the direction of the axis,
sewing the separated UV pieces together by
selecting those edges inside the UV Texture
Editor (Polygons > Sew UV Edges > Move and
Sew UV Edges).
Here is something I need to mention: if those
UVs didnt have an obvious distance inside your
scene, after a single direction of projection we
can use the Relax UVs option inside the UV
Texture Editor to separate those overlapped
UVs without doing another direction of
projection (Fig.04). For example, inside the UV
Texture Editor we select the border of the UV
faces by going to Select > Select Shell Border
and then to Polygon > Relax, checking Pin UVs
and Pin selected UVs to relax those UVs of
edges between the gaps on the foor.
Automatic Mapping
Automatic Mapping is the second method I will
introduce; this is a projection method based
on a number of planes from different directions
at one time. It is a useful method for those
objects with an irregular direction of faces, but
it can also be a very quick and useful way to
do on object with a regular face. Here is the
frst example, using automatic mapping to do a
projection on the wall and sew those UV edges
inside the UV Texture Editor. By default, six
planes automatically give you a good projection
on an object with regular faces (Fig.05). After
projection, you will see the UVs are nicely
laid out without overlapping inside the texture
editor, and we will then use the Move and Sew
UV Edges tool to sew those separated edges
by selecting them, or we can alternatively use
the Cut UV Edge tool to separate some edges
(Fig.06).
The second example here is to do a projection
on the fgure relief on the wall. Here you can
see the different results between less distortion
(Fig.07) and fewer pieces (Fig.08). Less
distortion helps you to keep your UVs in correct
proportion, but leaves you with more separated
pieces that need to be sewed; fewer pieces
helps you to keep your UVs in obviously
fewer pieces, but those UVs will be distorted if
the object has extremely irregular faces. You
can use a higher number of planes to avoid
distortion or use the Relax UVs tool to smooth
out distorted UVs it depends on the situation.
Here is an example of using the Relax UVs
tool and the Smudge tool (available after Maya
version 8) to smooth out those distorted UVs
(Fig.09).
Cylinder Mapping
Cylinder Mapping is the third method I will
discuss here. The basic idea of projection is
similar to planar mapping, but with a cylinder
shape as your projection shape. Here is an
example using the roof of the walkway. After
projection, you will fnd a new section name
after the projection name inside the Attribute
Editor of your object. From there you can start
to change the direction of your projection, or
height, for a better ft on your object. These
options refer to the projection tool that you see
in your viewport (Fig.10). We can see the roof
of the walkway has exterior and interior faces
you can select those faces separately and do
another projection, or separate the faces inside
UV Texture Editor with the Cut UV Edge tool
and sew them back together after repositioning
(Fig.11). Usually, when we are working on a
symmetrical object, we will cut away one side
of the object and mirror the geometry after the
UV texture maps have been laid out nicely this
will save you a lot of time without repeating the
same process (Fig.12 13).
Spherical Mapping
The method of Spherical Mapping is the same
as cylinder mapping, but uses a sphere as
the projection shape. For the purposes of this
tutorial, I didnt fnd any suitable objects with
which to introduce this method to you, but you
can certainly experiment with it on other objects
if you fnd they ft better with this method!
Mixed Method Mapping
Here I will use the tower as an example to
introduce a mixed method of mapping onto
one object. The tower has different kinds of
shapes and some duplicated object; lets focus
on the main shape of tower (Fig.14). Do an
automatic mapping to layout the UVs, and then
select only the faces on the roof. Do a Y- axis
plane mapping, repeat this method on those
faces below, select the faces of the upper neck
of the tower and perform cylinder mapping
(Fig.15), using the Relax tool to smooth out the
overlapped UVs. After relaxing the UVs you can
use the UV alignment tool to line up some of
the UVs which are out of position (Fig.16). After
all the main mapping is done, simply sew and
reposition the rest of the UV pieces (sometimes
it is not necessary to sew all the UV pieces
together, because we can get a seamless
texture with the help of Photoshop tools) and at
the end, adjust all the UV pieces with the help
of the chequer to get them at the same scale
and ftting inside the UV bounding box for later
exportation into Photoshop (Fig.17).
Coming to the part of the fencing, we can just
perform automatic mapping again here to layout
the UV map; later we will apply a seamless
texture onto it.
out our object, but at the same time the UVs
will become complex and it may be hard to
layout the UV. If you know the form of your
object, it will be easier to map the object before
applying the Smooth tool on it. First do six
planes of automatic mapping on the fsh head
before smoothing it, and the UVs will be laid out
separately inside the UV Texture Editor (Fig.19).
Then cut the fsh head in half and place those
separated UV pieces in the correct position,
and start to sew some pieces without strong
distortions. In between, the process of using the
Smudge and/or Relax tools can help to relax
some distorted UVs (Fig.20).
After all the separated UV faces have been
sewed, simply duplicate the geometry, scale the
related axis to -1, and combine them together
inside the Texture Editor. Select all the UV faces
of the duplicated geometry and fip them in a
horizontal direction, using the Move and Sew
UV Edge tool to sew the duplicated UV faces of
geometry (Fig.21).
Between Modelling &
Texturing
In the fnal section of this tutorial, I will use
the big fsh head as an example of automatic
mapping, and the process between modelling
and texturing.
Usually, when were modelling an organic form
(Fig.18), we use the Smooth tool to smooth
After the UV map has been nicely laid out, start
to smooth the geometry. Inside the Smooth
tool options, by default Smooth UV will be
checked. This will smooth the UV together with
the geometry (Fig.22). After the object has
been smoothed and its almost done and dont
forget to place your UVs inside the bounding
box use the Polygon > UV Snapshot tool to
create the UV map for Photoshop. You can
choose .tif or .tga as your export format, and
Maya works with textures in squares 1024 x
1024 pixels will be enough for our current use
(we will cover some of this topic in a later part of
this tutorial series).

Final Conclusion
So you can see that all of these mapping
methods in Maya have no magic in their
processes! You need a lot patience to layout the
UV maps, and most of the time you need to take
care over the usage of your resources when
working on a complex scene. Sometimes youll
keep some UV faces out of the bounding box
or delete them when they wont be seen inside
the camera angle, in order to get full use of the
texture resolution (for example, the backside of
the wall or the bottom of the fsh head). If there
are any empty spaces inside the UV bounding
box then you can try to combine difference
geometries together (when they have the same
scale inside your scene) by using the same UV
map. Use the UV map wisely and it will give
you better results in terms of resolution and
rendering time (we will cover this topic in a later
part of this tutorial series). Its a puzzle, so dont
forget to choose your favourite colour for the
chequer map!
Tiong-seah Yap
www.schokoladenmann2plus3.blogspot.com/
Or contact them:
tiongseah.yap@hotmail.com
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Chapter 5
This chapter will focus on texturing principles
and will cover texture resolution, bump
specular and normal maps along with
combining textures. It will also cover using
masks and adding dirt and grime
Chapter 5: Texturing Principles Aquarium
map will be 512x512 pixels, but it will be good
to create a bigger texture map than this in case
we need it for some reason. From the Texture
Editor we can see a square bounding box; all
our UVs are placed inside this square you can
certainly use non-square textures, but if you
the resolution based on our camera angle. First
of all, we can see that the wall takes up almost
90% of the height of our camera frame, meaning
it will be around 430 pixels (Fig.02). Maya will
be working with our texture map in square
multiples of 64 (a square image), so our texture
Introduction
In this part of the tutorial I will introduce the
basic idea of creating texture maps for objects
using Maya and a 2D programme, such as
Photoshop. When we are texturing, there are
some key points that we need to ask ourselves.
What is the fnal output resolution of our image?
Is the camera going to move? What kind of
results are we expecting? I will cover some of
these basic ideas in this part of the series.
Reviewing the 2D
Concept
As part of this tutorial series we have been given
a 2D concept to assist with the texturing of the
3D scene (Fig.01). If we review the 2D concept,
we can understand the selected camera angle,
and from here we can get a rough idea of the
scale of the objects inside the scene, and an
idea of the overall texturing of said objects.
First of all, well set our fnal image render to be
a 640x480 pixel still image. The camera wont
go too close to any object inside the scene, and
so with this in mind we can decide upon the
resolution of our texture maps. The cliff in the
background and the sky will both be done in
Photoshop, and fnally well need to take care of
the lighting situation. We can get a basic idea of
the lighting from the concept image; well need
a spotlight in the scene for the area around the
balcony and the relief on the wall from there
we will have an idea of the texturing priorities.
Texture Map Resolution
When it comes to creating texture maps
in Photoshop, the common question is the
resolution of the texture maps. As Ive already
mentioned, if our fnal output is 640x480 and
the camera wont be going too close to any of
the objects inside the scene, we can decide on
Aquarium Chapter 5: Texturing Principles
do some test renders you can see that square
and non-square textures use the same amount
of memory (so this is a note on the usage of
memory when youre working on a texture map).
Creating Different
Texture Maps
Creating Texture Maps for the wall in Photoshop
In this section, we will create our texture maps
Diffuse, Bump and Specular based on the UV
snapshot in Photoshop.
a. Diffuse Map
First of all, we import the UV snapshot of the
wall from Maya into Photoshop (Fig.03).
1 - From the beginning we will create a base
layer of the texture (TTexV3_R2-Grey20). Scale
the texture map to get the correct scale of the texture, following the 2D
concept painting (Fig.04). Duplicate the base layer (Layer > Duplicate
Layer) and reposition the duplicated layers until they suffciently cover the
whole canvas. Merge all the duplicated layers (Layer > Merge Down (or
Ctrl + E)).
Add in the second and third texture map, too (TTexV3_R2-Yellow10,
TTexV3_R2-Normal02), blending them with the Overlay and Hard Light
options. Create a mask, by clicking on the add layer mask button at the
bottom of the Layers menu, to mask out the edge, using the Gradient Tool
to give variation to the wall texture (Fig.05 & Fig.06).
2 - Once the basic layer has been created we can start adding some dirt
texture maps (TTexV3_R2-dirt03, TTexV3_R2-Green-07b, TTexV5_R2-
tile02heavy14) using Image Adjustments > Invert to invert one of the
texture maps that we think will be suitable for the dirt on top of the wall.
Using Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical we fip the duplicated texture map
for the bottom (Fig.07), and then blend them with the Multiply and Overlay
options, masking out some parts of maps again with the Gradient tool
(Fig.08).
3 - Create an empty layer with the Overlay blending mode and start to
paint some washed-out effects on the wall with an Airbrush Pen, using a
green or light-yellow tone. Examine the results and then adjust the opacity
to achieve better blending into the background (Fig.09).
4 - Add some crack texture maps with the Multiply blending mode
(TTexV2_R2-dirt05, TTexV2_R2-Stone03). Erase some parts of the
original map to achieve natural looking cracks, and then, using a Hard
Round brush and the Eyedropper tool, pick colours from the original map
and start touching up some parts of the cracks, as needed (Fig.10).
5. During this process we should be constantly reviewing the 2D concept
painting and we will be adjusting the Saturation, Levels and Colour
Balance of each layer, to achieve the best representation of the original
concept (Fig.11).
b. Bump Map
Here we will create the bump map based on the colour map just created.
First, duplicate the colour map group and Adjustments > Desaturate all
those layers. Re-adjust some of the layers opacity and delete the washed
out layer that we created before (this is not necessary in a bump map).
Create a new layer and paint some gap lines on the wall (Fig.12).
c. Specular Map
We will now create a specular map based on the bump map just created.
First, we will duplicate our fnished bump map by going to Select All and
Edit > Copy merged, using Image > Adjustments > Levels to increase
the contrast. We can paint some extra highlights by adding a new layer
(Fig.13).
Because of the similarities between materials, we can use a similar
method and texture maps to create the texture maps for the foor, the
relief fgure on the wall, and the fsh head on the foor.
Creating Seamless
Common Texture in
Photoshop
Sometimes we will use some seamless textures
to cover up parts of objects which are less
important or too small to see in our scene; for
example the metal fence, water pipes on the
wall or the relief on the balcony. If they are too
far away from the camera view then its not
necessary to give them a very detailed map. If
our texture map is not seamless, we will have to
apply it to a shader and repeat it they will look
like tiles. In this section, I will introduce how to
create a seamless texture map for our scene,
using Photoshop.
Creating a Seamless Common Stone Texture
1. Based on the same texture used before, we
will create a seamless stone texture for common
Aquarium Chapter 5: Texturing Principles
which allows you to create some layered
textures, similar to the one we did in Photoshop.
With layered textures we can combine different
texture maps together in different ways, using
the blending modes and alpha masks. I will
introduce this way of creating layered textures
for the roof of the sky-bridge.
1. First we will connect the Layered Texture to
the Colour section of a blinn material (use your
mouse to click and drag to the colour section).
As you can see, by default the Layered Texture
Attributes has only one green box inside it; if
you click on the empty space beside it, another
green box will appear. Lets create three layers
for the colour section, and overlap those layers
from left to right.
2. Lets create a base layer texture (TTexV3_
R2- Red04) and repeat each UV twice (2D
Texture Placement Attributes) (Fig.19). Click
on the middle green box and load another dirt
texture (TTexV3_R2-Red10b) for the colour
section, and, using the Multiply blending option
and the Alpha set to 50% (Fig.20), these two
layers blend together, similar to the method
utilising Photoshop. You can use different
resolutions of texture maps. At the end we
use. Following on from the basic texture already
created, we apply a Filter > Other > Offset with
the Wrap Around option, and enter half of the
resolution of the image inside the Horizontal/
Vertical section. After weve applied the offset
flter (Fig.14) we will see a cross in the middle of
the image we will use the Clone Stamp tool to
solve the problem by cloning the texture.
2. Select the Airbrush Pen as your Clone brush,
and set the Opacity to 90% and the Flow to
50%. Pressing the Alt key on your keyboard you
will see the cursor change to a target symbol;
from here you can select the source you would
like to clone by clicking on it. After releasing
the Alt key, you can start to clone the texture
by painting over the hard edges (Fig.15). After
all the hard edges have been covered up with
the Clone tool, we can duplicate the layer,
desaturate it, and adjust the Levels to create a
bump map and a specular map (Fig.16).
With the same method, we will create another
common, dusty metal texture for the metal fence
on the sky-bridge, and for the drain gate on
the bottom of the wall (TTexV2_R2-Metal17).
Here are two examples of when we apply our
seamless texture maps to our objects in Maya,
and repeat the seamless map by multiplying the
UV inside the 2D Texture Placement Attributes
section (Fig.16 & Fig.17).
Creating Layered
Textures in Maya
In Maya > Hypershade you can fnd a utility
under the Other Textures section, called
Layered Textures (Fig.18). This is a utility
will apply another texture on the third layer
(TTexV3_R2-Blue09), but this time we will
apply an extra alpha map to it (TTexV5_R2-
tile02medium_08 adjust the Levels with
Photoshop), blending with the Over option.
Because were using a jpeg as the alpha map,
the Alpha Is Luminance option needs to be
checked (Fig.21).
3. This is the basic network with layered textures
for the colour section. With the same method
we will apply a bump map and specular map to
the shader. As you can see from the Layered
Textures utility, we have the opportunity to
control the use of each layer and texture
map, without using a large single texture map
(Fig.22). With different kinds of combinations
you will be able to create a lot of different texture
maps.
Loading Texture Maps
in Maya
After all the texture maps have been created
in Photoshop, its time to connect them inside
Maya. In this section, I will give you an example
of the network connection using those texture
maps just created.
our scene. In the next part of this tutorial series,
we will also discuss how the lighting/shadows
affect our scene.
Tiong-seah Yap
Or contact them:
There are different basic materials inside Maya for example Blinn,
Lambert, Anisotropic, Phong, etc. All of these shaders have different
options for some basic uses of different types of objects; for example, the
Lambert shader is for objects without specular highlights, and Anisotropic
for objects with grooved surfaces. (You can fnd a detailed description in
the Maya help fles.)
In this scene, we use a Blinn for most of our objects. Inside a blinn
material we load our colour map (diffuse map) in the colour section by
clicking the small box beside it. A menu will pop up, and in it we will
select 2D Textures > File, as the texture placement method (Fig.23). With
the same method, we will load our bump map under the Bump section
and specular map under the Specular Roll Off section. Inside the Bump
section, you will fnd 2D Bump Attributes > Bump Depth which you can
use to control the amount of the Bump effect; by default it will be set to
1. Besides this, you will see some options inside the Blinn material for
example Refection, Specular, Colour and so on (in the next part of this
tutorial series I will cover this in the rendering) (Fig.24).
Final Conclusion
Texturing is like a balancing game, it depends on where you stand. You
will need to increase or decrease some details on some texture maps
to achieve a better overall look in the fnal image, with a combination of
lighting and shadows. Imagine how you would like to see the fnal image
and this will help you to create your texture maps its similar to painting,
only with different tools.
At this point we have set up all the textures for our scene (Fig.25), and in
the next part of tutorial we will be good and ready to do the frst render of
Chapter 6
Lighting & Rendering
The fnal chapter will discuss lighting and
rendering techniques and show how a simple
lighting rig can be set up, along with different
render passes ready for a fnal composite in
Photoshop.
Aquarium eBook
download folder
Chapter 6: Lighting & Rendering Aquarium
will give us a higher quality of shadow (in
multiples of 64); however, at the same time it will
also increase the render time. First, lets set it to
512, and the Filter size will allow us to smooth
the edge of the shadow.
2. For the Fill light and Backlight, the settings
are almost the same; the only difference is that
we dont use shadows for both of these two
lights, and the intensity will be set it to 0.1 for
both of them (Fig.02).
3. We can see the backlight is placed under the
foor, and this will block out our backlight for the
scene. To avoid this we can just break up the
connection between the backlight and the foor.
To do this, lets select our backlight and the
foor, go to the main menu and select Lighting/
Shading > Break Light Links; this will break
up the connection between the two objects
(Fig.03). Under this menu youre also able to
break up some object shadows.
4. After the basic lights are set up, lets create a
camera (Create > Cameras > Camera), switch
the view to our created camera inside our View
port (Panels > Perspective > Camera1), and
usually set up a basic 3-point lighting system
for a scene. A key light simulates our main light
source, and a fll light/backlight helps to light up
the dark area (Fig.01).
A. Depth Map Shadow
1. In this 3-point lighting setup example, we
use three spot lights for our scene. If we switch
to the Attributes Editor of our spot light, the
two key sections we are focusing on are Spot
Light Attributes and Shadows. Inside Spot Light
Attributes we have a Colour section, to control
our light colour. If you click on the white colour
box, a Colour Chooser menu will pop-up for us
to select the colour we want. Lets pick a warm
colour (H50, S0.14, V1) to simulate sunlight.
The Cone Angle section allows us to control the
size of the light, so lets set it to 80. A higher
value in the Penumbra Angle section can soften
the edge of the light, so lets enter a value of
8 here. The Dropoff value of 3 is to control the
width of our light being cast on the scene. Go
to the Shadows section, and in Maya there are
two types of shadows provided: Depth Map and
Ray Traced shadows. Well start by using the
Depth Map Shadows for our scene, and in the
Resolution section a higher value of Resolution
Introduction
In the fnal part of this tutorial, I will introduce
the basic idea of how to set up the lighting
in our scene and render the image for a fnal
composition. When it comes to the rendering, it
is always related to time, and you will discover
that every object/light/shadow inside your scene
can cause different render times. To fnish up
at the end, we will composite our render in the
post-production stage.
Different Methods to
set up Lighting
You can fnd a detailed description in Mayas
help fle for every type of light available in Maya;
here I will introduce some basic methods of
lighting setups for our scene.
3-Point Lights
If we dont use an advanced lighting system,
like Final Gather/Global Illumination, wed
Aquarium Chapter 6: Lighting & Rendering
make our Resolution Gate (View > Camera
Setting > Resolution Gate). This makes it
easier to preview our render frame; well move
our camera angle by following our 2D concept
image as reference. Once the camera is set
up, lock the camera movement to avoid any
unnecessary modifcations. Under the Channels
menu, with our camera selected, lets select all
the Translate XYZ/Rotate XYZ sections and
right-click on any one of them. A menu will pop-
up, in which we want to select Lock. From now
we will no longer be able to move or rotate our
camera (Fig.04).
5. Coming now to the part of render settings,
lets click on the Render Setting icon at the top
of our menu, and inside the Render Setting
windows, lets select Maya software as our
render, and a preset Intermediate Quality under
the Quality section (a higher number of shading
samples provide less noise in the render quality,
but this also causes longer render times). Under
the Common section well set our Image Size to
800x600 pixels (Fig.05).
6. Once everything is set up, lets click on the
Render Current Frame icon (the second on the
with the Maya software renderer. So lets
try to render our image with the Mental Ray
renderer. When we open the Render Settings
window, lets change our renderer to Mental
Ray (Render using > Mental Ray). Lets use
Production Quality under the Preset Menu. With
the Production Quality, in this menu, in the frst
section, were focusing on the sample quality
a Min 0 to Max 2 Sample Levels is enough to
provide good quality without obvious noise in
the render.
3. The Raytracing section is where youre able
to control the accuracy of Refection, Refraction
and Shadows. The higher the number, the
more accurate the result, but the render time
will also take longer. If you open the attribute
of any one of your materials, youll fnd the
Raytrace Options. Under this section we are
able to control the refection information of each
material separately; this is helpful to avoid the
unnecessary render times. For example, we will
change the Refection Limit to 2 (by default its
right of the Render Settings icon). From our
render results (Fig.06 Fig.08) we can see the
different qualities of the shadows affected by the
resolution of the depth map. Once the resolution
goes higher, the render times also start getting
longer, too.
B. Raytrace Shadow
1. Raytraced shadows provide an accurate
shadow and are able to cast shadows through
transparent objects, such as glass, but the
render times are again much longer. Under
the Raytrace Shadow Attributes, we can use
the Light Radius to control the softness of the
shadows edge. Higher Shadows Rays can
decrease the noise of the soft shadow; Ray
Depth Limit allows us to control the amount of
the shadow casting through the transparent
object.
2. One important note about the Raytrace
Shadow is that Mental Ray rendered raytraced
shadows are much faster than those done
set to 1) for our Floor Material. Going back to
the Render Settings window, lets set a value
of 2 for Refection and Shadows under the
Raytracing section (Fig.09 & Fig.10). After all
the basics have been done, lets click again on
Render Current Frame.
4. Once our render is fnished well notice the
shadow inside our scene appears much more
accurate when compared to the Depth Map
Shadows (Fig.11).
Dome Light (Simulating
Environment Lighting)
1. Well use a so-called Dome light to simulate
an outdoor environment lighting setup. With the
Dome lighting method we create lots of lights
to surround our scene in order to simulate a
complex sky lighting condition, with an additional
spotlight to act as the direction of our sun.
2. First well create a spotlight and set the Cone
Angle to 70, the Penumbra Angle to 10, and
the Intensity to 0.02. Turn on the Ray Trace
sky. Lets open a sky image (text_V3_r2 / Sky
_04), and in the Render View windows (File >
Open Image), with our sky image open, lets
select each of our spot lights inside the scene
and use the colour chooser to change the light
colour randomly from the selections made on
our sky image, until all the spot light colours
have been chosen. Once thats done, its time to
render (Fig.14). Well keep our previous settings
(Mental Ray) for the render (Fig.15).
Rendering with Final
Gather (Mental ray)
In this last part covering lighting methods, well
use Final Gather in Mental Ray to render our
image. With a simple lighting set up, its usually
hard to simulate light in the real world. In our
world the light comes from different directions
and is cast onto our object with different colours.
Final Gather will produce the highest-quality
lighting for our scene, but at the same it will take
the longest to render.
1. First of all well create a sphere and scale it
until it covers up our entire scene. Well cut off
half of the sphere which is facing the bottom of
our scene and then we need to create a spot
Shadows. Once the spot light is created, from
the side view, start to duplicate and re-position
the duplicated spot lights to create a curve
shape over the top of the scene (Fig.12).
3. Lets create a group for our spot light and
set the pivot to the centre of the group (Modify
> Centre Pivot). Keep duplicating the group of
the spot light and re-positioning them until they
become a sphere shape covering the entire
scene.
4. Once our Dome light is created, well create
another spot light and set the Intensity to 0.7,
the Cone Angle to 80, and the Penumbra Angle
to 15. This will be treated as the sun inside our
scene, so once again lets give it a warm colour.
We now need to create another two fll lights
and place them under the foor. Break up the
link between these two fll lights with the foor
(Fig.13).
5. The last thing to set up in our scene is the
simulation of the colour of the environment
Aquarium Chapter 6: Lighting & Rendering
programme, such as Photoshop. However,
there is an issue with the Render Pass option
between Mental Ray and Maya, and to solve
the problem of the Mental Ray render passes
youll be able to fnd a free MEL script, called
Mentalray Render Pass Toolkit, on Highend3d,
which has been provided by Mr. Tran Vu Linh.
I wont go beyond my ability to try and explain
the usage of this MEL script, but for those of
you who are interested I suggest you visit the
Highend3d website for details.
In this section, I will introduce the basic idea
of render passes using the Maya software
renderer. So frst of all, lets select all the objects
inside the scene, and on the bottom right hand
side of the Maya programme, youll be able to
fnd a menu for Display and Render. Lets switch
to the Render display layer, which by default
is empty, and once we have all our objects
selected, click on the last icon at the top of the
menu (Fig.20); this will create a new layer for all
the selected objects. Lets rename it Diffuse
by double-clicking on the default name, Layer
2. If we right-click on the layer, a menu will pop
up, and under the Preset we will able to assign
a Diffuse pass for our layer. Repeat all of these
steps and assign another layer for the Specular,
Shadow and Occlusion layers.
light and use it to simulate the sun and create
the highlight inside our scene (Colour: picked
from the image, Intensity: 0.7, Clone Angle: 80,
Penumbra Angle: 15, Dropoff: 25) (Fig.16).
2. Inside the Hypershade we will create a
Surface Shader and load the sky image we
used before (text_V3_r2 / Sky _04) to the
colour section. Apply this Surface Shader to the
sphere we created and switch to the Hardware
Texturing view option by pressing key number 6,
followed by the image. Rotate the sphere so that
its where that the sun should be coming from,
and at the same time, place the spot light in
the same direction as the sun, inside the image
(Fig.17).
3. Inside the Render Setting windows, we
need to turn on Final Gather by checking the
Secondary Effects > Final Gathering. Under the
Final Gather section, well set the Accuracy to
500 rays a higher number of rays means a
better quality of lighting as a result, but at the
same time note that the render time will also
increase; most of the time a maximum value
of 1000 - 1500 will be good enough for a fnal
render (Fig.18). The Scale section is for us to
control the brightness of our environment: click
on the colour bar, and a Colour Chooser will
appear. Lets set the V to 1.8. Final Gather gives
us smoother lighting and richer colour in the
render result (Fig.19).
Multi-Pass Rendering
Usually wed do a multi-pass render for our
scene; for example diffuse, shadows, specular
and occlusion, because this makes it easier for
us to process the renders in a post-production
Lets focus on the Occlusion Layer: once the
Preset > Occlusion is applied, our objects inside
the scene will turn black. This is because an
Occlusion shader was automatically applied
to our objects. When you click on any object
inside the scene, a shader is connected to the
Out-colour section of Surface Shader inside the
Attribute Editor. Lets click on the connected
Out-colour symbol; this will lead us to the
Occlusion shader. Under the Occlusion shader
we will adjust the Spread to 1.8 and the Max
Distance to 3.6 (double the value of the Spread).
Finally, set the Sampler to 32; this will decrease
the noise of the Occlusion Layer something
we need to do a test rendering for in order to get
the value of those sections in a different scene
(Fig.21).
Once all the layers are created, by default an
R will appear at the front of each layer, and
this means the layers are renderable. So lets
open the Render Setting windows and set the
image format to Targa or Tiff, because both of
these formats include an Alpha Channel. Set the
Renderable Camera to Camera 1.
By default, Maya will render out each layer
and save them under the name of the layer we
created inside our project path. Now well do a
us to import our previous 2D images sky as
our background. Add a highlight from the suns
direction, and fnally apply a Levels and a Hue/
Saturation layer to do a fnal adjustment on the
contrast and saturation of the image (Fig.23).
The beneft of multiple-pass rendering is that it
allows us to control each layer separately, and
at the same time this can save us a lot of time
without the need to re-render the entire scene
when only one of the layers may need to be
changed.
Final Conclusion
Rendering is always related to time; it can vary
from fve minutes to fve hours to render one
single frame. Different kinds of setups provide
different kinds of results. Most of time we need
to choose between the quality and the time
24 hours for only a single frame doesnt really
mean anything, but 24 minutes for each frame
of 100 will become another story. How to get a
good balance is always an important factor of
3D rendering. And on this fnal note comes the
end of the tutorial. Many thanks once again for
reading and following this series, I hope it has
been helpful.
Aquarium
Creating a Complete Scene
from Concept to Render
Specializing in Aged &
Weather Textures
Tiong-seah Yap
Or contact them:
Batch Render for each of our layers, so lets go
to Render > Batch Render and Maya will send
out our fles for rendering until fnished.
Post-Production in
Photoshop
Once our multiple layers are rendered, we will
open all of our layers up in Photoshop (Fig.22).
First of all, the Diffuse layer is our basic layer,
onto which we will start to load the Specular
layer and blend it with the Colour Dodge layer
blending mode, setting the opacity to 50%. For
the next layer, blend the Shadows layer with the
Multiply layer blending mood option, and change
the Levels of the layer to make it a little darker,
along with a Colour Balance adjustment to make
the shadows a little more blue-toned. At the end,
well then blend in the Occlusion layer with the
Multiply blending mode, and set the opacity to
50%. After all the layers have been correctly
merged, create a group for all these layers and
apply a mask to mask out the sky; this will allow
Resource fles for this eBook
are within the Aquarium
eBook download folder
for more products in our range visit http://www.3dtotal.com/shop
: volume 3
Alon Chou
Damien Canderl
Gerhard Mozsi
John Wu
Laurent Pierlot
Levente Peterffy
Marek Denco
Neil Blevins
Nathaniel West
Matt Dixon
Buy the book to see just
how they create their
incredible imagery!
Hardback 21.6cm x 27.9cm in size
288 Full Colour premium paper pages
Features 60 of the finest digital
2d and 3d artists working in
the indusrty today, from the
likes of:
Available Now Only!
UK - 32 USD - $64 EUR - 49
: volume 3
Alon Chou
Damien Canderl
Gerhard Mozsi
John Wu
Laurent Pierlot
Levente Peterffy
Marek Denco
Neil Blevins
Nathaniel West
Matt Dixon
Buy the book to see just
how they create their
incredible imagery!
Hardback 21.6cm x 27.9cm in size
288 Full Colour premium paper pages
Features 60 of the finest digital
2d and 3d artists working in
the indusrty today, from the
likes of:
Available Now Only!
UK - 32 USD - $64 EUR - 49
Introduction:
The original character of the Swordmaster
was created by Seong-wha Jeong and we
had 3DTotals in-house 3d artist Richard
Tilbury, re-create the character in 3dsmax
as well as create the textures in Photoshop,
in our new precise, step-by-step tutorial for
highly polished, low polygon game character
with detailed texturing for real-time render-
ing. We have also converted the tutorials into
Cinema 4D, Maya, Lightwave and Softimage
platforms. Even if you are not a user of one of
them, the principles should be easily followed
in nearly all other 3D applications.
The Swordmaster tutorials is spread over 8
Chapters which outline, in detail, the process
for creating the Swordmaster below are the
details.
Chapter 1: Modelling the Head
Chapter 2: Modelling the Torso
Chapter 3: Modelling the Arms & Legs
Chapter 4: Modelling the Clothing & Hair
Chapter 5: Modelling the Armour
Chapter 6: Mapping & Unwrapping
Chapter 7: Texturing the Skin & Body
Chapter 8: Texturing the Armour & Clothing
image by Seong-wha Jeong
Downloadable Tutorial EBook
Introduction:
Michel Rogers famous Joan of Arc
tutorial re-written for Maya by Taylor
Kingston, Cinema 4D by Giuseppe
Guglielmucci & Nikki Bartucci,
Lightwave by Vojislav Milanovich and
Softimage by Luciano Iurino and
3DCreative Magazine.com.
If there has been one single tutorial
that has educated and inspired more
budding 3d artists than anything else,
this complete step by step project by
Michels must be it. The community
is in debt to him.
These 120 plus page, Downloadable PDFs are
designed for ease of use to help beginners and
intermediate level of artist alike in the creation
of a female character. The tutorial takes you
through the process of modelling, texturing and
mapping to fnally adding bones.
Chapter 1: Modeling of the Body
- Body
Chapter 2: Modeling of the Head
- Head, Ear & Assembly
Chapter 3: Modeling of the Accessories
- The Sword & Armour Legs
- Armour Bust, Hair & Glove
- Accessories & UVW Mapping
Chapter 6: UVW Mapping
- Sword, Clothing, Armour & Body
Chapter 7: Texturing & Hair
- Eyes, Skin & Hair
Chapter 8: Bones & Skinning
- Bases, Hierarchy & Skinning
I
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This tutorial will is split into 6 chapters and will endeavour

to give you an insight into how a fully realised 3D scene

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