This week we looked more into texturing and mapping, as well as getting into lighting our scenes.
First, I experimented with some of the material attribute features on Maya, to get a feel for it. I tried using a variety of materials big enough to differentiate the pieces, but not so many that it became a mess to look at and handle.
Then, I imported it into Substance Painter and started looking at textures on there too. I looked into the actual materials used to create music boxes, and used them on my project; steel and brass were the most commonly used metals for them.
I made the wood texture have horizontal lines in it, to mask some imperfections in my object’s mapping and structure. If I’d used vertical lines, they would’ve been a lot more visible, as shown below.
Finally, I imported a 2k hdri image of a fancy ballroom into Maya and used some extra lighting to make my music box look like it’s in a real environment.
I’m not sure how to get the Substance Painter texturing into Maya, but I’ll figure it out.
Honestly, my model is a bit simpler than I wish it was, but I’m not unhappy with how it’s coming along. I hope I’ll improve on it even more in the next week.