VW Bus, Sci-Fi, and Charcuterie Board

    Lets start with the smaller projects and work our way up. Early on in the semester, one of the first things we learned how to do was make a normal stamp. This pretty much fakes detail using the normal map, creating angels and indentations without actually changing the topology of the model. It was a great way to add small or very complex details without increasing your your Polly count. Here is a example of extra detail I added using normal map. You can see the color on the normal map change to represent depth and height. Using this I was able to "fake" wood grains and other details onto a otherwise plain fence model.

Next up we have our low poly something that is used in most open world games. When you are far away from a detailed object, many times it actually switches over to another model with far less detail. Because of your distance, you cant tell the difference. And since the model is far more basic, your device will also run smoother. For this project I used a chain as a example. The image below is the normal map texture for the chain.

I used this same normal map for all 3 different chain models. The trick was that only the closest model really had any texture and beveling, the 2nd was a more basic model, and the third was just a plane with the texture of the model itself on top of it.

The first big project was the the Charcuterie Board. We were given a bunch of models and also told to make some of our selves. The primary goal of this assignment was to accurately texture the models. Despite getting a good grade on the project, I was not happy with my work. Especially cause all the models lacked everything but a base and metalness map. I even forgot the board! Things went so poorly, that I didn't even render anything Unity, and rather used Painters built in renderer. This by far was the lowest quality work I had submitted this semester.

Next up, and something I'm far more proud of, is the Sci-Fi assignment. We were given a choice of either a X-Wing or a Tie fighter to texture and UV. I chose the Tie Fighter, and since it's so symmetrical, I could delete over half of the model when doing my UVing. I kind of wanted to do a untraditional color scheme, so I went with what I thought was like a 70s gangster pallet. A nice flashy purple and a chromatic gold.

After this, we had the VW bus assignment, this was by far the largest model we had ever been given to UV and Texture, but I found it quite fun. Below is the normal map I created for the van.

I was pretty happy with how tight and efficient I was able to get the UVs. Below is the actual model with the textures applied, rendered in Unity. I went with a blueish purple to orange gradient and had a baby blue secondary.

I was very happy with how this turned out. The biggest issue I ran into was attempting to make the glass transparent. Lucky I was able to figure it out, but sadly it bade the text and other decals on the actual glass almost invisible. If you look at the bottom right of the front windshield, you can barely make out some hidden text!