Since I haven't done any real scripting in Maxscript, I decided to take the Christmas break and do something about that. I chose to write a short script, that flatten maps and packs the UVs of selected objects either seperately or in a shared UV space.
I plan to expand the tool and already started working on an export tool, which isn't implemented, yet, so I will continuously update this tool.
If everything works out I will be able to use it for my FMP. Currently it is just a brief journey into the world of Maxscript.
Also I did some quick VFX prototyping, which I might end up using for another personal project. Strictly materials at the moment, no particles.
After handing in my third project, I decided to spend the week before Christmas break polishing my Destruction Project, after talking to one of my tutors. Since I didn't have any time to make textures, when last working on it, I started by making them in Substance Designer. This took a while, because I haven't touched Designer in a long time for creating realistic materials, all of the ones below are work in progress as well.
Wood Substance Graph
I tried to recreate old, worn down wood, whilst also adding options to add varnish or paint and other input parameters. The following Screenshots show the textures at 1024 by 1024 resolution.
Standard Wood
Wood Variations
The material definitely still needs some improvement, but I will move on for now, since I have plenty of other things to work on.
I also started working on a simpler wood mainly for furniture.
Wood 02 Graph
Wood 02
Additionally I started working on a worn leather material. Ideally I will be able to add a parameter for the level of wear, etc.
Since week two of this project was rather unproductive, I spend week 3 finishing modelling, making some quick textures and materials.
1 - Texturing
The textures are definitely something, that I need to spend more time on, but since I didn't want to hand in a model without textures, I made a basic texture pass. It is very likely I will rework the textures completely, because the unwrap needs to be improved.
2 - Materials
Since I did not have a lot of time left until the hand-in I improvised and built two very simple materials for the laser beam and the burning air coming out the Robot's Engine.
For the beam I used a panning noise texture and warped it with a panning normal map.
Beam Material Setup
Beam Material
After a suggestion from one of my tutors I made the color of the laser beam and eye change, when there is an obstacle in front of the robot for some more visual feedback.
Obstacle Feedback
For the engine material I used a very similar method for warping noise, but then I use it as the UV input of a gradient texture, which works like a gradient map. I also added a Hue Shift Node to change color, if necessary.
Gradient Texture vs Applied Gradient Map in UE4
Engine Material Setup
Engine Material
3 - Conclusion
Overall I feel like I more or less finished, what I set out to do with this project. Of course it still requires a lot of polishing, esprecially the Avoiding Obstacle mechanism, which works for obstacles in front, but not on the sides of the robot. Also I need to spend some more time optimising the modell and really put some more work into making the textures a lot better, since I only spend about a day on them. And lastly I need to think about an environment for presentation.
