Changing on texturing

Thank to CrazyBump, I don't need to do a lot of the shading and bumping by myself.

That's why I'm trying to add OCC map to the texture and hope that it would make the result more polished.

OCC map makes everything looks more dirty, when doing modular level building , dirty is good, because you can hide seam this way.

The way I handle seam is by purposefully leaving it black. See the black line runs across the picture? There is a seam and no matter anything wrong with the game engine, this seam will blend in beautifully.

Starting on Texturing - Week6

I went on my quest to study how to do environment correctly, it's totally different from how school taught it. I cried a little bit inside to find school works were not so helpful:

This is a picture of almost finished tunnel:

And thanks this awesome app CrazyBump, bump map has never been so easy!

Look at my texture map, bump map and specular map:

I'm now looking at 

Progress On Environment Modeling -- Week 04

This is the first version of a energy room model I made. And it's also the first room model I made for games. I say it's looking not bad.

We decided to make each trunk of the environment by 10s. This room is made out of a 30 by 30 box. I cut all 4 corners to make it a 8-sided room.

The benefit is pretty obvious, I can make things and duplicate them by 90 or 45 degrade angles.

Just heard from Dylan that the pipes are too high poly, I guest it's time to smooth things up!

Progress on Environment _ Week03

As I'm doing modular environment design, I find the more I try to make something continuous, the harder for me to model.

Making the transaction piece

2 way done

3 way done

Getting started on Environment: Concept and Prep

I'm a pretty systematic when it comes to design. Some artists may start by drive right into drawing and see what works. However, I have to have a back story for the environment at the back of my head; I have to know the exact layout;I have to know exactly how to make thing. And most importantly... I have to be inspired.

Those are some images and resources I looked into for environment concepts:

layout:

https://www.google.com/search?q=spaceship+layout&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=lf9VUsaXDs2g4AOHq4HQCQ&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1642&bih=898&dpr=1#q=spaceship%20floor%20plan&revid=1959306252&tbm=isch&imgdii=_

I don't know how spaceship will do layout, so it's good to look up how people designed them.

Environment retargeting:

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=89682

Environment Modularity:

http://wiki.polycount.com/CategoryEnvironmentModularity?highlight=%28%5CbCategoryEnvironment%5Cb%29

A simple tutorial on snapping to grids in Maya:

http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/3d_modeling/maya-tutorial-for-beginners-09-snap-tool-pivot-move.php

Just testing the round motif:

There are so many goo stuff on polycount that I can't even appreciate it enough!!