Kuma Project: Character Creation

2009-10-10T22:19:00.003-06:00

  This is a character that I have had an idea for many years. This drawing spawned an often used username which inspired a series of related assignments during college. Shortly after college I began to design and develop a character model of a bear.
  Since I first started I have learned different workflows for everything from modeling to texturing. As a result the characters design has changed a lot compared with his very first model.

Currently work is being done on the body and facial rigs. Finishing touches are being done on the texture maps. I have also been experimenting with fur.

Black and White Shader

2009-10-10T18:56:00.005-06:00

This has been a trail and error experience for me that started back in school. I wanted to achieve a similar shader look as was used in the movie Renaissance. Using Maya's ramp shaders I created harsh cut offs between black and white and grey's based on brightness levels. However after further experimentation I noticed that this method caused lighting anomalies. Shadows and light would sometimes appear reversed. I ended up switching to a method that used a shader map to look up the black or white value on the ramp and then apply it to different levels of the specularity of the objects in the light. This way lighting and shadows acted much more naturally. I also had a lot more control over the threshold value of where the light jumps from black to white.
Bump maps were being used to apply textures to objects which also attributed to the increase in the number of shaders being used in any particular scene. Later on outside of classes further experimentation ensued during which I noticed the fatal flaw with the way the material reacted to lighting conditions. Now with the current shading map texturing with bump maps has been dropped in favor of shading network simplicity while rendering. One shader is used and higher levels of geometry are used for detail.

Multiple variations of the shaders were made that allowed for black, white and grays and different material types.

Initially I intended to use bump and normal maps for finer details. Render and load times increased due to unnecessary complex shading networks and texture files.

The final shader uses no textures resulting in an image that simpler and cleaner.

Tyler Conacher 3D Artist

Kuma Project: Character Creation

Black and White Shader