Paper Overview & Ideas

For this paper we create our own brief based around digital media we want to explore in depth with a more technical aspect.

After some thought I've decided I want to explore building environments and texture mapping options in Maya to create a realistic-semi realistic looking environment for a 2D character to explore.

In this project the character will be quite secondary with most of the technical work being around building the environment - still to be decided whether natural or man made.

Brief:

The aim of this project is to recreate a realistic looking digital environment by learning the ideal ways to texture map assets which will be brought into the environment. 

Methods/Processes:

• The assets will be created using Zbrush and Maya (primary sculpting in Zbrush and base modelling in Maya) and texturing in Zbrush or Photoshop and illustrator. The assets will then likely be placed into Unity with the possibility of another student's character wandering around the environment.
• The project will require testing different techniques across these programs to find the most successful option for texturing (polypaint? photoshop? etc)
• Consider the polycount of the objects if they are to exist in a gaming environment.
• Research different ways to obtain textures.
• Possibly add audio to the scene as a finished product.

Intended outcome:
To find the ideal method to use when texturing in Zbrush or another more suitable program. The final application will be an environment scene in Unity.

Design Context:
research a variety of techniques through tutorials (written of video) and collecting textures from life/reality to use within a digital context. This project may require learning some new software or plugins and observation and understanding of real textures and how to apply them.

Things I would like to learn to texture properly:
- trees
- rocks
- walls/fences? - buildings
- dirt and grass
- Also possibly lighting effects on the environment

In addition I might need to make a small storyboard as I aim to create a short sequence of the character stepping through the environment as a final video.