Carmilla v.2

After much reworking, I can now bring you a much less retarded version of [link].

New things for this version;

Reworked geometry - I added some more details, and defined a few shapes. I made parts of the model asymmetrical.

Completely reworked Diffuse Map - More details, more realistic rendering. The Diffuse is 90% drawn by hand. The only photo texture I used was for the fabric to get that denim pattern, but creases and dirt on the fabric are drawn by me.

Completely Reworked Specular Map - I now understand how crucial a Specular Map works, and I've committed fully to try and define my materials with it, even daring to add some color to it for more interesting reflections. The Spec played a crucial part in making the chest armour look believable. I added in some yellow in to the specular of the burn wound to try and emulate pus.

Completely Reworked Normal Map - Which is probably one of the bigger steps for this model, as I used Mudbox to help paint the normal map on. This model has a lot of flaws, so it was nearly impossible for me to create a good hi-poly model to bake, so I had to paint most of the Normal Map using Mudbox. Very satisfying results! I ended up using Crazy Bump as a base, and then used Photoshop and Mudbox until I had the effect I wanted.

The model in itself is old and very, very flawed. It has tons of holes and border edges and double faces. I opted for just fixing up the textures in this though! I've learned a lot from looking over this model again and I can see a lot of things that I would do differently if I built it today.

I also committed completely to making the textures tell you the story of the character. I wanted her to look worn and tired and beaten. Make the wound and armour make you interested in her as a character. After staring at her for so many hours, I might just actually make a character out of her, as I've actually grown fond of her ugly mug.

I wanted to render her in Marmoset Toolbag, but due to the massive problems this model has, I had to do what I could with Maya. I couldn't use my teacher's in-game shader either, since it doesn't work with Mac. So I took a crash-course in shading networks and hijacked Maya's own Surface Shader to get a modified Phong E. With some tricking, I managed to make it display my Normal Map as a Normal Map instead of being an idiot and displaying it as a Bump map. It was very informative.

I'm really happy with how much I've grown in texturing in only half a year and I hope to continue growing! I really love texturing. C:

Thanks for looking at this!

Model built in Maya 2011, tweaked in 2013, Textures drawn using Photoshop CS5, CrazyBump and Mudbox 2012. Rendered in Maya 2013.
Software provided by The Game Assembly
Please do not use this image without my permission!