UV Mapping, texturing and lighting

UV mapping and texturing were also done during the Christmas break but I decided to make a separate blog post for them, together with lighting.

In the beginning, I had some problems with UV mapping. It just did not work and I was already in Slovakia so I contacted Kristina for 3 days crying how it is not working at all. Crying helps, I guess, because after that I successfully UV mapped everything in one afternoon. 

For textures, I combined photos and digital painting with filters. I also used bump maps for every texture, I just didn't include them all in this blog post because most of them were so subtle, that they just looked like grey squares.

Photos of my knitwear were used for the jumper which was the most difficult texture I made for my character. I had to tweak those photos without damaging the pattern and connect it in places where it was not connected in the photo.

For the texture of the skirt I had to make a texture which looks like thick fabric but because of those folds, I had to be careful. I did not use photos because I wanted to try it this way using filters in photoshop.

While I was texturing and bump mapping skin I needed to be careful so the texture was not going to be too harsh but it still had to be visible. I added a bit of noise and used this skin texture for legs, face and hands.

Knee socks were more difficult than I expected, because of the UV map shape which was not straight.

I decided to change the design of her shoes, I made them darker, with blue details and I added a small moon on the outside. I cut out the moon from one of my older photos.

The face was a tricky part, I spent a lot of time painting her lips which look good, I think. I added few light blue freckles around her nose, which are barely visible but when someone pays attention to the character design, it is noticeable.

The most difficult thing to cut and unfold were hands, because the texture on them connects everywhere. I had to do the UV mapping again while I was texturing because the cut on thumbs was too visible. When I had it done, the texture was easy.

I didn't know how the hair will look as png format, so I added the texture every 5 minutes to see if it looked alright. It was tricky to make it transparent only near roots and ends but I think they are successfully made.

For eyebrows, I used the same technique as for hair, just less opaque because I wanted her to have light eyebrows. 

I know the tongue will not be very visible but I couldn't leave it without texture, it would bother me too much. I used just sponge filter with different colours and opacities and with the bump map, it turned alright.

Lighting was a bit tricky because it looked a lot lighter in the scene than in the render view. I used 3 point lighting for the character, using only cold white light because her colours are very soft and coloured light would make them disappear.