The 3D foundations class is officially in it's final hours now. I'll actually be a little sad to see it go! It was certainly a fun class, though it is not for the faint of heart... There was a lot of material covered in the four short weeks, and for me, it felt less like a "foundation" and more like a trial by fire.
Each week certainly built upon the previous, but the build up was like climbing a sheer cliff at times. Thank goodness for Google, Lynda.com and the many talented peeps on the Full Sail 3D arts Google Hangouts... I certainly would not have gotten as far as I have without those resources.
Anyway, enough waxing lyrical. Week four.
The focus this week was taking the modeling skills we mastered over the first three and adding an introduction to UV mapping. UV Mapping is basically a "second space" in which texturing takes place. If the model is built in three dimensions (X, Y, and Z), the coordinates used to define where an image gets pasted to the model is defined in a separate two dimensional space using U and V as the axes. Another way of thinking about UV space is to imagine creating an unfolded "paper craft" version of your model... turning it from a 3D object into a flat 2D version. This 2D version is then perfect for painting and editing in a traditional 2D paint package such as Photoshop.
There is far more in the areas of UV mapping than just basic textures however. Transparency, shine, reflectivity, surface detail can all be achieved in UV mapping. Those aspects however were not covered in this class.
One thing we did cover was "Ambient Occlusion". This is a technique used to add depth to a model's appearance by creating shadows and darkened areas on a model in creases, much as you would see in reality. Literally, ambient light is being occluded and a darkened space is the result. In Maya, using various aspects of the "Hypershade" window (which frankly, right now seems like some form of witchcraft!), the software can actually calculate the AO and create a texture file that contains that information.
Lastly, we have a final "Presentation Scene" to showcase our work so far and generally show off :) . My scene is as follows...
With all that in mind, 3D Foundations is over. A lot was learned, and a lot still remains... Now onto Art Fundamentals 1!
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