My VSD class was quite a fun and rewarding experience. When I took Shading and Lighting, I enjoyed that class a lot more than I thought I was going to, but this class was even more enjoyable and took things to a whole new level.
The project we were to complete comprised of multiple stages, all of which was an enlightening, unique experience. First we had to set up the placement and lighting of a one shot render scene for wk 1. We did this kind of stuff a lot in Shading and Lighting. We also were required to UV the scraper and the pulley. The instructor I had for this class was great. He gave some great tips for UVing and showed us some great tools that really helped along my UVing skills.
 |
| Lighting and Placement Render |
|
Week 2 is when things got really interesting. I started texturing the materials I UVed in Photoshop. This was a completely brand new experience for me. I didn't even know you could do all that in Photoshop. Using the UVs I laid out for the scraper and the pulley, I created my own textures. I was very excited about how these turned out.
 |
| Pulley Texture |
The remainder of the course was spent refining the textures in the scene, trying to match the reference as close as possible while bringing our own creativity to the table. We were required to use the MILA material in Maya for texturing. In Shading and Lighting we were using Mia Material X. I find that the MILA is so much better. It has far more capabilities that the material x. There's just no end to what you can create. I was able to add reflections, dirt, and paint, create metal, glass and even add a bevel to the glass.
 |
| Diffuse Render |
 |
| Glossy Render |
 |
| Layered Render |
Overall, I really enjoyed this class. I learned a lot and had a lot fun while doing it. I even came out of this class enjoying UVing more and I had a great instructor that was very informative. Even though I want to animate for a living I don't think I would like to do more of this kind of work in the future.
 |
| Transmission Render (Final) |
