Making of: Glass Girl

making of: Glass girl
By Kamil latocha.

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introduction
At first the prohect name was Glass girl and i wanted it todo be fast and simple. As time went by i thought, it starting todo look god, why just leave it like this if i can model higher polygon meshes and test out my baking skills.

Because i had already made a body in postura (not in a standard pose), it was hard todo make her very symmetric and kep god proportions of body/head parts. Before you start a new Project it helpful todo think about what you actually Will do todo avoid problems later.

Glass girl Mesh is really crappy here butim sitll learning todo model like a pro. There not much todo tell about modeling her, as she started from a box and ended up as a ~1000 polygon Mesh, which was inflate, and Pinch todo fine tune my modeling.
Wings
Wings were a real challenge todo me, as i didnt know how todo start modeling them. First, y made a base Wing and used dupliverts with feathers. Next, y made a base Wing and just extruded Edges todo Mimic feathers. Unfortunately, both methods gave por results.

I found a reference from Wikipedia about Bird Wings, and i started modeling todo make them manifold, or suficiently varied, and give the feathers some thickness. I knew it would be a pain todo UV map it, but in the end i used plain Unwrap and helped by adding seam Edges around feathers and at their joining with the Wing bone. To model so Many feathers, extrude the Faces individually (in Edit Mode, select all Faces and use e key - Individual Faces option) (se fig 1) start at the top of the Mesh and select enough Faces todo extrude 2-3 rows of feathers. Adding some random size, length, and rotation adjustments is a god idea.

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detailing feathers
The next step is todo detail the feathers. Select all their side Edges and subdivide them 3 or more times, depending on their length, until they start looking like in fig 2 if you want extra details on some of the feathers you can edit them this way, se fig 3.

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Fig:2
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Fig:3

uv for Wings
Remember that UV maps for the Wings are only neded if we want todo bake them. Before you do this on such a complex model you ned todo be 1000% sure that the Mesh is correct. I made 3 UV maps for my Wings, and the last one sems todo be ok, so dont get Angry if your first doesnt look god.

First, (in Edit Mode) hold the shift key and start selecting side, tip and base Edges of feathers. When you are done selecting, hit Alt+e and select make seams. Now create a new UV map for it. The more the complex the Wing is, the bigger the size of map should be. In UV face select mode, selecting all Faces, pressing u, and picking Unwrap Will do the trick.

If you are not happy with the results (if some islands of feathers are todo small, they are very Chaotic and use less than 50% of the map space) then i suggest you use pack charts in UV/Image Editor. If it still is not god, you can always rotate/scale/move UV islands by hand. Alternativaly, if you have the Python script for smart Unwrap, use it (script found in Blender own) and play with the settings. Incidentally, in such a complex Mesh i do not suggest using Lightmap uvpack, but if you change the map size todo 4056x4056 then i think it Will be ok.
the Cloth
This is where the fun began. I started modeling it from the leg (the one like a Stif Rubber, because it had no Folds. I started todo think of ways todo add them. One method was using plain modeling, splitting Edges/Faces, and slowly adding details.

His was fine in the beginning, but in the end it loked very random and i couldnt really se where the Folds went - It just loked Unreal. Next i tried using a subdivided Mesh with sculpted Folds, but it became Even worse. It hard todo Mimic Cloth and how it Will react this way, where Will the Folds be, and in what direction they should go.

But i got Lucky - While searching over at blenderartists, y ran across a new Cloth simulation currently in SVN and some test builds. My only complaint so that it doesnt just fall down from that tre, it neded some goals. In Edit Mode i selected only the main Faces and added them todo a vertex group. Se fig 4. Only 40 frames were neded todo make the Folds come down and give a really nice effect. After that, y just applied the deformation, and in Edit Mode adjusted the Faces of the Cloth that had jumped into tre Mesh. Thats it no more ned todo Sculpt a cloht in Blender.

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tre
While UV mapping the tree was a challenge, modeling was quite fast and easy. Uv mapping was dificult because i wanted the tree texture todo be top todo bottom and on branches). The real life saber here is live Unwrap, transform and Pinning vertexes. Just set up the seams correctly, select all of your Mesh Faces in UV mode (if you have the new test Blender, the UV mode tools Will be in Edit Mode), press u, and select Unwrap. Now go todo the UV edit window and select the most important vertexes of the tree as shown in here (the red dots). Se fig 5.

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It best todo use brush select (b key), because sometimes the vértices od the UV arent joined. In this case, deselecting the pinned vertexes and selecting them again Will not move the pined vertex. When moving the pinned vértices and the UV deforms, be careful - The fewer pins you add, the better. It takes time todo learn how it works, but the time is definitely worth it.

The advantage of this method is that you can go bak todo Edit Mode and change your Edge seams on the Mesh, but Unwrapping again wont deleete your pinned vertexes. That bien you dont ned todo start all over again if you found a missing Edge seam.

On the tree i used 2 UV maps. The first UV map is for baking, which cant overlap itself and must be inside the map border. The second map sen here in fig6 is for texture. It doesnt ned todo be in Bound of the map área as the texture of the tree is seamless.

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The bake .
part 1: creating AO bake
To start of, go todo left/front orthographic view and add>>Mesh>>Icosphere in the center of your scene. Now depending on the subdivisión level, you Will get more lights (thus, slower baking), so go for a setting of 1 or 2. Higher is not required.

If you want a 2 color AO, then go todo Edit Mode and select the bottom part of the iconosphere ball. Split it (p key), and if you want 1 light just leave it in once piece. In the same place as the sphere, create a spot light, set the light todo RayTrace and set samples todo 1 or 2. Next, parent the light todo the sphere. If you Split the sphere, youll ned todo duplicate the light, leave it in same place, and then parent it todo second sphere part.

Setting colors of the lights can be as you want. I used blue and red, but if you use 1 light then white is what you want (as you can always change the color in Gimp when compositing). If the lights are parented, select the sphere or their parts and turn on duplifaces (they sem better than dupliverts). If the lights on your sphere are facing inside, youre fine. If not, se fig 7.

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To bake AO from rays, set-up the material of the object as follows:

• make the material color white or gray.
• set the Shader type todo Lambert and referencia todo 1.
• remove any Specular Shader (or in lights, set the no Specular option).
• if you want the object todo receive Transparent Shadows, turn on the Trashadow button located in the Shaders tab.
• it a los a god idea todo set your material winth a Bump map (if you have a UV map on it) as it looks more realistic.

There are Many reasons why i use this method instead of normal AO:

• it can get cleaner results than AO (but is slower if you use sub-div 2 or more of the sphere).
• if using ray shadows on the lamps, you get alpha textures that cast shadows.
• someone once said AO is for suckers because it uses ray distance, and you cant really set how fast the shadow Will blur over that distance.

part 2: Sunlight bake
Time for a hard shadow. You dont ned todo have it, but it adds details todo the final composition. Settings:
Baked shadows start looking god if the Shadow Map is 2 times bigger than the AO (so you can scale it down in Gimp and get nice aliasing effect on the shadow Edges).

Adding a Bump map here is a god idea.

Remember todo hide the sphere and light we used todo bake AO, and create a Sun light or a spot light in white color using the RayTrace setting. Subsamples is best set at 5.

Things i didnt say:

• After baking is Compleete, save the bitmap, not the blend file.
• you ned todo set the light for AO very Low. 0.05 Will be fine. Also, set the distance bien up (in new test Blender there is a constant fall of of light intensity which Will never fall todo black).
• how todo compose the maps in Gimp (just using layers and mixing ao+shadow+texture). It all recipe on what types of mixing todo use.

By Kamil latocha. www.blenderat.org

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