XB2178 - Tank Textured

So it was time then to texture my tank and give it a bit of colour. I was quite confused and uncertain what I wanted my tank to look like and creating a moodboard didn't do much to help give me more direction.

I unwrapped the tank model as a whole unwrap on 2048 as I felt that it was more organised to have everything on the one file. I wasn't certain what colour scheme to go for however, initially I was going for an army green, although it looked really basic and not at all exciting to I opted for some brown shades for a base and then add a camo pattern on the side.

Although I felt that I managed to create a decent camo texture I didn't quite like the look of it as it somewhat drowned out the detail of the packs and bags on the side so I scrapped that and went for a more straight forward texture.

Above is the final diffuse map I used in the end, both me and my tutor liked the variation in between the 2 browns as a base colour and so I used it as a basis. I then just added some light and take tones to make it look less flat onto a separate layer, after which I then created a layer purely for scratches as it looked very dull and flat and as if it was a plastic toy, free of wear and tear.

The layer really helped, just going along where areas of the tank would be worn aware really made it come to life a lot I felt. Adding an ambient occlusion map to the diffuse really helped highlight areas where there are other objects as well and also to add areas of darkness around the bags on the side and the turret etc. I also created a layer for detail, in which I used a solid black brush at 100% opacity and added little bits of detail to make it look a bit more interesting and also to add little details such as creases.

I was a little iffy about this layer although after doing it first to the bag (middle right). After which I then added some decals here and there to make the tank look more alive and used with little bits of graffiti such as the tally marks on the turret for kills and the little company motto on the side in red, "We'll clip their wings" with a broken wing. Lastly I then added some metallic textures just to make the texture less flat and some greasy metal textures around areas with moving parts to really make it look worn and used as opposed to looking fresh from the factory. I also added a layer of noise on top of everything just to make everything a little less precise and make the tones blend together a bit better.

I was really happy with how this turned out as it looked like a worn tank that has been used and I'm really happy with how all the scratches came out as it means then that I can create a specular map and highlight the scratches and make them shiny to give the impression that the tank's paint has been scratched away. As this will be the main centre piece it was really important to get the texture work done for this and I'm so relieved to have it done and out of the way but also to see that it came out really well.

Here I have used nDO2 in photoshop to create m normal maps. nDO2 is a great program for generating normal maps as it allows you to preview your normals on a 3D cube or sphere or plane whilst you're making it in photoshop with realtime updates which is great.

Above is the normal map, I just used nDO2 on the diffuse and used a metal preset to create some more interesting gritty normals to make interesting shadows here and there, especially on areas like the treads of the tank tracks.

Above is my specular, created again from the final diffuse, and all I really did hear is desaturated the diffuse and played around with the levels and added extra white hear and there where I wanted to be shinier than playing with the levels had made. I know that there is a better way to creating spec maps from users on the polycount forum however I was feeling rather pressed for time and figured that this will have to do really.

Above is the final render of my tank within 3DS Max with all the maps applied. Although do note the odd shading on the right side of the track guard, which as it turns out is caused by the normals map. Not terribly sure why this happened and it's quite annoying and seems to be a matter of reposition lights until it stops happening which I've no time to do and I really can't be bothered with at the moment. Still really really really happy with how it turned out though.

The 3D model can be view at p3d.in