The beginnings of the folio!

[mindful_being]

Here is a test render of my next project. The model is done, I just have to rig it so that it can close (right now it is open with the inside facing down. It folds in the center). I'll probably use bones, that way I can animate it in the future.

[marvin]

What does the inside look like? It would probably also look nicer with a texture on there (on know you just haven't gotten around to that yet). You could also morph it to open and close.

By the way, it's a nice model.

marvin

[mindful_being]

marvin,

There will definitely be a texure on this. I just finished the model yesterday and was mainly looking for comments on the model itself (which you did do, so thanks). The texture actually looks a lot like human skin, though on a larger scale. I'm planning on trying to accomplish the look through procedurals. The inside is not finished as of yet. I wasn't planning on creating that since the final shot I'm envisioning will have the closed folio only.

[Maxx]

The model looks nice! You can get a good leather surface with LW proceedurals, but one thing that I've found immensely helpful in "selling" leather is to paint a scratch map. Specifcally, some thick wrinkles around the spine (where it bends and creases), and some almost microscopic scratches and dings around the edges - the occasional long scratch through the face. I made some folding leather magnetic money clips a while ago, and just for giggles used bones to open and close it - the method works well as long as your weight maps are set up correctly. The morph route works, but it's a bit more work as the morphing is linear. You need to build some "in-between" morphs.

Anyway, long story short - nice modeling! Now get it textured and animated! :D

[JETKWON]

:D

[JETKWON]

nice job, what did you use to bevel the edges??

[mindful_being]

Ok, here we go! The basic leather texture is now applied. I still need to create bump maps for the seam stiches and a logo that will be embossed on the front. Let me know what you think of the texture. It looks almost exactly like my reference, except for the glossiness. I couldn't seem to get that right and am still working on it.

[mindful_being]

JETKWON,

I didn't actually bevel the edges at all. Instead I used Rail Extrude to extrude a cross-section of the edge around a path. If you want more info on this let me know and I will get into more detail.

[marvin]

actually, I was thinking the leather was going to be brown. That does it...your model sucks now!

I love the leather look. You are right about the glossiness. It needs work. It looks like it could also use a diffuse map. If you already have one, I would suggest making it more apparent. You've done well.

I would like a tip or two on how you created such a nice leather texture, if you've got the time. Looking good though.

marvin

[riki]

The second version is a definate improvement. I liked the first one but it brings back scary memories from the eighties. Back when pink and grey were supposedly in vogue :)

[mindful_being]

Hey guys, thanks for the comments.
I'll be working on tweaking the texture to get it just right.
Marvin, in answer to your question, here's how I went about creating the texture:

1. I set up the actual folio at an angle under a skylight
(I could have probably set it outside as well). The main goal
was to illuminate the bumps, while keeping the cracks in
shadow.

2. Using my digital camera set to it's highest resoloution,
I took close-up shots of different areas of the folio. All
the photos were taken with the camera the same distance
from the folio. The idea was to get a good sampling of the
different combinations of bumps and grooves. All in all, I
took about 5 photos.

3. In Photoshop, I combined, copied, and arranged the photos
to create a fairly large texture. I used the stamp tool to blend
the different photos together. After that I did a levels
adjustment to the final image to make sure I had a full range
of grey from black to white.

4. In LW, I applied this image to the bump channel. In the
specularity channel, I created a gradient using the bump
channel as the input parameter.

I'm now at the point of tweaking the gradient and glossiness to get it to look just right. Hope this helps!

[mindful_being]

Here is the updated texturing. The gloss is improved I think, but I wonder if it might be too glossy now. It looks like it's been freshly oiled. While doing test renders I noticed some interesting things about LW's antialiasing features. It seemed I actually got better results by rendering at 200% resolution and resampling the image in Photoshop, instead of using the built in AA capability. When I used AA set on high in LW, it seemed to 'fade' the texture, and the glossy areas became less prominent than in smaller size renders w/ low AA. I think it has something to do with the texture antialiasing but I haven't read about that yet.