Week 06 – Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan

  • Review Robot Progress 
  • Create Materials, HDRI Skydome,  
  • In-Class Exercise: Create Shaderball Materials – Paint, Metal, Glass, Emission, Worn Edges 
  • Homework: Using the techniques from class, create a blocked-in environment for the robot. Update the materials and lighting focusing on creating a more dynamic image. 
  • Render a turntable of your robot design 
  • Render a wireframe turntable of your robot design 

In-Class Exercise 

Using the supplied Shaderball, create eight material renders with the following material properties: 

  • White – A white material with HDRI lighting and a ground plane to catch shadows
  • Chrome – A chrome metal material with HDRI reflections
  • Mixed Materials – A material that is part Dielectric and part Metal using a Metalness Map to control
  • Metal Roughness – A metal material with a roughness map controlled by a ramp 
  • Dirty Glass – A glass material with dirt – connecting a map to the transmission 
  • Bump – A material with a Bump Map
  • Emissive – A material with an Emissive Map 
  • Worn Metal – A layered material with Worn Metal Edges and Procedural Noise 

The goal is to create a series of materials studies using specific material properties that we observe in our world. By experimenting with material shaders you can begin to create a library of materials that you can reuse in your projects.

Hand in a single .png file composite of all 8 materials with a label below each one. Photoshop would be great for taking all 8-renders and making one larger composite. Label the file FirstName_LastName_Material_Studies.png

Homework 

  1. Block in a simple environment for your robot. The environment needs a floor, walls and ceiling. You need some places that emit light and a window/doorway that bring light into the scene.  We are looking to create an environment that supports the robot and helps present the robot as the centre of attention in the scene.  Eventually, we’ll pose the robot in this space. 
  1. Refine the robot models’ lighting and materials.  Create more complexity in your materials using roughness, procedural textures, edge detection, ambient occlusion. Look at the silhouette – is it reading well?  Adjust the design, and change the materials. Make sure the materials are readable. Great artwork is all about iteration of design.  Each time you do this it should get better.  Make sure you save the progress as separate files. If you aren’t using Incremental Save, now is the time to start.   

Hand in a project folder called FirstName_LastName_Robot_Materials 

In the Scenes folder should be one scene with the .ma file in it labelled FirstName_LastName_Robot_Materials.ma 

In the Images folder should be renders of the main lighting from the front, a ¾ view and at least two others from different angles showing the Robot. Each render should showcase the lighting of the model. Show both render and wireframe. Your job is to provide enough information in images to your supervisor so they can quickly look at your work and give you feedback. Presentation is important and the key to communicating what you have created. 

The homework is due at 9am, June 16.  It’s always due at the beginning of the next class!