Lighter Shades and Highlights


With the base textures complete and in position, we can begin to add some details. In this section we will paint in lighter shades and highlights.

First, let's follow the process illustrated in Figure 9.9 to add lighter shades to the front of Kila's torso.

Figure 9.9. Add lighter shades to the torso front. (See page C2 for color version.)


1.

Start by creating a new layer named Lighter Tones. Set the foreground color to be a lighter shade of the skin tone. Don't just use white; it's not a realistic skin tone. Try a pale yellow or pink color.

2.

Using the Paint Brush tool at a size of 3, roughly mark in the areas of the torso that would catch the light (Figure 9.9b).

3.

Using the Blur tool, work your way around and blur the edges of the areas you just painted (Figure 9.9c).

4.

You want the lighting to be more subtle here, so set the layer's Opacity to around 40%, toning down the lighter shades (Figure 9.9d).

5.

Using the Lasso tool, select the areas that overlap onto the crop top, and go to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate. This will turn them from the lighter skin tone to white, which will work better for the T-shirt.

6.

Use the Eraser tool to sharpen up some of the edges that are too blurred around her stomach muscles. Work on the area until you are happy with the results; take a look at Figure 9.9e.

7.

Save the image as a .psd. Then, hiding the UV Layout layer first, flatten it and overwrite the KilaBody.tga file.

8.

In Maya now, reload the Kila Body texture. What you should see is the texture applied as in Figure 9.10, left.

Figure 9.10. Set Use No Lights to see the character unlit. (See page C2 for color version.)


9.

To get a better idea of the texture's placement, go to the panel's Lighting menu and select Use No Lights. The image will now look like the one in Figure 9.10 on the right.

TIP

You should work in Use No Lights mainly when you're applying textures. This is particularly useful when lining up the separate sections of the texture, as when matching the shoulder with the torso. Keep in mind that the better your characters looks in the "no lights" view, the better they will look in the game.


Continue around the body and the head texture pages, filling out the lighter areas.

When you're done with those areas, create another layer called Highlights. Work on top of the lighter tones, implementing any highlighted areas (for example, her cheeks, nose, and breasts).

TIP

Feel free to create more layers when you are not completely confident about painting directly on top of your work. If another layer exists above the main one, you can always combine them after you've finished working, by going to Layer > Merge Down (Ctrl+E/Cmd+E). Also, instead of just merging with the layer below, you can merge all the visible layers by going to Layer > Merge Visible (Shift+Ctrl+E/Shift+Cmd+E). Another option is to merge all the linked layers by going to Layer > Merge Linked (Ctrl+E/Cmd+E).


You can still at this stage make minor alterations to the geometrysay, for example, you notice that the shape of the face needs a slight alteration. Major changes, though, will involve some editing in the UV Texture Editor and possible alterations to the texture. If you make considerable changes to the geometry and/or UV Layout, you can always generate a new UV snapshot to replace the one in your .psd file.

At this point, Kila looks like the image in Figure 9.11, which uses the texture pages shown in Figure 9.12.

Figure 9.11. Kila with lighter tones and highlights added (See page C3 for color version.)


Figure 9.12. The texture pages, with lighter tones added (See page C3 for color version.)


We will edit the hair texture page later in the chapter, so let's work next in the darker contrasting areas of the main body and head.



    Game Character Development with Maya
    Game Character Development with Maya
    ISBN: 073571438X
    EAN: 2147483647
    Year: 2004
    Pages: 169
    Authors: Antony Ward

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