The Moonshiners SwampBoat- Handpainted Low poly project

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I had completed the CGMA course on stylized hand painted prop art with Ashleigh Warner and our major project was to design and build an environment. I wanted to make a scene romanticizing the deep south and moonshine. Think Louisana meets Leymone meets World of Warcraft

I also wanted to work maintaining a complimentary color scheme that is consistent throughout the environment, not far from World of Warcraft and Disney's Pirates of the Caribbeans ride, especially at the beginning near the Blue Bayou restaurant.

I'm not the best at concepting but this helped me get my point across and block out different ideas. These were two color schemes I was caught between and ultimately I decided to build on the green/orange/yellow setup.

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First thing is to block out my idea in Maya. I will also do paint overs during this time to see if things are heading where I want them to.

Then I start to work on my tiling textures. I took a lot of notes from @AntonioNeves amazing thread on his Grizzly Hills scene https://polycount.com/discussion/157149/hand-painted-environment-wood-house/p5

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I used to get very frustrated in Photoshop and handpainting in general. I found myself quitting when things got difficult. But I guess pushing myself over that hump forced me to keep pressing on even when I hated it.

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How to add AO to a tiling texture in Maya and present it in Toolbag

1. Duplicate your mesh. This will be the stand in for baking your AO map

2. Unwrap your mesh and export it to your baking software of choice. In my case I just did an Auto Unwrap and sent it into Marmoset

3. If in Marmoset, bake down your AO. I just used a copy of my mesh as a substitute for the "High Poly"

Back in Maya:

4. Set up two separate UV Sets. The first set will be your tiling texture, the second set will be your AO map. Make sure you have your AO UV set selected before going to the next step.

5. Transfer your UVs from your stand in mesh to your in-use mesh. Select your stand-in, ctrl+click your in-use mesh. Mesh>Transfer Attributes> Options. Use the settings below and click apply:

If you did everything right, you should properly have two different UV sets for the same mesh!

    

Setting up the AO in Marmoset

Simply bring in your mesh into Toolbag and create a material for that mesh. Under the Occlusion option, drop in your AO texture and switch the UVSet from 0 to 1.

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Rocking Chair, diffuse only. 3DCoat and Photoshop for textures, Maya for blockout

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Fish trophy. Gotta flash that prize!

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A quick Marmoset screenshot - No post processing done yet. I added some more "story" props to the scene, like barrels and bottles and I placed a green omni light in the center to compliment the orange/red lanterns and darkened the water a bit to help focus the eye.

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My final renders. Thank you and good night!