Candles, portraits and fridges update

Since the last update I've been busy on other modules, but not busy enough to shirk my texturing duties.

Here's the current scene:

In this update, I've added a series of meshes to replace the blockouts, including the much-anticipated fridge and candles.

Fridge - Resolution Issues

The fridge itself is a nice model, but would have been completed sooner had I not tried to experiment with it. Upon modelling the fridge initially, I postulated on the thought of having the appliance open to show all the food inside, and modelled and textured it as such:

However, since I was still adhering to the 1024/1024 limit I set for myself, I felt that sacrificing resolution for additional geometry detail made the asset look shoddy, no matter how little unique space I used. 

The texture here, although I tried to squeeze as much detail as possible, was just too low-resolution to look decent in the level, not to mention was my first attempt at texturing an asset like this. Also the red looked awful.

As a result, I abandoned this notion and remodelled a closed fridge with better optimised UV space, allowing me to make fuller usage of my self-imposed budget.

A much better result, and I even had room on the texture sheet for fridge magnets!

Portraits

The pictures on the walls I had been putting aside for a while, but I finally got around to making them. For the main frame, I wanted it to be more ornate than modern wood finishes seen in modern houses, so I went with this as reference:

To get the gilded look of the edges and the finish, I knew this was needed of the normal and spec maps. I decided to create the highpoly in Max, unwrapping the asset so that the edges shared the texture space to save time and pixels.

For the portrait, I decided to give the hippie pad some dignity and put in a Thomas Moran study I did once, way back when I was into digital painting :) The remainder of the look was mostly reliant on spec and gloss maps. 

I also made the smaller portraits' different variants using a 512/512 texture. On one of the frames I placed a cloth pattern, as used when a picture frame needs a Bohemian flare.

Also, Gloss Map fingerprints from those messy days of interior renovation.

Vinyl Player

I also completed the bake and texture of the vinyl player. Nothing particularly remarkable about this asset, though I did enjoy adding stickers and writing to the texture, as well as the colored overlay on top.

I also had to shift the UVs around a little to get a better resolution on the top, but it paid off with a nice asset.

Candles

Last on the list on the update was the long-awaited candles. For this asset, I remodelled from scratch and made some variants of  the same candle from an already unwrapped dripping candle mesh, then I sculpted the wax dribbling from said candle in ZBrush:

The unique challenge candles provided in the scene(and one I am still struggling with) was the use of subsurface scattering to scatter the light into the diffuse colour of the candle. Basic experiments with the blockout meshes had provided interesting results, which often overreact with the bloom effect in the scene.

However, Marmoset's features allowed me to simulate the effect I was aiming for:

Essentially, I desired a lighter falloff in the scattering; however, I need help with this if I am to replicate this inside UDK's shader system.

That's all for now. 

Changes that need making:

• Cardboard boxes, wall-mounted electrics, cooker, bongs and books still need textures
• Considering adding tablecloths to table
• Wanting to add acoustic guitar and golden buddha statues
• Helicopter still needs baking
• Kitchen needs a screen
• Particle effects and flames

Thanks for reading!