3D Reflection 30 - Doing the final bake and texturing

I baked my mesh maps and started with the skin areas on the main texture map. I used the skin collection on substance painter, but I changed the settings a lot to suit the character concept. For example, I adjusted the pore levels, the vein colours/shape and frequency, the scattered spot frequency, sizes and colours and the skin top and base colour. I also hand painted darker patches on the joint areas, such as the elbows, This made the skin texture appear more realistic and varied rather than just one flat tone. With the face, I also applied light colour zones of blue, yellow and red to create a realistic face skin tone.

Applying a lighter colour to the palm

Colouring the nails

Texturing the eyes and eyebrows.

Next I utilised my new linen texture to paint the skirt. I was happy with how it looked as it added some visual interest with the normals. I added a paint layer to create golden stripes on the skirt. These would be embroidered in real life.

Applying linen to the belt and decorations, Painting the Usekh with the leather texture. I ended up reducing the normals of the leather as it was too noisy in substance painter.

 I painted the hard surfaces using copper metal textures and adjusting the settings to make it my own texture. I also painted the gold areas and used a bone texture to create the white ivory area of the crown.

I used a substance thread texture for the false beard, once again adjusting the settings and also using a height brush to create deeper lines.

The sandals were painted using wood normals and painted over with gold.

The usekh collar was by far the most challenging UV to texture. I had to do a lot of manual painting as I did not seperate the tubes into seperate objects - they were baked on. I ensured that I used a heightened gold texture to raise the gold caps. I then added coloured thread in the middle, and sectioned the beads into different colours. This texturing immediately added interest to the model. 

The enameled texture was a challenge but I enjoyed finding a method to texture it. I started with a coloured ceramic texture underneath, and then layered it with coloured glass to create the enamelled ceramics. 

I then applied the ceramic texture to the beetle, but I went on to replace it with a gold texture as I thought that the colours worked better with the rest of the model.

I used the symmetry tool to apply the eyeliner using reference from ancient egyptian paintings and facial reconstructions.

I revisited the beetle on the necklace, and decided to make a lapis lazuli texture using a blend of substance painter textures: the copper and a ceramic smart material. I altered the colours and the effects of the top coat, ending up with a rich royal blue and underlying impurities. I finally hand painted on white impurities using the crack brush and changed the effect of it. 

This texture was also applied to the bracelets.

I refined the edges where the bake and apainted areas did not match by hand masking. This neatened up the appearance by a lot.

The details were added towards the end using the height brushes to engrave pictures and patterns in the gold.

Next I created some alpha stamps in photoshop using lines of text from the book of the dead. I wanted to stamp these around the pharaoh's skirt for an edge of regality and to show his dedication to religion.

The final steps were to play around with the colours and to add some slight dirt textures to very subtley break up the flat expanse of  line in the skirt. I opted to show more royal blues and reds in order to match the rest of my team's colour pallete, particularly the blue of the royal guard.

I am very proud of this texturing. My sculpting process left me with uncertainty, particularly with the beading and so I was pleased to see that the beads baked well and looked good once being painted, despite slight distortions in shape at some angles.