Avatar Topography Guides

One of the most difficult things to grasp when working with the avatar UV templates is how they relate to the curvature of the male and female shapes. To that end I've created some handy dandy topography guides. These should be a big help for figuring out placement of shading for highlights and shadows. There are template sets for both the male and female default shapes.

How to read the templates:

The template polygons are colored according to their orientation (the direction in which they face).

Green = Top/Bottom
Red = Front/Back
Blue = Sides

This makes it easy to see at a glance the curvature of the avatar and what direction the portion you're working on actually faces.

Eventually I'll add these as layers to my Template sets, but for now here they are as 1024x1024 jpg templates. I recommend pasting them as layers on the templates you're using. I like to have them on the top layer so I can just turn them on and off as a quick reference.

Use them in good health

The female set is attached to this post. The male set in a post below.

Here's the male set.

Thank you so much Chip! You're knowledge is priceless....and these will be such a help with those eeeeeeevil highlights and shadows.



Best,
~Ari

Thank you so much, Chip. You are a gift to apprentice creative content designers. Going out of your way to develop drawing/creative guides, and share your knowledge, is such giving. It is an act of love.

People like you, Robin, Chosen, Blaze, Namssor, and others, all professional graphic artists, who share their time and knowledge are what makes Second Life such a special place.

You guys demonstrate the Christmas spirit all year long. Thank you all!

HUGS,

Jen

Wow... excellent Chip! Thank you. I second what Jen said!

Fantastically useful ! Thank you !

Great stuff Chip!

Thanks!

Chip you ROOOOOCKKKKK!!!!


A million thanks wouldn't be enugh for all the contribution you and the other pro designers share so willingly with the rest of us.

Thank you.

Sounds great, Chip. Just wish I could see the pics. For some reason, it keeps telling me I have insufficient privileges when I click the links. Anyone else having this problem?

That's really odd, Chosen. They're just normal attachments, not linked from another host. It's hard for me to tell since I'm probably getting them from my local cache.

Chip..............I'm so new to this that most of what you say is pure Greek. But I really think those topography templates actually make sense to me. I use your templates for my attempts at clothing and I learn more and more each time I play with them. I'm going to do as you suggest and paste them to the templates as layers to help me in that magical mystery world of shading. I'm assuming I just "save as" to my HD to use?

Anyway.............thank you so much for all your information.

I'm glad to hear that Peggy I thought they might be pretty helpful for people trying to figure out what's what. Just right click the links and do "save target as" or "save link as" depending on your browser.

Thanks for the kind words, everyone.

Oh! Custom normal maps!
I've got some tricks for using these.

Chip, you are a 3DS Max user, yes?

You're close, hehe. It's fun with falloff maps. Basically it's a composite material made up of three mask materials. Each mask material is one of the three solid colors masked with a falloff map, each set to a different axis. Falloff maps shade as a gradient between two colors (or in this case a solid color and transparency). Each poly is shaded based on how planar it is to a particular axis. The composite comes out looking a lot like a normal map, except a normal map would show the differences between two different meshes. Without a target mesh, a normal map would come out as a solid color.

Oh, and yes on 3ds Max

Yes!

I have two such maps that use RGB Multiply (x2) with Fall-Off (x3) layered in. One for screen mode and one for object XYZ. I might be able to hack a simplier version using RGB Tint, but not sure just yet.

Man, as if I don't have enough junk to mess with. Now I gotta brush up on my own matlibs and dig through my archives. And then there's the Photoshop techniques for using them. Thanks.

Heh.

BBL...

edit:

Anybody here good at non-Euclidian math? Specifically 3d spheres and chords?

Here we go.

Matlib in a zip. Object Normal or something like that. This variation is all Towards/Away using local spaces. And RGB Mult to composite the falloff gradients. This is the variation that I use the most.

Also attached is a small example of it's output.

Now I have to brush up on spheres and chords. If I can nail it, gonna show you something uber.

* I use Towards/Away for a particular reason. I'll tell you about it later.

Edit:

Turns out I already have the code. I can easily recycle some vector code I was working on some months ago. All I have to do is chop it out convert for RGB use (currently for Lab space).

Chip, I'll make you a deal. If you render out the templates using the material I zipped up for ya, I'll release a Photosop plug-in (PC) for using them for faux lighting.

Attached ZIP file contains TS_rgbtheta.8bf, a stripped down filter of one of my personal filters. But I did beef it up a little bit for this work specifically.

Just drop the filter into your filter directory and fire up your host.

Point 1
This is the starting point of the vector. For this kind of work, best to leave it at 128 until you get the hang of it. Sliders and some coloured presets. Control + right-click in the preview to sample. Actually, this whole slider set is a bit redundant, but I left it in for particular reasons.

Point 2
This is the direction of the vector. Sliders and same presets found in the P1 set. To sample these in the preview, just plain right-click in the preview.

Then Range, Fall-Off, High, and Low sliders. Pretty easy to figure out.

And then a few buttons to play with.

Even an extra Preview slider under the preview window. This works on proxy, so output will always be greyscale even if this slider is less than 255. This slider is in case you get lost and need some help finding your way back. Plus it's just plain cool.

This is pretty much the same technique that I use Photoshop for putting lighting on a model. Rather than bake renders, I juse use a custom normal map and my own filters to fake it in Photoshop. Layer it up and tweak right there in PS. Boom! Instant and consistant lighting on a model using Photoshop. Although, can't do self-casting shadows, which is usually a good thing.

PC only
Filter > Tech Slop > RGB Theta
RGB 8-bit

I think I hit all the bases, but you never know.

Ah, and there is a practice JPEG in the ZIP as well.

Man, I might have to come out and play more often.

edit:
Bug found and squished.
~crosses fingers~

Huh? LMAO! Well, as long as you know what you're talking about!

BTW the topography guides rock!!!

That sounds awesome, Abu. Can't wait to check it out.

A normal is a vector. It's just a question of a vector of what? It could be geometry in various spaces, or the difference between two meshes. There is even some stuff out there about bent normal maps in screen space, which is a variation on ambient occlusion.

I'm gonna rearrange a few things because I have a few ideas that I think will work. Once I convert my custom normal material to (almost) tangent space, I should be able to incorporate bump maps. Doesn't really have to be in tangent space, but I feel the need.

Full plate. Maybe I shouldn't come out and play more often.

Okay, just took it for a test drive. That is very slick! Creative way of setting up the Max material too (I'd never played with RGB Multiply before).

I'm attaching normal maps for male and female for use with Abu's RGB Theta PS plugin. They're each done as a single image with the three templates stacked in a vertical strip. This way you can create a lighting solution for all three at one time, then cut them into individual sections to apply to your skin or clothing texture.

Here's how it works. Open either the male or female normals map in Photoshop. Run the RGB Theta filter on it and play with the settings to adjust the light positions. When you run the filter it will convert the normals map into a grayscale image that you can then blend into your clothing/skin texture. One caveat to be aware of is that it can't account for there being only one arm on the template, so the shoulder seam for the right arm will be correct, but the left will create a noticeable seam that you'll need to repair.

Hats off, Abu. That's very cool!

Edit: The normal maps were coming up corrupted so I reuploaded them.

Just a real quick minor update.

I kind of got the bump map working. It takes a fourth channel as a bump and bends the normals in the normal render. Then it's off for more faux lighting with the bump taken into account.

I also have another trick up my sleave, but I'm not gonna tell. Nya nya nya!

Hopefully I can get this whole thing working to my satisfaction soon. If I'm not back in a month, release the dawgs!

Ooooh, very nice. When I get a chance I'll have to do some new normal maps from a subdivided mesh so it gives a smoother result. That's very cool, Abu. When you get the next version done you should start a thread for it so more people will discover it.

Don't do the renders just yet. I've rearranged the shader to screen coordinates. Not that this can't be easily fixed in Photoshop, just take your time.

This little project is so vexing on so many levels. But this is what I do and I'm loving it. I won't stop tearing it apart and looking at the funky pieces until I've nailed with a vengence. I'll nail it with Mlarry, Mjolnir younger and lesser known brother.

Back to the grind. Like I said, about a month with the way things are looking. And I don't like it... yet I love it. It's a mixed blessing.

Kudos.

Um, why isn't this thread sticky'd yet?

Mods, STICKY PLEASE!
The minds of two geniuses meet on the playground, and lo and behold the results; This Thing Is AWESOME!!!!!!!
I took it for a test ride, and just sat there stunned at the results, you guys rock!!!!

I can't thank you both enough.