New texturing methods

Yesterday, our group had an assessment for our Environments project.  Much of the feedback I got was that the cell shaded effect that I had applied to the models was flattening out the sense of perspective.  I was asked to look at de-saturing some of the background textures. i.e. the textures of the sky and mountains.  I can perhaps understand this, because we were trying to link our project to African art and if you study some of works of African art, there tends to be a flat sense of composition, characterised by the warm colour schemes and smooth texture.

But the in other pieces of African art, the artist succeeds in creating depth through using foggier shades of colour to put certain parts of the composition into the background and warmer, cleaner colours to bring elements to the foreground.  This artist, has also begun to experiment with shading and using that to create a wide sense of space.

In order to bring up my grade for the project, I will need to use a greater variety of textures and not just commit to the clean, bright style of cel shading.  I will need to consider other methods of texturing the scenery and I will also need to apply some UV Mapping, which I have yet to do in this project.  Most of the texturing I have done so far was produced before I became proficient in UV Mapping.  Over the past weekend, I have vastly developed my ability to UV map and I feel I can now use this to fulfil the needs of our project.

Applying a greater range of textures will also mean that we will be able to convey the Serengeti as the vast wilderness that it really is; rather than the flat, claustrophobic feeling our current texturing scheme produces.  I am also using Ocean Shader to texture the water in this project and I think using other methods of texturing would be more complementary to the ocean shaded lake.

Another thing which I must get on to soon, which I have neglected is the creation of the daytime sky.  This will be an important element in creating the sense of openness as the foggy blue colouring will add a sense of depth and space to the project.