Colo Colo: Correcting Anomolies

  Along with making the eye, much of this afternoon was sepnt correcting my shader networks. As it turns out, my decision ot lay all UVs one on top of the other was indeed a massive blunder. After some suggestion, including moving the UVs and working with layered texture nodes, asa result things are much cleaner. Instead, the UVs are laid out onto two grids, paired together using a layered texture node. One of the UVs - in this case the UVs for the head and feet - were moved to the side. The UV maps were set to not tile, witth the head-and-feet UV set moved to the side with a UV offset parameter.

The eye has so far fit well. There's a slight geometry concern with the cornea but it does not show up on the model unless the camera is really close or the light shining on the eye is very intense. While the cornea does dull the eye itself slightly, It is still useful for that reflective spot that can give an eye life. I am considering intensifying the colours for the eye itself to make it stand out a little more, a simple matter of increasing the colour saturation. I also migth look into the technique used for the x-ray shader to give the cornea some presence but there's not much priority for this as the likelihood of seeing the cornea's form away from the iris is very rare.

  One minor issue that is coming up a little bit is with one of the mila shaders. Although unlike the last few times, this one is perhaps ignorable: Above is what happens when I try and tie two texture nodes together using the scatter and diffuse reflection nodes, setting the texture into the colour nodes. While it adds soem brightness, it messes with the lighting and shading. The rest of the body in the above picture is working with a flat colour for the diffuse reflection but I don't think it matters as the normal maps work fine with a flat colour parameter for the diffuse reflection. I could in theory go into the diffuse maps and brighten up or add some saturation to the skin to compensate for the desaturation that is occuring. But it is of no major issue.

  This is the diffuse map for the eye, based on images of eyes from varying types of small lizard and a few chickens. I am considering yellowing the sclera that makes up around 3/4 of the map. There was some consideration if the pupil would be slitted or circular. But i nthe end I decided on a circular pupil, as it would dit more closely to the rooster motif than a slitted pupil, which while beneficial for an unnatural feel, the creature is intended to be a mix of endearing and unnerving; looking cute to an extent, but hiding some really horrid qualities. A circular pupil, I concluded, was the better option for this effect.