Kilan Larsen
Front Loader
*Model provided on Linda.com
In this project I started with a highly detailed front loader fbx model, and id mapped model. I started by baking the normal, position, curvature, ambient occlusion, and id maps in Substance. The ambient occlusion on the tires wasn’t quite right due to the model being set up with overlapping UVs, so I put each tire’s UVs on its own UV tile and re-exported and baked the model. Then I created a worn and scratched base metal which I applied in a solo view. This allowed me to dial in the amount of scratches and grunge that I wanted before making it into a smart material and applying it to other parts of the model.
For the core pieces of the front loader, I created a yellow painted metal material and a rust material with height and ambient occlusion layers to add extra depth. Then I layered the painted metal and rust together with black masks and generators until the rust began to show around the edges of the metal in a realistic fashion. Lastly I added a final paint layer with which to add additional rust where desired, and then the rust and painted metal layers were grouped and made into another smart material which could quickly be applied to other areas of the model.
After applying the rusting metal and worn metal to the other parts of the model as needed, I went in and painted in additional rust using a mix of dirt brushes and particle brushes. I also set the shader for the cabin glass to allow for opacity, and made it mostly transparent to be able to see into the cabin.
To finish up the rest of the model, I applied a dirty rubber material to the tires and textured a layer of dirt on the cabin glass, as well as texturing the interior of the cabin with various smart materials created earlier in the project. I also added an alpha stamp of the Algorithmic logo on the side of the model, and a custom made normal stamp of my name on the back of the model. Then I added a final layer of dirt which generated from bottom to top across the entire model. To do this, the position map of the model needed to be re-baked considering the position of each part in the scene rather than its position individually. I also applied a light layer of greasy black paint in a few areas where there was still shiny metal to complete the grungy look of the model.
