Procedural Cactus VSFX-319

In this project for my programming models and shaders class, we had to shade a cactus model using the Autodesk Maya Hypershade Graph, we were not allowed to use file textures, and had to shade and light the scene.

The above image is the final render of the project.

Lighting and Reference

I started off the project by figuring out a 3-point lighting set up, I do not stick with the set up above however. As we go through the process the changes will be clear, the most obvious one: the adding of a sky dome.

The above images were references I found, that I wished to base my shaders and textures on. I enjoy the marble pattern and it's organic nature. Although I was able to perfectly imitate the marble swirls, I feel as if my idea comes across in the final version.

The Above images: going left to right is all the progress I made while working on this project, Through out adding, shaders, noise, ramps, colors, adjusting specular, I also tweaked and changed my lighting set up as well as the composition of my shot. I moved the camera closer and softened my shadows.

I had the most trouble with the plant pot itself. the marble design took a lot of changing and tweaking in order for it to look close enough to a marble-like design. Besides that the gold metallic strip also gave me some trouble. With the way my original lighting was set up the metal strip just looked ceramic. However once I added an HDRI the metal was able to show properly.

Node Graph

I attempted to use ai color jitter for the rocks but for reason the rock group was not a "group" but all as one object. I could not get the geometry to function as individual objects. In the end I chose a neutral color I thought would look good with all the rocks.

Using the techniques learned in class I was able to add subsurface that went well with my reference image. In the end I think the cell noise node I used could have been a little stronger.

Compared to my original versions of the plant pot, I think the use of ramps and noise combined allowed me to achieve the end result I wanted when it came to the pot design. I would like to be able to experiment in the future and see if I can create a more realistic marble texture.

Reflection

Although, I struggled in the beginning, I think my overall project turned out pretty well. I have never created anything with such small attention to detail such as this. The quality may not be perfect nor exact to the reference but I feel very proud to have worked on something like this. I found it difficult to want to work on this project at first because I thought hat I was putting out was terrible, but the more I worked the more it excited me to see a proper finished product. I have had a very busy schedule this quarter so finding time to balance all my projects has been difficult. But I am very happy with what I am learning as it will only make my work from here on out better.