#61 - Animation - Background

I have finally found a solution for my background issue. I have used the space dome and applied a texture. The first texture I tried would not appear on the model for some reason. The second texture however, which was sent to me by fellow student Josh Olsen, works perfectly. Reference to Josh for providing me with the image, which he found on Google and modified to suit the sphere shape. Now that the texture is on, it significantly improves the whole feel and atmosphere of the animation. By applying one texture the whole things feels much more complete and professional, although obviously it still has its issues. The texture resolution is good, and sufficient for this animation, but not perfect. The main thing is that now the animation looks like a proper animation with some effort put into it. I now need to add some more lights to make the models properly visible against the black background.


I improved the texture even more later on by selecting the object, going to UV and choosing spherical. This significantly improved the resolution and positioning of the texture on the object. I am glad this worked out because the depth painting technique in Maya was just awful to use and was the only alternative available to me to make the space dome look good enough. I now realise that, even though I have a good enough texture now, I could have just positioned the UV so that it looks good on the areas that are actually seen in the animation, and allow it to look rubbish where the texture is not seen. This is what I would do if I were starting again, to speed up the background process.


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