Here are the final renders taken in Marmoset Toolbag. I will not be returning to this project as I've been chipping away at it too long and need this chapter to close, as I've waffled on about in previous posts. Any feedback is welcome still! Would love to know where people think I could approve.

  

Wicker material also rendered in Marmoset Toolbag, made 100% in Substance Designer

It's been a long time since I've updated this blog as I haven't put as much time in as I should have but I want to follow this blog through to finish. This disjointed project however is nearly over and I can plan my next one properly.

I popped the model into Marmoset Toolbag and did a base pass for the bicycle frame and just block colours for the handle, seats and basket.

After leaving it a while I thought the paint colour wasn't bold enough so upped the saturation and made it slightly darker, with a tint of green. This colour works well with the brown wicker and leather seat though I am unsure whether it is now too bold so may alter the colour again. The mud on the wheels wasn't great and was also too much so I removed that and may add some dirt and scratches once I am happy with the main materials.

The above image is the bicycle in it's current state. It is near completion even though there is lots that could be improved. I have found that working on this 2-3 times a month means I am not very invested in the project and the quality has decreased so that is something I will work on for future projects. Texturing is also the most challenging aspect for me so I will spend more time creating and experimenting with materials to increase my confidence in this aspect of the pipeline.

I made a few attempts at the wicker pattern as I'm rusty with Substance Designer and was unsure how to approach the weave. After some feedback from friend I found a simple blend of nodes that got the result I want and are easily adjusted so I have continued working on this file. Below is my first pass and my current wicker material after feedback. The main feedback I received was the wicker grain needed more detail and colour variation and that the weave proportions needed tweaking. By increasing the size of the vertical weave as suggested it did make the material more visually appealing. I added more fine details to the grain and blended more colours in and a slight gradient. 

 I'm happy with how my material is looking and the progress of my bike. I have more motivation to continue now as I am so close to closing this project and noting areas to improve. Any further feedback would be greatly appreciated and a big thanks to everyone who has helped me so far.

Sorry to anyone who has been following my blog, life has got busy but exciting at the moment so I have had less time for this project. Now I am more on track I hope to finish the project and have it uploaded within the month.

I unwrapped the model in Maya using the standard tools provided. After each part I unwrapped, hardened the UV shell perimeters and softened the remaining edges. The new tools in the UV tool kit have really helped me get a good unwrap in no time, particularly the texel density 'get' and 'set' and the rotation settings. I decided to manually pack the shells once I had unwrapped everything, however I am sure I could packed them tighter to reduce the wasted texture space.

I have chosen to bake the handle bars and seat separately, and keep the basket unwrapped separately too as I will make a seamless texture in Substance Designer.

The bake was done in Substance Painter. I exploded the mesh by moving aspects by a relative snap so I could easily snap these pieces back to their original place and ensure the high and low poly overlapped properly. Once all part of the bike were 'exploded' I duplicated the mesh and used the 'transform tool to expand the mesh to encase the original low poly model. I applied a translucent Lambert so I could see how it was encasing both the low and high poly, and manually moved some verts where the transform didn't quite cover everything.

I had to make some alterations after the first bake, however it wasn't long before I decided it was ready for textures. There are a few marks that could do with more attention, however I have decided I need to move forward as I want to improve my texturing. I have swapped out the exploded mesh for the original and the bake has transferred smoothly as expected. In my free evenings I will texture the bicycle and create the seamless wicker material for the basket. I will post the bake on the handle bars and seat alongside the first texture pass when they are complete.