Street Runner: Shaders

Today I spent some time working on the initial shaders for the model. What's a shader, you ask? A shader is a mathematical algorithm that tells the computer how a 3D surface should reflect light, essentially. There are lots of different little things you can throw into the calculations to get the type of look you are going for: color, patterns, reflectivity, specularity (or a way to cheat at reflecting light sources), bump mapping (or making the surface look like it has a texture to it, even though the geometry doesn't change in 3D space at all), anisotropy (or simulating microscopic scratches like on brushed metal), or displacement mapping (or using a 2D image to determine how much the geometry deforms in 3D space). Is your brain bleeding yet? Because mine is. I won't mention that the above rendering uses area shadow mapping, global illumination, and ambient occlusion... then things would just get confusing.

Next I will be working on doing some bitmap textures for things like the tire tread. That involves creating a 2D image in such a way that it repeats and then can be wrapped around the tire to simulate the depth of the tread without having to model it all in. After the textures are created, it's time for rigging.