Character Modeling UV Mapping and Texturing for Characters 2

Question 1

What is a 'roughness map' used for in a PBR character material?

Accepted Answer

Controlling how rough or smooth a surface appears by affecting specular highlight spread

Answer

A roughness map controls the microfacet roughness of a surface; rough areas scatter light widely (matte) while smooth areas produce tight specular highlights (shiny).

Question 2

What is 'subsurface scattering' (SSS) and when is it used in character texturing?

Accepted Answer

Light scattering beneath translucent surfaces like skin, giving it a soft warm glow

Answer

SSS simulates light penetrating and scattering inside translucent materials like skin, giving characters a natural, warm appearance rather than a hard plastic look.

Question 3

In PBR texturing, what information does a 'metallic map' encode?

Accepted Answer

Which areas of the surface are metallic (1) vs. non-metallic (0)

Answer

A metallic map is a binary or greyscale map defining which parts of the mesh behave as metal (full metallic response) vs. dielectric materials (zero metallic response).

Question 4

What problem does 'UV stretching' cause on a character model?

Accepted Answer

Causes textures to appear distorted or blurry on stretched polygon areas

Answer

UV stretching distorts how textures are mapped onto the mesh, creating blurry or elongated texture patterns on areas with poorly unwrapped UVs.

Question 5

What is an 'ambient occlusion' (AO) map used for in character texturing?

Accepted Answer

Pre-computing soft shadowing in crevices and contact areas

Answer

An AO map bakes soft shadow information into tight areas like armpits, nostrils, and ear folds, adding depth and grounding to the character under flat lighting.

Character Modeling Practice Test

Character Modeling Practice Test

Character Modeling UV Mapping and Texturing for Characters 2