As I decided from the beginning I would be recreating a MK2 robot I then had to choose a matching painted version of the model to try and recreate. The medic stood out for me with its beautiful combination of bold reds, clean whites and the interplay of the orange rust throughout the model. This seemed like a good place to start, here are a couple of references I used throughout the process of texturing the model.
I should mention I've not tried to replicate the 'exact' texture on the below Ashley Wood robot, but give an 'essence' of it and give it some of my own creative license. I wanted to bring the through a bit more to help show the many different segments of the model (52 in my 3D hierarchy!).
Heres is a render I did after blocking out the initial block of the model, I felt if I started at the main focal point and worked out I could get a better idea of the style I wanted to achieve as I went along (It seemed to work well?).
Below is four iterations of the process I underwent to reach a version I was happy to render final images with. You can immediately see the sheer number of different elements used to construct this model, for this reason and due to the limit of a single 1024x1024 texture for the robot I had to merge symmetrical UV elements to free up space for more important elements. I also worked at 4096x4096 for the texture to give me the ability to scale any element to any given size if the UV unwrap were to be later re-optimised (enlarging/shrinking sections).
Blocking out the texture from a simply UV wireframe and grey backdrop to the essential backdrop 'metal' colours of the robot. Focusing particularly on the central belt as a test for the painted style.
I then decided I needed to slightly darken the main colour and begin more harsh shading to really get a feeling for the weight and composition of the model.
This blog I began implementing a lot more red to the model to give it more defining features, it felt my brush work in the sepia colours was being wasted as once applied to the model, everything below the main chest piece appeared to be washed out (as it was all sepia and shaded by the chest piece above).
I added a lot more highlights, darker more defined scratches in the final version. After spending so much time reloading textures inside 3DsMax it became clear which areas of the model needed more attention from the previous main iteration (above) and I could focus more on those areas. I think it has worked well.
Finally the accessories also needed to be textured in a similar process to merge with the robot. I re-used sections from the original robot and hand-painted new areas, I didn't put as much time in to this texture as the robot as it was a sub-section of the model and would not necessarily have the same scrutiny from a player as the character model would have.
