This post is primarily focused on the reference images used for the creation of the card shuffler asset, the process of which I’ve developed the asset, and what went well and what could be improved for next time.
Reference Images
The thing that strikes out for me in this image is how colorful the automatic card shuffler sign is at the top of the asset, only sealed by a plastic arch and seal cover. That looks pretty cool to me and I’ll take notes on how colourful my version could be.
I think I like the simplistic design of the asset, especially the ramped edges towards the side of the asset. I think that looks pretty cool and so I would remember that when it comes to designing my own card shuffler.
I think the thing that I like about this is how the ramps are all curved and how the asset looks overall when playing cards are stacked within the specific areas. It makes the asset stand out more and I’ll remember to think about how I will take the curved ramps into account when I come to make my version.
Process
There are quite a few ways to go about modelling an automatic card shuffler, but the way I started was by creating a cube polygon and scaling it. I made an edge loop on the bottom of the shape, ensuring it creates a slim face like this.
I then mirrored the asset and created another two edge loops to make more thinner faces towards the X axis. I used those newly created edge to scale up using edge mode to make something like this.
There are quite alot of modifications here. For starters, I deleted the unwanted edges in the middle of the asset and scaled the two faces between the walls a little. I made a roof using more thin edges to make a sheltered roof. I also changed the colour to a lighter grey so that it’s more consistent with the basic modelling technique of the software. This is what it should look like.
I actually had to go back and make something of a hole for the glass arch to cover up. I achieved this by creating four edge loops on top of the face, making sure I positioned where the hole was going to be. I then selected the new face and deleted it, ensuring I bridge out the disconnected edges with the ones at the bottom. It should look like this now.
I also made a card holder with what you see at the bottom. I made this by creating a cylinder polygon and leaving a quarter left as this should act as the platform for the holder. I selected the edges and extruded it, making sure world mode is on and ensured I created a rectangle with the polygon. Deleting the curved part and mirroring the new poly was enough to make a single space. I then repeated the mirroring process and placed the holder inside of the asset.
Now it’s time to make the barrier that will hold the cards inside. I achieved this by making a cube and scaling it to a rectangle. I ensured to create two new edge loops on top of the polygon and extruded the new face to make a junction. This was the hard part. I basically had to cover the entire top half with edge loops and try and bevel or mold in into this complex shape. It was probably difficult, but I got there in the end.
I also had to make sure the naming conventions were all right by naming each individual polygon as it was highlighted to make things more tidy.
It’s starting to look more like a real card shuffler, so I would obviously export it as an FBX and back it up on Box and on the lab’s C: drive to open it up in Substance.
Substance Painter
I essentially got started by planning which texture the whole surface of the asset was going to be and built up from there. I scanned the materials shelf and came across a coated metal which I thought suited perfectly with the card shuffler, so I went for it.
I then created a new fill layer and selected the polygon fill to colour the top of the asset yellow. This is where the text displaying its name will be. Said polygon will also have a plastic arch and seal accompanying it soon. This is what it should look like.
This one took alot of practice and spot on alignment to pull off. I determined the shape of the polygon and created two new fill layers for the red and black colours. First, I added the title, which came in two phases, being the word Automatic at the top and the rest having its appearance spelt out respectively. Next was probably the hardest part of it all. I wanted to replicate the shapes and symbols you see on the cards and have them painted on either side of the hole. Using the images I have as reference, I carefully scanned which shape would go where. Even though there were six on either side, only two are used twice, as they all take turns to appear in fours. Here is the finished result, which I’m proud to have done.
I also had to fill in the card holder and barrier from below the sign. I easily coated them in plastic and scaled its appearance, offset and rotation for it to not look too overbearing to the eyes.
I have also kept my layer channel clean by dumping everything into the Card Shuffler folder, leaving only it and the default layer 1 in the image here.
A few points to consider when I have finished was to check the roughness of the metalness of the asset, as it felt a little to hard to see the material. I carefully scaled the material up a bit for it to show in the painter. I wished it would’ve done the same in Maya, but this is a satisfactory result. Now it’s time to bring it into Maya via baking with the AO added and exporting the textures with said map also included.
Bringing Into Maya
I selected the asset in Maya and assigned a new AiStandardSurface shader to it, ensuring I started with the usual BaseColour. I clicked on the checkerboard option and pressed file, plugging the right texture map into the asset to make it work as intended. I repeated the process for the Metalness map, though this time I had to change the colour space to Raw for it to function the same way. Here is the image that details the Metalness file.
A quick repeat with the Roughness map and I was eventually onto the Normal map, I made sure to select the Tangent Space Normals as intended before ensuring I changed the color space to Raw and plug in the texture map like so.
Now it was time to plug the ambient occlusion into the asset. I went into the hypershader and selected the asset to bring up a bunch of different nodes for the maps I plugged in before. I created a new utility in AiMultiply and attached the BaseColour node with the AO node I had dragged in and converted it to Base Colour. This should get some shadows detailing on the card shuffler.
While I was doing all of this, I had to make sure the texture mode was on otherwise the asset would basically stay grey with nothing on it. I remembered to do this step for all of the other assets too.
Now it was time to make the plastic cover arch mentioned earlier. I made a cube polygon and scaled it to a rectangle before selecting the side faces and extruding. I then attempted to rotate the extruded face and align it with the height on the other faces. I repeated the process with the second face that will act as the starting points of the arch. It should look something like this.
I modified the shape of the arch and removed one face layer on either side, opting for a more basic approach to the arch. I also created a seal using a cube polygon and scaled it down to another rectangle. I created an edge loop to determine where the corner of the seal should be and extruded the face. I proceeded to repeat the process where the beginning of the hole should be, covering the areas where it doesn’t interfere before mirroring the polygon and fitting the other side to look something like this.
Other than those slight modifications, the asset looks pretty good, so I’ll get straight to lighting the thing up.
Evaluation
I think I did a pretty good job on it overall. However, there are one or two slight issues with this. When I plugged in the textures for the asset, the area on the top right of the yellow polygon is fine in one angle, but changes to a black or attempts to when you look at it from various angles. I think that is down to the textured polygon not functioning as it should with the other polygons, but that’s just me. I need a bit more work on the metallic textures where I’ve filled the black areas in, as the metal is kind of hard to see when viewed in both Substance and Maya. My improvements for next time is to make sure those two issues are met to make this look as perfect as it could have been.
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