Upon visiting my parents' house, I was inspired by my mother's collection of depression glass, specifically her little Fenton glass slippers; I loved the almost hidden cats in the tongue of the shoes. Because of their beautiful designs and the interesting traits of the different kinds of glass, I felt they would be perfect for a glass study.
This project was created using Maya 2019, Substance Painter, Photoshop 2021, and Marmoset Toolbag 4.
First, I took images of my real life references and found more online. I made sure to take photos from the front, back, side, top, and bottom for my modeling process. Images that have been taken from other sources have been linked to their original sites. please open the gallery to find these links:
Pink carnival daisy glass, image found at: https://picclick.com/Vintage-Fenton-Pink-Carnival-Glass-Shoe-Slipper-Daisy-283314700498.html
Royal blue hobnail glass, image by me.
Pink hobnail glass found at: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/db/a3/c4/dba3c4f9a263a39f9f6b8901b849e70d.jpg Image is a reference for color placement.
Pink carnival daisy glass, image found at: https://picclick.com/Vintage-Fenton-Pink-Carnival-Glass-Shoe-Slipper-Daisy-283314700498.html
Next, I started modeling in Maya! I started from very low-poly, then smoothed and reduced geometry as needed. I also used Maya's soft modeling brushes to create the cat head and fixed shaping after most of the model was finished.
Finally, I brought my models into Marmoset to create my render. I fell in love with Marmoset, as it's a wonderfully fast and comprehensive, even more-so than Unreal. In the creation of my glass materials, I referenced this wonderful article by Cem Tezcan: https://marmoset.co/posts/texturing-and-rendering-glass-with-ray-tracing-in-toolbag-4/
Here is all of my textures compared to one another:
