Applied Animation: Experimenting with Textures

Before I moved on to create my final cloak design, my tutor suggested that I attempt to create a displacement map in order to add texture to my cloak to make it look less 'Scooby-Doo'. This was something I was actually looking forward to experimenting with, as it would allow me to make the cloak look less flat and more realistic than if I left it with the basic block colours I had originally used to colour in my cloak.

But, as you can imagine, it wasn't all that easy to achieve. Creating the displacement map was actually very easy and the whole process itself was quite easy and I had no problem with it at all. However, I did have a problem with keeping the texture within the confines of my cloak. When I displaced the image, the texture was applying itself to inside and the outside of the cloak, making the edge of the cloak all fuzzy and patchy, which isn't what I wanted. At first I thought I'd done it wrong and attempted to do it another 2 times before I began to think that it was the texture I was using. To double check this I changed the texture I was using and created a new displacement map. However, this still didn't solve my problem and I ended up with a load of cloaks with fuzzy, patchy outlines to them.

So, after talking to my tutor about it and going through my process (just to make sure I was actually doing it right) and having the same result, yet again, my tutor suggested that I simply cut the same shape as my cloak out of my chosen texture and then apply an overlap to the texture, as this would create a similar effect to the displacement map, but without the fuzzy edges. 

This created the effect that I wanted and I was really pleased with the overall outcome. I never did find out why the displacement map wasn't working and I feel that I should, at some point, try to figure it out, as it may come in use for other elements of this/ future projects.