Assignment 4 - Elemental Ball

The new assignment we got set after half term was to create a elemental ball on Maya using materials and UV editor. We were each given a number from 1 to 4 and each number represented a element. 1 being Earth, 2 is Air, 3 is fire and 4 is Water. I got assigned Air which in my opinion was the hardest since you cant see it so it involves more creativity. 

Were were shown Bump Mapping which is how to make textures and using materials on different layers like transparency to see how it can affect the way it looks.

I started off with a sphere since its supposed to be an orb and i began to mess around with the materials.

using the side menu i started to add different materials and textures,However since I'm trying to make air a texture is useless to me. I wanted it to be as wispy and transparent as possible to create the orb. 

This is my first attempt at the orb, i used the leather texture as a color to get the pattern and tried to make it as transparent as possible. I decided after 5 minuets i hated it and could so better so i began to mess around with images of clouds. 

i found this image online and used it as a material on the ball to see how it would look. After tried to make it bright but making sure the clouds were still visible i was quite happy with it but still thought there was room for improvement. After discussing the issue with my teacher he suggest adding layers to build up the affect and making it more airy. I then looked for swirl patterns online and eventually settled on this. 

I thought about adding it as a transparency so you could see through the swirls on the ball. After making the swirls a lighter color and checking that they were transparent i ended up with this.

My main problem with this was that my file wouldn't save so I've had to make this orb 4 times throughout the day. So my most recent version (the one above) isn't as bright or as translucent as i'd like. 

After discovering the glow effect also found in the menu i added it and then rendered my orb to see the final product.

I believe it looks more like the moon or ice than air but the swirl pattern helps bring a likeness of wind.

Overall i wish i could've done more on this assignment and although i do love a challenge i believe an Air Orb was unfair compared to the other elements which you can see and have a color scheme.