Texturing Advice for Newbie???

[carterhawk001]

I am hoping that those of you with experience can share some wisdom in the fine art of texturing a model, i can probably handle the decaling well, but the actualy process of getting a half-decent texture using photoshop eludes me. I am trying to do a reptile look, sort of monster-ish

[Francois]

Hi There I think your approach to decal your model instead of using procedurals is a very good one. If you use procedural textures you will see your rendering time increase exponentially. Anyway... If you would like to create good texture maps I can suggest something that I found to be extremely useful. You can download a free Poser model from the net. Just do a search at google.com. There are millions of free ones out there. These models usually come with texture maps. Studying Poser texture maps will give you a very good idea of how to "flatten" your map in order to for it to roll over your character to create a more realistic finishing. You can also pick up on how to position your CP's to apply the texture map. I hope this helps you. Francois

[Zaryin]

Here is about the simplest thing I can tell you about creating a decal for you model. 1: Create you bump map first. 2: Use "Multiply" with 50% gray layers. 3: The most important tools you could use are Dodge and Burn Tools to lighten or darken areas. 4: Use the layers from you bump map to start the color map with. That way your color map will match the bump.

[Dearmad]

Interesting. I usually do a color map first for a few reasons: 1) It takes more finesse to get it just right- bump maps are usually pretty straight forward for me. So I may end up totally redoing colors (not just vlaues but overall placement/shapes, etc.) until I get the right look- which would mean redoing the bump map had I done it first. 2) Deriving a bump map from a color map is pretty easy, especially using color filter layers. Just my opinion.

[AMAR]

Dear mad is correct in say that u can make a bump map from previously created color layers. but this is my apprach: 1. use really good rotos or generate them myself. 2. use reference materials - stock photos, scanned images, internet, etc. 3. once i know what i'm modeling and how is going to look from reference materails or my own generated references i can create an more accurate model. 4. next generate model - finish it it's entirely 5. then setup your flatten poses by create cp groups and naming them accordingly 6. next aggin a new poses for the flatten items head front, head back, torso front, torso back, waist & legs font, waist & legs back, shoes each side view and repeat this process for the hands, additional items like nails faacial hair or hair plaits 7. once finished i'll organized them in a folder probaly called "Flats" or "Flatten" 8. then i'll go into the "edit relationship mode" and choose the shift + z to zoom the extends of the window and the either "print screen" (PC) or Shift+apple+3(MAC) to make screen copies of your flatten cps' - Repeat individually and as your doinf this make sure your going to Photoshop, Painter, Paint Shop Pro, PhotoPaint or even illustrator and pastin them into their own layer - Crtl(N) (pc) apple +n (mac)(new document) Ctrl+v(pc) apple+v(mac) Paste command- 9. once competed all of your image should be the same size - what i do from here is eliminate all the arbitrary stuff and then save out each screen copy as there associate to what they are head front = headfront.tga and then go back into HASH and apply them and the should appear in with very little adjustment. Once all the decal have been applied then you can go back to your photoshop file and either work with the one fille with everything or do this. 10. I would choose to select the layer in photshop - mainly and created duplicate states and rename the files according head.psd, torso.psd, hair.psd etc.etc. or just save the file(for other programs) as a new file (renaming it). Then delete layers not pertaining to it. 11. Now you Photshop file will work and u can work at your leisure creating your texture maps because you've applied the intially decal and at anytime u make a change or want to upadte it just resave the file as for instance headfront.tga now edited i resave it as headfront.tga thus overiding it and the file will automatically update in the hash document. Part 1 - fininshed now the decaling ohhhh this is the fun part. :lol:

[AMAR]

Part 2 setup up your textures 1. i would first analyze my resources and if this is very important to you purchase a mag or go to the library(free) :D and then play around with the filters and my notation of what works and either save it as a state in photoshop or create an action while doing it to record a freak accident that ends up looking the way you would like it to be. 2. next futher analyzation (grulling - ohhhh the humanity) - i at this point now what filters help me it my tasks if your goals aren't achieved by filters in majority alone , which more than likely the would not be. Find some web tutes that come close to what you're trying to achive in HASH. Ingnore the application you're goal is successfull texture creation. 3. Now it time to break out the pen tablet now every digital artists should have one but just in case you don't u can get by by using mosly feathered brushes with a variance of fades set on them. 4. you'll create texured brushes from drawing, scanning or a combination that make include filters. *Hint - when doing sking i generaly create a variance of noise brushes to simulate the randomness skin has regardless of the creature - human or animal. In part create a noise is simple and has many, many uses. 5. To create one u open a new document 100x100 pixels or 200x200 pixels should be fine(note if youre brushes are going to be used for hi-rez tex maps creation u might want to generate larger brushes). Draw out elipical marquee and fill it with black then run any of the filters that add noise - a popular one is the ADD NOISE then run the Gassian blur to soften the edges now if you want harder edges for a harder brush then leave it i generally add a blur or u can run it through other filters to generate some all together new texture. 6. Once done select the brush creation either by loading the transparent layer or making a marquee selection the using photshop go to the define brush option under the edit menu if you're using photoshop 7. Now in this document u can generate all types of brushes for your textures and save them inside this photoshop file. (*Note this document should be grayscale and any dark areas of you're brush are the areas that will show and the gray areas will feather.) 7.Now it is time to generate you're textures - advice take your time don't rush you'll learn more along the way - process of elimination. Another thing as you make some thing you like test it in hash to see what it looks like. and u may even what to create a duplicate file to have backup copies i always save backups just in case of programs errors. Also make one of the files have a choreograpy setup with a nice bulb light setup - probaly just convert the three default lights into bulbs lights and add any other fill or ambient lights (lits with no specular or shadows lights used as fill lights for lits that bounces in multiple direction to hit corner or the scence not seen) 8. Now that all i can give to u for help without providing some sort of online demo via a website ......... Here's one i did get a chance to use it but his approach is pretty standard but very detailed. I take a very similiar approach to a my results. Check out this in depth photoshop layer tutorial ....again ignore the 3d application focus on the photoshop that's the key! Enjoy :D [url="http://www.3dm-mc.com/tutorials/maya/texturing/"]http://www.3dm-mc.com/tutorials/maya/texturing/[/url]

[carterhawk001]

:o WOW :o