Tiki Idol Texture Critique

[leigh]

Hey there - interesting model.
Um... what I would recommend is to not use procedural textures. They never work by themselves - you should use them (and ONLY if you absolutely have to) only at the very end to add just that last touch of detail. You see, they are unrealistic because wear and tear is never consistent over a surface. In other words - parts of the idol will be more worn (scratches, colour that has worn, etc.) than others, and the problem with procedurals is that they are too uniform.
Firstly - what is the idol made out of? Surely it would be made out of wood. At the moment it looks like plastic. The main reason for that is the specularity. If it were made out of wood, the specularity would be much wider - take down the glossiness to almost 0, and push up the specularity until it looks right. And that's just the overall setting.
But start with the basic colour. The best way to go about this would be to do a UV Unwrap and use that as the base for all your images. Do the colour however you want it - remember that where the idol has been scratched on rubbed the colour will be different. These things are usually handmade and handpainted so there are lots of imperfections that you bring into the textures.

Then you have to make a proper specular image defining which parts of the idol are more worn than others. Wood tends to go dull where it has been worn more - for instance the chest sticks out quite a bit so there would probably be vague rubbing on that area. Also bring scratches into the specularity (as well as the bump) and fingerprints are cool too.

The bump on that should definately show how the thing was made. These idols are often carved quite roughly so the surface bump should show how the chisel carved it. Also dents where it could have been knocked as well as scratches - wood scratches very easily.

If the idol has been coated with a varnish or some sort of resin then you might want to use a BRDF shader to show the different levels of specularity (the woods specularity as well as that of the coating).

That would all be a good start. Remember to make your images quite big so that they do not pixellate when you render close-ups.

[Black Mariah]

It's all a matter of how you use them.
http://pchan.vi2.com/wip.html
I know for a fact that the walls are all completely procedural, everything else probably is too. It's all about application. Check out Alan McKay's magma shader tutorial http://www.3dluvr.com/machette and see what you can do with procedurals. That being said, the texture you've got there looks like crap. Turn the specular WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY down, and add a few more layers of noise of varying sizes. I can go four or five layers deep in noise sometimes.

[leigh]

Hey, Black Mariah, I have to disagree with you.
Can you honestly say that objects textured with procedurals look real?
I followed those links and although they look pretty cool, they are OBVIOUSLY not real. Procedural textures make things look CG because, like I said before, they are too consistent. Have you never drawn your own textures? When I am working on a project (I am primarily a texture artist at the company I work for), I always ALWAYS draw my own textures, and there are usually at least 3 images that I make for each channel - colour, spec, diffuse, gloss, reflection, bump, etc. Plus, if you need them, then you add shaders or pixel filters for specialised effects, like blooming, BRDF, fresnel effect, etc.
Take this example for instance:
Say you had to texture a wooden crate. If you used procedural textures, then the wear and tear would be uniformly consistent throughout the surface, when in real life, a crate would be more worn and scratched around the edges because those are the parts of the crate that would hit other surfaces the most. Then there would be smears where peoples hands have slid down the sides when they have picked the crate up. There could also be scraping marks just below the lid of the crate where a crowbar has been used to open it. Now, how can you show those very specific interctions with random mathematical patterns? When texturing objects, you always have to know how people interact with the object, and how the object is affected by it's environment. Because each object and it's interactions with the world are unique, their surfaces should be completely unique. That's why procedurals don't work. That's why objects textured with procedurals look fake.
This idol would have been handcarved, therefore it will be very imperfect. Paint would be uneven, there would be gouges where the chisel used to carve it would have slipped, possible smudge marks where someone touched it while the paint was drying, fingerprints around the areas that are conveniently used to pick it up (like the ovals cut out at the top - those would make good handles). Your texturing should tell the story of how people and the environment interact with the object.
And doing a UV unwrap on the object is usually the best method of precisely placing realistic texturing onto objects. That way you have complete control as to exactly where you place your anomalies.

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.