Painting Realistic Textures HELP!!!!

[Heber]

hey ,hmm im new at this too? what you learned so far where did u learn it?? mind tell in me...i am tryin to figure it all out too...

[uhuru]

basically u can find a lot of tutorials that teach u how to export uvmaps from ur characters as image files to be used as references in photoshop or whatever. those are easy to find. but the actual techniques used to paint realistic textures is what i don't know. All I know is that u need to produce textures for the color, bump, specularity, and diffuse channels. Each of them are to be constructed in different ways. I got this from members off of cgtalk so far, and its been a real help. Check it out....

(copied and pasted from another discussion)
1: yo1: you need a UVW map or wireframe just for a little better reference and help selecting certain areas. Next I would start off with bump first. This is my preference though, most start off with colour, or if you have a program like Bodypaint you can do both maps at once.

Colour:
Start by making a few simple skintones and such. pale ornages, peaches red for mor flush skin. Also a pale nasty green helps to soften areas and make them look duller. Paint an overall solid colour and then work on layering and such. I would provide some basic images but I am really busy at the moment , maybe in a week or so. Also use some puple or ble for darker areas like the bottom of the eyes. I tned to make sure it is fairly reddish around the nostril cheek crease. this really helps the nose look like it is actually an extension of the face and overlapping a bit.

Mix and match.

Bump:

Start off with the whole map at 50% grey (no not the short) and work on ups and downs. All pores can be made by simply using the airbrush with a self made brush fairly speckly. Not too soft, keep the contrast reasonablyn high and use black ass pores go into the face. Scars more often than not actually go up on the skin not down as is often mistaken. Blemishes and moles have a rough textrue and usually come out of the skin not into the skin.

Specular:

This is the map most often missed in texturing faces that probably add the most realism to the image. Pinks and violets of various tones and some black and white. don't make it smooth though have some varying to it. Areas like the nose typically shine, the eye lids don't so make them darker. The forhead can be really glossy or really dry depending on how oily the person's skin is.


Kaiskai has some very good starting off points there
Also something you may want to consider, is a translucency map (if your software's surface editor supports it). Skin is translucent, although on a face, it is only slightly translucent. However, making a map for this would add a very subtle yet cool feel, just hinting at the veins that are just beneath the skin.
Also, in your colour map, it is very important to add blemishes such as freckles, spots, scars, whatever, just to bring in that imperfection which will make it believable.
If you have a sub surface scattering shader, USE it. SSS is very important for translucent substances like skin, because it helps to create that slight glow that skin has.
My best recommendation would be to get as many close up photos of faces as you can to use as reference.
Remember in your spec map to indicate areas (especially in the nostril creases) that are not so shiny. As Kaiskai mentioned, the tips of noses are usually quite shiny too.



hope that helped a little bit:)

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