Best file format for texturing?

[mister3d]

You textures aren't bad at all.
I use jpegs and compress them up to 6 level quality on photoshop (this is when it's still looks identical visually but weighs so much less). Any other format is too heavy for me, especialy if you have 20 textures by 6000x6000 in 3 layers...
Don't worry, lighting is difficult for many many artists, but it becomes better with time if you have a correct practice. The Jeremy Birn book is awesome, but it's not enough to study lighting. The book is a "bridge" between traditional and digital lighting. It just cannot cover many important topics, and I'm sure it was not his intention. The first phrase in his book, as you may see, is that you need to study traditional lighting too. So there are some books you can find helpful:

I highly reccomend the Lighting challenges to practice as they are created by a lighting expert and reflect the most common different lighting "challenges". Moreover the geometry is already there, and a friendly community will help you. I am myself now doing some of them, and I find it very interesting. :) http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?f=185

Check this thread about some books I found helpful, and use your judgement which are good for you. http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=688918

Don't limit yourself in books about lighting, see as many as you can. In different books there are unique things but those that are the same you will remember better as you repeat them.

[Kyron]

Thanks for the answer :)

Yeah youre right, I just need to practice more. Expecting to become an expert in ligthing and texturing in a year is propably a bit optimistic of me hehe. I will just continue practicing and practicing. And perhaps some day be good enough to post something in the lighting challenges :)

[mister3d]

And perhaps some day be good enough to post something in the lighting challenges :)

They are created to master your lighting, not to show masterpieces. So don't be afraid to participate.

[Kyron]

In that case, I might join the next challenge.. Thank you for the answer ;)

[Johnny_Cannuck]

Most studios will build their textures in Photoshop and keep a very large master PSD file complete with layers. For production that texture is saved as a JPEG multiple times. For example in the folder for 'Texture_A' you'll find Texture_A_Master.psd that's 4096x4096, Texture_A_High.jpeg that's 2048x2048, Texture_A_Med.jpegthat's 1024x1024 and Texture_A_Low.jpegthat's 512x512. That way you're not calculating a 2k texture for a distance shot, but you can switch in in for the close-up shots. There will, of course, be High, Med and Low version for Colour, Bump, Specularity etc...

[kanooshka]

If you are using mental ray your best bet is to use .map files. Mental Ray automatically converts all textures into .map textures at render time and using .map files initially saves rendertime. As far as resolution of the texture this depends on how big your rendered image will be and what portion of the image the object takes up. For example: if you render at 1000x1000 and you have a planer mapped wall that covers 1/2 of the image a texture size of about 500x500 should be enough. Of course if an object is cylindrically, spherical...etc mapped you will need about twice that size.

This link explains how to convert textures to .map: http://www.digitaltutors.com/chit_chat/showthread.php?t=8684

and you can also get a photoshop plugin here:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=194935 (http://www.digitaltutors.com/chit_chat/showthread.php?t=8684)

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