Texture Creation

[Very-Luke-Berry]

Use of photos in texturing is powerful but also problematic. Here's a few things to bear in mind:

photos are renders.

The main problem with photos is that they are already a combination of different lighting factors - just like a finished render is. In order to use them successfully as texture maps, things have to be photographed in a way that isolates their specific properties. Photography for colour maps needs to avoid specular highlights, for example. Getting a specular or bump map from a photograph will require some pretty heavy Photoshop work, and a fairly abstract understanding of how the shader you plug the map into will interpret the information. (it may be better to use Z-brush, or to use procedural techniques, or to create rubbings).

In general, make sure your subject is evenly lit from all angles - maybe use large, non-glossy translucent/reflective screens made from tissue or cartridge paper.


know as well as see.

Separating out the visual information in a photograph involves a little abstract thought, and sometimes it pays to get even deeper into your subject. I had to texture a hippo's skin recently. Hippos have grey skin, with a distinctive patchy red sheen that I was having a lot of trouble recreating. The solution only came when I read that hippos' sweat is actually red in colour, which is what causes the effect (for many years people thought that hippos sweated blood - not true, it's just red sweat). After finding this out, I knew why the redness appeared where it did and I could recreate the effect.

get a book.

To be honest, you've asked a question with no simple answer. Texturing and shading is a massive area of CG, and the better you understand it, and the more experience you amass, the better your results will be. If you want good results in the shortest time, the best advice might be to get a book. Advanced Maya Texturing and Lighting by Lee Lainer really helped me, but anything would be better than nothing.

I hope this helps.

[mister3d]

90% of time you use photos from texture libraries and mix them with masks. There are also libraries of such masks. And you also draw details or whatever you need. It's very hard to create a texture of a wood or a human skin from scratch, literally it's a unbearably long and makes no sense.

[leigh]

90% of time you use photos from texture libraries and mix them with masks.

Errr..... not really. Yeah, it's best to use photos as much as possible if you're aiming for very realistic textures, but frankly the process is a little more involved than simply mixing them with masks.

[mister3d]

Errr..... not really. Yeah, it's best to use photos as much as possible if you're aiming for very realistic textures, but frankly the process is a little more involved than simply mixing them with masks.

Your point is right, as the question is not specific and I treated it as a specific one (whether photos are used as a base).
I meant in a nutshell, in terms of a source origin, those are mainly photos shot under special lighting conditions. Some guys can use any thing to create textures (texture freaks), but most people I'm sure not so crazy and use stock photos.
Any texturer has a big library of textures to use. Both technical and artistic aspects of texturing are some like color theory, sharpness, scale, understanding basic shader components of materials and their physical properties, creating displacement and cavity maps, working with seams removal, taking artistic decisions on the spot like making ornaments etc,. :curious:
Your booklet has a good explanation as a starting point, at least helped me years back. Still love it.

[fusedgore]

Here is a texturing update of what i have been working on trying to texture well.Hope you like it .

[mister3d]

Good start! Great model also. What kind of a material it is? There's some stretching I can see. The cells of the material look too big, I can't imagine such a sweater or jacket, actually. Try to make it more lifelike, i.e. work from a reference.

[fusedgore]

The jacket is a rattlesnake skin .


I got another question hopefully someone can help .I am currently UV mapping the Pants and i was wondering if i uv map one side is there a way to mirror that uv over to the other side other than duplicate faces then flip the uv and apply those faces to the other mesh .

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