Please help me make this distressed old leather look better?

[leigh]

Lowering the specularity in the worn areas will help a lot, since on real leather, those lighter bits you've got in your map would be a lot less shiny that the surrounding areas.

[Conniekat8]

Thanks Leigh that's a nice trick :)

I already have a specularity map so the worn areas are blacked out (no specularity - see attachment). I think that their apparent shininess probably comes from the value of the underlying texture being too light.

[leigh]

Possibly. In cases like this, simply applying an adjustment layer in Photoshop and tweaking it and trying different values tends to do the trick. Try adjusting it so that the areas are totally black in the map, and then work back from there.

Also, your specular falloff on the darker bits looks wrong for leather. Leather has an oilier appearance. Try tweaking that setting a bit more.

[sundialsvc4]

It actually looks pretty good now, if we're going to be any distance at all away from those legs. Turn the lights down and let's see the model in the ambient conditions under which it actually is to be viewed. And, as soon as you get to something that is good enough for the scenes, stop.

[Conniekat8]

Possibly. In cases like this, simply applying an adjustment layer in Photoshop and tweaking it and trying different values tends to do the trick. Try adjusting it so that the areas are totally black in the map, and then work back from there.

Also, your specular falloff on the darker bits looks wrong for leather. Leather has an oilier appearance. Try tweaking that setting a bit more.

Ah, yes, that one is giving me a hard time. I lost sight of what's wrong with my sheen. I can't figure out if it's the coloring of it, the strength, or how it spreads? Oddly, I have another leather texture where the sheen looks just right, but when I use the same settings on this one, it doesn't look the same. Lighting is near identical. I think the bumpmap breaks it up too much or something...

Perhaps I just need to step away from it for a day or so. Yea, it's pretty good, but I want the knock your socks of purrfect! ;) (for the sake of learning how to)

Thanks for the input guys and gals :)

[Conniekat8]

And, as soon as you get to something that is good enough for the scenes, stop.

*ahem* as much as I hate to admit it, I think you may be onto me! :eek:

Just thinking out loud here, in case anyone is following this - IRRC, a lot of people go grayscale to determine the right relationships of beckground/foreground or juxtaposed values. I hadn't thought of that till just now, it may be worth experimenting with.

[bonestructure]

Those worn areas also need to be bump mapped in so that they're a touch lower than the surface of the leather. Plus worn leather like that tends to be a bit rough and knobbly.

[Conniekat8]

Hey Bonestructure! Long time no see :)
Thanks for the tips!

I think I'm ready to call it quits on this texture. Leather armor for now. I plan on making metal armor option too (little later).

I toned down the scratches a bit, I think in the last set the underlying, scratched leather was too light. I burned in a slight AO pass. It's almost invisible, but when compared side to side with a texture wiothout it, it makes things pop out a bit.

I may have to plug it into Max, and see how it renders out there, it has a bit more shader control.

Still open to critiques, if not for this texture, for the future :)

[Conniekat8]

Some tint and morphing options on the final version.

[Marcel]

Very nice work! Great model and really good work on the texture!

Right now your leather is all the same color. When leather is damaged the top layer is worn off exposing the layer beneath it:

http://www.deletetheweb.com/unstuck/archives/the%20old-shoes.jpg

I suggest trying to make the signs of wear a bit less saturated (more gray) so they pop out more.

http://forum.cgtextures.com/boots.jpg

Another thing I did in this overpaint is make the lighter colors more 'yellow'. Your current shader is a bit 'monochromatic'. Because every value (dark or light) is the same color brown it looks a bit unnatural. Especially when the specular highlight is the same color are the base color of the material it gives a kind of metallic look. Changing the specular color might do the trick.

There is a very simple trick in Photoshop to blend a color just in the darker or lighter regions of an image. I've got a tutorial on my website about it. If you have time and don't know this trick it would be a good read:

http://www.cgtextures.com/content.php?action=tutorial&name=blendif

[Conniekat8]

Oh, very cool tips, thanks a bunch!
Yes, yes, I do know how to blend, I just didn't think of varying the color (hue) in darker and worn areas, I just varied the value of it a bit with the help of an AO map.
Now that you mentioned it - it's so obvious that's one of the missing elements!

Thanks again :)

[Marcel]

Oops, my image was missing (hotlinking protection was preventing it from being shown).

Try this direct link:

http://forum.cgtextures.com/boots.jpg

[Conniekat8]

Hey there Marcel, thanks for the info :)

The image is still not showing up, but no worries, I believe I got the picture, I understand what you're describing :)

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