How to Paint game textures

#61

xaint: what about getting tablets through ebay? i would always buy via ebay since stores are asking way too much for my taste and it’s not easy to find a more capable tablet (read: intuos at a reasonable size with custom pens) in a normal computer geek store :wink:

on topic: recently, i had another try at zbrush and this time heavily customized the interface -> i moved all the stuff that’s important to me from those !"§$%!! moving palettes into a custom floating toolbar that does not shift the stuff around (by ctrl+dragging menu entries into the workspace, check your manual on customizing the interface).

i can really recommend this to anyone who has difficulties with zbrush’s ui like i had. now it actually starts to make sense.

#62

what resolution are all these tex’s at? his seems much more detailed probably because it was a larger tex map, also workin in a larger res the when done shrinking it helps add detail a little better too.

The_Dude

#63

test.

sorry new here.

#64

if you got the big bucks…which I know most game companies aren’t going to spend on one tool, but you could always invest in Amazon Paint. This is one heck of a paint program. Forget painting in 8 bits per channel. you get to paint in 16 and float. However, I don’t think games are going to be projected at a film quality resolution anytime soon.

#65

thx for starting this thread. This is one area of game design that I am the least good at. Thxs to all of you for the links and great info.

Its really appreciated! :beer:

#66

something for my portfolio. still lacking a door tho…forgive me :smiley:
http://kleinluka.dodfi.net/textures/omai~.jpg

#67

-iNw-kleinluka:
The texture look nice to me, many things depends on what surface will be underlying this. Only crit is that the little faces looks completely desaturated thus falling from the image, like they doesn’t belong to it.
Next time please post info about why you show what you’ve linked. Do you need help in a particular area? You have a cool technique to present, or advice to give? Both are fine!

I’m happy that you guys like this thread. I learned much from it, and so others. It turned out to be very informative. Since I started this, I feel responsibility for the thread. So please guys keep this thread informative and easilly browsable by holding your good wishes and post them beside valuable infos. I know holding back things are not good, so if you wish you can send private mails to those who deserves the kind words.

Keep goin!!:beer:

#68

I have a some-what related question to this thread, perhaps it was already mentioned somewhere and I missed it, but what kind of lighting should I put game models(fully textured) in for a demo reel?

Should I just use default lighting? Though that doesn’t seem to light from every direction. Right now I have about 4 omni’s lighting my model just so I can see it while tweeking the texture. So I’m wondering if I’ve missed a step or does everyone physicaly place however many lights into their scenes? And is it recommended to do that for a demo reel?

My model was texture baked so I’ve simulated the effect of some basic lighting but without any real lights you can’t see the damn thing.

Any info is much appreciated!

#69

Hi Darkax!

If you can’t see the texture clearly (because of shadows), knock up the self illumination of the material U’re using for the texture. This will brighten up dark areas.

As for the lighting of the scene, I think 3 lights are enough.
E.g. One from 45 degrees above, one from the opposite with half the power to brighten the shadows, and one back-light to bring out the shilouette. But it depends on one’s taste, and this type of lighting looks cool on detailed models most of the cases.

I hope this helps!

#70

the nondescript answer:

light it how you think it should/could look in a game. make it look cool, but enough to fill out the forms. i generally use a warmer light in the front, cooler light from underneath, neutral from top, and bright ass cool light in the back. the tops and bottoms are about at half intensity, and the rim light is usually pretty high.

im by no means a good lighter, but it generally makes it look cool, and that is what matters! :wink:

be like the fonz, make it cool.

#71

Thanks a ton fellas

#72

I wrote a quick tutorial on hand painting textures a little while ago…

I use the same techniques in this tut as I do at work (for some things)

Anyhow…might help…dunno

http://ancient-pig.com/tutorials/tutorial2/tut2.htm

#73

This is a great thread.

Ancient-Pig, nice tutorial. Thanks for sharing that. I only wish the images were a little higher rez.

Getting back to texturing hair. Check out this tutorial on Adobe’s site:

http://www.adobe.com/print/tips/phsdigitalhair/main.html

This is the best I’ve come across for Photoshop users. Iapologize if this has already come up in this thread.

On lighting game models:

I’ve found that a three light setup with self-illumination between 50-70% to work best. I never had much luck with lights alone. I always seem to loose the subtle details that I’ve spent so many hours creating in my texture.

#74

I am looking for tutorials on making textures for game levels. I have found some already but I am sure I have missed some. Please post any links to these kinds of tutorials if you know of any. Thanks in advance. Here is what I’ve found.

http://www.gurusnetwork.com/tutoria...shop/index.html

http://www.seizure57.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/tuts/cb.htm

http://www.planetquake.com/hfx/tutorials.html

http://www.planetsack.com/tutorials.asp

http://www.i.nation.btinternet.co.u…tutorial_00.htm

#75

I think I’m going to make a tutorial soon on this.

#76

its late… deadlines are approaching and i dont quite have time to read 5 pages of stuff, What aspects are current topics? you all have probably seen my shepherd skins, what points do you all think i should make reguarding it? i think thats a good way for me to open up about it, see what about my texture work seems to be note worthy for me to discuss.

Iv heard requests for break downs of my technique which i could go on for hours about, or my workflow, or my removal of seams in my textures etc, are there any other major points i should try and discuss?

btw, GET YOUR TABLET ON EBAY! (i saw a note about that somewhere in here)… i saved 200 bucks on my 9x12 and its perfect.

im not sure how spacific im going to get, I may save the juicy bits for a class somewhere, iv been seriously considering teaching at the GDC for years now, i would want to team up with another artist to do so tho i think, not sure i can keep everyone interested on my own, me and per128 talked about doing that a few times, me and lando too talked about it…
not like the methods i used on the shepherd are like bleeding edge technology or anything, painted textures are going to be gone soon is my guess, replaced with pixel shaders.

thanks.

#77

Well, I’m not entirely sure this is the right thread to post my question in, but at the same time I don’t want to clutter the forum.

So, what’s the issue?
I’m creating a lowpoly soldier-character, using roughly about 3000 polys. I’m also making a 1024x1024 bump- and texturemap for him.

The problem I ran into was that when I mirrored my UV’s (I didn’t do this concequently for the whole model, just the parts that needed to be identical) - I apperantly also reversed the polygon normals. :curious:
So, when I apply the bumpmap on, for example, his hands - only one of them look the way I want it to.
The other hand has it’s bumps inverted. :sad:

Is there a way of getting around this issue, without having to resort to reversing the polygon-normals for the problem areas?

Excuse me if Im being stupid here, but I feel like I’m banging my head against the wall here. :banghead:

Peace/Vidar

#78

You’ll probably get alot more responses if you post this in the 3"D/2D Technique" section under “Texturing”.

Since I don’t know what software you’re using or how you went about reversing your UVs, I’ll tell you how I accomplish what you’re asking using Max 4.

After I model something, I determine what parts are going to have the same texture. Then I delete the opposite part like say one of the hands for example. Then I’ll lay out my UVs, create a texture and apply it to the model. I would then select all the polys of the hand and clone it as a seperate object. Then mirror it and attach it to the wrist of the arm that’s missing a hand. I’ve had no problems doing it that way.

Hope that helps.

#79

HyPer, I’d just like to see a quick rundown of how you dealt with seams. Painting has been covered in depth in tons of tutorials, seam fixing hasn’t afaik.

sysop, this really isn’t the right thread for your problem. But I’ll try to help.

Are you talking about face normals or texture normals (normal map)?

Which app are you seeing inverted normals within?

If it’s a normal map you’re talking about, then it depends on your game engine. Some handle mirrored normal maps OK, others don’t. I know for a fact that 3ds max 5’s viewport shader does not.

#80

Originally posted by sysop
The problem I ran into was that when I mirrored my UV’s (I didn’t do this concequently for the whole model, just the parts that needed to be identical) - I apperantly also reversed the polygon normals. :curious:
So, when I apply the bumpmap on, for example, his hands - only one of them look the way I want it to.
The other hand has it’s bumps inverted. :sad:

I’m new here, but I think I can field this one, as I’ve run into the issue before myself.

When you use symmetry to duplicate a texture on both sides of a model, keep in mind that you’re reversing the texture. This has the unfortunate effect of reversing the bumps of a texture map. When you think about it, it makes sense; you’re essentially applying the bumpmap inside out on the mirrored part of the model.

The only failsafe method of avoiding this is to avoid mirrored UV’s. I know some games appear to have mirrored UV’s, but it’s beyond me how they avoid the inverted bumpmaps, unless they are writing code specifically for handling this issue. However, your best bet is to not count on that code and simply lay out your entire UV map.