How to Paint game textures

#121

I had a quick question, I am a rookie on all elements, but what if I wanted to do texture painting like PS one low rez models, how would I go about that???, I want to create low rez models as well as low rez textures I know this is not industry standard, but I wanted to create if for comedy purposes???

#122

Maybe the link below will help someone just like me.

http://www.planetquake.com/polycount/cottages/rorshach/index2.shtml

#123

Thanks for a great thread, I´ve learned a lot. Keep them tips coming please.

#124

This is indeed very good! Thanks man!

#125

Nice thread.

#126

hi all,

do many of you have image libraries that you use?

I use quite an extensive one that i created myself over the years, but one thing i am lacking of are windows :frowning: particularly american style windows (broad and spacious mainly). I was wondering if anyone could help me out and post some pics for me to add? I have been looking for a while and exhausted most of my resources.

Thanks in advance - any help is much appreciated.

Cheers,

Nathan.

#127

My favorite sites for collecting images are these:

http://sxc.hu/
http://www.imageafter.com/index.php
http://www.morguefile.com/archive/

Ofcourse I don’t know whether or not you’ve already seen them or have any use for them, but I thought I’d post the links anyway :slight_smile:

#128

thanks hellwolve,

that has been quite helpfull :slight_smile:

keep the links coming! hehe :slight_smile:

cheers,

Nathan.

#129

Hey, no problem. It’s the least I can do after so much time of admiring other people’s work :wink:

As for other links…well, that’s it. Those are the three I use :slight_smile:

#130

If you’re interested, there are a bunch more links in the sticky at the top of the Texturing/Surfacing section.

#131

http://www.planetquake.com/polycount/cottages/b1ll/step_head_champ.jpg

Step on how I paint textures.

#132

wow very nice… thanks for sharing

#133

Well, i read dozens of tuts regarding painting game textures, but when i try to paint something like a good metal texture myselfe , such as that big robot blue texture(http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=196906) i end up with something like this

… (painted in 30 seconds. could’t come up with anything better…)

5 minutes… i just can’t come up with good technique…:sad:

i dont know if they’re using some background textures and blend highlights into them… but textures that they make are mpossible for me to draw(for now:))

And i ask… how do this people paint so outstanding textures using only brushes?? how do they place the highlits, shadows, halftones. is you cnow some good tuts or can give some advice i would appreciate it. thanks

#134

I think the very first step is to take a good hard long look at the material you want to paint. Ask yourself, what makes this material look so? Not just the colours, they are fairly easy to pick up, but noise, reflections, grain, wear and tear, dirt everything that gives it its personality, then when you know the distinctive things that makes it look like itself, recreating them from scratch is gonna be a lot easier.

#135

yes but the hard part is exactly the noise, reflections, grain, wear and tear, dirt etc. How do you create them. No not how do you create them, but how do you create them to give you that look you’re after? I’m having a (relatively) easy time modeling, but a darn hard time texturing, cause the base colors are easy, but the rest is so bloody annoying to get a grip off.

#136

Hmmm. You need to develop a power of critical observation. I am amazed that I haven’t recommended Owen Demers’ awesome Digital Paint and Texturing book yet, but that is what did it for me:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0735709181/qid=1104514885/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-8272063-5571046?v=glance&s=books

You need to train your eye to see and analyze what features exactly makes so and so material unique and appear to be so and so material. It is absolutely crucial. No ammount of Photoshop experience will do this for you. This book uses like half of the pages going through such exercises. That is step one…

#137

that book is pretty nice, it’s got some intersting tips and all… doesn’t really talk much about editing uvw’s, and how much they can really do for a person though, and a lot of the stuff in there still looks pretty ‘cg-ish’ to me…

though not completely getting rid of the ‘cg’ look, another good book is David Franson’s “The Dark Side of Game Texturing” … it has a few of those ‘computer graphics’ textures in them, but it’s also got some good advice on how to use photoshop filters to their fullest.

but possibly the best advice is to go build yourself a texture library.

I’ve got 2,163 pictures I’ve taken for textures and other purposes, and once I get my new camera paired with the memory card that’s in shipment right now, I expect to double the amount of textures shortly… I just hope I’ll be able to keep track of the CD’s the texture photos are on heh… probably going to have to categorize them as I burn 'em off.

but yeah, a good goal to reach is the ability to take almost any object and know, “hey, I’ve got a pretty good texture for that on my computer” or “you know, with just a bit of tweaking, this photo can be passed off as this object’s texture”

#138

I can’t believe you mentioned that book, “Dark Side of…” I am kinda obsessed about learning to texture well, so I buy every book out there on the topic. That one was a H:U:G:E disappointment. Never seen such dated looking stuff. And all the tutorials were basically something you could get better and for free on the web. If you don’t know where to look, goodtutorials.com and polycount are good places to start. I remember showing this book to my texturing teacher, straight outta the industry, and she was just shaking her head at all the newbie mistakes…

But you are right about the texture photo library! But do yourself a favour and organise them into a somewhat rememberable system of categories. After you have burned a thousand images to disk, it gets pretty complicated retrieving them.

#139

heh… yeah, I’d agree with your teacher, it’s not really the best looking stuff out there… in fact some of the stuff looks downright sega saturnish… almost like well… there’s some crates on page 70… that looks like crud I was making with paint shop pro around 3.5 years ago heheh… not good at all…

but the main reason I mentioned it is because I feel it covers the basics of the programs you’re using better than the digital texturing & painting does… though yeah, most of that stuff could be found online

#140

Still, the stuff taught in Owen Demers’ book will hold true no matter what version of Photoshop will be out in 5 years. Franson’s stuff was dated before it was send to print. BTW ever tried accessing his portfolio which he lists the address for in the book? Broken link…

I think it is far more important to train your eye and your painting skills than to know the latest filters or what button to press in Photoshop. You don’t really need a texturing book for that - just get the last Photoshop Wow! Book…

Creating the Art of the Game by Matthew Omernick is a solid book through and through. It will teach you pretty much everything about making game art, from interfaces to textures, and show you both in Max and Maya. That can’t be beat. Nor can the author’s credentials (Medal of Honour team, now Art Director with Lucasarts).

Photoshop Illuminated by Mesmer Press, takes you through all the tools, menus, palettes and filters from a games texturing perspective. So if you are new to Photoshop altogether, that is a good one to get.