Texturing challenges?

#6

So happy to hear some positive responses at last. The other sub forums have their challenges and I love to see how it helps the forum-goers to excell and push each other further as a great collective learning experience. I must say I was a bit disheartened by the response or the lack thereof. Started thinking maybe CG Talk is just not the place for texture artists. By the way, do anybody else know of any dedicated texturing forum? I know of a guy who was planning to do a whole site just for texture artists to learn, share, grow and show. But that didn’t come to anything. Sadly.

I mean, having a great model is nice, but for crying out loud, just simply to put your different maps together in a shader and create a material that accurately reflects its material properties could be enough. So what if it is only mapped to a teapot? Or we could just make simple models, for crying out loud, we all have a few stupid models lying around somewhere. After all a good texture can make a mediocre model look awesome. Sure in the perfect world we would be sitting practising on Pixar’s geometry from the latest blockbuster, but hey I am not too proud to admit I am nowhere near that level anyway, but I want to learn, and I am sure there are others here who are on the same level and who don’t mind learning in a less than perfect way.

#7

http://mxmgallery.maxwellrender.com/

is this the kind of thing you were thinking about?

I love that site…Even though all the materials are made specifically for maxwell renderer its still great for inspiration.

And agreed. I dont care about models. ill texture a teapot.

#8

Good to hear guys…the models will start flowing shortly! :wip: :slight_smile:

#9

Well as texture artists our responsibility is not just texture relating to a certain set of UVWs and a certain piece of geometry. Of course that is a big part of it, but I would say (IMHO) that just as big a part of our work is to get the spec, colour, bump etc. maps to play nicely together to recreate the material properties of the material we are trying to recreate. For that you do not need a specific model.

#10

I disagree, Marque Pierre. A texture artist’s job, primarily, is to create textures that work on a piece of geometry. Ensuring that there are no seams and no stretching is the first step when creating textures, since the bump, spec, etc maps are usually created as derivatives from the colour which is generally created first.

I’d love to see a texture challenge going here, if we can get a good model that will make it a “challenge”. I’m not sure how involved I’ll be able to be, considering my schedule, but we’ll sort that out when the time comes.

#11

I would suggest a collaboration with the Hardcore Modelling challenge. You would get some fairly decent and varied models from that.

#12

I would really love to see the texture challenge open up. I personally am really trying to improve my texturing and would like to get an excuse to do as much texturing as I can :slight_smile:

#13

Hi leigh-
“challenge” -I guess that would be subjective.

I figured a basic model would work for more people with various skill levels and also not eat up tons of our free time. :shrug:

The last challenge I participated in had a very complex model with 100’s of peices that were mostly modeled as one peice (water tight) so just the UV part of the texture work was a big undertaking and very few got past that…only a few made it to texturing.

The models I’m brining are not a challenge from UV aspect, but they could still provide something for newer texture artists to feel able to tackle, and a quick breaktime doodle for the more experienced people or ones with less free time to burn. :slight_smile:

#14

Sounds good to me. Perhaps there might be so much for a seasoned pro to prove themselves on, but for us wannabees, a test piece could be anything really.

#15

I am all excited lets have one

#16

You could start off making some tiling ground based textures if you haven’t got a model. I think that would be good practice initially.

A real way to push yourself and learn is to try and recreate a reference image from scratch by hand, not using any of the photo in the texture. That’ll make you really look at what it is that makes the texture look like what it is. You can check the tiling in photoshop and you don’t even need to go near a 3d program initially.

#17

You read my mind exactly. That’s what I am talking about.

#18

For those waiting to start on a texture challenge, sorry it took a while…I should have the first building linked with texture sources included on Monday.

Do you guys also maybe want some images to use for a tiling challenge?
It may sound too simplistic to some, but you can do a lot right there…full hand paint is already mentioned, but for those otherwise inclined, this tut has already been liked elswhere in this forum> http://www.cgtextures.com/content.php?action=tut_normalmap

…also trying HDR and any other tricks we can think of to see what looks interesting. :smiley:

#19

This simply isn’t a challenge. It’s the kind of thing a beginner would do in their first three hours of learning - what is the point of making a challenge out of it? While hand painting textures is a good way to learn how things work (especially for learning how specular and bump maps work), it shouldn’t be something that beginners dwell on beyond a few experimentations (unless you’re working on textures that are intentionally needing a hand painted look, like some game work, or animated films).

As for tiling textures - where is the challenge in that? You find a picture, use Offset, then clone a bit. It takes about 20 minutes.

I really, really don’t see the point in running a challenge unless it’s actually really going to push people. Look at some of the other mini challenges around the site - they’re actually difficult. And because they’re difficult, people have to push themselves to learn and adapt to create something worthwhile. Now that is the point of a challenge. A challenge shouldn’t be a celebration of mediocrity.

#20

I understand where you are coming from Leigh. But if people are on different levels in these forums, a one-size-fits-all challenge would never be realistic anyway. A person with your level of experience, well I wonder where you go to learn and be challenged. But sadly we are not all that good. Yet!:buttrock:

So perhaps this does serve a purpose for now. For some of us.

#21

You’re missing my point. What is the point of catering a challenge to the lowest denominator? That way, no-one learns anything. If you make it a little bit tricky, then the beginners will have to push themselves in order to compete - this is what makes a challenge a challenge.

Like I said, go look at some of the other mini challenges on this site. None of them are catered for beginners, yet loads of beginners take part, and most of them improve through doing so.

A person with your level of experience, well I wonder where you go to learn and be challenged.

At work.

#22

I guess the tiling thing as a challenge was bound to get a retort. :slight_smile:

Can’t argue Leigh’s comment- A plain offset with a bit of cloning to tile job is easy. :smiley:

I was thinking about taking it a bit further… Some haven’t tried their hand at normal maps for ex, and there are a few ways to go about that including working in ZBrush to manually creat your map.

Or imposing limits. Make a really good 256x256 tile with ground layer mask and detail map.

Sometimes I’ve found concentrating on the simple things and taking them as far as you can at your current level is a good way to learn…Heck there’s one site that does a sphere challenge and it’s neat to see what people do on that too.

I think the celebrting mediocrity comment is a bit much…and not all beginners are inspired or even take part in advanced challenges.

Here’s an example I have had recently. It was a very complex model, and as I mentioned erlier, only a few even made it past the unwrap stage.

I know CGT is all about a very high standard…isn’t it possible to lighten up a bit too, maybe instead of a celebration of mediocrity it will expand our ability to find “complexity in a simple thing”. :shrug:

Either way, maybe the suggestions are out of line. If so, just say the word and I’m happy comply on the parts that aren’t acceptable. :thumbsup:

#23

(unless you’re working on textures that are intentionally needing a hand painted look, like some game work, or animated films).

Funnily enough I do work in the games industry and at our company (Team17) we make a lot of cartoony games. The ability to draw good stylised textures in a non-realistic manner is something we’re constantly looking for in new applicants and is actually a real bonus in a portfolio.

I think the ‘tiling’ thing is getting taken a little out of context :slight_smile: Often at a low res you wont have enough high frequency detail to simply clone detail from one part to another and the tiling must be worked in from the start. Simply getting an image that tiles does not mean it tiles in a good way.

As for making this a ‘challenge’ well, yeah, that could be a waste of time. The forum is better used for displaying work and getting good feedback and you don’t need a challenge for that. Better to just post up work you’re doing for crits and advice if you want to improve.

Aten

#24

Okay Leigh, I hereby challenge you to come up with challenge that will be a challenge for both seasoned pros and amateurs alike! (How many challenges was that?)

#25

Well personally, I think a fun challenge that everyone could enjoy would be a simple building or vehicle. The main reason for this is that the UV mapping is quite straightforward (lots of planar projections), and they’re fun textures to do. I actually have a jeep model somewhere that was given away for free some years ago here on CGTalk that might work quite nicely. This kind of thing is a good idea because it’s a decent enough challenge, without being insanely difficult.

For those of you talking about low res, game stuff - there are game art challenges run elsewhere on this site from time to time.