Questions about how to create Hand Painted Game Assets
Hi,
I´m not sure if I have chosen the right section for my thread. So if its wrong please tell me the right one and i will try to chance it if it´s possible.
Currently I´m about to learn how to create Game Assets with the hand painted style because I want to develop a Game. I want to create environment stuff like this:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=129561&page=188
http://www.handpaintedtextures.com/models/hand-painted-well
Even though I watched many Tutorials I still have some Question and I would love to hear your advice!
1. I guess the stuff which I posted was modeled not sculpted right? So I dont need to learn how to sculpt at the moment?
2. I model In Blender, do you think I should draw my textures in Blender too or should I use Photoshop. I think I would prefer to draw in Blender but maybe you say Photoshop is better or anything.
3. I´m not sure how I should create my UV maps. When I want to create for example a house where I need some textures multiple times (for example a wood plank), should I draw it once and lay the UVs for that plank on top of each other? Otherwise I would need to draw the same texture multiple times. But when I do that I can´t create individual shadows.
4. Do I need to bake normal maps for my hand painted textures?
I´m sorry for my bad English, Im form Germany and still learning it in school. I would really appreciate it if you take the time to answer my Questions!
I´m not sure if I have chosen the right section for my thread. So if its wrong please tell me the right one and i will try to chance it if it´s possible.
Currently I´m about to learn how to create Game Assets with the hand painted style because I want to develop a Game. I want to create environment stuff like this:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=129561&page=188
http://www.handpaintedtextures.com/models/hand-painted-well
Even though I watched many Tutorials I still have some Question and I would love to hear your advice!
1. I guess the stuff which I posted was modeled not sculpted right? So I dont need to learn how to sculpt at the moment?
2. I model In Blender, do you think I should draw my textures in Blender too or should I use Photoshop. I think I would prefer to draw in Blender but maybe you say Photoshop is better or anything.
3. I´m not sure how I should create my UV maps. When I want to create for example a house where I need some textures multiple times (for example a wood plank), should I draw it once and lay the UVs for that plank on top of each other? Otherwise I would need to draw the same texture multiple times. But when I do that I can´t create individual shadows.
4. Do I need to bake normal maps for my hand painted textures?
I´m sorry for my bad English, Im form Germany and still learning it in school. I would really appreciate it if you take the time to answer my Questions!
Replies
The 3d paint functionality of blender is really useful. But many artist paint their textures in photoshop. If you look for free 2d-painting tools, take a look at gimp and krita.
There are two major approaches: modular textures, often used in environment art (eg. a house). In this case you have a texture and map it on-to your model. The second approach, mostly used for single properties and characters, is to use an individuel texture.
My personal rule of thumb:
env-art: create modular texture first -> uv unwrapping of model
character art: unwrap model first -> paint texture
From a traditional point of view: no
But there are games which utilize normal maps in combination with hand-painted texture. But I would recomment to combine this with sculpted hi-poly models to calculate the normal maps automatically or leave normal maps out.
Here's an example of a model completely textured/painted in blender without normal maps, it should show you what is technically possible with blender, thought I'm not an artist (coder) and someone skilled will be able to produce something awesome
So I have modeled a well (Picture attached)
Now I want to texture it. You said for environment assets I need to create a Texture and then map it on-to the model. When I now want to texture the wood planks I would need to create a wood texture in Photoshop and put the UVs over the texture in Blender. But this way I couldn´t add ambient occlusion because all planks use the same texture, right?
When I want to texture paint direct on-to the model in Blender I would need to paint every plank the same texture, right? But this way I could add ambient occlusion.
So do I have to decide which way I want to do it? Because I think I prefer to paint in Blender and add ambient occlusion, but at complex models it would take hours to paint the same texture over and over.
I hope you understand what I mean
Once you understand how to paint you can start working on an asset. If you already have good 2d painting basic you can start directly on an asset. The error everyone made is starting too fast without understanding the basic, and it end up not pretty because they don't understand how to fake AO and lights as well as how to create a material from scratch.
Using tile or not on an asset is a question of goodsense. in this case using one for the rood isn't a great idea, except if you are really limited by game engine. However you could use one for the bottom part (not the border just the center) Also you don't just paint a plank and copied it everywhere, IT'S REALLY APPARENT. Even when doing a tile you do many different plank and create the texture.
I would recommend you to study, most of your basic question are easily answered by checking handpaint assets. Study them and you'll understand when to use a tile and when not to.
For the UVs: It's enough if you do 2-3 different wood pieces. You don't NEED to paint every woodpart seperate, but you CAN if you want to. That's all up to you. It's depending on the look you want to get, I guess. You should also have a look into vertex painting. It's useful when you deal with a more modular texture workflow. (Like reusing textures often)
Here are some examples/tutorials considering stylized texture painting.
Hand painting, as every aspect in art, needs a lot of practise, therefor do not despair if your first tries didn't work out in the way you imagine it
And eventually, from my personal experiences, I found it a lot simpler to start with clearly structured and rather small objects, eg. a square stone plate, a wood plank, a leaf. E.g. large, natural rocks are my personal nemesis. Try to find out what are your strength and try to push them first before battling your personal art nenemsis.
PS: and if you don't own a tablet, get it. You don't need the super expensive pro tablet, a simple,small wacom will do. Texturing with the mouse is... hard...
Thats not my first time doing hand painted textures. I haven´t finished the most of them but I think I understood the basics. OK I think I will play around a bit and test where it´s good to use. Thats a good Idea, thank you. I already found a good example for my well where I can find out where he used tileable or not. OK thank you. I guess I will use both too and see where I like which program better. Good Tutorials thank you!
Yes I experienced that in other things like programming too. Never give up!
You are right, I will try to make small objects like rocks, a barrel,... and later I will complete my well. I have a Intous pen small, i´m not happy with it but I think for the beginning it´s enough. I would love to have a wacom cintiq companion but its so expensive
For prolonged use, the small ones can really put strain on your wrist, since there's no room to really use your shoulder or elbow in your strokes. Keep safe habits.
You can somewhat circumvent this by making sure the full area of the stroke is the size of your view. So zoom in enough to have the full stroke precisely in the view. That'll force you to make a shoulder movement, if not elbow.
The issue is more where you stick your device. if it's on the edge, you will not have enough room to make shoulder strokes.