Handpainted Texturing/Substance Texturing

EJtheArtist

Hello! Been working on this for about a week now. I think its time for some feedback. What do you guys think? I fell in love with the sort of princess fantasy and colors of this cobblestone and want to capture that in my texture. 

Here's what I want it to look like:


Here's what it currently looks like:




Its just diffuse. But it doesn't feel right yet. Does handpainted use normal maps or other maps? I'm also working this up in substance, but nothing really to show there yet. Here are some older workups and reference from my blog too.
I've been looking at a few handpainted texturing tutorials like this one or this one.

KrisLW

Is that very first image of the real floor what you actually want it to look like, or is that just your reference?

I'd say you are getting quite close! A few key differences I notice:

1. The colors you've used have a large difference between them. In the real photo, there is blue and violet and red violet, and all manner of varied shades in between that kind of blend and fade together. You have three very distinct colors, without all of the inbetween shades and colors.

1A.Your blue tiles (in the perspective image, at least) feel a bit too light and washed out, and contrary, the darker tiles are REALLY dark compared to the real photo.

2. The texture on your version is kind of splotchy and patchy. The real version is striated with very obvious lines/cut marks that yours is lacking.

3. On the grout, in the real version, it's very thin, straight, and clean-cut with little hairline fractures here and there. Yours is a bit more wobbly and thicker (in accordance with the hand-painted style, this is kind of typical I think) and rather than the little cracks, you have more of a chipped/pebbled look going on.

All of that being said, for handpainted style vs realism, I think you've done a wonderful job thus far!

Also, yes, the hand-painted style can use normal maps, and can use just about any other kind of map you want to throw at it. You just have to really keep laser-focused on the hand-painted style, as today's thing seems to be PBR and realism etc, your workflow might start to slip in that direction if you're not careful. A personal favorite of mine for hand-painted style is the original Dungeon Defenders game - they blended together hand-painted style with realistic lighting/rendering to wonderful effect.

EJtheArtist

Some feedback from friends:
Pretty! The two biggest things that stand out at first are:

1) you're missing the "layering" element of the stones. You have nice value difference and wear but you're not getting that "I'm stone made through thousands of years with layers and layers built up" part of that element of the texture.

2) The grout appears to be the same level of specularity as the stones, making it too prominent. If you want to bring up that element, coolness, but if you want to more closely mimic the reference I'd say try reducing some of the highlights on the grout and making it a slightly darker value than it is now.

Quick check in Photoshop comparing both desaturated. The grout really stands out in yours compared with the ref:

me: "I had trouble with the scale of the grout and also trouble with the scale of the tiled cobblestones, Any thoughts on those?"

Break down the simple shapes THEN build the detail. blocking it out will save you a lot of grief. The grout is a bit thick compared to the reference. which is thinner and more uniform/strait. The patterns of the cracks, good, the thickness of the cracks are highly exaggerated. i'd be careful of your darks being too dark. also, the beveled grout is a little harsh. pretty good for style, not r eally for reference. you could add dirt. notice the desaturation of the tiles around the grout and lighting around the edges. i don't mean highlights, but the more subtle lightning from weather and wear.

Notice also that the tiles have a lined texture like cut marks from the masonry or lined rock designs? but, i will say that if you didn't show the reference for me to find all the differences between, it's a fun hand painted texture. Your highlighting is coming along.

Friend 3: 
Thats a great start! I love the detail within the grout and the cracks also. Right now the tiles feel rounded versus flat and rectangular like your reference, I think it would help if you focused the texture/water damage like in your reference around the grout/cracks.

EJtheArtist

Substance Version:

*How do I make this look better? Its easy to think about how I want it to look better, but finding the nodes I need are another story
*How do I get more colors in there like the pink and purple?

I feel like i'm just playing with sliders until I get the effect I want. I'm learning what each slider does, but its fairly time consuming at the moment.

I like substance. I like that I can easily change the pattern on the fly without changing colors or anything else. I wonder if I can combine the methods at some point