Hi fellow polycounters.
I've taken part in a couple of the Environment Noob Challenges in the past and tend to keep an eye on what's happening every month in case I find something really inspiring and just generally to see how people get on with them.
A couple of months ago I saw a really awesome concept in the concept thread where we vote on our favourite to work on the following month and I was quite surprised to see that it was picked up on so I decided to save it in my 'potential future projects' folder to try my hand at when I had more time.
So I've now decided to resurrect my interest in the piece and I started working on it a little here and there over the past couple of weeks; but it's all been a little slow and I now have a little more free time so want to step on the gas a little and really push on.
It's a big challenge for me, because of the direction I want to take it in. Anybody who cares to look through my portfolio would see that I tend to lean more towards realistic textures and art-styles. However on this occasion I decided that it wouldn't really challenge me enough and I really wanted to try my hand at hand-drawn textures (yikes!)
ANYWAY here's the important stuff:
Reference Image:
This is a reference image and will be used as a guide as to what I want to achieve. I may, and probably will, along the way decide to adapt the vision depending on how I wish to approach it artistically.
The art style I wish to accomplish with this project is a combination of Divinity 2's construction and Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning's texture work (hand-painted and saturated colours).
Although I have worked on a similar art style whilst on my Masters it was a very different experience because I didn't create any textures, also I was responsible for a whole town in a short period of time with a very limited poly count, so the buildings were a lot more basic than what I am trying to achieve here.
I'm at a crossroads at the moment and I'm in need of some of your awesome experience and critique to help me along.
I'm trying to figure out how to best implement the exposed plaster and general worn look on the building. Adding it into a texture would not work for me as it would tile far too often as there are large bits of wall. One thought was to add a few more verts and blend between textures in UDK with a smart material. My concern with this method is that I would then not be able to easily put this into marmoset for portfolio presentation.Are there any better methods that you guys can shed some light on for achieving this?
Thanks a lot in advance...
oh and here's a screen grab just to keep you guys happy :P (please bear in mind that with the exception of the Brick and Loose Stone, the textures are currently place holder)
Replies
This has been my first ever attempt at hand drawn textures
By the way I really like your work on your portfolio, you have some great textures there. Your stone work is impressive
It might be a good idea to try sculpting a texture in zbrush.
Some good tuts here: http://www.philipk.net/tutorials/materials/materials.html
And some reference:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=91066
http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/b9/88/b6/b988b6562dd6f3cd12be09b553cdd319.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/i9SEKtI.jpg
http://www.mephworks.co.uk/textures/thumb/StoneSlabFloor.jpg
http://josh-lynch.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Fan_Pattern_Layout_Comp.png
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CHvK9t8NoGs/UqGg4VM-0oI/AAAAAAAAAh8/sL53RCEU4lA/s1600/tilable01_blogshot.jpg
http://shogun3d.com/images/treasure_chest/treasure_chest_1_900.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dkJRmuj3Wts/T0rZYtsOJkI/AAAAAAAAAsw/XpAl5Ya1uI8/s1600/Handpainted+Tileable+Stone+Wall+Texture.jpg
http://3.s3.envato.com/files/61632012/preview_05.png
Thanks for the compliment, I really appreciate it!
The idea behind these textures was to try hand-painting as I had never done it before, so it was never going to look hyper-realistic.
However I did just spend the day trying to recreate the stone texture by sculpting details in zBrush and then taking various bakes into photoshop to try and create a more detailed texture while keeping some of the 'hand-painted' style in there.
When comparing bare in mind that obviously the original texture was diffuse only whereas the new one also has a normal and specular map.
Looking at it now I'm thinking maybe I could crank up opacity on the stones' hue shifts so that you notice the differences a little more. Supposed to be some orangey, greeney and bluey stones in there but the colour doesn't seem to read very well