First time hand painting texture critique

B_Korth

>>Most Updated<<





Hi there all! This is my first time atempting some hand painted stuff. This is my rough start. Haven't gotten my drawing pad set up yet but it just came in. So I will be doing some wear and tear next.

I'm hoping I could get some advice about how I'm doing so I don't go in the wrong direction.

Thanks!

LMP

It's an ok start, but type to work some more saturation variation into it, and don't be afraid of some brush strokes; also, don't be afraid of more contrast.
I don't think I can add much more at the point. Just dive in there and try your best, also, work in layers, that way it'll be easier to go back if you need to.

Jessica Dinh

Very nice start The shapes are very elegant and the lighting on the blade is pretty accurate and readable as well. Don't be afraid to be more bold though! It's okay for your strokes to be showing when you are handpainting, and oftentimes I think that's what defines the style anyway, a sort of looseness.

The way you handle the metal is key. Think about how the specular for metal works, as LMP says, contrast is important - for example, the gold will look more gold if you make it darker, but keep the highlights bright. You can add some smaller details such as nick marks and other subtle surface undulations, to give you the opportunity to show off the metal material with highlights and whatnot.

Just because you are handpainting doesn't mean you can't cheat with some texture brushes too Just do it very subtly - I sometimes use a smoky/rocky texture at low overlay opacity to lay down some noise to work off of/paint of top of. It kindof gives you a start, but don't just plop down texture and call it a day either xD An actual spec map would look great with this as well, just very lightly.

You can also think about bounce light from two different colors that are next to each other. I also already see you balancing soft with hard edges a bit, which is really awesome. So keep that up!

Anyway, those are some tips you might be able to use to make your handpainting more interesting.

Hope that helps a bit :]

Dethling

Maybe it's because I connect the Blizzard Style with "Handpainted", but for me it's very "flat".
The lighting is good but you definitly need wera & tear!

I can only suggest watching Tyson Murphys Tutorial on hand painted textures.

B_Korth

Update:

B_Korth

@Jessica Dinh - Just realized I forgot that you said I should try to add a little noise in a way to get some more texture. I will do that this next go around.

Getting my tablet working again was a good help with getting those strokes showing through.

B_Korth

My reference if anyone is curious. I think it is a character from Everquest..

YakZSmelk

Great progress from where you started, are you planning on having a spec channel with this or will you be painting lighting into the blade?

Also for the texture sheet, you may have wanted to consider a 128X512 or 256X512, right now you have alot of wasted space which wouldn't be good to display as a portfolio piece.

devonmousseau

Good start I'd say. Looking forward to seeing where this goes!

B_Korth

@YakZSmelk - I wasn't planning on doing a spec map but I have considered it. It would probably help with my highlights because I think they are lacking a little.

Also I am still a little new to texturing all together so I'm not completely sure in maya how to export my UV's as something besides a square...

Jessica Dinh

Good progress! Nice to see you applying the critique :] I think you can push a bit more, especially in terms of contrast and lighting. For example, making the underside of the blade darker will help with dimension. Think warm vs. cool. So if your lighting is a nice blue, then you can make your shadows a warmer brown/red/purple or something like that. But very subtly!

You can push your highlights some more too - doesn't always mean your highlights need to be brighter, or everywhere, but you can darken your metal a bit so that the highlights stand out more. I also noticed that you basically drew in the line where are the edges are. But lines don't always have to be visible, and it might look better if you imply the edge by the mere juxtaposition of one plane being lighter/darker than the other. So there doesn't necessarily have to be a hard line, and just HERE AND THERE you can draw in a sharp hard highlight or something. I think this fading in and out of lines will look more natural.

You don't really have to add as many scratches and nicks as I have here, since you are trying to stay with the clean look. But just as an example of what you can do to help sell the material through small details :]

Great job reducing the polycount while maintaining the graceful silhouette :] I also agree with YakZSmelk about figuring out how to re-UV this to a rectangular map in Maya. The waste of space is not going to look good to employers :poly122:

Hope this helps a bit!! Keep going and good job

p.s. putting your brush in color dodge mode is really helpful at low opacity. You can use it for the most specialist of highlights, or with a giant fuzzy brush for a glow look ... BUT DON'T OVERDO IT! That would look really bad, ask me how i know.. xD

skodone

very nice! i like it!

B_Korth

Hey again Thanks all for all the support, it really helps.

I have been doing a lot of research and practice lately about digital painting in general, so my concept art will improve also!

But anyways here is my update. I just wanted to see what you guys think of my painting so far. Don't want to be doing something wrong completely before I go onto the rest of the weapon.

One of my concerns is that I think it might still look a little gradient-ee and less brush strok-ee. idk though. Thanks for the future advice!

B_Korth

After posting this I realized some of my colors aren't showing through as much. Hard to tell but I put some brownish reds in the darker regions and some bright sky blues in the highlights.

Oh and also I figured out how to get my UV's upright and compact. I can show you guys if you want to see but it is really the same map to the left side

garriola83

I would break your UVs until it really fills in A LOT of the space. Maybe cut the UVs for the blade in half so that you have 3 vertical UV islands and arrange them better. The bigger the UVs, the more space you have to add further detail into it. Then the only thing is that you have to do is work the seams, or make them disappear rather.

Bartalon

I would have to agree with YakZSmelk, you should probably go with a 256w by 512h texture map, maybe 128x512 if you can manage.

B_Korth

@YakSmelk and @Bartalon: Below is my current UV's. The file is 1024x320. I made it bigger just because I am new to digital painting and having more pixels makes it a little easier for me..

Should I just toughen up and work with 512x256?




@garriola83: Is this what you mean by breaking up the UV? I cant find a nice spot to split it besides here. Suggestions?

garriola83

Yeah, that's what I meant. You can fill that in even more! The seams will be tough. Buuuut you can do it with program that can do 3D texture painting like 3D Coat, Bodypaint or even ZBrush. I would research 3D Coat, it seems to really be usefull for this type of workflow.

B_Korth

Thanks @garriola83 I will look into those programs!

RobeOmega

Or as a free alternative you could use Blender
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrApuPOayoU&amp;index=9&amp;list=UU1dVYKd5MtCW_1lndmyWbQw&quot;]Hand-painted textures in Blender - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7ALfRw6I5I&amp;list=UU1dVYKd5MtCW_1lndmyWbQw&quot;]Tutorial - Hand Painted Textures in Blender - YouTube[/ame]

B_Korth

While I'm researching and learning these painting programs, just wondering if these are better UV's? Now hopefully I can get a better map with the smaller 512x512.

B_Korth

Been hard at work doing research and stuff!

So I realized I needed a little more work on the concepts and techniques of hand painting so I learn how to make these few things. I would like to make a whole scene in the end. But that is a ways of.

I do have a much better understanding of lighting, shadows, and making believable cracks.





|--|- Here is what I hope my end scene will be kinda like -|--|



It will be a character sitting on a create or something sharpening his blade.

B_Korth

^ not much of a concept artist...