Riot style texturing

pointcache

Hey guys i didnt know where to post this so here it is.
My question is if you know of any tutorials, etc of how people do that Riot style texturing, where you from sculpt go into diffuse, all my tries were as far from Riots results as it gets you can check these





Me, i like them, but they are so far from Riot and im unable to properly recreate the pipeline, i tried it all, baking all maps, spliting channels, using all kinds of blend modes, nothing produces that pleasantful subtle semipainted style, so can anyone guide me where to look for info?
ib4 didnt search - i searched

Ged

My guess would be try to get less noise and small details and not much photo overlaying at all, keep it painterly and chunky. would the dota2 art guide help? its a similar art style really. http://media.steampowered.com/apps/dota2/workshop/Dota2CharacterArtGuide.pdf

slosh

Don't use overlays, or AO, or baked maps. Straight hand paint the texture...that's it. I'm sure they use gradients and other photoshop methods to blend colors and what not but the core is just straight hand painting your texture.

jfitch

I think they would at least use some gradient maps and ao from the high poly, but yeah its all hand painted.

Neox

slosh wrote: »

Don't use overlays, or AO, or baked maps. Straight hand paint the texture...that's it. I'm sure they use gradients and other photoshop methods to blend colors and what not but the core is just straight hand painting your texture.

what? they sculpt every character. why even do that you do not use the data?
from what i saw they bake and then handpaint over those

slosh

Not all of their artists sculpt. Some just straight handpaint. From what I understand, the AO bake serves as a guideline for them to paintover. The final result is 100% hand painted. When I did the Riot Polycount contest and then spoke to a few of the artists I know on the skins team, they pretty much told me the same.

pointcache

Neox wrote: »

what? they sculpt every character. why even do that you do not use the data?
from what i saw they bake and then handpaint over those

can you show me where you saw that?

ScoobyDoofus

Yeah. I know and have worked with a number of the crew there (5 character artists alone, not to mention producers, concept artists, animation, fx, etc)
Its mostly based on sculpts from what I've seen & heard..and when I visited the offices and toured the character pit.

Its easier and usually better to make the volumes and then bake down + paintover than to paint from scratch.

Hell, I'm working on a strategy game, and I sculpt --> bake for a good 75% of what I do.

pointcache

ScoobyDoofus wrote: »

Yeah. I know and have worked with a number of the crew there (5 character artists alone, not to mention producers, concept artists, animation, fx, etc)
Its mostly based on sculpts from what I've seen & heard..and when I visited the offices and toured the character pit.

Its easier and usually better to make the volumes and then bake down + paintover than to paint from scratch.

Hell, I'm working on a strategy game, and I sculpt --> bake for a good 75% of what I do.

Can you share your pipeline?

Bartalon

The Blubber Busters team I believe is at least partially from Riot, and they have a tutorial out there which covers how they approach their stylized art:

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1953507&postcount=78

pointcache

Bartalon wrote: »

The Blubber Busters team I believe is at least partially from Riot, and they have a tutorial out there which covers how they approach their stylized art:

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1953507&postcount=78

Thank you very much! Im still struggling with coloring it. If anyone has any tips on how to color after you gathered all maps, share please!

pointcache

How the color gradient overlay is done? I assume its the stage where you recolor the b/w values into the colors you need?

slosh

Scooby doofus: not sure if we know the same guys....perhaps we do. I can only go off of what the guys I know tell me. Even when inquiring about their art test, I was told I could sculpt and bake AO but that the final texture should essentially be 100% hand painted. It's very possible various character guys do it differently.

Fwap

pointcache wrote: »

How the color gradient overlay is done? I assume its the stage where you recolor the b/w values into the colors you need?

Some people just go right to painting over the top of the bakes, sort of like tracing if you will.

There is also a gradient map method to establish some colors, seen here:
https://youtu.be/yi_TMWS5kYA?list=PLW54USAkyIJq1NNqEmHwgBNtXCaXK6eh6

pointcache

Thank you guys, you helped me a lot.