Texturing, where do you start?
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I have zero experience in texturing, I have an account in Digital Tutors but I don't know where to begin, all their learning paths seem to be pertaining to an individual software rather than the idea itself. I've watched a few courses and what confuses me the most is the term maps, there's a TON of them and the different authors uses a lot of different maps which vary from courses and software. They seem to know what maps to use at a certain scenario that I'm unaware of.
I'm a technical guy, I've come from a programming background, I usually follow the format, the correct syntax, everything has a fixed state (from the code's syntax to the flow of it) and all I have to do is form a logic around those predetermined syntax but in a creative aspect, I can't make a decision to save my life. I even apply this mindset in modelling and while it usually isn't a problem in hard surface modelling, it's a nightmare in organic modelling, I sometimes literally create a sample of my model, load the author's mesh and snap my vertices to theirs and try to memorize the placement and distance between the vertices because in my messed up mind I think that's how it should be.
Sorry for digressing, just wanted to share my background. Going back to maps, I've seen a LOT of maps used, normal, ambient occlusion, bump, specular, color, displacement, curvature, cavity, position, opacity and a lot of other ones that I forgot. I can't wrap my head around these maps, are they all present on a texture? Do I set them all individually? Is there a list of every single map that has to be on a mesh? When should I know where to use them? Learning modelling was bearable since it's pretty straight forward, however, this texturing thing really blows my mind, there are so many individual things that make up the whole texture you see on the mesh and I wish there was a course for each individual map available.
I'm a technical guy, I've come from a programming background, I usually follow the format, the correct syntax, everything has a fixed state (from the code's syntax to the flow of it) and all I have to do is form a logic around those predetermined syntax but in a creative aspect, I can't make a decision to save my life. I even apply this mindset in modelling and while it usually isn't a problem in hard surface modelling, it's a nightmare in organic modelling, I sometimes literally create a sample of my model, load the author's mesh and snap my vertices to theirs and try to memorize the placement and distance between the vertices because in my messed up mind I think that's how it should be.
Sorry for digressing, just wanted to share my background. Going back to maps, I've seen a LOT of maps used, normal, ambient occlusion, bump, specular, color, displacement, curvature, cavity, position, opacity and a lot of other ones that I forgot. I can't wrap my head around these maps, are they all present on a texture? Do I set them all individually? Is there a list of every single map that has to be on a mesh? When should I know where to use them? Learning modelling was bearable since it's pretty straight forward, however, this texturing thing really blows my mind, there are so many individual things that make up the whole texture you see on the mesh and I wish there was a course for each individual map available.
Replies
You might have triggered someone to make that for you, or they might see this as being a small issue.
You know the names well enough, you just now associate them with there material slots.
Once you got that you can then start to get an understanding of each one and why they are needed and what their limits are.
This is what your looking for:
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Texture_Types
Simply put:
Normal maps hold a higher detail quality than it's lower resolution counter part.
Ambient Occlusion / AO is used as a global illumination map (the lighting of the objects)
Bump is similar to Normal but is just an indent extrude type of map and not a 360 degree detail map like the Normal map.
Specular/Metallic is pretty much the shining of the object
Color/Albedo/Diffuse is simply the color map what colors/details do you want on this map.
Displacement is how displaced do you want this area from the object, you can sort of think of this like a inflate/deflate sort of map (I hardly ever used this so if i am wrong i am sure someone will come by to correct me.)
Curvature map (i never used, a quick review reveals it is much like the cavity map?)
Cavity map, makes shadows or dark area's darker, so like lines in line art or comic books.
Position, from what i understand controls the state of an map or the lighting of the object so a top down game would want the lighting to come from above to below so the position map would direct the lighting to come from the top down if it is baked at that position.
Opacity/ALPHA is easy and that is do you want to see through this object or not, so say a plastic clear umbrella would use an opacity of about 20%, you keep specular/metallic "high" to see shines and water droplets would be introduced in the same map.
Then there is the "new" PBR that take things into a different level:
https://www.allegorithmic.com/pbr-guide
^Each map is used for a different purpose and they are not all needed for every project once you learn their usefulness's and understand them then those maps are used for your current project so say you wanted a "hand painted", game you wouldn't use a normal map.
You would use possibly zbrush detailed object to fake information but not the normal map its self, if you chose to that is.
Normal maps are generally used for realistic objects/projects though they can also be used for stylized projects much like Blizzards new IP and many others but they do take time to create so if your project is big expect a semi long turn around for production.
Hope that helps there are also techniques being used where you stick certain "maps", in the general Red - Green - Blue channels to get more usefulness out of each map and lessen the cost in calls from your chosen engine. That might need a custom script or engine if i am not mistaken, though your a coder so that shouldn't be a problem.
Any Vet polycounter / official AAA artist of any kind can come in and correct me but remember to help op.
There are a lot of good info about pbr on marmoset website, if you do want to know more about how it actually works.
The Physically-based Rendering is an entirely new thing for me, I've never heard of it, I though I just load up the model, paint some pretty colors and apply the basic maps to simulate the material. This is the type of topic that deserves a good 12 hour review and 3 cups of coffee and tea. But thanks a lot for bringing it up, I'll try and skimming on it before sleeping today so I could get a good start tomorrow.
I've never really thought about what makes up an object's surface, at first glance on a random object the first thing I see is the color and that's it, I don't go oh the pattern it has is bumpy, it's glossy, how the light bounces of it and how it affects neighboring objects. Come to think of it I've never really factored in light, I just use it as a source to see then I completely forget any other influences it has.
Hopefully after I my research with pbr tomorrow, I'll be able to produce a simple texturing process. Also thanks, I've looked into the marmoset page regarding it (https://www.marmoset.co/posts/basic-theory-of-physically-based-rendering/) but I'm stumped, I couldn't get past a paragraph without scratching my head since I couldn't understand half of terms he used.
But then again this is my 3rd day in texturing and hopefully I get a solid foundation in less than a month.
Glossiness map is just the same as the roughness. The only difference is that it works in the opposite way. White is 100% reflective and black is 100% non reflective.
Metallic is a map that will tell if the surface is a metal or not, so it will most of the time be either black or white. You normally won't use any value aside from white and black (so, no need for grayscales). As soon as you test this you will see how it works, it just affects how the light is conserved or something like that.
Albeado/diffuse/base colour is just the color information of the map, nothing really complicated actually. Idk why they are all called in different ways but I'm pretty sure they are just the same, or at least really similar.
And the list goes on... But start with learning some texturing program like substance or quixel, it will become something natural to you as long as you keep practicing.
1. Its color (albedo)
2. Its material (could be a lot of textures involved, but basically what's it made of)
3. Its reflectivity
I completely agree, one of the reasons I might be having a hard time is that I haven't personally done texturing myself, I'll dedicate this week in trying to mess with pbr and creating simple wall, floor textures.
When looking at real-world objects to recreate them as materials, I can break them down into potential maps because I've gone through the process of making textures and materials, so I have an understanding of what each map type can and can't do. There are definite limits. WIthout that understanding, the analysis can't occur.