Chaos Knight - Texturing Practice

andym12

Heya. Been lurking here for a long long time, never posted any of my own work.

I've been modelling for about four years now since I was fairly young, but my main problem is that while my modelling has come a long long way, my knowledge of texturing remains fairly basic.

To provide an example, here's a small example of some of my texturing (failed blizz contest entry #1000000!):
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/7451/be17ca6.jpg

In my four years of modelling I haven't got a single finished piece to show, just a bunch of meshes basically. A lot of this comes down to dedication I suppose, but part of it often stems from me saying "this is crap, I hate texturing, look at that dude's work". I've noticed an increasing level of skill in the texturing and normal mapping areas since then, and I figured I'd need to improve a lot if I ever plan on pursuing this as a career (which I would very much like to do).
So here's the model, I know it's cliche, but I'm a huge Warhammer nut (like everyone else in the planet!) but whatever, it's practice.


Before I begin, would it be slightly more beneficial for me to create a higher poly model with some easier-to-texture surfaces before I begin? I have also noticed higher polycounts in things these days, obviously.

StJoris

I'd say, give a shot at texturing him:)
Don't really get what you mean with this:
would it be slightly more beneficial for me to create a higher poly model with some easier-to-texture surfaces before I begin?

can you explain?

Psyk0

Im pretty much in the same boat as you, ive modeled a bunch of stuff but i never really bothered working on the texture because i also felt it was crappy.

That wasnt a very wise move on my part, i'm just starting to get *decent* results now. So dont be afraid to practice, there's an SDK thread in here with models ready to texture, you should have a go at them (and me too i guess! XD).

I think you should start with "regular" low poly models before attempting to texture normal mapped...if i understand your question correctly.

sama.van

Bind pose is strange : flag and cape have already final pose.
Waiting for diffuse texture!

zenarion

SDK! SDK!

StJoris

I suffer from the same, that's why I am working with a nice programmer I've been working with for years on an "oldskool" zelda-like game, it's really nice for practising diffuse only, and concentrate on that.

andym12

Thanks for the replies guys. I think trying out some SDKs would definitely help me out, and I might give them a shot before this.

I've done some texturing in the past, but it usually ends up desaturated and blurry, which I tend to see an awful lot unfortunately.

And yeah, the bind pose is funny but I guess I can always change them and modify the mesh so that it's not built with that pose in mind.

nkoste

When it comes to diffuse texturing I don't find it at all easier to texture a model with a high polycount compared to a low. IMO even with a fairly high low poly model, say 7000 tris, you still have to take into account the same things as with a low, light, shadow, depth, color and so on. Actually a more detailed model can be more constricting when you texture it cause you're much more bound by the models shape. Whereas on a low polycount model you have more artistic freedom. I think that's why the most popular SDKs are fairly low pc. That's just my opinion

andym12

Well what I was getting at was that this model may be slightly outdated, but I guess for practice it isn't an issue.

Wells

Perhaps release him as an SDK and texture him along side others... that way you can see specifically what they choose to do differently, how they interpreted modeled shapes, etc.

Slaught

Do it!
Love the way the cape flows

nkoste

The model isn't outdated if you ask me. Think of all the smaller platforms like psp, ds, and so on.. and rts games, this model would blend right in there and if you need to practice texturing I'd recommend one like this. Perhaps try and keep the texture size on a reasonable scale like 512x512, then you'll be working with the most basic shapes and can leave out the more painful, tiny details.

Btw forgot to say the model is cool. My only real crit would be the cylinder that forms the boot. I would give give it 1-2 more loops and work some shape into it.

Happy texturing

Ninjas

bake some lighting in. If you need to you can sculpt a high rez version and then use something like xNormal to bake the the ambient occlusion shadows from the high onto the low. Then do some texture overlays from photos.

It is really not that hard to get decent looking results but it helps a lot if you know what you are going to do (workflow-wise) before you start

this is what I do

-bake lighting (If I am just working with a low, I may slooth some things out or add details using the existing shadow tones to do fake painted geo)

-get some texture photos (lots of good sites listed in the ref thread in the archive section of this forum). put a different texture overlay for each material using multiply over your baked lighting

-pick out details using black and white as an overlay


These are basic things pretty much anyone can do to get an okay result.

Do you own a tablet?

looking forward to an update. The model is cool.

andym12

Alright. I'll polish up the UVWs and fix the boots then SDK it. Got some work to finish first, though.

Thanks again.