Metal is all about the surface properties (hell, all texturing is).
Metal comes to life with Spec maps - specular level and specular falloff. Add some reflection in there and you are laughing. Simply painting metal won't work as nicely.
So...
..what platform are you making metal for? Does it support specular maps?
Why can't metal look good without a spec map? I've seen hundreds of game textures with incredible painted metal, and, for that matter, it's been done quite well in still paintings for hundreds of years.
Rick *is* right that it's all about surface properties. Layers of highlights, reflections, shadows... But metal's pretty easy to paint semi-convincingly, once you get a feel for it. It's usually quite colorful (aside from the basic surface of the metal, it should pick up some reflected color) and, as long as your vague enough with your lighting, can look quite good painted. Aside from that, all I can really offer is some tutorials and examples, and to wish you good luck.
Just study paintings, professional textures, real metal... And keep trying. (Also, they're right, learn how to use a spec map -- on the xbox360/ps3 or a modern pc a lot of purely handpainted stuff is totally obsolete. )
Why can't you make good metal without a spec map? You can, but like every single one of those examples, you need to paint in the highlights and lighting. If you need dynamic highlights and specularity, to make it look like metal and not a painting of metal, you need a spec map. You simply cannot make proper metal without highlights, whether they are painted in (as in a diffuse-only piece, or a traditional painting), or via a good specular map.
Sythest: For what a specular map, and specular, is, there is a sticky thread in this forum, and towards the end I link to an article I wrote about shaders that may help you understand.
@HarlequiN , its a 7 year old game called Rune Halls of Valhalla and it uses unreal engine 1.
@SupRore , well, thank you so much for going into detial and
giving me lots of examples and tutorials for metal, im sure those will help me a lot!
@Professor420 , thanks for explaining spec maps to me and
telling me where to find info on them
and to anyone else, im 14 years old so sorry if my work isnt
anything compared to the amazing things you guys make!but thank you all so much for all this info!
and just so u all know, i dont model at all, all i do is skin
You're off to a solid start, for your age. Stick with it and keep improving, you ought to get somewhere in a couple years if you stay serious about this.
okay, i just spent 10 or w/e minutes in adobe with the dodge and burn tool and im pretty happy with how the metal i did came out, so what do you guys think?
Yeah, that's definitely pretty impressive for your first try with these techniques. Great start.
The problem with dodge/burn is that it just ramps up/down the value -- no color changes. You should keep this in mind, and maybe try painting over with a low opacity brush, or one set to Color mode, and see if you can get some variation in.
As an additional example, Xcloud's old Swordmaster tutorial (which I can't find, it seems his site is down) showed some really stylish, colorful metal. Probably a bit extreme in most cases, but a good example of bold colors in metal textures -- here's an image I found on 3dtotal: http://www.3dtotal.com/services/swordmaster/images/swordmaster_main01.jpg
[ QUOTE ]
so i should try adding blues/ orangish browns for my highlights? and then add a color for shadows?
[/ QUOTE ]
Whatever's appropriate, really. If the model's intended to be outdoors, mostly, a blue base color would make sense. In Quake style hallways, yellows and oranges for highlights will fit in well, and so on.
For the base color, whatever the surface of the metal in question is -- anything from blues to grays to browns, or even reds and greens, in some cases. You shouldn't go too far with with lighting/shadowing colors, or it'll stand out too much ingame, but some subtle color variation will give it a lot of life.
Edit: Forgot this one in my examples of metal texturing, but Mr. Kite's unfinished Supervillain contest entry over at cgchat is an awesome example of more strongly coloured diffuse only metal:
[ QUOTE ]
Also, they're right, learn how to use a spec map -- on the xbox360/ps3 or a modern pc a lot of purely handpainted stuff is totally obsolete.
[/ QUOTE ]
I think this brings up a good point. In painting metal and other surfaces for use in the current generation of games, how much does one define in the diffuse map vs. the specular map? I can see how metal has been painted in the past without spec maps, where all the little edge highlights and shadows are really what make it look authentic. Do you now leave out some of the highlights, keeping the same shapes and contrasts there but only going up to middle values? I suppose right now it's a little bit of guessing, and trial and error to get the look you want. What is the process that some of you use? Are there any tutorials or techniques discussed elsewhere?
About the whole being 14 thing - if you devote 20 hours a week to this stuff, by the time you're graduating you ought to have a very solid portfolio.
My biggest regret about highschool was wasting all the free time I had playing games and screwing around. I didn't get serious about developing my skills and my portfolio until after I was in college and it held me back. So it's good that you're getting into it early!
Replies
Metal comes to life with Spec maps - specular level and specular falloff. Add some reflection in there and you are laughing. Simply painting metal won't work as nicely.
So...
..what platform are you making metal for? Does it support specular maps?
Rick *is* right that it's all about surface properties. Layers of highlights, reflections, shadows... But metal's pretty easy to paint semi-convincingly, once you get a feel for it. It's usually quite colorful (aside from the basic surface of the metal, it should pick up some reflected color) and, as long as your vague enough with your lighting, can look quite good painted. Aside from that, all I can really offer is some tutorials and examples, and to wish you good luck.
Some of my personal favorite metal textures:
http://www.peterboehme.com/gameart.php?v=aaweap
http://boards.polycount.net/printthread.php?Board=2&main=111747&type=post
http://www.lonewolf3d.com/images/Gallery/3D/1911/Colt_1911.htm
Some tutorials:
http://st.burst.cc/tut_exess1.htm
http://www.3dtotal.com/team/Tutorials/texturing_metal/texturing_metal1.asp
Just study paintings, professional textures, real metal... And keep trying. (Also, they're right, learn how to use a spec map -- on the xbox360/ps3 or a modern pc a lot of purely handpainted stuff is totally obsolete.
Sythest: For what a specular map, and specular, is, there is a sticky thread in this forum, and towards the end I link to an article I wrote about shaders that may help you understand.
@SupRore , well, thank you so much for going into detial and
giving me lots of examples and tutorials for metal, im sure those will help me a lot!
@Professor420 , thanks for explaining spec maps to me and
telling me where to find info on them
and to anyone else, im 14 years old so sorry if my work isnt
anything compared to the amazing things you guys make!but thank you all so much for all this info!
and just so u all know, i dont model at all, all i do is skin
@ no its not for any models, just practicing
The problem with dodge/burn is that it just ramps up/down the value -- no color changes. You should keep this in mind, and maybe try painting over with a low opacity brush, or one set to Color mode, and see if you can get some variation in.
As an additional example, Xcloud's old Swordmaster tutorial (which I can't find, it seems his site is down) showed some really stylish, colorful metal. Probably a bit extreme in most cases, but a good example of bold colors in metal textures -- here's an image I found on 3dtotal:
http://www.3dtotal.com/services/swordmaster/images/swordmaster_main01.jpg
so i should try adding blues/ orangish browns for my highlights? and then add a color for shadows?
[/ QUOTE ]
Whatever's appropriate, really. If the model's intended to be outdoors, mostly, a blue base color would make sense. In Quake style hallways, yellows and oranges for highlights will fit in well, and so on.
For the base color, whatever the surface of the metal in question is -- anything from blues to grays to browns, or even reds and greens, in some cases. You shouldn't go too far with with lighting/shadowing colors, or it'll stand out too much ingame, but some subtle color variation will give it a lot of life.
Edit: Forgot this one in my examples of metal texturing, but Mr. Kite's unfinished Supervillain contest entry over at cgchat is an awesome example of more strongly coloured diffuse only metal:
http://www.cgchat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25704&page=8
i used a soft blue brush for highlights
and a dark purple for shadows
Also, they're right, learn how to use a spec map -- on the xbox360/ps3 or a modern pc a lot of purely handpainted stuff is totally obsolete.
[/ QUOTE ]
I think this brings up a good point. In painting metal and other surfaces for use in the current generation of games, how much does one define in the diffuse map vs. the specular map? I can see how metal has been painted in the past without spec maps, where all the little edge highlights and shadows are really what make it look authentic. Do you now leave out some of the highlights, keeping the same shapes and contrasts there but only going up to middle values? I suppose right now it's a little bit of guessing, and trial and error to get the look you want. What is the process that some of you use? Are there any tutorials or techniques discussed elsewhere?
http://st.burst.cc/
About the whole being 14 thing - if you devote 20 hours a week to this stuff, by the time you're graduating you ought to have a very solid portfolio.
My biggest regret about highschool was wasting all the free time I had playing games and screwing around. I didn't get serious about developing my skills and my portfolio until after I was in college and it held me back. So it's good that you're getting into it early!
Head:
body:
and this is pretty much all i have so far, what do you think?
Also, consider posting over in Pimping and Previews -- that's where we keep WIP threads and stuff, this forum is mainly for technical questions.