rookie questions about hand-painted textures

breakthelocke

first off, if this is in the wrong forum i apologize. it's my first post here on polycount.

I'm a college student, and my main focuses are character design and animation. (i'm currently a character animation intern for avalanche studios---disney interactive). however, i love creating 3d art and am hoping to get better. a couple questions i have when it comes to hand-painted textures for low-poly characters:

1. I'm guessing most diffuse maps shouldl be based off a baked ambient occlusion map? when baking these maps on low-poly characters, should i be subdividing them before baking? or just leaving them in their low-poly state?

2. is it common to sculpt a high level of detail onto a character, even if you're not planning on using normal maps? it seems like it could be beneficial to take a cavity/AO map from a sculpt to base your diffuse texture on. or should i just go straight into painting the diffuse?

3. when painting texture for characters, should i have a light source in mind? or is it just general ambient lighting? and should i be painting in specular highlights? or is that something i should leave to the shader---

hopefully my questions make sense, I searched a while to try to find the answers. If you want to see any of my designs or beginner 3d work, check my blog at

www.gardenturtle.blogspot.com
thanks!

renderhjs

there was a same thread not long ago,
give a search a go:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=site%3Apolycount.net+painted+textures

just a quick response:

1. There is never a rule, so don't assume its a must. It's just that it helps when you need to read the UV map in PS and it can save some time when painting the shading. Same with normal maps converted to gray scale maps - they can help building a detail or shading layer.
2. Not that I know of, I mean it doesn't make sense as it takes way to much time and more time spending on the painting itself would prob. do better.
3. In old style painting styles (Q2+) it was usually from the top so that looking from the side it would be omni directional.

My tip though is to not depend on what others tell you or stick with common guidelines but instead just experiment yourself and with that experience grow every time a bit more. People always ask all the time but the truth is often that you need to build your own experience (just do it!) and just study what's already out there.

breakthelocke

ah thanks a lot for the answers! this will help a lot

cryrid

2. is it common to sculpt a high level of detail onto a character, even if you're not planning on using normal maps? it seems like it could be beneficial to take a cavity/AO map from a sculpt to base your diffuse texture on. or should i just go straight into painting the diffuse?

I wouldn't sculpt a high-level of detail onto a model if I wasn't going to transfer the detail to a normal map, but there have been times where a very quick pass (low-med) with zbrush has helped me be able to quickly put landmarks onto the diffuse without having to battle the UVs.