CGTextures is pretty good, but A LOT of people go there and its sad seeing the same textures pop up again and again. Personally I think everyone should build up a library of their own photos for textures and reference, especially environment artists. Its a lot of fun going on little day trips to places no one really cares to go.
Google street view can help you plan out your own tour route, but some of the best textures aren't on the main roads in the industrial districts. Doing some scouting before hand helps a lot, your phone can come in handy for that.
You would be amazed at the mountains of stuff you go past every day and ignore. Getting out and getting into the details of the world also helps give whatever you're making so much more context when you can see it for yourself and take all the pictures you want. If you can revisit it at different times of day or seasons it can be an entirely new material.
If you live in a place that's overcast but hardly ever rains, you're in texture heaven. Avoid direct sunlight and be smart about where you go. Be friendly and if people start to eyeball you like you're a terrorist, be nice and ask, even though you don't have to. If you're really good at chatting people up, you can sometimes get some great interior shots.
Yeaa I am trying to make my own library of textures as well and it is a lot of fun indeed. Last time I went to a junk yard for some rusty textures and before I take any pictures I went to the office to ask if it is ok to take few shots. Even before I explained what were they for the women there stated shouting at me ( what are you doing here with that big camera ..and so on ) and before I know it the security was there and they took me to the general manager who actually let me stay as long as I wanted and even told me about the new crane they were getting the next day and that they were going to put it up together so if I wanted to I could go and shoot as much as I wanted ( some cool mechanical parts there too) .. soo yeaa I am searching for some new spots to go grab few textures from.
In all honesty what everybody said is correct. I use a mixture of what everybody said really. I use cgtextures.com, mayang.com/textures, my own photos, as well as some hand done stuff.
I usually start by painting basic colors with AO on top, then I'll use a lot of modified photo source stuff to add detail, and finish everything off with some simple hand painted stuff on top.
That's a pretty good one I don't see mentioned too often, only downside is I don't think there's a free version. All the images are really high res though and there's about a bajillion different ref images.
I use lots of my own photos, along with textures from the usual websites (cgTextures etc). I'm building up a pretty big library of my own stuff, which I find super useful. Over time I plan on using less stuff from the web and more of my own photos.
CGTextures is pretty good, but A LOT of people go there and its sad seeing the same textures pop up again and again. Personally I think everyone should build up a library of their own photos for textures and reference, especially environment artists. Its a lot of fun going on little day trips to places no one really cares to go.
I agree & disagree.
Certainly is a lot of fun going on day trips to get pictures - but this job = time and I'd much rather access a library that 99% of gamers will never even hear of than spend my own time collecting my own references for common materials. Only if I wanted something specific would I ever get the urge to gather my own.
IMO its a waste of time to collect your own rock or wood references IF there is a decent library of those things available.
cgtextures FTW.
but its funny when we start to see the very same concrete.jpg in different kind of games
there is a thread in cgtextures forum that you can point out that game using what textures in cgtextures lolz
u guyz should start contributing too in cgtextures
Certainly is a lot of fun going on day trips to get pictures - but this job = time and I'd much rather access a library that 99% of gamers will never even hear of than spend my own time collecting my own references for common materials. Only if I wanted something specific would I ever get the urge to gather my own.
IMO its a waste of time to collect your own rock or wood references IF there is a decent library of those things available.
You do a pretty good job of cleaning them up and making them look original, but not everyone does. A lot of people ctrl-c, ctrl-v. I hope it goes without saying that anything pulled down from a texture hub should be heavily worked over.
If we don't, a lot of gamers are going to see a lot of those same textures even if they never visit texture sites... I think its a really good idea for companies to build unique texture libraries so they don't risk looking similar to other games. You also know the rights to those images are solidly within your control.
It's also a great moral team building experience if you can do it on the company dime. A few trips and you've got a great start on a library. Once you cover the basics you really don't need to do too many more trips, maybe once or twice per project.
I agree with building a stash of reference for yourself, I worked on a AAA racing game that has just come out and there is the same reference texture of metal beams used 3 times on 3 diffent textures for 3 different bridges in the same game!
CG textures is great for base textures though, I carry round a pocket camera more for inspirational reference, a large SLR would be ace but I have used textures from a £170 pocket olympus that have been used in game too. It does drive the girlfriend crazy though, "I just want t gather some grime ref from this dodgy alley...."
Been building my own library. My problem is that I go out and take a thousand shots in a few hours and then I'm bad about clearing up the hard drive of all the extras I don't need :P
You're using someone elses photographs? I guess it would be fine for personal stuff but I wouldn't do it in production. Always the risk of a lawsuit.
Yeah I wouldn't use stuff from devart in a real production environment...unless it was a photoshop brush for stuff like a honey-comb grid or something maybe. Something very generic.
Where does everyone get their wood textures (for guns etc). I've never found good ones, most have big rings on them or aren't usable for wood found on guns for other reasons.
CGTextures (making sure to really work them over, plenty of overlays and grabbing specific elements), google image search, flickr - again, really work them over into something unique. Urban exploration forums can sometimes turn up a gem, too.
But as Vig says. Grab your camera and head out into the world when you can. It was a great grey day yesterday so I went out and got snap-happy.
And yes, it does drive the girlfriend mad, especially on holiday and you are there pointing the camera at walls and floors.
Replies
we use this to make our own textures.
mayang.com is also a good source
CGTextures is pretty good, but A LOT of people go there and its sad seeing the same textures pop up again and again. Personally I think everyone should build up a library of their own photos for textures and reference, especially environment artists. Its a lot of fun going on little day trips to places no one really cares to go.
Google street view can help you plan out your own tour route, but some of the best textures aren't on the main roads in the industrial districts. Doing some scouting before hand helps a lot, your phone can come in handy for that.
You would be amazed at the mountains of stuff you go past every day and ignore. Getting out and getting into the details of the world also helps give whatever you're making so much more context when you can see it for yourself and take all the pictures you want. If you can revisit it at different times of day or seasons it can be an entirely new material.
If you live in a place that's overcast but hardly ever rains, you're in texture heaven. Avoid direct sunlight and be smart about where you go. Be friendly and if people start to eyeball you like you're a terrorist, be nice and ask, even though you don't have to. If you're really good at chatting people up, you can sometimes get some great interior shots.
I usually start by painting basic colors with AO on top, then I'll use a lot of modified photo source stuff to add detail, and finish everything off with some simple hand painted stuff on top.
You're using someone elses photographs? I guess it would be fine for personal stuff but I wouldn't do it in production. Always the risk of a lawsuit.
That's a pretty good one I don't see mentioned too often, only downside is I don't think there's a free version. All the images are really high res though and there's about a bajillion different ref images.
I agree & disagree.
Certainly is a lot of fun going on day trips to get pictures - but this job = time and I'd much rather access a library that 99% of gamers will never even hear of than spend my own time collecting my own references for common materials. Only if I wanted something specific would I ever get the urge to gather my own.
IMO its a waste of time to collect your own rock or wood references IF there is a decent library of those things available.
but its funny when we start to see the very same concrete.jpg in different kind of games
there is a thread in cgtextures forum that you can point out that game using what textures in cgtextures lolz
u guyz should start contributing too in cgtextures
If we don't, a lot of gamers are going to see a lot of those same textures even if they never visit texture sites... I think its a really good idea for companies to build unique texture libraries so they don't risk looking similar to other games. You also know the rights to those images are solidly within your control.
It's also a great moral team building experience if you can do it on the company dime. A few trips and you've got a great start on a library. Once you cover the basics you really don't need to do too many more trips, maybe once or twice per project.
CG textures is great for base textures though, I carry round a pocket camera more for inspirational reference, a large SLR would be ace but I have used textures from a £170 pocket olympus that have been used in game too. It does drive the girlfriend crazy though, "I just want t gather some grime ref from this dodgy alley...."
Yeah I wouldn't use stuff from devart in a real production environment...unless it was a photoshop brush for stuff like a honey-comb grid or something maybe. Something very generic.
Where does everyone get their wood textures (for guns etc). I've never found good ones, most have big rings on them or aren't usable for wood found on guns for other reasons.
...
Why have i only just found out about this site. This changes everything!
But as Vig says. Grab your camera and head out into the world when you can. It was a great grey day yesterday so I went out and got snap-happy.
And yes, it does drive the girlfriend mad, especially on holiday and you are there pointing the camera at walls and floors.