looking for texture advice/crits

seth.

morning good people of polycount, I have a request.

I could do with your help to get my texturing up to a decent standard. I'm not saying that I'm 100% with my modelling but I have a fair idea of where I go wrong and kind of know what I need to work on, but texturing draws a blank for me, I just end up throwing more layers on and screwing about with levels without really knowing what I should be aiming for......does that make sense?

Anyway if you could take a look at this character and give any feedback/advice/crits it would be very much appriciated, I really do want to improve this side of my game, especially my spec maps.....I'm pretty sure that I dont fully understand them, which is not good.







thanks in advance for any crits/comments/advice/cookies that I may recieve (especially if the cookies request works:D )

chrisradsby

What I would do right now is to focus on the diffuse, put everything else aside for now. Focus only on the diffuse. Ask yourself questions like:

Where would the wear/tear be on this particular object? On the gloves it might be light on the knockles from punching people in the face. The boots might have some damage, scratches/tear from kicking people in the head. Start by giving each part of the texture a bit more love, maybe add some lighter shades where it needs to be. Maybe use the burn/dodge tool. Don't be lazy.

Honestly you're a way better character artist than me, if you get your texturing skills up to snuff you'll be awesome. Hit me up on MSN if you seriously want to get into it as well.

EDIT:
Yeah take a look at this Guile as well:
http://www.gameartisans.org/forums/showthread.php?t=7114

Great lighting matters, but an awesome diffuse and spec is priceless.

TNO

the eyes are shining therfore really looking strange. (make them a bit darker and the iris bigger)

the hair doesn´t look like hair (you can see that it is sculpted like you have used a rough noise filter on teh brush and it doesn´t fit to the realistic appearance of the rest)

you could need some color variation in the face and on the ears ,the clothes and expecially the leather look really good (I would like to now how to make that o0)

seth.

thanks Chris, wear and material definition, two things that just bake my noggin, believe it or not I spent a good 40 hrs on that diffuse, but I feel that a lot of the time I am just doing things that I then change back y'know? Do you skype at all? I'm not a fan of MSN. Oh yeah rv_el's Guile.....I have loved that piece for sooo long.....:D

TNO: yeah the eyes is mostly a modelling thing I think, I have a habit of doing stuff too wide eyed, they all look like deer in headlights....noted though, I will tone down the whiteness and see what that brings.....thanks

edit* forgot to mention good call on the hair btw......I think i was just being a bit lazy there....best fix it huh?

gateian

Really nice job on the modelling and I think your texturing is good too. It really just needs those extra bits of wow to the texture as chris says.

How about more shine, bruising, blood and dirt on his skin? This is equivalent of a brand new house and an old battered house. The old battered house looks way more interesting, so let's get some interesting detail on there. Don't be afraid to go all out and mess around with stuff. You say that you are just throwing stuff at the canvas and messing around with it. Well that is half the learning curve. Through doing that you will learn what will and won't work.

Also, I think the lighting can be improved slightly as it's making the model a bit flat. How about adding a rim light at least. That always looks great for characters at least.

chrisradsby

seth. wrote: »

thanks Chris, wear and material definition, two things that just bake my noggin, believe it or not I spent a good 40 hrs on that diffuse, but I feel that a lot of the time I am just doing things that I then change back y'know? Do you skype at all? I'm not a fan of MSN. Oh yeah rv_el's Guile.....I have loved that piece for sooo long.....:D

Yeah dude I have skype You can just search for my whole name and I bet it will show up. I understand what you mean, the more you use photoshop for texturing the better you'll become at it though. I can try to do some paintovers later tonight Let's keep in touch yeah?

disanski

This looks very good so far. Just a bit more dirt and wear on him. Also little bit more definition on the material - skin and leather looks good but you can give the rest some more loving. Not that I could do better than you
I love how you have some variation on the skin near the elbows- how about do this on the face- add some more blue near the chin and more red near the cheeks and nose.

jordiart

I think the overall color on diffuse it´s ok but it needs some detailing, maybe a little dirty here and there, some overlays of fabric appearance in the clothes, maybe a tatoo for the skin.

The details make the difference, a little more work and you´ll have it.

seth.

gateian: thanks very much , I see where you are coming from with regard to the brusing, it does seem a bit daft that a fighter wouldn't have at least the odd knock here or there...lighting is on the stuff to get my head around list along with rigging, sometimes it just seems like there's so much to get to grips with!

chrisradsby : Chris I have added someone called Chris Radsby on Skype....if I'm lucky its you Thanks for offering the extra help btw

disanski: Hey man, ta much for the crit. Its not about being better, I value your eyes on the piece, you dont need to be a master to know something looks wrong....but it helps when putting it right I will see what I can do about getting some variation in the skintones and his face.

jordiart : I have a few fabric overlays in there but I think that I got a bit scared of them and pulled them back too far, I will push them back out a bit and see what happens from there....oh and then detail.....I guess thats really the key here, just keep at it till it works huh?. Ta very much for the advice

wrapping up work for today soon, so I will get into PS and start actioning your crits, thanks again btw

gateian

Yeah it can be a bit daunting if you think about all the things you have to get to grips with. Just keep at it and enjoying the process. One day it will get to the point where it all starts coming more naturally and then it gets really fun.

uncle

A little trick i use sometimes is overlaying something like this over everything at very low opacity (2-5%). It gives almost unnoticeable color variance to the diffuse making it less boring.

Also, I agree with the rest :poly124:

disanski

I know this is very old but it looks like things have not changed all that much, and also you could do this in zbrush as well.

http://www.pig-brain.com/tut01/tut01_01.htm

seth.

hey, sorry for the kind of necro post,I was out of the loop for a bit, then came back and started pig_face. I took what the good people above said into account (thank you ) and have come out with this, I think i can push it a bit further here and there but wadayarecon?



Rendered in marmoset... thanks for looking...back to pig_face now then.

HAL

Looking good! great improvement over the old version

mjackson126

Hey Seth, Nice character. I think good lighting always sells a good modeling/texture job better. You should look into three point lighting. You know, Key, Fill, Rim. You could even throw a kick light in there. As far as Texturing, I think you have a pretty solid base. If I were you, I would start thinking about where this guy would be the most dirty (as a fighter). Maybe he doesn't usually fight with his hat on, so it could be dirty from tossing it on the ground. He's a military man who doesn't conform to military standards, so maybe he could have some stubble on his face. He's a fighter so, he could have gotten hit in the face a few times. I would put some scars there. I think you could also use some more color variation in the face. It's usually pretty red around soft areas where the blood is more surfaced, but yellow where the bones are closer to the skin. Throw some subtle greens in there and maybe some blues in the eye area. I think the boots could use some re-working. Right now it looks more like he has been walking through some sewage or something. Anyways, great job so far. Just some thoughts.

P.S. Here are some more tuts I like to use when texturing.

http://www.horribledeath.com/tutorial.htm

http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=4678

seth.

HAL: Thanks mister

MJackson126: brilliant feedback, thanks very much....I took onboard almost everything that you mentioned except the mud...French dirt makes stuff that actually does resemble wading through sewage so that works well. I added facial bruses and lots of extra dirt and wear on the hat, and his webbing etc... Also thanks very much for the links

Lighting is something that I am very slowly getting my head around....believe it or not the earlier shots were done with a three point set-up....I just have a habit of washing stuff out I think....must knock that on the head.

Anyway, walking away from this for a while now, I have another character on the go that needs my attention more than guile for the time being...pictures!!



as always thanks for looking.

seth.

Guile pose.....now with open hand MMA fighting stance!!



thats all folks

disanski

It came out nice good work man!
The only little part i can see that bothers me is the to saturated yellow hair. Perhaps this is what you are going for.
What are you doing next

Vorge

I really like how this turned out Seth but I think I need to mirror the comment about a stronger lighting solution for your character.

I would also like to add I think you haven't pushed your specularity as far as it could be going in places. Everything feels like it has a very equal specular level and it's not helping to define and accent your normals. A shirtless fighter could benefit from looking sweaty and oily to help sell the skin more, the leather boots would still have scuffs and shines in parts, as well as the gloves. Your pants I believe are the most successful materials. And your metals feel a tad flat as well.

A tip I got from some friends far more talented than I that I have found to be extremely successful in helping to push my own spec maps is by running the normal map through crazybump and extracing the specular map for a blending layer in photoshop. Just something I think could help in your future models. Still turned out very nice sir!

seth.

Disanski: Thanks mister...the hair was mostly me getting it wrong at the start, but then I decided that I liked the throwback to the original Guile so it stayed, this may have been a mistake. I'm working on the pig beastman character atm, just finished the low poly, and on to the unwrap. http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86202

Vorge: spot on crits man, spec maps and lighting are the two things that I am trying to get my head around the most at the moment....this art lark is a bit like spinning plates...I have just picked up a book on CG lighting and will most certianly be trying your trick for the spec, I think that with both the lighting and spec I have a habit of trying to draw things into the middle too much if that makes sense.

anyway thanks again for the replies gentlemen I shall have another go at the maps