Handpainted textures test
polycounter lvl 9
Hi guys,today i was wondering how much is important for a 3d artist to be able to create handpainted texture,& my answer is that it's a quite useful skill,in case there is to do something with the style of wow,or torchlight 
But my real question is,for creating this handpainted textures,I simple have to practice & try to learn,or is something like a "painting talent",there is who posses it & there is who don't have this talent
So,i quickly made a barrel inside max (unwrapped bad i know) only to go inside photoshop in the short time possible,& try to make my first handpainted texture,only to see if there was the "potential" to learn this art or to see if i was a totally fail on it (for the test purpose,no reference or stuff,i simple try to paint it,first i put a color then i work with dodge & burn) (...i don't even finish the barrel,for test purpose the left side of the texture was enough)
here the resoult:
What did you guys think about all the thing? :poly141: ?
I have some chance to learn to do them or it need some kind of natural talent that i lack? Investing time on it or simple focus on standard realistic textures? :poly141:
But my real question is,for creating this handpainted textures,I simple have to practice & try to learn,or is something like a "painting talent",there is who posses it & there is who don't have this talent
So,i quickly made a barrel inside max (unwrapped bad i know) only to go inside photoshop in the short time possible,& try to make my first handpainted texture,only to see if there was the "potential" to learn this art or to see if i was a totally fail on it (for the test purpose,no reference or stuff,i simple try to paint it,first i put a color then i work with dodge & burn) (...i don't even finish the barrel,for test purpose the left side of the texture was enough)
here the resoult:
What did you guys think about all the thing? :poly141: ?
I have some chance to learn to do them or it need some kind of natural talent that i lack? Investing time on it or simple focus on standard realistic textures? :poly141:
Replies
Theres tons and tons of different styles of hand painted textures out there, so this may not be the case for all of them, but at the moment your metal is looking very clean and your wood is looking very noisy, almost as if they are two seperate styles stuck together.
Something which would match your metal better would be a wood with a wider grain and move cartoony features (like large cutway sections etc)
Did a crappy paint over to show what im on about:
Crappy paint over or not, you can see that its alot easier to see without so much noise and the metal and wood seem to match each other in levels of detail and style.
I dont think you need to be born with any super powers.... just practise, same with everything i guess.
Im no pro at this, so maybe somebody with a bit more wisdom can shed some extra light.
I'm unsure of the specific style you're aiming for, so it's not very easy to comment on your execution atm.
I would recommend you grab a bunch of reference images of what you want to depict and spend a lot of time trying to get the look you want. Painting is a skill that anyone can learn if you have the determination. So start practising and post your work here
Sorry you right,i was a bit vague & i was not aiming to any precise style resoult,even I don't have the idea of what i was doing,i think is not the best training,is like walking with the eye closed... :poly141:
Actually i would like to achieve something like the works mheyman of http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=68601 (congratulations for your works mheyman
I have an intuos & i am ready to start to learn,to go in mheyman direction,what would be a good start / training,what do you guys suggest?
I try to train myself copying his textures (but sounds bad copy the others stuff
http://wiki.polycount.com/TexturingTutorials
I do a second attempt with the handpainted stuff,following the wood tutorial by mheyman (thanks again mheyman)
still I have the felling like if i am missing something,can you guys tell me if there is anything wrong? thx
Now I have done one more for fun without refs,but from now on i use them
Here the third try...damn,it's so yellow/orange xD i want bring it to a more brown color but I always end up with yellow,maybe i simple have to start with the right palette! :poly124:
A good rule of thumb I use is large, medium, and small everything. So large shadows defining broad depth (>10 meters away type depth), medium depth to define smaller depths (10>x<1 meter depth), and small details to get surface depth (nicks scratches, bumps, fine wood grain, etc <1 meter depth). I tend to use this type of formula for not just hand-painting now. But sculpting, modeling, everything.
Also the color I'm not a huge fan of. It's a bit too yellow. Take it a bit to orange or red.
You should then start thinking about higher level shading. Like highlights should have a tinge of orange in them and the shadows should have some blue worked in. Things like that. Showing you have a grasp on stuff like that is what's going to separate you textures from everyone else's.
I really like the concept of the thread and your dedication to it. Keep this up and you'll be packing up and moving for a gig soon.
@Jefro
You right,now i realize that was real flat lol
I try to adjust it with levels,hue & stuff
now I have a doubt :poly141:
Usually who hand paint textures obtain the right contrast during the painting process or is a common workflow to go at the end & correct the levels?
I mean,is wrong to correct everytime the levels at the end?
I have the feeling that i have to catch the right contrast during the painting process,no cheats
In my opinion, i go with the philosophy "whatever works, works!" There is no cheating, if a software offers u a tool to fix something in no time, what's the point not using it because of some kind of non-written rule. Improvements are a part of this job/hobby, and the industry demands to an artist to be quick and efficient. So what's wrong with getting your life easier?
Anyway, getting the right contrast straight on the painting process will come with practice and time...
You've improved your wood texture very quickly, i guess that now you should pass on something more challenging...the metal ring of the barrel u were doing will be another nice exercise
Today i was keep practicing,unfortunately i can't follow your suggestion about the metal right now cause I was already started working on the floor of the plaza (because if i have to practice on that,is good to turn all this practice in assets & maybe a little scene that i can put in my portfolio) & when i have it done i can put on & around it all kind of thing,wood & metal for the benches,grass & flowers all around & stuff like this
my reference for it is this one
so i start drawing some lines inside max to guide me,now i am sketching the rocks on PS,still not sure about the overall design of it,i think i figure it out soon lol
(ah,some info,1 piece of it is 1024x1024,maybe is better if i scale it down at 512? :poly141: )
My main problem at the moment is that i am trying to imagine/visualize on my mind the scene/place & right now i have 2 different scene concept in mind,but hard to tell to my brain to follow only one of that,so i end up to modify the design to fit one scene then modifying it again to fit the other,& probably I end up with something that doesn't fit anyone of both scenes :poly141:
I think that the solution to this could be to put on a concept the scene that i am going to do,so when i see it i can think only to realize it,but I think that I simple lack the knowledges/skills to draw such a scene in the glorious way that i have in mind damn
So now i am struggle between 3 choice: 1) go crazy without reference & trying to focus my mind on only one of this "blur/foggy" concept & pray to god. 2)look at some reference of similar scene,but probably i simple end up copying the scene already made by another 3d artist ways better than me 3) try to make the concept of my idea until that concept reach the "feeling" of the scene that i have in my mind & pray to god again.. :poly141:
difficult choice..but at the moment i am more oriented on the third one,even if it risk to turn into a fail..
this s*it:
very bad idea xD
but it have a sense,even if i was able to put in that draw only the 10% of the information about the scene that I have in my mind(& in a real weird way xD ),it main purpose is to keep me focus on that scene,so for sure it help,even if is pure s*it (& for sure can make someone laugh,so it worth to upload it
now seriously,about the scene that i am going to do:
The viewer is in the plaza,the round piece that i am doing right now is the center of that plaza & in the center of that round piece there is a very particular tree,like a tall bonsai tree,i want it to be tall & not too large at the base to don't block the view from that point.
at the left (outside the view) there are various stores that sells potions,weapons,fruits & stuff,but not too near to the round piece,cause i want there more room to walk.
At the right there is a parapet (hope that is the right word) to avoid people to fall down,cause we are in a floating kingdom
More at the right there are something like a dam,the water fall of from that place all the way to the earth (remember,floating kingdom lol )
Between the parapet & the dam there is an huge space,on top of the dam there is a big castle.
on fron of us there is a way,there are more on that part but i have still to work on it,for sure there are a big stair to the right that lead to the castle & from the arch of the stair you can see the mountains below & this is all from now,when i have all this stuff done i can think about how to improve the scene,good luck to me
I think that the second image is the look that i am going for (maybe with some tweak in the palette but just a little),I also like the warm colors of the third one(but even this need some tweak),hard to decide
What did you guys think/prefer ?
Regarding your stone tile piece I think you should use a cooler (as in the opposite of warm) colour scheme just to break away from the orange/yellow tone that you've been using on your wood.
For cooling all this orange,I was thinking that in the central white circle i have the green of the grass (& the tree at the center),& in the other 4 white shapes i put a 3 cm surface of fresh water (it's not common water,is magic water,so is always fresh & clean)
But the grass and tree will definitely help contrast the orange.
(i think i have to correct the upper left part,too many small rocks on it,but maybe i start it again using bigger rocks,don't know for now :poly141: )
(don't look at the palette,i have to change it & for now i leave at 50% even this texture,now i go in 3ds to build the scene)
now i can start to do stuff & replace the piece of the scene
I lose some time painting a mask to separate the stones from the ground,now I am ready to finish the main city texture,but before paint the texture i do 3 quick exercise to understand the workflow for painting the rock:
1st attempt:
2nd attempt:
3rd attempt:
3rd with color variation lol:
so now i think i know enough to paint the texture,i use only that palette & i change the colors of each stone at the end with hue saturation
Edit: i forget to put the sharpen on those 3 images
The latest one is going to look really flat if you do all the stones the same way, though. I'd add in some surface variation to keep things looking a bit more interesting.
Edit: please Talon,can you be a bit more specific about what kind of surface variation you suggest? (cause now i don't have idea of what could improve them)
I think it's a mistake to make a harsh distinction between hand painted and photo sourced. Ultimately it leads to bad texture painting as people think slapping some photos together or working in that very narrow WoW style is good enough (or all there is). Instead, try and think in very concrete visual terms like tonal relationships, unity, scale, gestalt... If you are able to approach things this way you will have a tool set that allows you to understand and work with any kind of art style.
(i have a layer of it without sharpen,maybe it's better :S )
you guys notice something wrong on it?
I think the dark black edges don't work and should be lighter. They look like they are standing a few inches above the ground (concrete?) they're implanted in.