My second model, first time doing diffuse texturing. Need some ruthless critism.
All this is mouse drawn in a gimp and mostly using 1998 version of Picture Publisher 8. Trying to use gimp more for obvious reasons. Comments/criticism welcome. Since this is my first real texture, I am still learning. I am not an artist and haven't attempted to draw anything like this before. Took me about a week+ from scratch looking at the UVMap. I am doing this for fun to learn and see what I can do.
My vision of her and what I ended up with were two completely different things, since I didn't use any concept art or schematics.
My goal was to create a low poly model. A few questions to go along with it all.
Texture Map size, I used a 1024x1024 for the entire model. Is this to large for gaming? If I were to run 10 of these models in an environment would that be to much?
Normal Mapping, afaik, just adds depth perception, but can an artist achieve that the same results though a diffuse if their good enough? Or, is there something about those maps that do something to lighting?
Still in the dark about alot of things. Tutorials only get you so far. If you were going to higher me, what would you say about this model.
My vision of her and what I ended up with were two completely different things, since I didn't use any concept art or schematics.
My goal was to create a low poly model. A few questions to go along with it all.
Texture Map size, I used a 1024x1024 for the entire model. Is this to large for gaming? If I were to run 10 of these models in an environment would that be to much?
Normal Mapping, afaik, just adds depth perception, but can an artist achieve that the same results though a diffuse if their good enough? Or, is there something about those maps that do something to lighting?
Still in the dark about alot of things. Tutorials only get you so far. If you were going to higher me, what would you say about this model.
Replies
No reference? You always want reference...especially if your just starting out.
No. Main characters are often 2048x2048.
Normal maps don't just add depth the same way as painted shadows/highlights. It tells lighting to bounce differently off of the model, so when the model moves/rotates or a light moves, the shadows/highlights will be affected as well. Take a gander at the reference in the Polycount wiki for more info/tutorials about normal mapping.
Your not exactly hireable yet, honestly. Keep practicing though. Take a read through the polycount wiki, theres lots of good info in there.
Sure,
Its sloppy, though.
Edit, the bottom right boot is not suppose to be there. Its suppose to be under the top left boot.
What if you're not an artist?
Hmm, not sure if I still understand what you're saying. Main character could imply something like a Mass Effect game, or do you mean like TF2 main characters?
I know TF2 is popular here, what size sheets do they use? Or, CoD texture sheets.
I will look thanks, loads of information I don't quite grasp yet though. I am a hands on person myself. An Artists mind, that is not an artist lol.
What things stuck out the most for you to say that? That is what I really am after here. Other than, mapping normals, AO, etc.
I actually think it is! ^^
Are you going to use a specular map as well, or will this be all-diffuse?
You might want to try, for hard surface armor like this, to do initial line work with something like Inkscape with vectors. This allows you more fine control over the lines, and to adjust them on the fly without having to draw them over and over by hand.
I say Inkscape because its a free package
http://inkscape.org/
Try it out, you might like the control it gives you over planing out initial seams, cuts and detailing that you can then take into Gimp and paint over.
And as gsokol pointed out, you always want to find some reference if you can.
Its amazing what you can find just by simple keywords on google or bing, and not only will it give you a reference point look wise, but it will also speed up your creative process once you start painting since you have a general idea of what your stuff could look like.
Guilty, still a drawing though.
Yes sorry, entire thing is draw and modeled by myself. The only thing I guess you could say I used was an Emma Watson drawing I used as a reference to draw my own eyes, nose and mouth, as projected it onto the model.
Tablet like an ipad? For drawing? Are only the expensive ones worth buying?
I mean, looking at creative people, I can tell you I am no where in their league when it comes to being creative. I guess we're all artists, but some like myself, just don't have the creative side tapped. I enjoyed making the model, I find it extremely entertaining, especially when trying to be efficient with polygons. But, texturing I find frustrating mentally to be creative.
Sorry, I was just trying to say I wanted criticism as if I were you were judging me based on that work. I don't have any intent at the moment to enter into the industry, since my whole goal was just to enjoy learning new things.
I had to google specular map. Not quite sure how to do that quite yet.
Really great post thanks for the tips. Vectors really seem nice to use. But, I guess my question would be how to deal with UVMap distortion when vectors are just point to point and no bending.
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Wacom-CTL460-Bamboo-Pen-Tablet/dp/B002OOWC3I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1315679725&sr=8-1[/ame] bestbuy has the model model for a similar price.
Can anyone else give me some feedback on what I should do to make this model/texture more presentable?
Thanks, I will look around at a few pawn shops. Might beable to find one in the future.
This better?
New face I drew in gimp. Tried adding in some noise to make it look more realistic. But, shes so pale I don't think it matters. You know, I haven't really drawn anything since early highschool and I was surprised I could draw this tbh. Alot of blur, but does the job I think. I like this face better I think.
try setting your material to 100% self illumination. The idea with painted diffuse is you want to paint in the lighting. (but only on older style models like this one). you have to do a lot of squinting, and looking at it from the standpoint of, "does this look right? or wrong?" and adjust accordingly.
your model is a bit old school- but in my opinion, doing exercises things like this really help you understand the fundamentals.
Part 1:
http://vimeo.com/5820395
Part 2:
http://vimeo.com/5821890
It's a video of Slipgatecentral texturing a character bust. When I watched it all of those missing pieces clicked together and I tried a completely different approach/pipeline as to how I was texturing my characters.
EDIT:
Also as painful as it sounds, you may want to take a second pass on refining your UVs on the model. It may help you in the long run as well ^_^ Not mandatory, but something I recommend.
The good news is all your detail is salvageable; what you can do is make a cope of your model. Then edit and refine the copy's UVs for a more optimized layout.
You can then bake the texture information of your old model, onto the copy's revised UVs - You may have to do some cleanup, but I imagine you're going to do more work overall on the model for some added polish based on the feedback you're getting here.
I also recommend turning off your lights and anti aliasing. Follow the specs here. While this is a mid range model, this will help you a LOT when it comes to texturing:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=779753&postcount=1