Texturing is my weakness
I don't know if anyone can help, but I follow alot of tutorials and they always seem to grab photos and use layer masks to control scratches, rust, and dirt.They often pile it on and now it's a habit that I've developed.I followed a sword tutorial by racer on how a lot of models tend to be noisy and they over do it to the point that you can't tell what the material is supposed to be.(he also spoke on diaelectrics and conductors and how they reflect different colors...but that's off topic)
What Racer mentions, sounds like me exactly and it's ruining the believability of my models.
I never know where to place scratches ,dirt, rust, chips, water marks etc and where to tone it down or what direction it should be going.i understand dirt a bit but that's about it.
I look at references and see scratches on edges and dirt in crevices but often times the placement doesn't seem applicable to my scene.Most times the objects I'm trying to recreate are too clean or to grungy in reference photos.
is there any resource that can help me understand how i should use wear,tear , and damage indicators appropriately?
What Racer mentions, sounds like me exactly and it's ruining the believability of my models.
I never know where to place scratches ,dirt, rust, chips, water marks etc and where to tone it down or what direction it should be going.i understand dirt a bit but that's about it.
I look at references and see scratches on edges and dirt in crevices but often times the placement doesn't seem applicable to my scene.Most times the objects I'm trying to recreate are too clean or to grungy in reference photos.
is there any resource that can help me understand how i should use wear,tear , and damage indicators appropriately?
Replies
Life. Seriously.
The next time you're going to model an object, go find a real one. Study it carefully.
Whenever you're walking anywhere alone, pay attention to all of the details of the world around you. If you aren't walking daily, start going for walks daily to study the environment.
If you're modeling a gun, for example, get a toy gun. Hold it in your hand, reload it, fire it, etc. Pay attention to where your hands touch it. Set it down. Pay attention to what surfaces rest against the table. Pick it up. Stick it in your pocket and feel where it rubs up against your pants and your leg.
There isn't a guide online for this. There isn't a rule.
You need to train your observation skills, and you do that not by reading or looking at photos, but by observing objects around you.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87962
Aside from that, look at others work and tutorials here on this very site. The wiki also has some great reference.
You should use wear and tear when and where it makes sense. It is something that is very easy to over do. My advice would be to look at real life objects and observe the frequency of those details, apply that knowledge, and see if it makes sense for what you're doing.
Something that may be worth checking out is this scene by Jason Lavoie as an example of working on a more "clean" environment, and keeping the textures fairly simple:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=78349
+
your brain.
Go!
@SupRore I feel like I should quit it with the dragging and dropping of dirt and grunge textures and learn to paint as you suggested, despite what's done in alot of tutorials
@Ghostscape Racer mentioned something about the scratches on the blade which i never thought of, He gave reason as to why. the scratches should be in certain areas along the sharp edge of the blade.I guess I would have to check out an old blade in person.I get what your saying about being more observant.That'll help.
The best resource is observation of real-life objects.
Look at the circled areas below and ask yourself questions like this:
How would a diffuse map affect this area if I was going to paint it as a texture?
How does specular affect it?
Would a normal map work for this?
What parts of this should I model and what should I texture?
What parts are shiny and which are matte?
If you can't answer those questions, then you need to take a step back and do some experiments. Figure out how different materials are put together by examining what elements go into their construction. Does it have sharp highlights? Maybe you should paint a bright specular. Does it have reflective areas that you can see the surrounding environment in? Maybe you should use an environment map.
The best way to understand how to texture things is to understand how things work in the real world and then use that knowledge to build your materials. Understanding real world materials can be achieved by asking questions about their various properties and relating those properties to the various texture maps you can use.
for me, what is really helping me is using styles.
Also, one thing I do that really helps is I paint masks ahead of time and them apply them to images I've layered on. In addition, I then add some sort of style to really bring it to life.
The reference mail box looks like paint on top of metal with diaelectric characteristics casting a white light because of the paint.But My mailbox looks like dirty metal...i guess.I really have no idea.Where should the rust dirt and scratches really be? because the mailbox references looks practically untarnished...
I do notice slight dirt at the bottom, a few scratches, and some dents.I guess the light would be done with a specular but is that it?Is that all my model really needs?Have i been over doing it?
I couldn't post my diffuse or AO maps as they're Targas but I hope you can understand from the two photos i did manage to post
https://picasaweb.google.com/JoshuaCrawford00/Polycount?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPWPvJKD9v2DjwE&feat=directlink
Work from reference, so as you said, look at the mailbox you're making. If it doesnt have that much dirt, then don't put that much on it.
If you're making something that you DONT have reference art for, then you should try and find materials/objects that are close to what you're making and find images of them in the same conditions as the piece you're making..if that makes sense.
A brand new mailbox will look completely different from a post-apoc mailbox, but the way the material got dirtier/rustier( and graffiti etc) will be almost the same. So try to LEARN how a material will behave in a certain condition.
Also, you say: I guess the light would be done with a specular.
I don't quiet get what you mean, but please don't underestimate material properties such as spec/gloss etc. They can make or break your texture. ( even if you're going old school, and doing it diffuse-only, you can still paint some of the properties on the diffuse)
I hope I'm making sense, good luck.
That's the thing about tutorials, anyone can write one
so yeah get out there and figure out how a material is composed. some are just bare materials that are simple to figure out and some are complex combinations of several layers. you just need to use your brain to figure out how it's composed.
this is 100% true. there are a LOT of bad tutorials out there that will guide you in the wrong direction... i should know, i made a good few of them in my early days. take every tutorial and piece of advice you get with a grain of salt, especially with texturing. there are already very VERY few people who truly understand it, and most of those people don't share their knowledge for one reason or another.
those who can't do, teach. be skeptical of everything.
in terms of scale are you saying that the detail is too large? because i notice that on my render the details look blurry and maybe a little pixelated.
**To try to find out what was going on I wrote some text on the diffuse and rendered it in max the text didn't look sharp and the text looked pixelated.I couldn't read it too well.i couldn't really figure out why.The diffuse is 2048 by 2048**
I usually start shading even before texturing if I can.