Need help with texturing!
Hiya, I'm new to Polycount and just wanted some help!
So, I've been playing this low-poly game called GunZ ( I doubt anyone knows this game:poly124:)
and recently there has been an update in the development for private servers, so now we can import our own items in-game! Now, the thing is, very few people knew how model, so one guy put up a tutorial on how to do it and well.. he told people to use reference pictures taken from google as texture. You all probably know, this caused alot of ugly and stretched textures.
So, I've been googling some stuff on how to texture, but almost all tutorials are for items with normal maps and spec and all that stuff.
Now, the game only supports diffuse maps.
I've been trying to make a few guns, which weren't that bad for the quality of this game, but swords, katanas etc are a pain in the ass for me.
Could anyone please help me with a tutorial?
I'd appreciate it if someone told me step by step on how to make something like this.
Thanks in advance!
So, I've been playing this low-poly game called GunZ ( I doubt anyone knows this game:poly124:)
and recently there has been an update in the development for private servers, so now we can import our own items in-game! Now, the thing is, very few people knew how model, so one guy put up a tutorial on how to do it and well.. he told people to use reference pictures taken from google as texture. You all probably know, this caused alot of ugly and stretched textures.
So, I've been googling some stuff on how to texture, but almost all tutorials are for items with normal maps and spec and all that stuff.
Now, the game only supports diffuse maps.
I've been trying to make a few guns, which weren't that bad for the quality of this game, but swords, katanas etc are a pain in the ass for me.
Could anyone please help me with a tutorial?
I'd appreciate it if someone told me step by step on how to make something like this.
Thanks in advance!
Replies
Hmmm, that model seems to have hand painted textures, unless I'm mistaken. You said that most of the tutorials you've run across have spec maps and normal maps etc., while the game you're modding only supports diffuse textures (must be an old game to not even support spec maps). But why can't you follow one of those tutorials and just not do the part that shows how to make the other maps?
For instance, I recommend you take a look at these tutorials:
http://racer445.com/pages/tutorials/metal-crate-tutorial.php
http://cg.tutsplus.com/tutorials/3d-art/how-to-hand-paint-convincing-metal-textures/
Also, you said:
If you are unwrapping the model you should be able to prevent most stretching, especially using the relax features. Are you new to modeling, or just texturing? Because if you're new to 3d in general, you really should be learning the basics of modeling and unwrapping.
http://www.game-artist.net/forums/spotlight-articles/10425-tutorial-full-weapon-creation.html
That one shows how to model and texture a gun, although it's probably too detailed for the game you're doing, but the texturing section is very useful for all purposes.
And I've seen those, but guns aren't really a problem. I've seen all those tutorials, and Racer has been skipping parts that I actually needed. In the hand-painted texture he uses AO maps, however I'm using low-poly weapons (around 1000 tri's) so it barely has details. Won't make good Ao map, I guess..
I know how to UVmap, but so stretched textures aren't really a problem. I just really, really suck at making a texture, especially the lighting.
anyway:
Render the AO pass anyway or add a turbosmooth or tesselate modifier on your model to increase the density of the mesh and get cleaner AO maps rendered. Even on low poly models they can still help a lot creating dirt shadows to hint covered and concave / convex areas (cavity).
So instead of avoiding stuff because you think it wont look good just play around and learn from that!!
I really recommend you study the weapons older PS2 games, especially Call of Duty 2 and Medal of Honor Frontline. In older games like Cod2 and MOHF, the lighting wasn't calculated by the game engine, and so the texture artists had to paint in the shadows and highlights to simulate lighting. It's really helped me to study older games like those.
There are lots of other good ways to hand paint textures. Renderhjs is right; experiment and you'll learn a lot.
Good luck!
Those tutorials aren't totally helpful on old stuff. AO isn't necessary if you're doing handheld things, only when you get to source/hl2 spec stuff does it become useful.
When doing low poly stuffs, pick a global light source and stick with it; inconsistency is the worst! For metal I find good old dodge and burn on flat gray fine when lighting most things. Subtle gradients can add visual interest as well, just don't overdo it. Don't forget that you need to define glossiness in the lighting yourself too. I highly recommend you read and study things related to traditional art since most of the skills apply. This is a decent start: http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm
Since you have limited texture space you want skip the grunge overlays and let lighting and color sell your metal materials. Color color color! Blue sky points up, brown ground points down. Ambient color is so very important to keep your metal from looking bland, along with subtle pixely sharp grunge. Too much grunge will just blur your texture and you will start to lose your definition and sharpness.
Here's an example of color used in some guns I did, including the original colors.
racer those low poly guns are awesome
You painted those textures? They look amazing...
Question: what exactly is ambient color?
And could I see a larger texture flat of the far left pistol? :poly122:
You can see a similar blue/brown being used in this tutorial:
http://www.moddb.com/tutorials/texturing-the-scar-l-rifle
The CS modding community is how I learned diffuse lighting, Pete and others were sort of my mentors. It was the first thing I learned and it helped me immensely when learning this fancy next gen stuff, as many of the skills transfer over. Sometimes with textures I think people try to run (normal and spec maps, focusing on speed) before they can walk (learning how materials act in real life and what looks good in 3D) which is probably why so many people just take a "metal base" and slap overlays on it until it "looks good."
I want to see if I can grab a copy of the st.burst.cc site from Enin and mirror it on my site. Truly some great info there from the real old folks.
Great weapons btw ;P
And how would I get started, I've seen your tutorial on creating base metal. Does that apply on everything, including diffuse-only textures?
I guess you look at lots of references?
http://itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm
http://vimeo.com/11100774