Working on my texturing skill, crits ploise?

Fwap · Dec 2010

Hey hey hey,

I'm working on my texturing skills trying to get better at using source photos and getting more familiar with my paint program (Gimp)

First thing i would say that i can see myself is the shadowing, i'm just using the burn tool and its very destructive and there are probably better ways to do shadowing but as to what it is i dont know, yet.

STOP! Image time:

Just a simple box texture i just made a simple box mesh for the purpose of showing off the texture, id really appreciate some feed back

Thanks
-Joel

Acumen · Dec 2010

Looks like a solid start, you just gotta do your homework, I guess

I think the biggest miss is the lack of crate-research. We've all been seeing crates in videogames all over again, some good, some not so well crafted and I guess just go for making another crate without having actually ever looked close enough. Have a look at these pictures of reallife crates:

http://usersites.horrorfind.com/home/halloween/wolfstone/HalloweenTech/crbovv_Crate.jpg

http://comps.fotosearch.com/comp/UNZ/UNZ216/shipping-crate_~u14715000.jpg

See, how the various wooden pieces are assembled to a crate ? See the nails that they used ?
The way you applied the texture makes the edges of the wooden plank not interact too well wich each other. It looks fake, I guess.

As far as the actual texturing goes, I think it is too obvious where you cut and pasted the planks around. In the upper left corner there's a really harsh 1 pxl line visible. While on the lower half the pattern suddenly changes where the wood meets, but there's no apparant shadow going on.
Also I think what would greatly help the crate would be if those overlying planks are not razorsharp straight. Just some tiny tiny wobbly thing going on helps to make it look less artificial. I guess wood is/can never be 100% straight like that.

Moreover I think it could need a bit more color. I know you're going for a realistic look, so don't get me wrong, I just think the principles of adding simple color values on top of that might spice things up. Really subtle, not broad paint strokes

http://wiki.polycount.com/TexturingTutorials?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=handpaint_more-color-saiainoshi.jpg

Keep up and just try and compare. Games, other people's work. It helps so much more than to sit and wait for comments for each and every piece.

tharle · Dec 2010

also if you want to work non destructively try using layer blending modes and layer masks. (not sure if these have a different name in gimp) you should be able to use a darker or colour burn layer blend mode to create damage/dirt and then use a layer mask to paint where you want it to appear.

Ruz · Dec 2010

its very monochrome, kind of a bland biscuit colour. add some colour variation.
details are ok

glottis8 · Dec 2010

My advise would be to think that every piece of wood is gonna be made differently. Supporting blocks are cut from big blocks.. so there is not much pattern. The inside are ply's of wood which would depict more of the wood pattern. nails... dirt... all kinds of stuff that you can add to make it more interesting. Check this crate i had to do for cg purposes.

Rockley Bonner · Dec 2010

F*ck yeah crates!

Fwap · Jan 2011

Took in the critiques and revised a new box texture, im having some weird low quality thing happen with exporting the image as JPG, ive never had this problem before the darker bits of wood the contrast has gone ape sh*t on me.
The quality of the JPG is set to 100%

edit: must be my picture viewer because its fine here.

Cap Hotkill · Jan 2011

we should make a thread for all the Boxes and all the barrels of PC..

keres · Jan 2011

Do not save as JPG, it's horrible. PNG is a big leap in quality.

Fwap · Jan 2011

Do they work similar with game engines too? PNG vs. JPG that is.

jmiles · Jan 2011

png and tga's are typical file types for game engines.. I donno of too many others as I have only used TGAs in the past..

keres · Jan 2011

Fwap wrote: »

Do they work similar with game engines too? PNG vs. JPG that is.

That depends on the engine. JPG is an absolute mess internally, so it's not ideal for games at all. Web graphics use JPG just fine because some data loss is acceptable. Normal maps need to be saved in a loss less format because the pixels represent directions and not color. Typically you save all your texture maps in the same format for consistency's sake, but if you only store only your diffuse in a single file then you could get away with JPG. It might save you texture memory depending on compression. However, it'd be a pretty negligible amount so people will use one format only. Some engines don't support JPG at all because nobody uses it (or at least shouldn't.)

ariofighter · Jan 2011

I really like the way your texture is coming out so far. I would now work on adding the little details that will make it look so much more then just wood planks. Things like dirt, damage, and even maybe labels or signs would make it look more "planted" or real. Keep it up.

REKLAS · Jan 2011

I think you went a bit too far with the saturation of the green.

Cap Hotkill wrote: »

we should make a thread for all the Boxes and all the barrels of PC..

Next Civil War topic perhaps?

tharle · Jan 2011

http://www.arminbwagner.com/crates_and_barrels/

Fwap · Jan 2011

haha win.
Do you think i could erase the green on the color layer and there replace it with like a moss mask? add some grime and color.

bbob · Jan 2011

If this is for game, using one map for diffuse when it comes to props is the way to go. More maps means more drawcalls and more drawcalls is the very cock-cheese of satan. So only use more maps if the desired effect is not achievable with the maps you already have.

It usually goes Diffuse, Normal, Specular and Gloss for current gen, if I am not mistaken.

G3L · Jan 2011

Looks better than the one from before...there are some weird things happening on the top and bottom plank though...like I can kind of tell you made a brush mark on them? Not sure if you know what I'm talking about but it looks faded on part of the top and bottom areas where you might have been trying to add something to it...other than that though it's shaping up better. Some contrast and some pop would help this texture a bit! Looks a bit too flat for my taste. It'd be good to see the updated texture on a model

Fwap · Jan 2011

@GL3: I think i tried to add a highlight to the edge to make it stand out from the middle planks of wood, other wise they looked too sharp, i just added a overlay layer and painted some white.

Added some darker shadowing and some contrast, wachoo think?

Acumen · Jan 2011

I say, it looks just fine for what it is - a simple crate. I'd recommend to move on to the next texture, because trying to get this "right" just won't work - we've seen similar threads

Just take all the crits you got on this texture in mind and start working on another one - different surface maybe. You'll learn new things on the next texture and after 5-10 other textures you might take what you learned and try another wooden crate.

Mark Dygert · Jan 2011

Crates are to environment art what the bouncing ball is to animation. So much to be learned and great for practice.

Shogun3d · Jan 2011

Mark Dygert wrote: »

Crates are to environment art what the bouncing ball is to animation. So much to be learned and great for practice.

So true!

GarageBay9 · Jan 2011

Mark Dygert wrote: »

Crates are to environment art what the bouncing ball is to animation. So much to be learned and great for practice.

To master the crate is to master one's self.

Fwap · Jan 2011

@ Acumen - I was going to work on a barrel next, but considering you said i should try different surfaces, i think a stone wall and UV unwrap that sh*t, cause unwrapping really blows my brain.

Flava-Fly · Jan 2011

Fwap wrote: »

cause unwrapping really blows my brain.

You will learn to love it, gets quite relaxing after a while.

Working on my texturing skill, crits ploise?

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