Painted texture, please critique!

unit187 · Jan 2014

Hello! I am trying to work on hand-painted texture for a character. I'd like it to be somewhat WoW-like stylized, but partially it looks like childrens' painting

I am mostly doing modelling and sculpting, but trying to learn how to do "old school" textures.

I painted values first and then overpainted colors. The character itself it around 600 tris, and I also didn't bother to paint the face because you barely see it from the game's camera.

How can I improve the texture?
Thanks for any feedback!

Haftoof · Jan 2014

It looks very cell shaded, not much in the way of extreme highlights or color to make the piece "Pop!". Without that depth of color while the mesh may be lower poly there is nothing to draw the eye or make me say wow.

Be more extreme on the fur, make each "chunky strand" pop and give it detail, provide heightlights for the top-most strands of hair on each "chunk". Some of the clothing seems very unrefined, give me additional detail or something to draw the eye (the bracers is a great place for free-hand texture of some sort, a design, maybe celtic knots or something). You're color gradiants could be more extreme (the belt is a great example of where I see a gradiant but its very narrow)

So I'm no pro, but I've always been a fan of WoW's style of art because it reminds me of the process that miniature painters use. They rely heavily on color, shading, and the eye to capture their medium.

There's a good article in this free zine that CheeseOnToast suggested I read. Take some time and read the whole thing but! The concepts by Hai Phan, including the Avian Defender( Pg. 118 ), and Tamara Bakhlycheva and her Old School Article ( Pg. 256 ) are definately where you can read and bring back to this piece.

Avian defender covers a lot of the structure of the model but also has some real good information on the art style which reminds me heavily of my miniature painting work. Taking the detail out of the mesh and focusing your detail depth and shading into the texture. Tamara's techniques focuses a bit more on the textures themselves so it's also a good read.

CarlK3D · Jan 2014

your colors in some parts are very desaturated. I think you need to use far darker more saturated colors. your mid tones are suffering because of the desaturation which is making your highlights almost white. The Wolf cap he's wearing has better highlights and and lowlights though.
Working with a Gradient to help ground the character will help out alot. theres a really good DOTA 2 guide that will really help you out with what kinds of Highlights, Mid Tones and Low lights & Value to use. As well as gradients - This Link should work

It could use some AO to around separating areas.

Also I think what Haftoof is refering to is Vertex Magazine I just got up to the Avian Defender

unit187 · Jan 2014

Thanks guys! Appreciate your input.
I have read those remarkable tutorials from Vertex magazine and dota guides, but it seems it didn't really work well for me. I have got to practice more!

I am going to repaint the texture during next few days. So here what I got from your answers:
a) Make each shape 'pop' better. For example, if I define shoulder muscle, I will do much wider range of greyscale colors.
b) Add more details like ornaments. They should be big enough to not to become noise from distance. The game's camera is somewhat similar to League of Legends or Dota.
c) I will need to use more saturated colors for midtones. In Avian Defender article the artist uses the most saturated color for midtones and as they get darker or lighter they become less saturated. In my texture I have tried to incorporate it but it seems I went way too far with desaturated colors.

Haftoof · Jan 2014

Use color to define your shape, you blended your light to dark as proper on the hair from top to bottom shade wise, but there's nothing to really define the shape of the hair and draw the eye to it (the edges of each strand or the top of each strand, or the "hairs" that make up each strand). Take a look at some miniature work, while your style may not be as extreme you have to use your textures to define the shape of the model better.

http://www.coolminiornot.com/15528?browseid=7782102

Notice how the hair is highlighted along the edge to define the shape. Also take a lesson that in Dota style games your color also has to define the model at a distance. This is very similar to how miniature painters make models pop on the table by allowing harsher highlights and deeper shadows sometimes even demonstrating "texture" of the surface by painting in certain ways (the hair on the shoulder which is not a sculpted but a painted detail).

If it's top down the fur is gonna be a major feature when looking at him from behind, make those strands pop! Give them a stronger highlight that draws the eye to them from a distance (keep in mind your medium, what might appear rough up close once scaled down to DOTA level may not be nearly as rough and may not look like anything at all).

unit187 · Jan 2014

Thanks, Haftoof, I understand what you mean. Going to do this for next iteration of the texture.

Haftoof · Jan 2014

One thing I forgot to mention, don't make your highlights the same on each strand. Vary them, providing variance in highlights hint to different depths (which you could probably handle in the mesh and light mapping but can be expressed with the texture).

unit187 · Jan 2014

Hey, I am back with some more work.
I repainted it and decided to share black and white image. It is still WIP, but I could use some critique if someone would be that kind to provide it!

I think I did way too dark values, especially on top. Am I right? What else can I improve?

Thanks!

Shrike · Jan 2014

Try imagining a lightsource and keep in your mind in which direction the light falls down all the time , it looks like you are just doing another omnidirectional shading for every part of your character

unit187 · Jan 2014

It might seem so because hands' lighting is not matching the body's lighting because the character is in T-pose, but if you imagine him in V-pose, it should align properly

Painted texture, please critique!

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