Starting with hand painted textures
polycounter lvl 6
Hi Hi,
So i recently put a post in general asking for advice as to how to go about starting to learn about hand painted textures. The advice that was given was pretty much to just get started and post the results on the P&P page for feedback. Well, here is my very first result.
It's still nothing like some of the other work that ive seen around here but its a start.. The main roadblock im running into at the moment is adding detail..i can get through defining my raw shapes and then adding the bevels. but then i get stuck and just start fiddling around without it going anywhere.
if anyone can point me in the right direction i would be very appreciative.
P.S.
Is it worth simply using hand painted textures from other games and trying to directly copy them? or will this result in me not learning anything?
So i recently put a post in general asking for advice as to how to go about starting to learn about hand painted textures. The advice that was given was pretty much to just get started and post the results on the P&P page for feedback. Well, here is my very first result.
It's still nothing like some of the other work that ive seen around here but its a start.. The main roadblock im running into at the moment is adding detail..i can get through defining my raw shapes and then adding the bevels. but then i get stuck and just start fiddling around without it going anywhere.
if anyone can point me in the right direction i would be very appreciative.
P.S.
Is it worth simply using hand painted textures from other games and trying to directly copy them? or will this result in me not learning anything?
Replies
I think your stones could use more work on the bevels, they are a little undefined. At some places they aren't even readable as bevels. You've got some highlights that are from a lightsource somewhere from the upper left, so the lower right should be with shadow (and a little bouncelight maybe)... And the sides of the stones (that are not facing direct light or shadow) could use a blend between light and shadow to support the bevel.
Did anyone point you in the direction of any tutorials or helpful threads on here? I've saved a few for when I finally take a shot at this sort of texture so hopefully these will help:
Here are some threads which have nice tutorials saved as images within the posts:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=68601&page=2
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=75700&page=3
Definitely worth checking out this thread, its long but Jessica's work is fantastic: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87797&highlight=wells
Here is a link I noticed in a few of those threads:
http://www.anticz.com/drawing1.htm
And here is a YouTube video (I haven't had a chance to watch through though):
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Hope this helps, good luck!
Texturing Workshop with Jamin Shoulet part 1 + 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_GWVez_UHM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSFKEvH6ZJA
not quite happy with the damage but will continue to work on something new tomorrow.
I hada further question. The reason i have been obsessed with stylised textures lately is that i have always had a passion for WoWs art and now that wildstar is getting some attention seeing another game use that stylised artstyle just made me want to be able to do it. However, i read the behind the scenes @ wildstar piece on the frontpage and it looks like they're mostly using Zbrush to make these kind of textures these days. So my question is should i stick with learning in photoshop or should i be looking into Zbrush too?
You still can push that a lot with great texturing skills (in photoshop).
So I'd recommend you to try both... do some oldschool textures, and some with only spec and some stuff with normals baked from a highpoly. You'll learn a lot that way. (And like Jamin Shoulet is saying in the tutorial... that way you'll not need highend tech to do something beautiful!)
Btw. I really love going in part of your newest attempt, but I think the cracks are to small and the damage could use work (there's no light information in there, no dimensionality...)
If you would like, I would be willing to show you some tricks we have developed over here to help you with your texturing overall. There quite a few ways of going about creating the hand painted feel, hence why all our sculpts are hand painted lol. I am leaving for out of town this weekend, but when I get back, I can hop in a google hangout to show you some stuff
I would love to do that, if possible to. Just saw that you worked on Wildstar. (And i've seen your blog before) Great ARtwork in both! And im attempting to try to achieve a HP look in my textures now!
I know atleast I'd love to watch!
this should be kinda helpful
I will be back next week after e3, Friday June 14th.
I will make a google hangout and we will all jam
Edit: I think your textures are close, and just a need a little love to get them just right
I just started my own thread on P&P about some hand-painted textures I'm doing, the tuts in this thread are very helpful. Looking forward to seeing how you get on chrisjuuuh!
aw i would love to join in on this, but I won't be home either. Would be awesome if it gets recorded. You folks at Carbine do amazing hand painted work, would love to learn from you.
Try following the wood tutorial beezul linked. I use layers just for safety if I'm about to make a radical change to the texture and want a easy way to cop-out if it doesn't turn out well.
I know it's hard starting out and you're doing great!
switz has a very good point on the wall texture. It's lacking medium details. If I were you, I'd look at Jessica Dihn's brick texture to get some inspiration.
Then take one of your bricks and keep at it until you're satisfied and use that as a guide for the rest of the bricks.
Here's a good example of what you can do.
1. Find a wood refrence.
2. put it in photoshop.
3. Turn down the Opacity
4. Make a new empty layer.
5. Start following the lines.
You'll notice that the Grains are small and Difference from eachother.
If you want lighting information. Take the Wood reference and Desaturate the Picture. Play around with the Level values, to see lighting information.
And basically before applying color. See where the darks and lights are. And imagine where the sun is coming from.
Anyone is welcome to join. I Will go over a few techniques from basic, to more advanced stuff.
one more hour till the hangout!
And about the new wood. thats acctually better. However it reads more realisticly then stylized. Atleast for me. But its tons better than the old one. Keep on going!!! good job
And about the new wood. thats acctually better. However it reads more realisticly then stylized. Atleast for me. But its tons better than the old one. Keep on going!!! good job
Ready to go, come join up
Thank you!!
any pointers are always appreciated.
Did another one today. starting to get the hang of the cracks but still cant quite get them to pop
Wildstar uses Zbrush, wow uses it (not all, but more and more), Riot uses it. That's 3 big companies (and many more) using Zbrush for handpaint. Why? because once you get it to work, it's freaking fast. You get your AO, heightmap, highlights, cavities, a shit ton of maps from the sculpt. You can even bake your matcaps like they do on some Dota2 characters. Not to mention the more sculpts you do, the more library re-usabilty you get. All these people using it should be an alarm signal for you to be interested by it. It doesnt mean you can't use photoshop to fix stuff on top of it, you actually need it but it's just a different way to get things clean and fast.
You have to embrace the technology and the tools available for you today because this is the freaking present. People have to stop living in the past at some point, and kick their own asses to learn something new.
So yes I recommend you to learn photoshop and start to handpaint fully 2D because that's a good starting point. But when I see some replies giving you only the oldschool option I can't help myself to warn you to also look for yourself at how people work nowadays, people still working in the actual industry. This is where you'll learn the most...
Also don't forget that everything changes, having a nextgen background will create you a bridge for future projects as well.
---
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=135619&highlight=wildstar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL75R0K_j7g
http://missmaddytaylor.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=125737&page=5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNaxMpDpOiw
Now I am super happy with the quality of the texture but I can not for the life of me get it to look nice on the model. Do in game trees require more than one alpha plane to make them look good or is there a trick I am missing? Help would be great!
You are definitely getting better at hand painted textures.
Im having difficulty with rock. i just dont seem to be able to get it quite right.
improvements or paintovers would be great!