Wendy's hand-painted material practice

Wendy de Boer · May 2018

Greetings, people of Q2PPM! Here are my new skins for Quake 2! Wait... what year is it? Oh yes! Happy 20th, Polycount! XD

All joking aside, I have been going through Sam Nielson's course "Fundamentals of Lighting" on Schoolism. I've also been looking for a way to apply the information to hand-painted textures. I figured that trying out various materials on small props would be a good way to go about it.

Also, recently I was replaying Quake 2, one of my favorite old games. Seeing the pick-up items with the badly skewed textures was a little sad for sure, but then I realized it would be super easy to replace them.

So now I've started to slowly replace the pick-up items with higher res ones, and getting in my hand-painted practice all at once!

First up is the armor shard. I wanted to get some nice paint damage on it, and also try to sell the difference in reflectivity between the paint and the bare metal. I also painted in some orangy underlighting, which is a style device used across many of the original assets in Quake 2.

Next up is the invulnerability power-up. This one was a good excuse to practice skull anatomy. I also tried to fake reflections on the brass material of the skull. I made the orange underlighting a lot stronger for this asset, because warm lighting on a warm colored metal will enhance the saturation.

And the last one for now, the stimpack. I tried to make the material look more like plastic. I also kept grunge down to a minimum, since this is a medical item. However, I'm not sure if the material really reads correctly or if it simply looks less detailed than the others.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/e1/tndjdzi83t4u.jpg

Wireframes on my Artstation if anyone is interested:

https://www.artstation.com/wendydeboer

LokiDokie · May 2018

love this so far gonna follow for hopefully more

Mr Smo · May 2018

This sort of stuff brings back some great memories, you are doing it great justice

!

Wendy de Boer · May 2018

Thanks guys! I will definitely be making more of these. And not just Quake 2 items, because I need to practice non-sci-fi materials as well, LOL. XD

Here's the next prop, the quad damage. I had fun figuring out the heavily rusted nails. I've never been particularly good at making heavily textured surfaces, all of my previous stuff has been clean and simple. I could never seem to get a good look with textured brushes or overlays, either. In this case, I figured I just study real-world textures up close, and paint the small shapes the same way I would with bigger shapes. You just kinda have to get over the idea that texture should be quick and easy to apply with a few clever brushstrokes!

Wireframe shot on my Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/WN9OJ

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/tc/3t18cs6nfye6.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/jf/4hlx7nw987f7.jpg

Nexam · Jun 2018

Looking neat ! Nice work Wendy

Wendy de Boer · Jun 2018

Thanks, Maxence!

For the next piece I want to tackle something a bit more complex, so I'll be making a character.

I decided to make my own version of Uriel from Quake 3: Arena. The main reason I picked this character is to practice with monster skin, something I've never been particularly good at. The second reason is that I'm still a very big fan of the hand-painted texture work that Kenneth Scott did on Quake 3: Arena, so I'm hoping to absorb some of those qualities through this character.

Anyway, here's what I blocked out so far!

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/xd/3n8poapfb2it.jpg

Wendy de Boer · Aug 2018

I still have to complete some of the assignments from Sam Nielson's "Fundamentals of Lighting" course. I figured I should do that before moving further with the character.

So, here are my assignment results from the chapter on skin. Line-art was provided by the instructor himself, Sam Nielson. The assignment was to render the images with skin, hair and lighting.

Painting these 2D images was rather tricky for me, considering that I don't usually draw. I realize they are far from perfect, but hey, I learned a lot! I would definitely recommend this course for anyone who paints, including hand-painted texture artists.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/b8/n5kx9d1bq9rn.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/od/78d9n24e3uyq.jpg

Wendy de Boer · Nov 2018

Finally made it through all of the assignments on Sam Nielson's Fundamentals of Lighting!

Note that for both of these images, the line art was provided by the instructor; the assignment was to render them with color and light.

Can't wait to actually apply my new knowledge to actual hand-painted textures! I've been stuck on various art courses for the past couple of years, and I haven't been able to do much personal stuff as a result.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/n3/lq7nakg6unvy.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/6l/i25j8zf6szfq.jpg

Eric Chadwick · Nov 2018

Hey Wendy, these are great. I would love to see them pushed further!

I think the forms overall are great, but they're missing some edge highlights that could take them to the next level. I think just a few bright highlights here and there could really make the shapes pop.

I did a quickie little paintover. I'm no Bierstadt, my sunlight dfirection is not all that well thought out. But looking at his work and the Hudson River School in general might give you some idea what I'm talking about.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/ww/4uvm6969qt02.gif

Wendy de Boer · Nov 2018

Thank you for the paint-over @Eric Chadwick ! I hadn't thought of mountains as being that reflective, but I can see now that does make it pop a lot! The sunlight breaking through the clouds is really cool as well. I like how these elements direct the eye and how it gets rid of some of the flatness I was struggling with.

I figure what I really need to do is some more studies of clouds and mountains before I take another stab at these. Since I usually don't do 2D art, one issue that I really ran into was not having the visual shorthand to make these basic surfaces look convincing. I also struggled quite a bit making the image hold together as a whole. I've been too comfortable making individual assets for in-game use, without ever worrying about composition. I've been working to improve that, but clearly a lot more study is warranted!

Thanks again for your input, you've helped me identify a specific area of study I need to address.

Sage · Mar 2019

Great work.

WillPowell · May 2019

Love the colour variation within your texture work, adds so much!

Wendy de Boer · Aug 2019

I had been meaning to do a lowpoly anatomy study, and at first made a perfectly boring male base mesh for the purpose. But I couldn't help myself and pushed the proportions to make it funny, and then turned it into a demon dude while I was at it. I intend to make some armor pieces next.