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Face map - tutorial

diZzyWalnut
polycounter lvl 18
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diZzyWalnut polycounter lvl 18
Hi ,
well , few days ago I've been searching for some tutorial about the export of a character model into HL 2 and I've found
noesisinteractive - (looks cool) cool.gif,.....
but mainly, why I want to share out this link , it's the great video about a face texturing. Facemap Tutorial wink.gif
Good watching.
I hope You will find it useful. What You think about ?

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  • Daz
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    Daz polycounter lvl 18
    Definitely useful to some I'm sure, If a little obvious to others smile.gif I wouldn't call it a face 'texturing' tut so much as a photo sourcing one though.

    Personally, I hate the photo slapped onto 3D model look, and it irks me greatly how much reflection of sky and other light info the author has left in that texture map, but If HL2 got critically acclaimed graphics on the back of it, then I guess its impressive to joe schmoe and has its uses smile.gif. Thanks for sharing.
  • diZzyWalnut
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    diZzyWalnut polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    Definitely useful to some I'm sure, If a little obvious to others smile.gif I wouldn't call it a face 'texturing' tut so much as a photo sourcing one though.

    Personally, I hate the photo slapped onto 3D model look, and it irks me greatly how much reflection of sky and other light info the author has left in that texture map, but If HL2 got critically acclaimed graphics on the back of it, then I guess its impressive to joe schmoe and has its uses smile.gif. Thanks for sharing.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    As un hobby man of 3D , sometimes I make the mistake at "THE PROFESSIONAL TERM" confused.gif .
    Ok ,I agree with You Daz -should be called as photosourcing tuto.

    Daz, I know Your work "low poly & high poly likeness"
    I would like to ask :
    You ; as un real artist 3D , You're absolutly against "photosourcing" on a game character or You accept the "photosourcing" like the base of a future texture for the game character ? I mean the photosourcing can constitute about 30 % of work as the base of the final texture.
    ... stay always some work with brushes as overpaint , level,color balance, filtres etc. etc. etc.
    I don't ask You how You work personelly , 'cause I suppose there is the secret professional and I don't want to be badly polished, but You can give me Your opinion and say
    what's the tendence at game studios which You've been working for.
    I think that there's a lot of environemental game artists whose use the photosourcing as the base , so that's why I think that the photosourcing can be used as the base for the game character too.
    Of course it depends gamedesign and "HOW", cause I disagree also about the photosourcing like one photo "simply slapped" on the game character without a deeper work.
    That's why I was disappointed by HL 2 , but it's still good game to play and for modding too.


    my last work based on photosourcing - still in wip -
    ( not one photo simply slapped on the mesh , I 've done lots of work on it )
    md3.jpg

    thank You wink.gif
  • diZzyWalnut
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    diZzyWalnut polycounter lvl 18
    I've done quickly an outline (if I can say like this ) to show my photosourcing work .
    On the left side You can see the photo-reference which I've used also as the photosource and on the right side the result of my work = ( some overpaint , color balance,filtres,level and other tool ).
    mdphotosourcing.jpg
    ... I'm still working on (W.I.P.).

    Did I take a wrong way to realize and learn the face-texturing ?
  • Eric Chadwick
    The areas where photosourcing usually fail are where you have to fix it with non-photo painting. In this one, it's the area along the side of his face, under the chin, and the whole neck. These areas usually make it obvious that the artist didn't have painting skills to make it work.

    When I see an applicant with this kind of work, I look very closely at the hand-painted areas, and dismiss the photo-sourced areas. I want to see how good the artist is with their own traditional skills.

    So if I were to judge your employability on this one image, I would really only judge those areas, and ultimately say this artist needs to improve their painting skills.

    Also the mirroring is a bit too obvious. If you have only half the face in the texture sheet, then it's a decent job. But it seems your sheet has the whole face.

    Your specular also shows the lack of sufficient painting ability... looks like its only a severely-contrasted version of the diffuse.
  • Joao Sapiro
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    Joao Sapiro sublime tool
    "I would like to ask :
    You ; as un real artist 3D , You're absolutly against "photosourcing" on a game character or You accept the "photosourcing" like the base of a future texture for the game character ? I mean the photosourcing can constitute about 30 % of work as the base of the final texture. "


    yeah but the thing is there might be a day where you wont find any photo that matches the guy you want to do , then you will need painting skills . I always stay away from photos , i might use some as palete .
  • Daz
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    Daz polycounter lvl 18
    This is an interesting topic actually, not that it hasn't been discussed here before but hey.

    diZzy: I'm not against photosourcing per se. I mean whatever gets the job done in the available time to a high degree of quality right? I just don't like it when it's *obvious*, and when the artist has clearly made absolutely zero attempt to reduce stuff that should NOT be in a color map, such as a sky reflection, or sharp specular or other such noise left over from using photographic content. When that model moves around in a realtime environment it just looks wrong and obviously much more so when hes in an environment with different lighting than that in his texture map. Which is of course why the lighting on a face texture needs to be as 'neutral' as possible.
    There is something about it to me that feels really cheap too, I guess because as an artist I know how little went into it.
    I actually don't mind what you did with the Douglas texture map there, since it shows you have an understanding of what should and should not constitute a colour map. Works fine to me with a bit more mirroring (although I'm not a fan of having more than one hi-light on the eye) But you do need to be careful of obvious style differences between source and your editing of course.

    As for HL2, I guess the acclaim that the character work got particularly bugged me, since I find that work really messy looking, especially closeup. It's just really sloppy work and stinks of 'photo-slapping'. But of course joe public sees photograpic source and thinks 'real'. I think photosourcing works on environments much, MUCH better for a bunch of reasons.

    But anyway, as has been said by Eric and Johny, as a 3D artist you're an awful lot more capable and employable with painting skill than without it, so it pays dividends to work on that.
  • diZzyWalnut
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    diZzyWalnut polycounter lvl 18
    Thank You for a shower guys ....ouuphhhh - cold one. mad.gif
    Not seriously , thanks for You comments.I appreciate.In short I think that we all agree that there's no sens "paste" simple photo on a mesh without work
    on it before.
    My objective is to get closer to the look of real skin and likeness at the same time to combine "photosourcing" with "trad.painting".
    I dont why but this idea is still in my head and it doesn't want to leave me. Some bad obsession. tongue.gif
    For me is the result and "know how" the most important. Artist - Artisan ? confused.gif

    I'm working on my 2D skills (drawing & sketching)....I confess that I've met some problems at the passage to digital work , but it doesn't mean and I don't want to hide myself behind the photosourcing.Non non.
    I use the Photoshop since 6 months , no more... and it's a big change for me.

    I will not give up.

    Thank You wink.gif
  • fritz
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    fritz polycounter lvl 18
    hey dizzy i have a good exercise for you that will help greatly. if you ever feel like you need a break from 3d. get a mirror and put it on your desk. then open up photoshop, painter, or whatever paint program you prefer, set up a light or two, and do a self-portrait. KEEP doing them. you will start to realize how many colors there are in human skin(or under it). then after you start to understand this more, you will begin to add those colors to your textures...even if you photosource some bits. it's pushing the colors that can really add a lot of life to a dead model.

    keep it up!

    cheers
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    Well I would say dont' overstress yourself with this! I mean, that Douglas texture is already at level that some retail games don't have.

    The process just has to remain fun, hence I believe there is no such thing as a 'artist or artisan' deal. Overthinking is often just a waste of a time that could be to better use, ie texturing practice for instance!

    I believe it just needs to remain a relaxed and clever to do, like, try to avoid the classic pits like shiney eyeballs, symmetry, white highlights in the hair aso. Keep it loose and groovy!

    Oh yeah and what Fritz mentions too. I SO want to have a bunch of flexible colored lights to shift/bend all around my workdesk to do just that! You know like something out of a Matrix sentinel haha!
  • Eric Chadwick
    Dizzy, sorry if my comments were a bit cold, I'm not trying to put you down, I was just being lazy. Usually I try to mention some positives when I post a critique, instead I figured I could get right to the meat of it. Keep painting and improving!
  • diZzyWalnut
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    diZzyWalnut polycounter lvl 18
    FRITZ - thanks for a tip , I will .

    PIOR - I'm not realy stressing - the problem is that I'm searching myself in a 2D.
    Thank You for encouragement, crits and Your kind words. wink.gif

    ERIC - my mummy , she's always said to me that I'm too susceptible frown.gif.....not ; don't worry I'm not.
    (maybe just a little bit) laugh.gif
    All comments objectiv and constructiv are welcome.
    Be sure that I will be back and even with my "photosourcing". tongue.gif

    Thank You all.
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