Hi, After you remove all the shadow information from a diffuse, the non-shadowed area are still lit by the sun. In case we only have the diffuse and no object space normal/AO and such maps is there a rule of thumb in place there for making the lit textures more unlit/overcast-ish ?
Your spec is much more important then your diffuse here. Make sure that you are creating them at the same time. Your diffuse details will be relatively light on the wear and tear. Alot of your detail will just be unique to your spec.
*edit* nvm, I get what you are asking now. but for non-metals it give more control over the specular independently of the diffuse value for example, you cant do this in Marmoset I think while keeping the same diffuse.
I had to try with some example. Tile diffuse and grungemap from cgtextures. I modelled a highpoly source from the diffuse and used it for generating normals, ao and curvature. Spec as shown in image was created in photoshop with the curvature data and a grungemap.
Photoshop and i create normal map in quixel.I saw your portfolio your diffuse map looks very good compared to mine.It looks like 3D, i mean more realistic.How i create that kind of diffuse map.
The tree likely does have tiling, its just used in combination with a normal map for the trees volume. Combining two normal maps usually means that the diffuse output us multiplied, and means the diffuse has to be RGB 0.5 darker.
Modelling looks good. But I think the main issue is that you have way to much information in your diffuse. Metal is defined by the spec/reflect/glossiness and putting too much info into your diffuse takes away from those.
Top tip of the day™ - Metallic (or electrically conductive) objects have a colour specular map, generally a similar colour as the diffuse. Non-metallic objects tend to have a white specular map (or even an inversed diffuse map in the spec'). :)
Your specular map really lacks contrast, and is missing the details like the scratches wich should be stronger in the specular than in the diffuse. Try a combination of: Dark scratch in the diffuse and strong/bright in the specular. This works for metal in general quite good.
yes. Grumble grumble. turn you spec map into a mask rather than bitmap put the spec map in one slot, and the diffuse alpha in te other you can reuse the diffuse texture, just use the alpha component