Quote

Originally posted by what_is_the_matrix:
**Yea, I like the texturing tutorial. I decided to try it out, and I noticed a major change in the quality of my images. Of course, I have my own little differences for things like bump and specular maps, but the tutorial is quite helpful nonetheless. Thanks!

Matrix

**

I'm glad it helped.

I'm doing a scale tutorial now, but since I have a lot of other stuff to do, it's going slow. :frown:

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In a fight for peace, you must fight for equality, not revenge.
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Many's the time I've fired up Photoshop to make a texture map for a cool model, only to realize I have no idea what I'm doing. Thank you sparky!

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well, I noticed that mapping seems to be a bit confusing to some people, so I thought I'd do a little walkthrough about it.

Mapping
-----------------------------
This time I’m going to go over several of the basic ways of mapping a texture onto an object. I’ll get more in depth and cover basic UV mapping another time.

Planar Mapping

This will be our example for this part: http://img28.photobucket.com/albums/v83/th...parky/map01.jpg (64k)

This is what I use the most. This takes your texture map and projects it straight in from the x, y, or z axis:
http://img28.photobucket.com/albums/v83/th...parky/map03.jpg (84k)

(note: It’s easiest if you take a screen shot of your object from above (or whatever direction you want to map from) first, and then use that screen shot to make your map. Cut the map down so that it exactly fits your object. That way, if you scale it to fit, the map will fit perfectly without needing scaling within the program.)

The problem with this is that it maps the texture straight down the sides too, which causes unsightly stretching – and that’s bad.
http://img28.photobucket.com/albums/v83/th...parky/map04.jpg (80k)

So how can you fix this? One way is to alpha map it. I’ll do a walkthrough on that later if people are interested.
A simple fix is to just make the edges all one color – preferably a color that won’t be easily distinguishable from the rest of the texture. This single color part only needs to come in from the edge by a couple pixels, because if the drop is straight down it will only stretch the edge pixels.
Here’s an extreme example of how that works:
http://img28.photobucket.com/albums/v83/th...parky/map05.jpg (80k)

Spherical and Cylindrical Mapping

These should only be used for spheres and cylinders. With anything else you’ll get nasty and obvious stretching.

Here’s why you shouldn’t just use planar mapping for a sphere:
http://img28.photobucket.com/albums/v83/th...parky/map08.jpg (76k)
http://img28.photobucket.com/albums/v83/th...parky/map09.jpg (80k)

That same stretching problem is back, only it’s all over the sphere. Luckily, you can map spherically. This is like taking your map and actually wrapping it around the object.
http://img28.photobucket.com/albums/v83/th...parky/map10.jpg (80k)

You’ll have to be careful when you make spherical maps, however. Keep in mind that it will squeeze the ends in and the middle will bulge out, so making the middle section more squeezed in and the top and bottom of the map stretched out, it will compensate for the stretching that happens.
Spherical mapping can be done around any of the axes:
http://img28.photobucket.com/albums/v83/th...parky/map13.jpg (note: here you can see the stretch and bulge of the map quite well, this original map was a grid.)

Cylindrical mapping is similar, except, obviously, it’s for cylinders.
You’re taking a map and wrapping it around the cylinder, like a label:
http://img28.photobucket.com/albums/v83/th...parky/map15.jpg

Something to keep in mind is that the map will have to go all the way around, so you might want to do a little math to figure out the surface area you’re going to cover, so that your map doesn’t end up stretched out like this:
http://img28.photobucket.com/albums/v83/th...parky/map16.jpg

Once again, if you either alpha map or leave a few same colored pixels at the top and bottom, it won’t stretch over the top, which will look bad.

There’s also cubic mapping, I’m not all that into it. It’s pretty simple, so I’ll just show you with a picture:
http://img28.photobucket.com/albums/v83/th...parky/map17.jpg

I’m going to do more complicated stuff once school is over, so stay tuned.

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Adventure Dog: Everyone's favorite little black and white dog.
In a fight for peace, you must fight for equality, not revenge.
"I am against evolution being taught in schools. I am also against widespread literacy and the refrigeration of food." - The Onion

This post has been edited by sparky : 02 November 2004 - 02:34 PM

Nice tutorials.
Just one question, how do you create the smudge in the texturing part? You're very vague about this.

Hm, I usually use cubic mapping for spheres and cylinders. The other kinds lead to stretchings or don't cover the entire object. Usually noone notices or cares if s/he does.

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“It is interesting that well-protected secrets and complicated puzzles are often solved faster than easy ones. Why? Because the better a secret is protected and the more complicated a puzzle is, the more thinkers it attracts.” - me
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Heh, Mechanisto is pretty stuck on cubic mapping, so most of this doesn't actually apply to me. If there's a face I want to hide, I have to stick another object with a different texture on top of it. The spherical stuff still applies to an extent, though. If I ever switch renderers, I'll have to find this again...

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Quote

Originally posted by Arion:
**Nice tutorials.
Just one question, how do you create the smudge in the texturing part? You're very vague about this.

Hm, I usually use cubic mapping for spheres and cylinders. The other kinds lead to stretchings or don't cover the entire object. Usually noone notices or cares if s/he does.

**

I just use one of those textured brushes that looks like some blobbies of dirt or whatever, increase the spacing so that they become individual blobs as opposed to a streak, and then decrease the flow to only about 5 or 10 percent. I then just paint on grime until I get the amount that I want.

Matrix

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"Interestingly, according to modern astronomers, space is finite. This is a very comforting thought -- particularly for people who can never remember where they have left things." - Woody Allen

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Making Custom Brushes for Grime in Photoshop 7 or higher
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I used Photoshop CS for this, but it should work for 7 as well. Lower versions than that don’t have that lovely brush engine, but you can still do a lot of this.
WARNING: while you are editing your brush don’t switch to other brushes. It doesn’t save what you do to the brush as you go.

First off, I go to Myang’s Free Textures and look for a nice scratched up map, like this (this is scaled down because the real size is ridiculous): http://img28.photobucket.com/albums/v83/th...arky/brush1.jpg

Then I copy the map into photoshop, convert it to black and white ( Image ‡ Adjustments ‡ Desaturate ) and use Curves ( Image ‡ Adjustments ‡ Curves ) to raise the contrast (you could also use brightness/contrast or levels. I just prefer curves. Sometimes I’ll also use levels to adjust it more. http://img28.photobucket.com/albums/v83/th...arky/brush2.jpg

Then I select a circle out of that and copy it into a new document.
After it’s there, I go back and select another circle with an interesting pattern, and copy it over a to the same new document as the other circle. I put the second circle on top of the first and set it’s mode to screen. That adds a bit more randomness. Then I use the lasso tool to select along the edges of the circle and make it ragged, but still roughly circular:
http://img28.photobucket.com/albums/v83/th...arky/brush3.jpg

When that’s done, I flatten the image with the circles ( Layer ‡ Flatten Image ) and define it as a brush ( Edit ‡ Define Brush )

Now we start making our brush.
The first thing I do is to start a new blank image (usually about 640 x 480 – just enough space for testing purposes). I then select my new brush (it’s usually at the bottom of the brush menu) and open up the brush editor (either of the red arrows): http://img28.photobucket.com/albums/v83/th...arky/brush4.jpg
I lower the diameter to around 70 or 80 if I think it’s too high (blue arrow)
I lower the spacing until they just touch.

In the shape dynamics panel, I raise the size jitter quite a bit. I also raise the roundness jitter a bit. http://img28.photobucket.com/albums/v83/th...arky/brush5.jpg

Then I turn on scattering in the left panel and up the scattering just a bit. I use different amounts for count depending on if I just want a grimy edge and the rest to be solid, or if I want consistent griminess. I think it helps to change it up. http://img28.photobucket.com/albums/v83/th...arky/brush6.jpg

I usually save the brush at this point, and if I ever need to change it up using dual brush, I can, but, personally, I’d rather have this brush at my fingertips and change it up as I see fit later.
Saving the brush:
Changing all those settings isn’t permanent unless you make the edited brush into a new brush.
Make sure that your new brush is selected in the menu (it will have a black box around it), and then click on the new brush button. http://img28.photobucket.com/albums/v83/th...arky/brush8.jpg

Another way to get more use out of one brush is to use dual brushes (you can also use texture – but that can get repetitive looking. Only use the texture option if you aren’t going to be painting a large area with the brush). Just play around with those settings until you get something you like. http://img28.photobucket.com/albums/v83/th...arky/brush7.jpg

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Adventure Dog: Everyone's favorite little black and white dog.
Walkthroughs for 3D space scenes and objects - please feel free to add your own methods to the thread.

(This message has been edited by sparky (edited 07-02-2004).)

This post has been edited by sparky : 02 November 2004 - 02:27 PM

Sigh you can't tell me how to get a free version of PS 7, can you :p? I can't do much of this stuff with my version 4. :frown:

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“It is interesting that well-protected secrets and complicated puzzles are often solved faster than easy ones. Why? Because the better a secret is protected and the more complicated a puzzle is, the more thinkers it attracts.” - me
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Quote

Originally posted by Arion:
**Sigh you can't tell me how to get a free version of PS 7, can you:p? I can't do much of this stuff with my version 4. :frown:

**

(url="http://"http://www.journeyed.com")www.journeyed.com(/url)

Not free, but better than nothing.

Matrix

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"Interestingly, according to modern astronomers, space is finite. This is a very comforting thought -- particularly for people who can never remember where they have left things." - Woody Allen

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Quote

Originally posted by what_is_the_matrix:
**
www.journeyed.com

Not free, but better than nothing.

Matrix

**

Photoshop Elements for 50 bucks? That's not a bad deal at all... Half price. I'd say give that a go, or look into GIMP.

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It's annoying to need to start up XDarwin everytime.

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“It is interesting that well-protected secrets and complicated puzzles are often solved faster than easy ones. Why? Because the better a secret is protected and the more complicated a puzzle is, the more thinkers it attracts.” - me
(url="http://"http://starlightdev.freewebpage.org")STARLIGHT DEVELOPMENT(/url)

you can do some of it with v.4, it just takes a lot more work. v.4 had brushes, didn't it? and layer blend modes? If it didn't then you really need a new version, but if it did, you can do this stuff.

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(url="http://"http://www.adventuredog.net")Adventure Dog(/url): Everyone's favorite little black and white dog.
(url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum9/HTML/005135.html#")Walkthroughs for 3D space scenes and objects(/url) - please feel free to add your own methods to the thread.
(url="http://"http://www.evula.org/aftermath") Aftermath (/url): It rocks. Trust me.

Photoshop didn't revamp its brush engine until version 6. Versions 7 and CS (8) have many tweaks on what 6 established, but none of that stuff is going to be there in 4. Number 4 is solid, though, and is still a very useful program, if it's all your machine can run and/or you can't afford a newer edition. I'm pretty sure you can make custom brush shapes in 4, but you can only change size, spacing, opacity, color, mode...all the basics. None of that random tilt, hue variation, wet edges...wait, maybe wet edges is in there. Most things aren't pressure-sensitive, though, but that's moot if you don't have a tablet.

Layer support in 4, though, was fully functional. I think they didn't have adjustment layers yet, and I know you couldn't do 16-bit (per channel) layers until CS, but masks, blending modes, transparency lock, all that stuff should be there.

I was hooked on 4 until 6 came out. I never liked 5 or 5.5. It's a very robust piece of software. I've been using Photoshop since version 2, and 4 has been one of my favorites. 3, 4, 6...haven't worked with CS enough yet...but yeah. Good program.

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I know that the revamped engine didn't come out until later with all the whizbang features, but can't the older versions still define a black and white image as a brush? That's all you really need.

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(url="http://"http://www.adventuredog.net")Adventure Dog(/url): Everyone's favorite little black and white dog.
(url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum9/HTML/005135.html#")Walkthroughs for 3D space scenes and objects(/url) - please feel free to add your own methods to the thread.
(url="http://"http://www.evula.org/aftermath") Aftermath (/url): It rocks. Trust me.

I suppose that you could probably do something with the normal brushes and filter them, but it'd be kinda kludgy and not nearly as good.

Matrix

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"Interestingly, according to modern astronomers, space is finite. This is a very comforting thought -- particularly for people who can never remember where they have left things." - Woody Allen

(url="http://"http://htf.mondominishows.com/valentine/main.asp?seed=7375&serial;=214877")The funniest valentine I've ever gotten.(/url)

as long as you can define brushes, you can do this. Just keep changing the brush size manually. If you have a couple of custom, image-defined brushes you can keep switching them up and changing their size and erasing out bits and eventually get some nice dirt and smudges.

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(url="http://"http://www.adventuredog.net")Adventure Dog(/url): Everyone's favorite little black and white dog.
(url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum9/HTML/005135.html#")Walkthroughs for 3D space scenes and objects(/url) - please feel free to add your own methods to the thread.
(url="http://"http://www.evula.org/aftermath") Aftermath (/url): It rocks. Trust me.

I am pretty sure that all versions of Photoshop from 3 on up can define a custom brush shape from a grayscale image, for the record.

It may be worth noting that I can't get your photobucket image links to work, Sparky. I don't know what may have broken them, on my side or the server side, etc. They are non-functional for me in Safari 1.2.3 on OSX 10.3.5, if that's of any help.

Keep the tutorials coming, if you've got 'em and got the time (I've been hit pretty hard by school too, I know how that goes). It's good to see this sort of thing.

The board software move broke all the old links, there is an extra http://" in front of them and " at the end. Therefore, Sparky, I humbly suggest you to correct them all. In the meantime, people can copy the link to the clipboard, paste it in the address bar of a new window, correct it there, and hit return.

Just to add on to Zacha Pedro's advice, I found that if you copy the link once into a new window, you only have to change the end number as seen in Sparky's posts. This saved me a lot of unecessary switching back and forth.

thanks, I hadn't thought about how the new board would affect these links.

and Azdara is right - all these image names just change the last digit as they go along.

(edit) they've been changed. the smilies didn't work though, and it won't let me edit them. oh well.

This post has been edited by sparky : 02 November 2004 - 02:36 PM