Whoops, were planning on making this a mini-tutorial.. but seems it became pretty long.. gee.. I had no idea I'd be writing this much.
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So, I threw together a tutorial here, the result ain't perfect, was kinda rushed, but you should get the idea pretty clearly while comparing with the result given from the crazybump specular
So, let's start off by showing the
Diffuse
Looks pretty bland, eh? Well, that's because you can't really see the tons of subtle details. You don't want to make the details too obvious in your diffuse, some are actually better off to be put in the specular map.
So, what kind of specular do we get if we run this through crazybump?
"click"
Yes.. horrible.. it looks like shite.. If you have a weak stomach you prolly don't want to see the
Result given by these two together in a max scene.
Well then, don't run off yet.. I've only showed you how it's not supposed to look.. so it won't get any worse.
With a simple bit of fiddling with the adjustment-layers in photoshop with my diffuse as the base,
this is what we get.
Neat, huh? And
this is how it looks in the max scene. Looks ok, could be improved but, I won't be spending too much time on creating a great result right now as I'm in quite a hurry.
So, now you might be wondering: Why the heck is his specular-map coloured & how the heck do I create this thing then?
Then why is it coloured?
That's because the colour in the specular map will effect the highlights in your material. In other words, make a specular that's completely red and you'll get a red specular.
But why ain't my specular coloured blue?
That's because it's the negative hue of the diffuse. Not sure how to put this.. but.. let's say you got a red material, and your specular colour is blue. And since blue is the opposite colour of red (well, almost) you will get a more white and matte specular.
Giving your specular an inverted hue isn't a must or some kind of rule at all.. give it any colour you want as long as it looks good. For example, copper should have a pink'ish specular colour while having a brown'ish diffuse.
And how the heck do I create this kind of specular?
It's really simple, I'll show you how I made mine.
(Note that I'm using PS CS3 on Windows Vista, so it might look a bit different)
I usually start off by creating the "Hue / Saturation" Adjustment layer which can be found
here.
I invert the hue and desurate it a bit, since the coulours going to be stronger once we increase the contracts with the "Brightness / Contrast" Adjustment layer. These are my
settings.
Once you're happy with your hue, then add your "Brightness / Contrast" Adjustment layer which can be found in the same place as the "Hue / Saturation" Adjustment layer.
Then I increase the brightness, or the specular would be awfully feint. And I also increase the contrast to bring out all the details hidden in the texture.
These were my
settings.
Now Please Note: Your specular is most likely not going to come out perfect the first time, you'll have to do a lot of tweaking and experimenting before you get a great result. And for different engines and shaders these maps will come out differently.
There's also a lot of different way of creating your specular maps, though this is the one I favour.
To preview this in 3ds max, simply put your diffuse in the diffuse slot, and the specular in the specular level and specular colour slot. Then turn on DirectX Display.
If you're using maya however, I'm afraid I don't know how to do it.
Hope this were of help, Cheers!