Photoshop texturing

[AcidRain]

Does anyone have any good tutorials on making realistic textures such as the metal some of you guys use on your guns and such. I've been using photoshop for about 6 or 7 years now and never really tried to do realistic textures but i got curious and would like to try to do some.

Thanks in advance, Kyle aka acidRain

[nfollmer]

The best way I found to learn to texture is look at other people's work. For metal, take this thread for instance:

http://www.game-artist.net/forums/fi...html#post68626

That's one of the best metal textures I have seen. Not overdone like some, simple and it gets the job done.

As far as good tutorials, check out the articles on texturing on this site. Yes, some do not involve metal, but you can take the skills learned in making any 'material' and transfer it over to others.

Some decent metal tutorials I have found are:

http://www.tutorio.com/tutorial/photoshop-metal-texture - skip the 'rust', dents and scratches and this is a decent starting point (needs a little modification though).

kirupa.com - Metal Texture

Grungy Metal Texture » Free Photoshop Tutorials - this one is a more painted metal look.

[racer445]

For metal I start with either a flat grey or a special base I created. When you make a metal "base" texture, you NEVER want a over contrasted, highly grunged up base with a lot of texture. It's a mistake I see a lot. You want your base to be neutral and low contrast so your grunge doesn't simply blend in with the base.

I also rarely ever use photos when creating metal for weapons. I have 500+ grunge brushes from the web and some that I made, using those lightly along with slight color variation and the smudge/sharpen tools, I can create the texture I want without using photos. I always keep photos for environment and prop work or for taking shortcuts on details that would take way too long to hand paint in photoshop. (for example logos and stuff)

Color realllllly defines stuff, get that down first! I begin by giving my metal a blue tint at like 2% opacity. I then go add extra color in the specular when I am done with the diffuse (unless im doing old stuff, then i add it directly into the diffuse!) to make things really pop! Brown on down angles and a layer with some random color blobs at a VERY low opacity on the spec.

I see so many weapons every day that are bland and monochrome, when all they need to do is add a little color and it will come to life.

99% of my edging is done with a 1px white brush and a tablet. I lay it on very thick and then erase it with a special grunge brush on various opacities. The rest of the 1% is done with a few brushes I have.

[barneyslayer]

You know who has a really nice video tutorial? Millenia's tutorial on FPSB. He's also a resident here at Game Artist I believe (Or I at least I THINK I saw some posts), so maybe if you post nice stuff about him, he can lend a few tips?

Link: FPSBANANA > Tutorials > CS:S > Skinning > Doing textures the PROPER way - video

[biomanz]

Here's a large selection of various tutorials, of decent quality too...

77 Essential Photoshop Techniques for photo-realistic Textures | Beeex.net

It has some tutorials that took me quite some time to find, but the many others would save a lot of effort on my part.

[nikwing]

thx for the link!

question how about human/ flesh texture? i saw very good human model here with realistic skin, lips & eyes texture.

Is it photo-sourcing then a lot of clone/stamp tool? or paint it manually from 0? or bake a human skin shader from the app?

already use 3d app for some time but not yet undertand how to texture human.

thx

[virtualalias]

Originally Posted by AcidRain

Does anyone have any good tutorials on making realistic textures such as the metal some of you guys use on your guns and such. I've been using photoshop for about 6 or 7 years now and never really tried to do realistic textures but i got curious and would like to try to do some.

Thanks in advance, Kyle aka acidRain

Try looking here. A free account gets 15MB worth of downloads per day, which should be enough to get you started with some decent base textures, provided you want to use photo-realistic images for your base metal layers.

With sufficient cloning and a careful eye (to avoid repeating detail marks too frequently), you should find some decent stuff here.

Originally Posted by nikwing

thx for the link!

question how about human/ flesh texture? i saw very good human model here with realistic skin, lips & eyes texture.

Is it photo-sourcing then a lot of clone/stamp tool? or paint it manually from 0? or bake a human skin shader from the app?

already use 3d app for some time but not yet understand how to texture human.

thx

Photo-sourcing and cloning can work, in my experience, but then you can also check out some inexpensive skin tiles that are available for purchase on www.Renderosity.com.

Once you have a decent set of skin textures, I would imagine the rest is just various blending modes/adjustment layers and decals applied via Photoshop/GIMP.

There may even be a set of skin freebies on Renderosity...I'm not sure. I haven't really looked around, as my modeling/texturing tends to be mostly clothing or architecture. (Surprisingly, I've found making skin un-necessary thus far, but I'm sure I'll need it in the future.)

(Alternatively, having a friend or family member take some good reference images of you or you taking them of them with a decent 5mp+ camera could help a great deal as well. Watch your lighting!)