The texturing misadventures of PIX

[PIX]

Hey all, I started to take texturing seriously in may this year. My skills are getting better but i have along way to go *compared to some of the great artist here. This sketchbook
will hopefully increase my skill but also get some real honest criticism of my work.

[glynnsmith]

Man. Post images directly to your blog. No one wants to click through to a blog.

[PIX]

I havent done any real modeling for awhile now so, i thought it be a good idea to start here. *even though its ment to be a texturing sketchbook.

war hammer axe: basically used the concept art as a template. An alpha map will be used for the hole in the blade (not sure if thats a good idea) and sharp bits around the handle.

[PIX]

Attempting more stylized textures i decided to work on a simpler objects. Most of my time was spent, trying to get the tf2 style down.*corner based on an old STC.

First try: It really needs more interesting elements such as borders on the top and bottom. Warning lines to add more colour. Also the ground plane (grass) needs some open dirt or rocks.

Second try: Looking back at the tf2 corner, i knew that texture needed a lot of work. Adding more detail to the wall and grass would make the corner interesting. I also added some up right planes for grass. Previously having trouble with transparency, i wasn't looking forward to it. But after a little trial and error , it all came together. The original grass has this border/stoke around it, the trouble is that the anti-aliasing makes the alpha map play up. So basically turn it off when dealing with alphas.

*Is the corner too busy?
*would the alpha play up if the map was a bigger res?

[PIX]

Madworld is an interesting visual style which in turn has interesting textures. The style (Comic Noir) is basically black and white treatment, with a possible 3rd colour to add effect/mood. Example: Red for blood. In madworld red is used as blood and gives the game a visual punch.

I used an old stc prop to practice the style. I'm a bit unsure about where/how to add detail in a style like this. Adding too much detail would make the prop to busy. The other issue I had was choosing what was white and what was black. High lights are white but so are details

[PIX]

warhammer texture map

[PIX]

war hammer axe - wireframe + render.

[PIX]

Between the collection of reference and the actual painting of the texture. Its a good idea to save a few renders and sketch on top. For this I used the madworld texture treatment. This technique gives you decent idea how the textures will look like without going back and forth. but I guess you could skip this if you had a few good pieces of concept art.

[PIX]

Madworld - cage match fence

[PIX]

Just a quick update on my madworld themed cage. After the guard rails, went on to do the steps (which are on the same texture map).Some of the cage was also attempted. I always knew that colour plays a big part in the overall texture. Colour can create mood, theme and can also tell a story. But when you are limited to a few colours it is even more important.