STC #15 - May11 - May18 - Treasure Chest

[Tiros]

Filbot: Alright, I'll throw one up shortly, but right now I got to do some cleaning

[hp]: Well, there's still two days to go, so it's not over yet. The next STC will be the 25th of may.

Cheers

[meckanism]

Tiros: That would be a nice tutorial to do, some tips on that subject would be very nice also :>

good job on the entry's everyone.

[Tiros]

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.

_____________________________

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!

[Filbot]

Thanks for making so time to post this Tiros. It was very helpful!

[Baida]

Thanks for sharing this Tiros, I should focus more on getting a nice specular map, It helps a lot to get something nicer.

Often, I did it quickly....

[meckanism]

thanks alot Tiros, sweet tutorial :>

[Jedah]

Here is mine. Im new to both texturing and the whole 90 minute thing in general, so its definatly not the greatest. Hoping I can get some feedback - mainly on specular. I still dont quite get how to make a decent one ( the specular map I used is experimental )

Also before anyone notes it...I know the sword cross is crap. Ran out of time .

Render:



Diffuse - http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/3...uvcopy2hw3.png
Spec - http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/1...pecularda7.png
Norm - http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/1...vnormalfw0.png

[Minimus]

Nice work all of you. i just downloaded the chest but it all messed up. why dont the polys stick togheter and why is it a editable mesh....just some questions becaus i'm always using editable poly.
nothing of this mather when it comes to texturing i hope i'm just curious

[MEK]

Hello, I'm new to this speed texturing, so i am a bit rusty. I would say that i didn't get to 100% finished. But i got close, I know that i am not supposed to mess with the model. But i wanted to show the texture when it was closed as well, it was really hard to see the top when it was opened




The texture is basically made from a AO map, plywood and metal reference from cgtextures. I masked out the holes in the metal creating borders for the chest. i made simple black lines to create the planks.
and added the hinge detail from another photo.

[AIS_Rich]

Was going for a cleaner, still in use look for this chest. Something a thief may be looking for while skulking about the castle.

Wood and polished inlay on top were textures I already had. Metal was a gray base, with a scratch layer overlayed. Also added a little color overlay to break up the gray. For adding some color to metal I like to use photos of motor oil which may sound strange. A photo of standing motor oil, like from a parking lot where dripping oil has sat, collected dirt, and creates those pretty streaks of color actually works pretty well. Just overlay at low opacity.

The metal pattern was created from a black/white knotwork image. That can be used to crop the metal, and then for the normal map creation. The pattern was just cut/pasted around the edges. A quick dodge to corners/edges brings out some highlights.

The rivet thingies were put on last minute and I didn't have time to get them better lined up.