Whats the best way to do this?

[Sir Apple]

Hey.

I'm sort of stumped on the best way to create an area of a texture.

Note the diamond pattern running down the center of the tube:





I thought, maybe I could do that just on my normal map. But I'd rather like to have the pattern on my diffuse. I recall a little tutorial that showed a good way to do this. Although, that was quite awhile ago and I don't remember how to do it, or where I found it.

Any ideas on the best approach to this?

Thank you
~SA

[Talon]

I'd probably bake it out as an AO map from the high poly and then you can use that as a mask and tweak the contrast until it looks right.

Alternatively, you could build a brush pattern and a little bit of creative layer styling should get you the result you want.

[Sir Apple]

The problem is there is no HP version. Although that would be a good method.

Hmm. I seem to remember the tutorial having you open up (in photoshop) a selection box that had a few cloth patterns. In addition to those it had some sort of grid pattern. And basically you would make two grid patterns, and offset one of them which would then create a diamond effect.

I am probably wrong with some of that, it was quite awhile ago. But do any of those tools sound familiar? Personally I can't find them. I'm almost positive I remember seeing the grid "thingy" in the same area as a few different cloth materials, in photoshop.

I don't drink, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't a dream . No but really, I'll keep looking around I guess but if you know what I'm referring to or have a few other good options for creating this pattern, please tell .

Thank you,
~SA

[Pankake]

Create a new 8x8 image and create a diamind that looks something like this:


Then go to Edit>Define pattern, call it something like diamondPattern01 or whatever.

Then go to your texture, make a selection where you want the diamond pattern to be.
Then shift+f5 (fill) chose "pattern" where it usually says "foreground color", expand the pattern swatches and your diamond pattern will be there, then fill.

[Sir Apple]

Alright thank you .

[Xoliul]

Patterns are great. It's really helpfull to have a collection of those that you can use in many different ways.
BTW, I remember using a site quite some time ago, an online "pattern creator" of sorts. You had lots of options, and in the end it gave you a nicely tiling pattern image in PNG. I can not find that site again, anybody know it?

[McGreed]

Remember, if you just need some pattern or detail for normalmap, you don't have to make it like the original version. Like that one you got there, you can just have a lowpoly plane, and modelling the highpoly pattern on another plane and bake it, and then put it together in photoshop. There is no need to modelling it in that shape its in, in this case the cylinder.

[glynnsmith]

Yeah. There are a couple of quick ways you could get that pattern into your texture:

1. Panks Pattern Fill in Photoshop, convert that to a normal map with whatever your fav NM PS filter is (or use crazybump), then use the Offset NormalMapCombine action in PS to properly overlay that to your normal map
2. You could model the diamonds in your 3D app as instances at mid detail, use whatever Array tools it might have to copy them with spacing. Bake that down to your texture and use the Offset NormalMapCombine action in PS to properly overlay that to your normal map
3. Do #2, but use a bend modifier to round the grip before baking, so you can bake it out with the rest of the geo and avoid having to use the Offset NormalMapCombine action

I would most likely go with 2 or 3, because I always find that using HP geo and baking that down yields the best results. I'd probably also turn smoothing groups off on my HP grip before baking, because the detail's pretty small

[benclark]

depending on what style you are texturing in you could just use a photo ref

I think for things like knurling you can always tell when patterns have been used as there is a flat uniformity to it

Personally I would find a decent ref, run a high pass on it and play with the curves until you have a decent overlay like this...

[Sir Apple]

Thank you Xol, Mcgreed, Glyn and Ben.

I did some searching for refs. But I was always wary about it because I wasn't sure if using real images is a good idea on such a small object, especially since its a weapon. But since you guys say its good to have real pattern images, then I guess I was wrong about this .

Oh, thats an interesting way Ben. I guess I could try that to.

I did also try to figure out my own way last night, but it would only work for a normal map:





Also its not perfect, but thats nearly impossible to notice when its scaled down to fit the appropriate area of the texture... plus it practically blinds you if you try to find the imperfections .

But I'm not sure if that would be considered acceptable?

~ Thank you