Texture material

Texture materials 

For my first project I have been tasked with creating three textures,one hand painted and one from a photo the third is whatever i want to create from the previous two techniques. Before i start trying to attempt to even texture i gotta research what textures are.

video game textures 
Video game textures are used in games to distinguish a rocky surface from a bloody wound on a characters arm they have many many uses. During research I found out that what i thought was textures are known as materials and textures are different maps that make up a material there are colour bump normal and specular. But each material has its own category for which it is located architectural,natural and decal.

Range of materials.

dwarven window
architectural

rainforest cover 
natural 








suburban hedge

natural

Plasma impact
Decal 










Physical based rendering 
physical based rendering is a method in which allows the assets look more natural and photo-realistic by making the surface of the object that the light bounces off and the shadows it creates more accurate. A lot of games in the new generation use physical based rendering such as dice creators of star wars battlefront and battlefield 1.When looking back at some of there older games you can really see the difference.

Texture mapping
Texture maps are made up of different layers that change different aspects from colour to detail.

colour maps/diffuse maps
Colour maps are the base colours of the texture no lighting information or shading information and are also known as diffuse map.As you can see from the example I have found no detail just colour which when added to the other layers will make the model have skin colour.

Bump maps 
Bump maps are grayscale images that act as height maps but does not add any actual height more like artificial height. Bump maps can also be manipulated to raise and lower detail by changing the saturation of the Gray colour by 50% lighter and darker.

 
Specular maps
specular maps are really simple it basically tells the programme you are using that what areas on the model are shiny and areas that are not. For example a wet rock will reflect light differently to a shiny rock.The colour on the model may be the same as well as the bumpiness but with a specular map you can change that.

Displacement maps
A displacement map is a bit like a bump map but the big difference is that it is a height map but it actually alters the height of the detail. This is usually used by attaching the displacement map to a low resolution model which allows high detail on low resolution.

   
Normal map
Normal maps are another type of height map like bump and displacement but of instead of using a greyscale image like a bump map this map uses the directions of the geometry's normal's to allow height and how light affects your model to be faked.

Texturing software
During research i looked into a couple different texturing software that was available and see how different programmes go about texturing and the difficulty on learning and acquiring the programme.

Mari 
Mari was a 3D painting software which has a wide range of texture mapping,advanced layering and complex geometry handling. Mari was used in the creation of a lot of big movies and games.
merits

• star wars the force awakens (movies) 
• paddington (movies)
• the order 1886 (game)
• The witcher 3 (cinematic trailer)
• The elder scrolls online (cinematic trailer)

features

• 3D Painting 
• Advanced layering 
• realistic interactive preview
• complex geometry handling 
• colour management
• rendering and baking system 

The price of Mari tp buy is 1233 pounds to rent starting costs are around 365 pounds but a free trial is optional to try for 15 days,

Mudbox 

Mudbox is a 3D sculpting software that has a tonne of features that assist in anything 3D

Features

• Texture baking 
• texture importing and exporting 
• smooth integration to other software
• symmetry tool 
• professional digital sculpting tool-set

For mudbox there is a free trial but with payments you can pay

• monthly for 12 pound 
• 1 year for 90 pound 
• 2 years for 168 pound
• 3 years for 246 pound 

Photoshop

Photoshop is a 2D artist programme that has many tools of generating the texture maps. This programme i have used personally for the past two years of my course and after a little bit of help it is really easy to use and I am always finding out more features the more I use it.
  

features 

• easy to use layering system 
• wide range of brushes for painting 
• able to generate bump and normal maps 
•  integration with other software

price

Photoshop can only be bought in a pack for 45.73 a month. 

Scene Breakdown 1
In this exercise we was challenged in 20 mins to to pick apart the scene we had been given and to break it up into different sections. We then gathered as a group to see how other people had broken down the scene and there methods.

scene breakdown 2

This is the second breakdown we did but instead we broke down each texture on the image and put it into its own material map.

Project proposal

I am going to be over the next nine weeks creating 3 materials from scratch using different methods.

I will be using types of different processes such as photorealistic material, hand painted material and a third of my choice which will be any of the other two again or an animated one mentioned in the brief.

The first material I will make is my photorealistic material for this I am going to take images multiple images and through that I will decide which texture I will take to Photoshop and start creating the colour, bump and specular maps for the material. I am currently deciding between a couple ideas of what I am going to do from doing a concrete floor it is still up for debate. The process I will use for this material is photograph>Photoshop>unreal editor and the time doing this will probably be a full day of work due to my loose understanding of unreal editor and how rusty I am to it.

The second material I am going to create is going to be the hand painted texture. I will be doing dragon scales or some form of scales that would normally go on a lizard type animal or creature. I will be looking at different types of scales from different monsters during the project to gain a good understanding of their design. All the materials we make during this project have to be tillable. The process for making this certain material is going to be a bit shorter than the previous due to there not being a small time period gathering the photos saving a bit of time and It is as simple as Photoshop>unreal editor.

The third material Is really up to my choice from two of the previous processes I believe I will probably go with another photorealistic material and will do a wooden floor for the process it will literally be the photorealistic material process Image>Photoshop>unreal editor. This will be hopefully easier and straighter forward due to me developing two textures beforehand.

Wood texture and unreal experiments 

One of the big programmes we are going to using throughout this project is unreal editor in unreal this is a a suite of different tools for game developers to develop and build games. We started testing out how to use it and the different feature by taking a wooden texture created by our tutor and we had to get it into unreal and show it on the ball prop. We followed a guide when creating this map and it showed how we use the plug ins from the maps we created and and where to plug them in this was very confusing at first but over time i will understand how simple it is.

The editor that is used when we are plugging in the maps and when looking for tools to help amplify aspects like shininess and roughness. 

These are props that we can present the materials we create and edit it on it gives us a chance to see how they would be affected on an object and how the light would affect it.

















Building a photo-realistic material 
For this activity i was given the stone texture by my tutor and we was to turn that into a tillable material. The method we was learning when going through this process was photo realistic.This involves using the image you gather through research.
 

We took the image i had been given and cut out the outline around the brick and then and created another layer underneath for future purposes.

I then how to make sure it was tillable we had to offset it this where the image is cut in half into four and flipped. This is what it will look like when it becomes a tillable texture.

The normal map we use to show the stones been raised. doing this was very easy and only required a small amount of work to create  

This is the specular map this determines the relativity of the texture.

The unreal editor this was my first time using it and i found it very difficult to use impossible even with help.

This is the texture shown on the prop. I was happy with this work and i feel like this is gonna be easier the more i continue.

 Research
 While playing the new remaster of skyrim I decided take screenshots of the floors and walls to further look at how the remaster changes the game from its 2011 original.

Time plan for the project 

Week 1- initial research and scene breakdowns

Week 2-initial research and unreal editor experiments

Week 3-research and more experiments

Week 4­-challenges and planning  

Week 5-unreal experiments  

Week 6-The first texture  

Week 7-The second texture

Week 8-The third texture

Week 9- evaluation and finishing off work

Time plan 
This is my time plan i have set out for making my three textures.

Hand painted texture red dragon scales 
This is my hand painted texture i decided to do dragon scales since i wanted to go with something nice and simple but effective.I quickly looked at some armour scales for reference and scale this did help when creating my scale. I went with a simple black and red colour its effective. I wanted to create dragon scales and be a bit unique to some but stay simple.    

After creating one i duplicated three and lined them up so i could get them to be seamless allowing it to be tillable. There is also my colour map specular maps and bump maps.

My hand painted texture was very long to make due to me not been very good at making maps and using unreal i had my tutor help me through a lot of it.

My photorealistic tile 


For this texture i went out and took a photo of the tiled wall of the Chinese takeaway and imported it into Photoshop.

After that i started to cut apart the image until i found a easy section that i could make seamless so it would be tillable when i offset it.

The colour map of my tiled work

the specular map ready for unreal.

the normal map ready for unreal.

The photorealsitic texture was at first very confusing but after learning how simple these textures are to learn i basically flew through the work in no time i still needed help with unreal.













My third texture and unreal work 

my stone pebble texture was easy to make while developing this i learnt that clicking ctrl and alt and pointing the mouse over anything tell you what the key or option does.

i learnt a lot more about reflective when experimenting with this wooden texture map and more about how light and dark affect how reflective an object is.  

All of my textures i have developed throughout the project lined up.

This was my wall with moss texture i did with my tutor at the beginning of the project.

While experimenting in unreal i messed with a few options and made the texture very shiny on the edge of been wet.

All of my textures i have developed throughout the project lined up. These textures i messed around with and experimented on really helped grow my knowledge of using unreal engine and how all these tools work and that i will be ready when using unreal in the future.

The very shiny wooden floor.











Texture material assessment 


This is a quick assessment we did today we 20 minutes to make a texture and had to make 4 of them each one was a texture we had already done during our lessons with our tutors. I did water ice wood and rock.





























Assessment from peers
When we was done with the texture we walked around assessing each others work and pointing out what was good and what can we improve.
comments 
Throughout the comments said people seemed to really like my rock pattern and enjoy the detail on it.
I also kept to the rule of always developing in the power of 2 and i created four textures.
I did see that peers felt a lot that my wood texture needed a lot more detail and shade.
All my textures where not seamless.
Some thought there was not much detail but had nice colours.
I saw that a peer had said if i added a background to ice it would add a lot of depth.

conclusion
My conclusion is that i had a good go at the task i personally enjoyed the fact that i was timed it added a lot more challenge and been forced to remember how to create these textures and there processes made it clearer in my head. I also understand that i need to when developing any texture think about depth and detail.

EVALUATION

For this project I was asked to create three tillable texture maps one photorealistic one hand painted and one of my choice. I decided to do a hand painted dragon scales texture and then I created my photorealistic tiles. I then towards the end used pre made maps to develop a couple tillable textures.

My hand painted texture was the first I created and it was the longest one out of the lot to develop. In my proposal I set out that I would create some scales that would be fit for a dragon so I looked at a couple scales before I started developing mine this helped with the shape. I went with a really simple red with black lines design but the advantage of scales I that I only had to develop one and then copy and paste it cutting down the time by quite a lot giving me more time to focus on other aspects. While trying to get the texture to be tillable I ran into a couple issues while using the offset tool the edges of scales where not lined up properly so when the scales were offset they would be all broken and not symmetrical. To fix this all it took was some quick adjustments to some placements. Creating the maps for the hand painted texture was quite simple after been informed how each one is developed, this was all developed using the Photoshop tools and the next step was to bring the maps normal specular and colour into unreal engine and get it game ready. This step at first was really difficult even though throughout the project we have been constantly taught how to use the unreal engine editor it did not click with me but when using it with my first proper texture I started to understand how it all works and I felt it would be easier for the next couple materials. Overall my first texture turned out really nice it looked like a flower and the reception from peers was positive and it is my favourite out of the couple developed. 

My second texture was my photorealistic texture. Which I honestly had forgotten the process in which you create a photorealistic texture and after some explaining from my tutor I understood the process properly using the photograph I took of the tiled wall outside a Chinese takeaway I did deviate from my original idea that was in my proposal because I wanted to find simplest texture to have to craft. After taking the image I edited out a couple sections which would be tillable and cleaned up the detail and some of the effects on the tile so it would not look so repetitive on the colour map. When coming to make the maps it was really simple yet again only issue was that I had forgotten where some options/tools where while editing. A couple things I delved more into is the displacement maps and how black and white affects how shiny something is. Overall the shiny tile texture was at first really difficult since I did not know the process of developing it but after some explaining and guidance it was easy to develop.

The third texture went a bit differently than I originally hoped. Due to a lack of time I was informed I could use pre made maps for my final texture since I could show I could build them by now after two textures been developed but my skills using the unreal engine where not as sharp even though I stated that when developing the other textures it was simple when explained but I wanted to be able to do it without a constant guide. I used a couple maps and came up with a couple materials all pre made of course but redoing the progress over and over it became so simple in my head and I understand the basics of editing in unreal and I feel like in future projects this will be really useful. While trying out the editor I took my textures and experimented around a bit. This has been really helpful with learning unreal in further depth and I have learned more about how to take high definition screenshots.

In conclusion this project overall has been very difficult overall. When I first started the project all the work and the learning looked very intense and difficult I would not be able to finish tasks and with the loss of work added a lot of stress onto my workload. But through the project I slowly built the work back up and started to catch onto things like how different maps work and how to use the unreal engine. This has been a project of a lot of learning and that I am now ready to use unreal and Photoshop to create game ready textures. While playing games and walking through real life I can spot tillable materials and what objects are built up of thanks to this project.