Well, I’ve noticed that on TS, it doesn’t matter how big the textures are. I’ve experimented a bit, and I think I’ve settled on a large textures / most flexibility format, as textures are easy to downsample. My feeling is that I’m not selling to pro game devs anyway - mostly amateurs / aspiring game devs. Pros would want it ready to rumble, but my customers, I think, have the time to play a bit, and I think giving them options is the best course. Besides, they can use the unbaked, large textures elsewhere, sort of like a bonus.
Sell 3D page: Not sure. I wrote a lot, but I’ve been mostly concerned with making models, and getting some realworld building projects done. I’ve been asked a few times about it, so I’ll add some additional content. Thanks for your interest.
Improved glass. Feeling sleepy today, tweaking materials here and there, which is fine, because when I start making more buildings, they should go quickly. Same materials and all…
Universe forgive me, I’m listening to Kylie Minogue. Can’t help myself. But what man can…
Good stuff. I’ll put them in my youtube list. By the way, at which castle do you give tours? Milan was it? There’s the castle with all cats…Sforza palace was it?
no, actually I don’t live in Milan, but in a near town. Yeah there is a Sforza Palace in Milan, but the castle in which I give tours is the Castle of Rivalta, which is in the countryside. It’s very nice because it was originally built in the 11th century (the keep is dated 1048) and then renovated many times all throughout history… for example the first main reconstruction happened in the 15th century (they build thicker walls to better resist to the blows of new fire weapons), then again in the 18th century and the earls are still living in the castle nowadays. So yeah, there is a lot of interesting stuff inside, from 14th century armours to 18th century furniture and so on.
Should you come, I’d let you handle the swords we have hahah
that’s it. look at the tower. that was designed by the same architect who planned the Kremlin (Mr. Solari) in the XVI Century.
Also. the river by the castle is the Trebbia, where Hannibal fought the Romans in 218 B.C. after he had travelled all the way from North Africa carrying elephants along with his army. They had an hard time climbing the alps, but eventually won the battle on the iced river.
Historically talking, it’s a very interesting spot indeed
…but lost the war because they couldn’t haul machines over the mountains. Very interesting. Ok, off to lay on the couch. Just got back from the gym a while ago. Tired.
Thanks, Aazra. But don’t envy! Feel free to ask questions. Most of us on the BA forums are really nice and will try to help when we can. I hope to finish this projcet soon, but I’m trying to get the materials as perfect as possible, so that modeling other houses becomes a simple matter. I think I may finally have a good method for making a lot of buildings, not all as detailed as this one.
As I understand your process, you model one item, unwrap it and texture it. Why do you do it this way instead of modeling everything and the start in on the texturing?
Well, why wouldn’t I just unwrap 1 beam, instead of unwrapping 50 or so? There’s a strange paradigm that says modeling and texturing are separate. Not sure why…so much easier to unwrap as you go. Imagine it this way: I’m building a house, and if I paint one wall as I build, all the other walls will magically paint themselves as I put them up. Hard to resist!
Do you apply the same method on the shed as well ;)?
It’s clear to me that one time unwrap is preferable to 50, what I meat is, do you unwrap the beam and finish the texuring before you proceed to the next object, e.g. wall, or do you follow the process model, unwrap, model, unwrap,…, texturing everything in the end?
I don’t have a really specific process - I don’t break it up. It’s just all modeling (including texturing). Sometimes I’ll work on a material, other times I’ll play with textures or unwrapping, other times I’ll model. I go back and forth all the time. On simpler objects, I’ll mostly model first, then unwrap, then texture. Big complex things require a sort of integrated approach. I’m not super fast. I play way too much, fussing with this and that. But I’m going to make a specific effort to cut a lot of that out.
Nearly there. Slogging through a fussy part - getting the stairs to work with the floor etc. Stairs are modeled and textured, next I have to make the hole in the floor work with them, and add some sort of room inside with a door, otherwise there would be no barrier to thieves. I can’t find any pictures at all of the interior of this place, but I assume there’s some sort of door at the top of the stairs, inside the building. I’ve got the hinge for the door modeled and textured as well. My next building won’t be this detailed - no interior. I’m just playing with this one.
Here’s a quick render. I’m not a renderer, so this is not intended as a call for rendering critiques, though you may feel free to do so. I need some renders as material usage examples, as I’m making products on TS out of the textures and materials. Clouds composited in Photoshop, as well as a bit of depth of field. Blender internal, HDRI lighting, nothing special lighting otherwise. Quick and dirty.
I read that you often take photos to use as your own textures. when taking these photos, how much care do you put in to the orientation of the lense to the surface of the subject? Is there any sort of preparation you do to the photo to make it ready to use on an unwrap? I am certain there is, but am curious.
When I take texture photos, as I very often do (yesterday), I’m very careful.
Mini Tut!
I can’t explain everything, but here are the basics
Invest in a good camera. Phone cameras are useless.
The closer you are to an object, the greater the detail, but also the greater the lens distortion. Step back and zoom in whenever possible. It’s better to have a little space around your target texture area than to have distortion. Doors, for example, will distort heavily when photographed close (curving sides - lens distortion).
Take pictures of flat things. Don’t photograph a barrel to obtain a barrel texture.
Your objective is to create a “diffuse” texture, meaning a texture which has no obvious light source. This isn’t always possible, and you’ll sometimes have to remove shadows in photoshop.
-Take the highest resolution photos possible. Don’t assume you’ll use them for a game, so they can be small. Give yourself options.
-Take several shots of the same subject - options.
-Square yourself to the object. I distort and contort my body to do this sometimes. Center the camera, and try to shoot dead level and at a perpendicular angle to the object. Not from the side or top.
-Don’t assume you can fix an image in photoshop or gimp. You may be able to, but take a good photo in the camera itself.
-Consider the fact that many textures will have to be tiled to be of use (but not all). Give yourself options.
-Avoid grapheti, plants etc. Most people will want to add these separately.
Ok, I’m sure I missed a lot (just woke up), but those are the basics. I do extensive edits in photoshop, such as tiling and color correction.
For example, here’s an image, straight from the camera (downsized to fit here). The original is 3872 x 2592 , 300 dpi. I’ve photographed it from as square an angle as possible (my back is up against a wall here, literally. Minimal repair is necessary in Photoshop. I’ll crop it a bit, and increase the contrast a bit, but otherwise no shadows, no perspective issues to correct etc. I’ll upload the huge original to Turbosquid today, where it will be available for purchase.
