Blender: "texturing workflows" video

[Gaia Clary]

Hi, all; I had the impression that Blender's "Face assigned Images" and "Material based Image Textures" needed some clarifications. I took some time and tried to summarize the workflows in a video tutorial, and no, i am NOT teaching how to texturize, only how to work with the tools :)

Well, Blender IS a bit complicated here. But maybe the video helps a bit. However if you think the video can be improved, then do not hesitate and tell me about your ideas. Savage criticism is very appreciated ! Have fun

[Indigo Mertel]

Thank you for making this video, Gaia. It helped clarifying a couple of things I was confused about.

 

[Pix Jigsaw]

That was really useful for me.  Thanks. Question: Are AO textures a special kind of material based Image texture?

[Gaia Clary]

"AO Textures" are in first place simple images. You can generate them without any light setup and even without any material. The Render Bake tool does not need any procedural texture or image texture to create them.

However after you baked your AO texture, you can feed it as "Image or Video" into the texture stack of your object.

Here are some hints how you can avoid major issues with AO:

 

1. Take care that the AO Bake bakes to the current associated Face Texture! So create a new empty image and assign that to the object before you bake O
2. As soon as your AO is baked save the AO texture to be prepared for unintentional overwriting the AO
3. As soon as the AO is baked, reassign your original face image to your object, or (if you dont have yet any face texture) create a new image to avoid overwriting the AO
4. After you did point 3.) above you can add your AO texture as new "image or Movie" entry into the texture stack of your object. This will NOT result in feedback loops!
5. When you do point 4.) then consider to use "Multiply" for Influence -> Blend (in the texture properties). That is the intended (most useful)  way to apply  AO textures. The default blend is always "Mix" which makes not much sense with AO textures.

Hints 2, 3 and 4 actually also apply to all other bake results.

[Masami Kuramoto]

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Gaia Clary wrote:

When you do point 4.) then consider to use "Multiply" for Influence -> Blend (in the texture properties). That is the intended (most useful)  way to apply  AO textures.

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Hopefully the upcoming materials upgrade for SL will include the option to apply these AO maps at render time, so that we can keep them separate from the main (diffuse) textures.

[Gaia Clary]

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Masami Kuramoto wrote:

Hopefully the upcoming materials upgrade for SL will include the option to apply these AO maps at render time, so that we can keep them separate from the main (diffuse) textures.

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 As far as i know we will get these 3 mapping types:

 

• diffuse
• normal
• specular

I do not know if we will get texture layers.

[Masami Kuramoto]

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Gaia Clary wrote:

 As far as i know we will get these 3 mapping types:

 

• diffuse
• normal
• specular

I do not know if we will get texture layers.

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What we get depends on how much noise we make.

Mesh currently causes lag because of two issues: overdetailed geometry and oversized textures. Normal maps address the former, light maps address the latter.

The problem is, once people get the means to control specular reflection, they will start baking AO and shadows not only into their diffuse maps but also into the specular maps, because shadow areas look convincing only if shiny highlights get attenuated as well. So in the future there will be two oversized textures instead of one.

Shader-based light mapping on the other hand can attenuate both diffuse and specular reflection using the same AO/shadow texture, at zero cost. These textures can be very small because there is not much sharp detail in them. The potential savings in terms of graphics card memory and download times are huge as this would also increase reusability of diffuse/specular maps.

However, I am confident that the developers will realize this and add light maps to the list. After all, they want to make SL better, not worse.

[Nalates Urriah]

Gaia, thanks for the video. That one clears up some points of confusion for me.

On Ambient Occlusion... I doubt we will ever see that added  into SL. AO is independent of lighting (it is from ambient light), so it can be pre-baked into the diffuse texture without detracting from the appearance. The specular effects can over shadow it to give it a more realistic appearance or at least in most rendering systems it does.

Understandnig how Blender's capabilities work with SL is going to be the trick for making diffuse textures for SL. As things are now we bake the normal and specular maps into our textures to make the best illusions. But that only maintains the illusion if the object and lighting do not move. When we get the Materials System it will improve the illusion in dynamic scenes. I am really looking forward to that feature.

[Drongle McMahon]

"I am confident that the developers will realize this..."

I'm glad to see your optimism on that point. It makes me a bit more hopeful too. :matte-motes-smile:

[Masami Kuramoto]

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Nalates Urriah wrote:

On Ambient Occlusion... I doubt we will ever see that added  into SL. AO is independent of lighting (it is from ambient light), so it can be pre-baked into the diffuse texture without detracting from the appearance. The specular effects can over shadow it to give it a more realistic appearance or at least in most rendering systems it does.

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We already have AO in SL, but it's part of the deferred rendering pipeline which is computationally expensive and therefore impractical on computers with less powerful graphics cards. This is why many creators still bake AO into their diffuse maps.

However, as explained earlier, baking AO to diffuse maps limits their reusability and increases their size. We do it out of necessity, but it's bad practice and a terrible waste of resources. Light maps would be a much better option.

Baked shadows are very useful at places where dynamic shadows are not available. SL's sun and moon require dynamic shadows because they change their position. Indoor lighting on the other hand is often static but consists of multiple light sources that cast soft-edged shadows. Light maps are ideal to simulate that, and it's amazing how small they can be when separated from the diffuse map.

[Pix Jigsaw]

Nalates states in her post, "As things are now we bake the normal and specular maps into our textures to make the best illusions."  Could someone say more about how this is done?  Does she mean she lights a model that has a normal and specular map and then bakes the visual impact those maps provide onto a diffuse texture?!

[Masami Kuramoto]

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Pix Jigsaw wrote:

Does she mean she lights a model that has a normal and specular map and then bakes the visual impact those maps provide onto a diffuse texture?!

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Yes.

[Pamela Galli]

Thank you Gaia!