Really need some help on texturing in general!

[LisaMarie McWinnie]

Hello!

So, I've been making mesh for a while, and while I think theres is a lot of space for improvment on building, what I really need now is to be able to drawn decent textures for my creations, so i can add more details to them.

My drawing skills are very poor, but I would love to learn how to draw silk for example ,not those photoshop random folds tutorial, but an actually nice silk texture. I make mostly 18th and 19th century dresses, and most of them were inspired by IRL silk dresses. I would like not only to draw nice folding effects, but also just a plain silk, that looks so simple yet I can't make it.

Thank you in advance!

 

 

[LisaMarie McWinnie]

Hello!

So, I've been making mesh for a while, and while I think theres is a lot of space for improvment on building, what I really need now is to be able to drawn decent textures for my creations, so i can add more details to them.

My drawing skills are very poor, but I would love to learn how to draw silk for example ,not those photoshop random folds tutorial, but an actually nice silk texture. I make mostly 18th and 19th century dresses, and most of them were inspired by IRL silk dresses. I would like not only to draw nice folding effects, but also just a plain silk, that looks so simple yet I can't make it.

Thank you in advance!

 

 

[Rolig Loon]

You can find stacks of Photoshop tutorials on the Internet by typing in Google  search terms Photoshop Tutorial Silk.  That will get you started on technique.  Ninety percent of making a great texture, though, involves talent and practice.  You can't do much without both, and the less talent you have, the more practice you need.  Toss your laundry on the bed, grab a pencil and a thick pad of paper, and start sketching.  ( I'm not the world's greatest artist either.  My sister got all the art genes. :smileysad: )

[IvanBenjammin]

Do you want to learn how to create normal and specular maps as well, or just diffuse textures? When you're talking about materials like silk, a huge part of the effect is due to specular mapping. Normal mapping can be used to create fantastic folded fabric effects.

Google is definitely your friend, though beware the rabbit hole effect - you're staring down an entire craft that people spend years getting good at. Now with advanced materials, it got even more complicated for the hobbyist.

But of course if you do mesh you probably know all about the rabbit hole. I'd recommend reading up about materials on the SL wiki - some really helpful tips in there for dealing with different maps and alphas.

There's also probably some general '3d arts' discussion around how to achieve a look like silk - have a look through forums and sites dedicated to video game art. A couple I can think of from the top of my head are game-artist.net and polycount.com. Now that SL is more or less mainstream in its use of maps and mesh, builders have a wealth of information to draw on.

Also, on the drawing thing, you can be a perfectly good texture artist without being able to draw in the traditional sense. Planning - knowing what you want to achieve and roughly how to get there -  and a thorough understanding of Photoshop or whatever you use will take you where you need to go. Being able to roughly sketch out UV maps can be handy, but anyone with a hand and a drawing stick can do that

[TishaRogue]

I find the best way to start in making any material texture on a garment template is to start with a seamless greyscale (white black and shades of ) version of the material itself. This material needs to be flat not rippled and stuff. You only want it to get the texture of the weave. When you place it on a layer under your shadow map in your art program. At this point u still have your template map to know where things go and your shadow map is most likely set as multiply... but you may choose another type of filter for that. When you start adding in things like your highlights and shadows you then set those layers as grain merge. This makes the highlight and shadow keep the grain of the material below instead of looking like paint on top.

for the shadow map being set at multiply tends to make things on the shiny flat glossy side so you may want to test all the settings for that to see if another one works better for your specific project. For silk and satin it may work fine.

all this information is still using the photoshop or gimp style art programs that have the layers available but don't require too much art other than what you feel is needed for quality.