Need help texturing a realistic diamond

[Mariano Ree]

Hey, So I made this gem now I just need help texturing it so that it looks like one. I'm using blender. I have tried to texture the gem using PS and it just looks terrible/bland. I do see alot of nicely done diamond textures on the MP. No idea what they're doing though could not find a nice tutorial on how to go about this. So any help would be great.

[MIstahMoose]

(I hope you plan to lower that poly count substantially before putting it inworld)

I would recommend watching UV unwrapping tutorials. Your UVs are really squished right now and will make it a fuss to texture. I use PS to texture on my UV map while continually popping back into blender to reload the image. (If you save it as a .tiff you can open it in blender and photoshop and save in photoshop without having to do a save as) 
Alt+R while over the UV editor to quickly reload images and see how they are applied. 

I recommend studying the subject before attempting a texture>
The shape of a diamond and its see through crystal gives it a variety of shades. Lots of white and clear but also lots of greys and blacks mixed in as triangular shapes.

tl;dr

Better Uvs = easier texturing. 
Practice makes perfect when it comes to texturing.

[Drongle McMahon]

The problem is that the sparkle of real diamonds comes from refraction of light, and there is no refraction in SL. So it has to be faked. Maybe Googling "diamond cuts" and selecting images will give you some inspitation. You'll see that cut diamonds ar less smooth, with fewer facets, than your mesh.

[Chic Aeon]

What you actually made was a carbocon-cut gem -- that being said it still has WAY too many quads for what you need. We all seem to be in agreement on that. If you want a "heart shaped diamond" as Drongel said, look up some photos. You will see they have many FEWER planes than you have.

Map each shape to a gradient  (paying attention to RL examples) and I am guessing you will have it.

edited for very messy spelling

 

[Mariano Ree]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I went back and Fixed the Shape. Poly count on the Mesh. Now Im still at the problem with geting a realistic Diamond/Gem type texture on to it. As you can see below the it still looks prety bland. Any advice on how to create smooth realistic textures on blender would be great.

[LepreKhaun]

That looks much better, nice retopo!

 

On your gem face, go with a 10-20 percent transparency, a very pale pastel (blue works well), a touch of glow and then add and adjust a bling sparkle script such as found http://metaverse.mitsi.com/cgi/freescripts.plx?ID=235 . You may need to tweak things according to size of your final object.

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

I agree with LepreKhaun that in a 3d polygon way it looks much better. However, there are some rules to how a diamond is usually cut. A heart shaped diamond looks like this:

Building it like in the picture, with flat ngons, quads and tris will give a much more realistic result.

[Mariano Ree]

Although the ideas are good. Theydon't give me what im looking for which is a nice texture. Heres 2 examples from the SL marketplace of how I want my texture to look like. Now if someone help me figure out how to achieve something like this would be awsome.

 

[Chrissy Ambrose]

Hi, my advice would be to centre your front face, and have the rear faces in quarters in the 4 corners of the texture. Find a really good image of a gemstone face and scale it to fit the front of your gem. If you have used acurate diamond cuts on your model, you can see where to move the same points on your texture to match. Remember to pin your texture so results will remain as you have adjusted them. Make up the back of the gem, using the same texture ensuring direction goes to a point in each corner. It really doesnt matter too much how this looks as very little of a gemstone back is visible once in a setting. This is the method I have used for all my gemstones and I am happy with their look and realism. Btw on one of the images someone has added a photoshopped sparkle which of course is not visible on the object.

[LepreKhaun]

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Mariano Ree wrote:

Although the ideas are good. Theydon't give me what im looking for which is a nice texture. Heres 2 examples from the SL marketplace of how I want my texture to look like. Now if someone help me figure out how to achieve something like this would be awsome.

 ...

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You are missing what a texture is. It's merely an image, a picture, nothing more, nothing less. If you're simply wanting a good texture of a diamond, get a good diamond and a good camera. If you light it properly and everything is in focus, you may end up with a great texture of a diamond, in other words, a good picture.

 

What you're actually looking for isn't that, but a way to make an object that more or less appears to be a realistic diamond in world. As pointed out early on, SL lacks a way to do refraction, which is a main characteristic of the appearance of a cut diamond. So, a good SL "diamond" is going to have to fake it somehow.

 

How one fakes it and the skill at their usage of whatever technique they bring to bear will determine how realistic the "diamond" appears. Making the object to conform with how an actual diamond is cut (as suggested above) may enhance the final effect. Experimenting with transparency, glow and particle effects (as I suggested) may as well. Adding an image to the back face (with their normals flipped) might do it. Buying what appears to be quality "diamonds" and examining them to see how the effect is being obtained may help. Or you can just stick a pretty picture of a diamond on the front. Whatever.

 

But sometimes we simply have to get to busy and work it out for ourselves to our satisfaction. I do hope you luck with it all.

[Madelaine McMasters]

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LepreKhaun wrote:

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Mariano Ree wrote:

Although the ideas are good. Theydon't give me what im looking for which is a nice texture. Heres 2 examples from the SL marketplace of how I want my texture to look like. Now if someone help me figure out how to achieve something like this would be awsome.

 ...

---

You are missing what a texture is. It's merely an image, a picture, nothing more, nothing less. If you're simply wanting a good texture of a diamond, get a good diamond and a good camera. If you light it properly and everything is in focus, you may end up with a great texture of a diamond, in other words, a good picture.

 

What you're actually looking for isn't that, but a way to make an object that more or less appears to be a

 realistic

diamond in world. As pointed out early on, SL lacks a way to do refraction, which is a main characteristic of the appearance of a cut diamond. So, a good SL "diamond" is going to have to fake it somehow.

 

How one fakes it and the skill at their usage of whatever technique they bring to bear will determine how realistic the "diamond" appears. Making the object to conform with how an actual diamond is cut (as suggested above) may enhance the final effect. Experimenting with transparency, glow and particle effects (as I suggested) may as well. Adding an image to the back face (with their normals flipped) might do it. Buying what appears to be quality "diamonds" and examining them to see how the effect is being obtained may help. Or you can just stick a pretty picture of a diamond on the front. Whatever.

 

But sometimes we simply have to get to busy and work it out for ourselves to our satisfaction. I do hope you luck with it all.

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SL also lacks reflection, which is as important to the look of a diamond as refraction. Diamonds catch our eyes in RL because the light "plays" off them in a vibrant display of both color and brightness as the geometry of the scene changes. Go outside at night and look at stars or streetlights. You'll quickly see that you cannot re-create that look via a stunningly accurate texture. Those things glitter and shimmer and sparkle and twinkle. There's not an adjective in the previous sentence, it's all verbs!

If you want to make something appear like a jewel, you'll need the action of verbs. There is no way to create this action in SL the way it happens in RL (we're a long way from real-time raytracing of complex scenes), and so the light play of jewels must be faked by "bling", which garners widespread scorn. But I think that's because most bling is poorly done. Personally, I think a well done particle emitter, or a high frequency texture that twinkles via moire patterning can be lovely.

Jewels are alive and vibrant, model that.