Custom patterns - What size?

[Spinell]

Hello everyone,

 

I'm going to create some costum patterns to texture my mesh dress using photoshop. I want to use these to texture the dress directly in Blender using the cycles engine, manipulate lights etc to get the effect I want and then bake the final result onto the UV map to be used in SL. I wanted to ask what size should I make my pattern inside photoshop? I've had this problem before where the pattern I created looked fine in blender, but after baking it into the UV map and checking in SL, the pattern was blurry while in blender it was high res. I'm going on the idea that the issue was the size I chose to create the pattern in photoshop, so I wanted to ask if anyone has had this issue (am I on the right track assuming the problem is the size of the pattern?) or if this might be another problem. The final UV maps I export to SL are always 1024*1024.

 

Many thanks to everyone,

Spinell

[arton Rotaru]

There is only so much resolution in an 1024x1024 image. There is no magical way to put more into it.

[Chic Aeon]

If you are using Cycles to make your textures and baking to a texture plane within Blender, you can adjust the RESOLUTION (see screenshot below) OR bake to a larger texture (like 4096). Both of these methods will give you a much sharper image.

 

If you use 4096 then be sure and sharpen in some way after resizing.

 

Note that BOTH METHODS take a lot of computer power and depending on your computer it may not be practical. Before I got my new computer, it could take up to 40 minutes to bake. Now it takes just a few even on a complex and very high resolution. Note my new computer was VERY expensive LOL.   

 

Be sure and experiment on the beta grid where it is free and good luck!

 

Edit: You can TEST your bake on a much lower resolution (like 20) to see if things are baking correctly and the lighting is "close". Also note that MUCH in Cycles depends on your lighting and so it could easily take a few tries to get the look you want (you may already know that but just in case).

Also while the screenshot below says 250, I sometimes bake at 400. It all depends on the complexity of the project (I am usually making furniture and decor and sometimes houses).

 

EDIT 2:   and here's another thought -- since you are making the garment, IF NEEDED, you could map the dress for example into two parts which would give you two textures to upload and increase the clarity of your texture. This will also increase the DOWNLOAD for folks viewing your dress so I would use that as a last resort *wink*.

 



[Spinell]

Thank you very much for your help Chic! Let me see if I got it: the resolution can be adjusted by checking the samples on the baking options and on top of that I can also bake to a 4096X4096 image. Is that right?

I do have a question though, after I bake to a 4096X4096 image how do I take that and upload it into SL? Isn't the limite 1024X1024?

Thanks very much for your help! And yes, my PC is goood but still takes me 30 minutes to bake. I'm used to it by now

[arton Rotaru]

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Spinell wrote: Isn't the limite 1024X1024?

 

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Right. Hence my reply that you can't put more into it. Just do the math.

4096 x 4096 = 16.777.216

1024 x 1024 = 1.048.576

You will have to downsample it either way. By baking to a 1k, or resizing the 4k in Photoshop. You are going to loose more than 15 million pixels of color information. If your pattern is relying on that amount of detail, you are going to loose it.