Difference between revisions of "Blender/Texturing From A UV Map"
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imported>Sickleyield (Update continued) |
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[http://www.imageafter.com/ ImageAfter] | [http://www.imageafter.com/ ImageAfter] | ||
[http://www.mayang.com/textures/ Mayang] | [http://www.mayang.com/textures/ Mayang] | ||
There's also [http://www.sharewareconnection.com/genetica-viewer.htm Genetica Viewer]. It's more useful for jewels and floors than cloth or armor, but be creative and you will be amazed what you can do with what you get from it. | |||
Alternately, you can copy Google images of jewelry, wrought iron filigree, etc., and hope no one sues you, but that contains an element of risk. The very safest way to get good hi-res pictures for texture source is to take them with your own camera. | Alternately, you can copy Google images of jewelry, wrought iron filigree, etc., and hope no one sues you, but that contains an element of risk. The very safest way to get good hi-res pictures for texture source is to take them with your own camera. | ||
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Everyone will not necessarily be able to do this (this author certainly can't). If you have some natural talent, use it. Look at pictures you find online and how their pixels are arranged to get a feel for how to draw on a computer as opposed to by hand. Or, if you have a nice scanner, DO draw by hand. Then scan it into the computer, then cutpaste into a form you can use in your texture. Remember, you can make as many layers as you want, so experiment with shading. If you want to put special designs or seams, do them on a new layer. | |||
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This is the solution for the modder who does not draw or paint as well, or it can be used in combination with drawing to produce new and interesting effects. There are a fair number of free texture sites out there – see the beginning of this tutorial for a couple of the best. Make sure you know what the rules are regarding how you can use an image before you use it. | |||
In this case we will use pictures of curtains as a good resource for folds in cloth. Looking for fabric textures tends to get you things that are flat or folded in ways we don’t want. With curtains you’re more likely to get the nice big rectangular sort of picture we need for this application. If you have a nice camera – and some nice curtains you can photograph nearby – you can always make your own. It doesn’t matter what color we start with, as long as it doesn’t have a pattern on it. | |||
What you do now depends on the shape of your UV map, and UV mapping is a VERY important skill for texturers because it gives you results you are unlikely to get by pestering a modeler about the shape of the map. With the dress we’re using as an example, I’ve already spent some time in Blender making the map nice and flat specifically so I could use phototextures on the skirt. The end result looks like this: | |||
[http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/190/gown3lg3.jpg SickleYield’s Regency Ballgown] | [http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/190/gown3lg3.jpg SickleYield’s Regency Ballgown] | ||
This simple texture was made by copying a straight picture of curtain folds, resizing it, and color tweaking it to red using Tools-color tools-colorize. Then I cut and pasted it over where the skirt would be. I also used a limited amount of cutpasting of the texture after that to make the edges line up. The two edges of the UV map will form a seam in the back of the mesh with a map like this, so you want to make sure the texture lines up there. That’s another reason to want a rectangular UV map – it’s very hard to make the texture edges line up if the UV map has crooked edges. | |||
As you can see in the original texture, I also have a shawl overlay on the skirt itself. I did this by cutpasting a photo of a lace curtain that was symmetrical already. I had to do some careful smudging (s key) to blend it, and it’s not quite perfect, but you get the idea. | As you can see in the original texture, I also have a shawl overlay on the skirt itself. I did this by cutpasting a photo of a lace curtain that was symmetrical already. I had to do some careful smudging (s key) to blend it, and it’s not quite perfect, but you get the idea. | ||
I textured the bodice and sleeves by hand-drawing folds myself. As you can see, that didn’t quite work as well as the phototexture on the skirt itself (due entirely to my limited skills here). But it does illustrate something important. Sometimes you’ll have to draw things curved on a texture for them to appear straight in the game. None of the lines on that bodice are straight on the texture. This is an area where the UV map is quite helpful, because you can connect up the dots and see where things can go straight and where they must curve. | I textured the bodice and sleeves by hand-drawing folds myself. As you can see, that didn’t quite work as well as the phototexture on the skirt itself (due entirely to my limited skills here). But it does illustrate something important. Sometimes you’ll have to draw things curved on a texture for them to appear straight in the game. None of the lines on that bodice are straight on the texture. This is an area where the UV map is quite helpful, because you can connect up the dots and see where things can go straight and where they must curve. | ||
Plain | Plain cutpasting doesn’t work so well where curved lines are needed. That’s why you want to be using the flattest, straightest UV map you can possibly get. Here’s a relevant tutorial section regarding how you can edit Bethesda’s UV maps: | ||
[http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Custom_Cuirass_in_Blender_Part_2#Bonus_Section:_Editing_the_Default_Game_UV_Maps Editing Default UV Maps in Blender] | [http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Custom_Cuirass_in_Blender_Part_2#Bonus_Section:_Editing_the_Default_Game_UV_Maps Editing Default UV Maps in Blender] | ||
I also put a plain black circle on my gown texture where the bottom of the skirt is (if you go back and look at the picture of the UV in GIMP, it’s a little circle on the bottom left). Bethesda generally has opaque garment bottoms rather than a)letting people look up a character’s skirt and b)having to include legs with the mesh so they don’t look up the skirt and see no legs. I did the same with my own new mesh. | I also put a plain black circle on my gown texture where the bottom of the skirt is (if you go back and look at the picture of the UV in GIMP, it’s a little circle on the bottom left). Bethesda generally has opaque garment bottoms rather than a)letting people look up a character’s skirt and b)having to include legs with the mesh so they don’t look up the skirt and see no legs. I did the same with my own new mesh. Some modders do this as well. | ||
=The Normal Map= | =The Normal Map= | ||
Please see the retexture tutorial section on normal mapping: | Please see the retexture tutorial section on normal mapping: | ||
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[[Better_Retextures_:_Detailed_Guide_For_NifSkope_and_the_GIMP#Normal_Maps|Normal Maps]] | [[Better_Retextures_:_Detailed_Guide_For_NifSkope_and_the_GIMP#Normal_Maps|Normal Maps]] | ||
You must have a normal | You must have a normal map for your texture to show up in the game. I used a fairly deep Sobel 3x3 on on the skirt of my dress mesh so that the shawl would look more like yarn and not just a flat part of the skirt fabric. This is an older project and I probably would make it less shiny now by making the normal map more transparent. | ||
=Wrapping Up= | =Wrapping Up= | ||
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The most important thing to remember is this: | |||
DO NOT SAVE YOUR LAYERED FILE AS A .DDS. SAVE IT AS AN .XCF OR .PSD. | |||
ONLY SAVE AS A .DDS IF YOU HAVE ALREADY SAVED AS AN .XCF. | |||
If you save your .xcf as a .dds, then close and reopen, you will lose layers and probably also lose hours of work. If you can learn to use layers rather than drawing directly onto a surface, you can create many new possibilities, and this is probably the most important skillset you can learn for texturing from a UV map. | |||
Have fun looking at your new textures. Don’t get discouraged by the amount of time and effort it takes. You’ll get faster as you go along. | Have fun looking at your new textures. Don’t get discouraged by the amount of time and effort it takes. You’ll get faster and better as you go along, and as always, practice makes better (because no one is perfect). | ||