Hi guys Im working on my game and I've already created this little scene with few barrels, coins and dagger. Barrel is my first finished model. All hand painted including normal maps. I want some advice in shading/texturing and some critique as well. Here are some screens.
Only Diffuse:
[attachment=23783:Screen_.png]
Diffuse + Normal map :
[attachment=23782:ScreenNormal.png]
Texture:
[attachment=23784:Texture.jpg]
Normals:
[attachment=23785:Normals.jpg]
Well, this is my area so I'll jump in. Sadly I am going to be brutal honest with ya so as to get the most from my post!
1) You need to figure out how your engine does lighting. This will directly effect how you do your hand painting. Do you paint on shadows or will they be provided for you... that sort of thing
2) The pictures you uploaded are rather low in quality. Are you working at a higher resoultion and reducing the size for the sake of the forum? or are you working from a low resolution? I find that working on a higher resolution is crucial for the hand painted look. I will normally do my work on x2 of the actual project size and reduce it once finished.
3) Overall look is not bad. That said you need some work on the shading and the lighting of the regions. I can show you in more detail but it would need to be tomorrow. I will try to smash together something simple to give you a better idea of how to do the highlighting for the metal and for the wood itself.
4) Colorization, you have basically one tone. What makes hand painted stuff look amazing is their use of color. You need to try and break away from single tone works and learn to paint in more than a few colors for a given project. Your would would look better if you had a different color of tone for the highlights of the wood. What you have now looks like a lighter less saturated color (which is not good for hand painted).
5) Did you really hand paint the normal map? If so I would suggest using a simple plugin for photoshop to do these for you. I can show you a step by step process for generating them.
All in all this is a great start but you def need to fine tune some areas. Lastly, I would ask if you made the model? If so why so long? If not no worries but just a curiousity of mine.
It is a start. Some thoughts.
1. Ignore normal maps for now. Normal maps only works with technical lights (ingame engine), whereas handpainted textures is the art of applying light and shadows directly on your texture. As you see, it is conflictive and therefor not really easy to pull off.
2. Your texture will benefit more from material maps than from normal maps (eg make the dark crevices between the boards non reflective and the wood a little bit reflective, will have an more important impact in game rendering then to apply normal maps).
3. If you apply stylization (stylized spiral in wood structure), then you should be consistent. The wood boards are just too clean and plain. Make them more rough.
4. Less is more, dont add too much detail. More variance in the color and overall look will be more helpful.
Here are some wood texture tutorials.
Nevertheless, your texture reminds me of my first wood-barrel attempts. Just keep practising and you will be suprised of how much your skills will improve.
Those barrels seem about 20% too tall and lanky to me 
But overall the texture seems to fit them quite nicely. Lots of room for improvement though, so brace yourself. Critique hurts, but can really help set you on your way...so lets go!
- First a sweet cherry: learn from the masters via this perfect step-by-step tutorial that seems tailor-made for you
Okay, now the pain train, you ready?
Things lacking in your texture, just the painting side:
Color side of things isn't that bad, core advice in this area has already been mentioned:
- Vary color. Shadows can go into red, while highlights will be yellow even bordering on green. How much you vary it depends on your desired look (realistic vs. exaggerated). Use reference not to go overboard when simulating light.
- You're forgetting occlusion shadows - edge slopes on the planks should get darker closer to the gap between planks. Highlights can stay on the highest point of that slope and on the boards' flat surface, ofcourse.
Composition is lacking, here's a run down:
- Your lines have no rhythm. Wood lines weave and flow, like music. You can practice by just copying the wood patterns from reference, even with a pencil.
- Too much repetition (bad economy). There's just too many deep aggressive lines carved into the wood. It creates noise.
- Not enough variety - and this applies to a lot of areas: Your lines need to change thickness and depth (how deep they go into the wood).You need more kinds of wood "damage" - I see basically two types on your texture. Have four-six and use them less. Wood can have shallow chips, splinters that haven't quite fallen off, many, many kinds of damge.
Your woods' surface has only three states: normal, deep cuts and rough edges. Wood can do so much more, it can have darker and lighter lines, spots, have subtle smooth varieties in surface depth. Search for variety and use it, but remember about economy. There should be "just enough" elements to make a convincing board. No more, no less. No mathematical formula here, just gut feeling and hours of practice.
Planks silhouette is rectangular. Serious no-no - the shapes need to be more organic. It should also be chipped and ragged in places in a variety of ways (not too much! Economy!).
Whew...made it this far? Okay. To take the edge off, here's a hamster eating a tiny pizza:
You deserve it after three posts of non-stop bashing
One of the things you've got going for you is that the texture feels "even" - no particular spots stand out. Good for seamless textures and background objects that don't want to attract attention. Making textures behave like that is actually a skill!
Hope this helps even a bit, have a good day and keep at it!
Guys thank a lot for all replies
Did you really hand paint the normal map?
Yep I just wanted to learn how normal map works...
What you have now looks like a lighter less saturated color (which is not good for hand painted).
I want to make dark atmosphere so I want to use darker colors...
I would ask if you made the model? If so why so long?
Yep I've made model myself...I already made some human models but it was hard for me to texture them with hand painted textures. But this is first "finished" model with textures and simple normal map
2. Your texture will benefit more from material maps than from normal maps (eg make the dark crevices between the boards non reflective and the wood a little bit reflective, will have an more important impact in game rendering then to apply normal maps).
THX for advice, but can u explain me how material maps works? So far I used materials only in blender... but I'll go check it
One of the things you've got going for you is that the texture feels "even" - no particular spots stand out. Good for seamless textures and background objects that don't want to attract attention. Making textures behave like that is actually a skill!
Thanks, at least something positive :P
You deserve it after three posts of non-stop bashing
I knew that it wont be easy :D But Im looking at it in positvie way... I'll be updating this post with new models, and I'll be looking forward for your replies. THX again
Hi, this is what I've done in past few days, I dont have that much time as I would like but all my free time Im spending on texturing modeling etc... Im looking forward for all your replies either negative or positive. But I really need help on creating leather. I couldn't find anything so Im asking here. Thanks againg.
This scene has around 3000 Tris.
Only Diffuse:
[attachment=23961:Screen.png]
Barrel Texture:
[attachment=23962:Texture.png]
Sword Texture:
[attachment=23963:Texture.png]
Leather Sack:
[attachment=23964:Texture.png]
Looks way better. I think you don't even need a normal map for this art style as the diffuse texture already has a lot of lighting in it and the look is very cartoony,
Wow, great improvement. Good work.
To improve further test out the following:
1. Wood:
The spirals in the wood, as element of stylization, is good. But the notches/cuts along the wood structure are too regulary. You should use cuts and other outstanding details with care to break up an otherwise monotom surface. One or two larger cuts would be better.
2. Metal bands:
You already have a pretty good color/value variance in your wood texture. The metal texture is lacking this variance. The surface looks too flat, the details too obviously. Use rustt and some wear. Metal as material lives not much from color , but from reflection (it is important to note, that the metal will filter the color of the reflected world, eg. silver will most likly be like a mirror, whereas gold will tint the reflection in yellow) . So imagine the impression of a reflected world in your metal bands. Eg. a bluish color is always associated with the reflection of the sky which will give you a metalish look even if the sky is not visible in the scene. The roughness of a metal will define how clear a reflection is visible. A polished chrome,silver,gold surface will be like a mirror, whereas a rough, dirty iron surface will reflect the surrounding in a vague manner.
3. Overall:
Use details more sparsly, try to get the material down first and use color/value variance to break up a surface (avoid flat look). Use details to set highlights and to break up monotom surfaces.
These are not bad at all.. great job compared to what it is before.
