Table of Contents
| Introduction: What Is Texture? | 2 |
| 1 | The Fine Art of Seeing and Dissecting | 14 |
| 2 | Reference Materials, Textures, and Practical Stuff | 56 |
| 3 | Color Theory | 92 |
| 4 | Paintings | 120 |
| 5 | Making Decisions | 148 |
| 6 | The Project: Technical Preparation | 198 |
| 7 | The Bandana: A Simple Tile and Scanned Texture | 212 |
| 8 | Steel Braided Hoses: A Small Tileable Texture | 220 |
| 9 | The Tire: Adding Detail with Displacement Maps | 232 |
| 10 | Axle's Face: Texturing Polygons | 244 |
| 11 | The Goggles: Procedural Textures | 256 |
| 12 | The Car Body: Complexity of Texture | 278 |
| 13 | The Fin: Texturing Uneven Surfaces | 292 |
| 14 | Axle's Chest: Sculpting, Painting, and Projections | 304 |
| 15 | Wrap-Up: Some Things to Think About | 318 |
| Reading List | 324 |
| Index | 327 |
Forewords & Introductions
Introduction
What Is Texture?
Texture: WAY IN which the threads of a fabric or constituent elements of a substance are arranged and put together; sensation produced by this upon the sense of touch. -The Universal Dictionary of the English Language, Wordsworth Editions Ltd., 1989.
A Handkerchief In Bed Can't Be Found
A coin, sleeve-button or a collar-button in a bedroom will hide itself and be hard to find. A handkerchief in bed can't be found. -Mark Twain, notebook, 1935. (The International Thesaurus of Quotations, Harper and Row, 1970.)
It is true that a linen handkerchief can't be found on a linen bedspread-at first glance. So, if we were to re-create this scene in the computer, and if it is necessary for the scene to differentiate between the spread and the handkerchief, then we, as texture artists, would do so through our skills at looking, seeing, and painting. The differentiation will emerge when we discern the subtleties of shadow and light by determining their colors while carefully maintaining the material's integral texture and nature, linen in this case.
Essentially, how to differentiate between surfaces and how to execute the making of these materials and textures digitally for a project is what you will learn from this book.
Texture artists begin by asking questions such as, "What helps me differentiate between one particular texture and another?" "How can I articulate this texture or surface on the computer?" We, as texture artists, are given the wireframe models of a project and it is up to us to apply what we have learned through the questions we ask to make these wireframes live and breathe with detail and color.
I love textures. Not a day goes by that I do not stop and look at some rusted piece of metal laying on the road and try to figure out how to mimic it on the computer-or marvel at how humidity in the air creates such beautiful atmospheric depth and muted colors. This is why I do what I do in the CG field. I want to create vivid scenes and beautiful surfaces no matter how rusted and decrepit (see Figure I.1).
I come to each digital project in the same way as a painter steps up to a blank canvas. As a painter, I approach the canvas-on an easel, or a computer screen; we still put brush to canvas even if it is digital-with an understanding of what needs to be done. As a painter poses a model in a luxurious costume, or sets up a still life to paint, I collect reference material-a practice I learned in art school. Reference material exists to assist you in illustrating a particular material or surface, whether the reference is a real piece of material or a photographic representation of the material. It assists you in the visualization of what the material you want to mimic looks like and how it changes under different conditions such as light, weather, or age (see Figures 1.2 and I.3). With your reference material you need to create a library called a morgue (more on this in Chapter 2), so that you may have a variety of samples of materials and textures from which to draw information and inspiration.
I hope that you have come to this book because you have a fascination or a love of textures, painting, surfaces, or computers. Maybe, all of the above. Or maybe you have a curiosity about what a texture artist doesyou want to see if it is for you.
Your digital textural design education starts with this book.You will begin with the discovery of your external world; looking, studying, and describing materials and their textures in the real world, collecting real or photographic samples, and going to the masters of painting to witness their technique and artistry around the subject of expressing texture and materials.
The whole concept of looking at real materials for reference, I mean really looking, is an age-old tradition in art. This is how Rembrandt (a 17th-century artist) and Michelangelo (a 166h-century artist) learned their skills, which allowed them to articulate textures and mood. It became second nature to these painters to be able to illustrate the differences between these materials by using different brushstrokes and thicknesses of paint. The expression of light on a metal goblet for instance, is the swipe of a brush along the hp with white paint (see Figure I.4).
They were taught basic concepts and rules and techniques in art from their mentors; people who, their whole lives, dedicated themselves to the pursuit of an artistic expression, and handed down these skills to the next generation. In turn, the next generation learned these skills and made them their own, creating their own expertise and then handed these skills, improved upon or revised perhaps, to the next generation.
Included in this book are examples of paintings with my observations of the painter's color choice, how they achieved the expression of texture, and what we can learn from each example.
This book is an attempt to reconnect texture artists with this legacy. When learning to express your craft, you must simply remember that the seduction of technology and the ease with which you acquire it cannot take the place of the learned instruction from the masters. What you learn from them can help you deepen your understanding of what you do and how you do it.
Texture artists and what they create are vital components of any CG project. Textures and light create the mood of a piece, make the characters live, and depending on your style and the style you choose to express yourself in (this will be touched on later in Chapter 5), set your finished project apart from anybody else's.
In art there are no absolute right or wrong answers. As a texture artist, your responsibility is to achieve a vision that is a combination of yours and the project leader's vision. There are different art directors and art patrons (influencing the direction of art), who will challenge your talent and convictions, hopefully.
What You Can Expect fromThis Book
This book is written with the intention of giving you two things. The first is an understanding of how to decipher and describe what you are looking at. By exercising your eye-simply looking and getting into the practice of asking questions about what you are looking atyou will become more adept at translating what you are seeing into a satisfying and compelling digital re-creation of the surface you are trying to mimic.
The second focuses on how to create these textures. Using both digital methods, such as scanning in real items or photo references of the materials and methods using traditional mediums such as oil paints, I will take you through the process of creating basic textures and then lead you to the creation of more complicated textures.
I am not going to get into the math behind creating textures because
the programs themselves do that well enough you do not have to
think about it. I would prefer that you use your eyes.Your eyes are much
more finely tuned instruments than any dedicated computer program.
So, to go beyond the math, using your eyes as sensors of distance, scale,
and receptors for light allows you to create much richer and more satis-
fying textures. Simply looking at colors and asking questions such as: Is the color warm or cool? Do I need more black? More red? Less blue? What about yellow? Asking questions about surface quality: Is there a reflection? Is there refraction? Is it bumpy? Or questions about the light quality: Is the light absorbed? Brilliant or dull? Hot or cold? What is the color of the shadow? It is the combination of both light and shadow that helps you discern the essence of the texture of a particular surface. Observation and understanding the whole as well as the parts are significant when looking for such things as reflections, continuity, and color. Through this process, you will come away with a good base to begin your own discourse with your environment and everything in it.
What You Should Know
Of course before you begin, you must have a fundamental understanding of computers, computer graphics, painting software, and 3D software. I would like to show you how to achieve many different textural and artistic expressions by describing the techniques and steps I used to achieve the textures in the project section. I use all of my artistic training, from painting to graphic design, to using 3D software to achieve my goals. Any kind of artistic training that you may have had prior to this book will be an asset as well.
If you have time to take a traditional photography course or a painting class, or have the initiative to start painting at home, this will also greatly enhance your learning process.
In the computer world, we think in terms of color maps, bump maps, shaders, and so on.They are singled out in computer language to express these textural qualities in the computer which in turn enables us to understand what we are looking at in real life. The basics of looking can merge with our computer understanding by starting to describe shaders in terms of color, highlight, specularity, diffusion and so on, color maps in terms of color and pattern of the surface, and bump maps in terms of texture, light and shadow. An understanding of color theory and design through an introductory course or reading some of the many wonderful books on these subjects (many are listed in the reading list at the end of this book), will help you greatly in understanding these basics which I address.
What's most important for you to know is this: All you need in order to be a successful texture artist is the desire to create, the curiosity to learn, and the spirit of adventure. This is the impetus behind the successful execution of the texture artist's task-to interpret your environment and translate it into a digital style that is expressive and complete.
You, the artist, decide with the client, what is the best way to communicate the mood and artistry of the project. It is your vision and expertise that will guide the project to a successful conclusion. The computer is there to assist you. How much latitude you get from it and what breadth of expression the project has are totally up to you and your talent. The success of your project depends on how much you immerse yourself into your craft, and whether you understand the nature of the project and how to achieve it with the tools you have.
WHat You Will Need
The tools are brushes, paints, solvents, and the computer and its software (see Figure I.5). It is not the type or style of brush, nor is it the cost of the paint or canvas that make a good painting. It is the understanding of what you are about to paint, and how to use these tools to express what it is you are trying to convey that makes it a good painting. Whether you are painting a muted still life or a brooding portrait, your talent and your craft, not the tools alone, will determine your ability to convey what is needed. It is not the type of computer nor the software that makes you a good texture artist, but drive and talent, and the intrinsic knowledge of the materials of what you are re-creating in the computer, and the diligence to go and find out what you need to know in order to re-create it.
Obviously, to get the greatest benefit from this book, you will need a computer and software that allow you to paint and manipulate images. You will also need to purchase a 3D software package in which you create shaders and lights to render your images.
You may also want to experiment with some tools most digital art books ignore:
- Oil paints
- Acrylics
- Watercolors
- Charcoals, pencils
When you get to the project portion in this book where I use these traditional mediums to create textures, roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty along with me.You will see the benefits and happy accidents that can create a whole library of wacky and wonderful scribblings that can then be transformed to make useful and interesting textures.
As beginner digital painters, you should decide which software you want to use even if you have not purchased a computer as yet. Many 3D modeling and animation programs are available, such as:
- Maya or Power Animator (Alias IWavefront)
- Softimage (Avid Technologies)
- 3ds max (Discreet, a division of Autodesk)
- Carrara (MetaCreations)
- STRATA 3D pro (Strata Software)
- Electric Image (Electric Image Inc.)
- LightWave (NewTek)
- Houdini (Side Effects Software)
All these programs have different ways to solve your rendering and lighting needs, and express these in varying degrees of mathematical accuracy. Because most of the textures you create are 2D, you will need to explore the different 2D paint and illustration programs available, such as:
- Photoshop (Adobe)
- Painter (Corel)
- Combustion (Discreet, a division of Autodesk)
- Illustrator (Adobe)
Ideally, you should get your hands on a few of these programs so you can explore what they have to offer. Try to get trial demos of software you are interested in or sign up for a beta program, if possible, and test the software before you invest in it. If your friends have a copy, then go to their house or studio and play with the software as much as you can.
3D paint packages allow you to paint a texture directly onto a 3D wireframe model. Some of these programs include:
- Painter 31) (Corel)
- Studio Paint (Alias I Wavefront)
- Amazon (Interactive Effects, Inc.)
- Deep Paint 3D (Right Hemisphere Ltd.)
The main programs that I will be using throughout this book are
Maya 3.0 (Alias I Wavefront)
- Photoshop 5.5 (Adobe)
- Illustrator 9 (Adobe)
- Painter 6 (Corel)
- Painter 3D 1.0 (Corel)
- Deep Paint 31) (Right Hemisphere Ltd.)
The computer systems that I will use throughout this book are
- A Windows NT platform Pentium II (Intergraph TDZ2000 and an IBM Intellistation)
- 17 gigabytes of hard drive space
- High-end graphic cards
- 512MB RAM
- A 21-inch monitor
- A flatbed, or slide scanner
- A painting tablet
If you are like most of us, your budget is probably the main issue in your choice of software and hardware.You may have to start out with less complicated 3D software or own only one paint program and not the fastest machine. Don't let this discourage you.You can create anything and learn, as you must and will, to your benefit. Creative solutions come from us, the artists, and not the computer.Work with what you have. Never limit yourself by what you think you could have had.
If you can afford a little (or a lot) extra, then do so. Even though most of the work you will be doing is 2D in paint programs, some of these files can get rather large in size. In this case, RAM and processor speed should be taken advantage of and possibly 3D accelerator cards for tumbling around textured environments.
One important consideration when buying a computer is to know what software runs on what platform. This is especially true if you can only afford one computer. It is really handy to know the various programs that the box runs. This way you can switch from a 2D program to a 31) program without switching from one computer to another in order to start or finish some part of a project.
When I began my computer career, I started with a Macintosh LC computer. It came with a 12" monitor, a 40MB hard drive, and 8MB of RAM. I was able to produce many graphic design jobs on that little machine, most if not all of them using Adobe Photoshop to create some fairly large paintings. I eventually moved on to a Silicon Graphics (SG I) machine because my interests expanded into the higher-end 3D graphics field. At that time the SGI platform and other workstations such as SUN Microsystems were the only high-end platforms capable for such heavy computation. This is not the case today. Presently I am working on a Windows NT-based system, like many others in this industry. This is not to say that NT is the choice of champions, although its ratio of cost to efficiency is low, therefore quite attractive when considering platforms for this type of work. Having said that, as you are most likely aware, every month there seems to be some new advancement of some kind or other in computers that can put your most recent purchase to shame, so it is up to you, the consumer, to know your choices. Talk to people who use these systems, read magazine articles on hardware and software, and so on. Know your options.
ABout This Book's Approach to Software
Software developers come and go and software development is never in stasis, so to base this book on any one program and its features would be futile. The principles in this book are applicable to any of the platforms and software out there today. For the most part, this book will not dwell on some specialized plug-in or filter.
It is more important that you develop your intuitive artistic eye first, then choose which available tools to use. As you develop your talent of looking, the software will articulate and reflect your developed sensibilities in this area, and therefore your choices will be more lucid and reflective of your needs as an artist.
I like to think of this book as a tutor that will help you develop the software in your head. First, to help you develop the technique of "looking," and then to choose your software according to your needs.
This book will also address the differences between the functions as well as terminology. Software seems to be growing toward a homogenous feel and in most cases software companies borrow from one another. Whatever software you do own or decide to buy, it is imperative that you read the manuals thoroughly. Familiarize yourself with the concepts and capabilities, and work through the tutorials as well. They are very informative. It is to your benefit, as well as your checkbook's to do so. It will help you stay off the product help lines in the midst of some crazy project's deadline.
A Final Word
With this book I hope to help you become first and foremost a better artist. I hope that you will no longer see just one way to create and paint textures for your projects and will realize just how much fun you can have furthering your exploration in the endless world of art-on and off the computer.
Simply by increasing your acuity, the world around you will never look the same.
Read an Excerpt
Excerpt from
Chapter 1
The Fine Art of Seeing and Dissecting
Your artistic eye is more keenly attuned to details of color, texture, and light because it works with your intuitive knowledge of these things. Your response and interpretation of these things will become more instantaneous when you exercise your eye. Even though you have been looking and seeing since your earliest recollection, I would venture to guess that you had not considered this artistic intent or focus, until just recently. Just as a doctor looks at the human body in skeletal and muscular Latin terminology; you look at your surrounding world in artistic terminology. And as doctors need to enhance their knowledge with real-life cases, exercises, so you must enhance your technical knowledge with your knowledge of the real world.
Take an Art Class
So, how do you start training? One of the best ways to build artistic muscle is to start painting and drawing. If you have ever taken a painting class or any other art course, then you have already exercised your artistic eye somewhat. If you have never taken a course, I strongly urge you to take one-an evening still-life painting class, a drawing class, or even an art history class. A painting or drawing course, however, will more effectively introduce you to the process of looking at something intently for two hours or more at a time, so that you will start to notice details you need to re-create what is truly in front of you.
How do you go about doing this? As I said earlier, looking and meditation go hand in hand. For me, when I first started painting I soon realized that what I initially thought I saw, was not the truth of the subject matter I was trying to create. At first, I saw a myriad of confusing shapes, color, and form and tried to copy it. I did not realize that the fabric's highlight color was so rich or that the reflection in the wineglass was so complicated-or that it even existed.
After a lot of practice (sometimes spending days on a painting) something quite amazing happened. My brain stopped chattering, and I remained focused and in the moment. It seemed that there was an immediate connection between eye and hand, leaving my brain out of the process. I was seeing nothing more than pockets and patches of colors and shapes while understanding the overall composition of their integration. One of my favorite painting teachers at school would always tell us to "turn off our internal dialogue" while painting or looking, which to me meant, "shut your mind off and let it happen." You truly do become one with the painting experience.
Now when I paint, I am able to see the bits and the whole at the same time, and colors and shapes pop out at me more readily. For example, now, instead of seeing just an apple inside a bowl, I see an apple catching the reflection from the bowl and reciprocally the color of the apple transferring onto the ceramic surface of the bowl. The bowl must then have a reflective surface capturing other parts of the still life and its shadow on the white cloth below is not gray but is actually a bluish tinge with purple edges, and so forth. Even if I am having a particularly bad-painting-day (and it does happen and always will), I have certain methods that I use to help pull me back into the moment and provide me with answers I am looking for. Whether it is asking specific questions while I am painting or using other techniques to draw out something I need to know. This book is an exploration of these methods.
If you are unable to take an art course, then start at home. Create a schedule to paint or draw twice a week for a couple of hours or more in the evening. A good exercise would be for you to try to devote a full day on the weekend if you can manage it, and stick to that schedule. I love to paint. Even so, I find it hard to get motivated to do so when there's TV and a refrigerator around, so be diligent.
Look Around
Whether or not you are in a painting class, you can exercise your artistic' eye by simply looking around and taking note of your surroundings. Every chance I get, I examine articles and environments around me and look at them as if I had to paint thern.You, as a texture artist, must look at the world around you as your reference guide.
All the reference in the world will not be of service to you if you do not know how to look at it and interpret it from an artistic standpoint. Your task in this book is to familiarize yourself with various textures, looking at them and dissecting them. Then, when you sit down at the computer you will be able to articulate this knowledge.
Of course, you could always find real-world examples of textures and scan them into the computer, although this is not always a feasible option. Usually you do not have enough time during a project to walk around the city and find the right textures. Even if you do, you cannot pry a brick off a building or cut out an intriguing piece from the sidewalk on 5 Street to bring back to the studio-not to mention what it would do to your scanner (see Figure 1.1). Ostensibly, you can photograph everything you need.You will make those decisions along the way.
When you do use photographs, as an artist, you must manipulate the scanned-in photography to fit seamlessly into your scene.You must use your artistic judgement and interpret scans to make them your own using the knowledge you gained by exercising your artistic eye. To paint your own textures, you must become more knowledgeable about surfaces through looking, seeing, and experimenting. Your confidence level as a texture artist will increase once you gain control of the process of creating the surfaces you will use in your work.
For instance let's look at the following simplified example. Let's say you need a weathered and abused glass texture that is transparent in some areas, but cloudy and dirty in others.You venture out with camera in hand and snap a picture of the perfect specimen on a beautiful sunny day. In the studio, you scan it, crop, and color correct it. Still, something is wrong. The project requires the glass texture to sit in a dimly lit factory. Because the surface of the glass is very reflective, your reference photo has the reflection of you and its sunny environment in it, making the texture stick out when placed as-is into the CG environment of the dimly lit factory (see Figure 1.2).
A better approach would be to study your reference and understand the basic ingredients of it.You can then reproduce the glass surface yourself digitally in your favorite paint package as a color layer, a scratched-up layer, a stained layer, a transparency layer, and a reflectivity layer. Finally, you can add your own reflection texture map of the factory environment to fuse the surface with the scene perfectly. This method has several benefits:
- You have the flexibility to modify any one of the layers if the director wants changes.
- The next time you need an abused glass texture you can modify the one you have or create a new one from scratch without even blinking an eye.
- You exercise your artistic eye while becoming more adept at creating texture and building your confidence.
- You do not become a slave to getting photographic reference for every change.
- It keeps the budget down in the real world of "time means money"
As you contemplate your subject over hours of just looking at it, its complex structure begins to become apparent to you, and you begin to understand how your eyes distinguish between one shape and another, one color and another, and one material and another. With this understanding, you can begin to achieve any style, whether it be simplified or hyper-real.
The Benefits of Exercise
At the end of each chapter, I will give you tasks that will encourage you to exercise your artistic eye, so that you develop and increase your sensibilities and sensitivity to textures and sur-faces.You will begin to understand your world for its detail and depth.You will feel more competent at your craft, and your work will be more fulfilling and rewarding and will show it.Your audience will see something more whole, more pleasing, and integrated in your work and you will be more successful because of it.
Materials ad Textures Defined
To see, identify, describe, and then re-create a particular surface, you must first know what I mean by the two terms material and texture.
A material is the base substance of a surface. For example, wood, metal, and glass are examples of materials.
Texture is the adjective of the material, as in rusty steel, brushed aluminum,soiled cloth, polished marble, red fabric, or frosted glass. Texture has more to do with the look and feel of the material, the wear and tear of the material, and its design or pattern type. "Pine" wood is an example of this because "pine" is the pattern /adjective that gives the wood one of its unique features. As well, its shiny or dull quality, its bumpy or smooth quality, and its color are all ingredients of the material's texture. Figures 1.3 and 1.4 offer some examples. For a closer examination of materials and textures, as well as photographs of "pristine" and textured versions of the same materials, see Chapter 2...
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