Documentation Center artzone:pub:tutorials:textures

Understanding Maps

2011-11-01T17:42:42+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Understanding Maps

Author: JonnyRay

Support Files

* Map_Template.zip

Introduction

This tutorial is intended to provide a description of three types of map files (bump, displacement and transparency) that are typically used to modify surfaces on your 3D objects. It describes each of the types and uses a simple scene created in DAZ Studio to illustrate the effects. The support file for this tutorial has the grayscale JPEG file which was used for all three of the map types.

Step 1 - Map Files and Settings

All three maps are created using 256 level grayscale images. Colors are ignored in these maps, it's the value (gray scale) not the hue (color) that makes a difference

Poser and DAZ Studio treat bump and displacement maps differently. In DAZ Studio, medium gray (128, 128, 128) is considered neutral. Darker shades simulate negative changes, lighter shades represent positive changes. However in Poser, black (0, 0, 0) is considered neutral and all changes to the surface of the object are in the positive direction only.

This difference is important to note when trying to re-create settings in DAZ Studio which mimic settings in Poser. Also when adapting material settings which are designed for Poser, the negative displacement setting in DAZ Studio should be set to 0 (zero).

Both programs treat transparency maps in the same way. For these maps, pure white is completely opaque and pure black is completely transparent with other gray scale levels providing varying levels of transparency.

The basic scene without any maps assigned to the sphere is shown above. I'm using a plain sphere colored a dark cyan (64, 128, 128) with three walls each colored a dark shade of a primary color. There are three lights ' a key light above and to the right of the camera, a fill light below and to the left and a rim light behind the sphere at a very high angle.

Step 2 - Bumping and Displacing

To understand what bump and displacement maps do, a bit of physics may be necessary. When light strikes a reflective object, the light bounces away from the object at the same angle that it struck it. So if you shoot a light at a flat surface at a 45 degree angle, the light reflecting from that surface will also be at a 45 degree angle.

( We'll talk in another tutorial about the difference between diffuse, glossy and specular reflections, for now hang with me on this. )

When a bump map is applied to a surface, it tricks the rendering engine into thinking that the surface at that point is tilted. Darker settings indicate the surface angles down, lighter settings make it appear to angle up. It's important to note that the surface isn't actually changed, the bump map just fools the rendering engine into thinking it has been.

On the other hand, a displacement map does change the surface. It physically alters the geometry of the surface during rendering by raising vertices on the surface and creating a slightly different mesh.

The picture below illustrates what happens when light strikes a surface with or without one of these maps applied to it.

Step 3 - Bump Maps

Bump maps change the way that light interacts with the surface of an object. A bump map simulates bumps in the surface by creating highlights and shadows. However a bump map doesn't actually change the surface of the object, it just simulates the effect. Applying the texture as a Bump Map (by placing it in the Bump Strength channel on the sphere creates the effect shown below.

For comparison sake, I also created two series of pictures showing just the right half of the sphere.

The first series shows the same bump map applied at 50%, 100%, 150% and 200% strength (keeping the negative and positive settings at the default of -0.1 and 0.1 centimeters).

The second series keeps the bump map at 100%, but set the bump values at 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, and 1.0 centimeters.

Step 4 - Displacement Maps

Similar to bump maps, displacement maps change how light effects the surface of an object, however, displacement maps actually move (or displace) the surface of the object. The effect is usually stronger than a bump map with the same settings and has the added effect of changing the silhouette of the object (note the changes in the edges of the sphere and the shadow in the example image.

Displacement maps have the added value of being able to cast shadows. A bump map lightens and darkens a surface by changing the angle, but a displacement map moves it in such a way that it casts a shadow across itself and other objects in the scene.

The scene below illustrates the same texture applied as a displacement map using the default 100% +/-0.1 cm settings.

Like with the bump map, I created a two series of images. The first showing the effects of keeping the displacement values the same and adjusting the strength of the map.

The second series shows the effect of keeping the strength consistent (100%) and varying the positive and negative limits.

Step 5 - Choosing a Surface

So if the displacement has advantages like realistic shadows, why would you use bump maps?

There are a couple of reasons you might choose to bump a surface instead of displace it. First is that your render engine might not support displacements. Using a displacement map requires that the rendering engine is able to change the geometry of a surface during the rendering process. Poser only added support for displacement maps in version 5. Bryce still isn't able to support displacement maps for this reason.

The second reason is that displacement is a bit harder on the processing time than bumping. Since the engine has to create new geometry as it processes your scene, displacement maps can create performance issues (albeit minor ones for most systems). However even a minor performance hit is significant in some areas (like games) so many systems prefer bump mapping over displacements.

Sometimes, both maps (using different images) may be the best way to go. For instance if I were modeling a basketball I might use a bump map to simulate the pebbly texture of the leather, but use displacement to create the indentions for the lines and logos.

Below I've included a side-by-side comparison of a close-up of the sphere. The one on the left uses bump mapping, the one on the right uses displacements. Both apply the map at 100% strength with -1.0 and +1.0 as their limit values.

Step 6 - Transparency Maps

Transparency maps allow you to hide parts of the surface of an object. Using a transparency map can allow you to completely change the outline of an object without having to change the geometry of the object itself. In the sample image below, you can see that by applying a transparency map to the sphere, we've changed the solid sphere into a ball of lace. Note that in some areas the surface is completely missing while other areas are merely translucent. You can also see the result of this in the shadows on the walls and floor where the light has shone through.

Step 7 - Summary

Applying these types of texturing maps to your models can allow you to easily create an entirely new look for an object without having to resort to modeling a new object yourself. A simple object (like a basic t-shirt or dress) can be transformed into many different looks using these techniques. This extends the usefulness of the original item and allows you, the artist, to create exactly the look and feel you want to have for the objects in your scenes.

2D PROPS FROM PHOTOS

2011-11-01T17:42:42+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

2D PROPS FROM PHOTOS

Author: Ned

Tools Needed

Any decent image processing application
Poser application

Introduction

You can make your own 2D props for just about any Poser project. All you need is a camera, a PC and a lot of gray matter!

Step 1 - TAKING THE PHOTOS

Hello again from NED STUDIOS!

Today I will teach you another useful trick and show you that thinking “out of the box” really pays out!

Who says that all the props you use for your Poser projects have to be in 3D? If your final product is a 2D render then some of the props can be in 2D as well. Especially those in the background. Let's take foliage as an example (although it could be anything else).

We are going to make a poseable, scalable, “see-through” bush and place it in front of a blue sky background. Here's how:

If you have a digital camera you are half way there! Go out and take some photos of trees and bushes and make sure you get a good contrast between the subject and the background.

(see figure 1)Hook up your camera to your PC and download your photos. Most of the time I use Microsoft Picture It “Photo premium 7” but you can use just about any decent image processing application to perform the following tasks:

Make a crop-out image since you only need the bush, not the sky. I use “cutout by color selection” operation. Don't try to crop it out by hand or you'll go mad half way through!

(You need every single leaf and twig and if you don't know how to crop the entire bush out, I suggest you check out the help files of your application)

Save the image as PNG file (see Figure 2) since this is your future texture for the prop.

In the same image, place a black square in the background and click on the bush. Make it black and white and turn contrast all the way to full white with no gray tones! Save it as JPG file. This will be your future transparency map (see Figure 3).

Step 2 - PROP ME UP

Open Poser and prepare your blue sky background if you wish. This could be a photo too.

Now comes the fun part:

Open Props/Primitives and choose one of the squares. I chose “Hi-res square”. Prop it up at 90 degrees and open Material room. Click on the square and attach new nodes for 2D image map and transparency map as seen in figure4. Adjust your dials for transparency and do a test render. This will tell you what parameters you still need to adjust but basically, that's it! If you got it right the first time, the bush (the square) can be moved around, scaled and you can see the sky through leaves and twigs.(fig 5)This is now a very useful prop since you can place a few of these one if front of another and, with some creativity, make the scenery look like a real forest! Not to mention that (depending on the size of your textures) your render time might improve dramatically! Give your prop a name, save it in Poser's Props library and use it as often as you like.

Happy “propping” and catch you later!

see some of my work at: http://www.yessy.com/ned/graph.html?fs=0 and drop a comment if you wish

Advanced Texturing Of Scenes In 3D Studio Max with Poser Pro Pak

2011-11-01T17:42:42+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Advanced Texturing Of Scenes In 3D Studio Max with Poser Pro Pak

Author: Anonymous

Tools Needed

Poser Pro Pack

3D Studio Max

A really good Poser texture

Step 1 - Setting up the Scene

OK. I'm not going to get into the intricacies of using the Pro Pack plug-in in max, as all this is covered in the manual. I will assume that you have created a Poser scene and saved it as a PZ3 scene file. For this exercise, keep the scene to one naked figure with no props. Think about doing a portrait like the one above.

Open max and import the PZ3 scene into Max via the Poser plug-in in the geometries rollout. Add a camera (camera 1) and align the camera to set up your portrait. Don't worry about adding additional lighting. We will just work with the default global lighting while we set everything up.

Step 2 - Add a Composite Material

Once your scene is set up to your taste, click on the “Materials Editor” icon . Click on any of the blank texture slots to activate it. The first one on the top row is as good as any. Select the “eye dropper” tool on the left of the drop down menu and left click on the figure in your Poser/max scene. This assigns all the textures as “Multi Sub Object” textures to one texture slot. Next to the “eye dropper” it will now say “PoserMaterials” in the drop down menu and the “Multi Sub Object” texture list will appear. Think of this list as like the material editor in Poser, only much more advanced. It gives you access in Max to all the textures on your figure that are assigned in poser to each mapped group

Click on the entry for “Skinhead”.

This will bring you to the more familiar part of the Materials Editor that usually comes up when you want to apply a straight forward texture map to an object geometry.

Click on the “M” button to the right of “Diffuse”.

This will take you to the “RGB Tint” parameters. Just ignore this section and click on the big button underneath the word “Map”.

In the next dialogue click the “Bitmap” button.

This will bring up the material map browser. Click on the entry for “Composite”. What we want to achieve is a blend of two different materials assigned to one Poser material group.

Click the radio button for “Keep old map as sub map” and click OK.

In the “Composite” rollout click on “Map 2”, the button that say's “None”. This will bring up the “Material/Map Browser” again. This time double click on the entry for “Dirt”.

The “Dirt” parameters rollout will now appear. Just leave the settings as they are. You can experiment later.

You have now added the composite material to the “Skinhead” group of your Poser figure. This means there are two textures on the head. One is the texture map that you used in Poser and the other is the “Dirt” texture that is part of Max.

You can now do a test render. Be sure to save first just in case Max decides to bail out. You can go on with the same procedure for other parts of the figure that you want to add dirt to. The lips, the nostrils, eyebrows and the body too.

Step 3 - Adding Bump Maps

When you are satisfied, you can then go on to adding your bump maps. To get back to the “PoserMaterials Multi Sub Object” rollout, click on the map rollout next to the eyedropper tool and select “PoserMaterials”

In the “Multi Sub Object” rollout. Select “Skinhead” again. This will give you access to the “Maps” rollout. Drag the diffuse map onto the “Bump” map slot and select copy. Bump maps in Max are much more powerful than standard Poser bump maps. So unless you are using it as a special effect, go easy.

Step 4 - Wrap Up

Well that's how you do it. I am planning on doing more Poser Pro Pack/Max tutorials in the near future plus a tutorial on lighting your Poser Scene in Max.

I hope this has been of some use to you and maybe saved you some time and some frustration. If you have any tips to add to this, I would be happy to fit them in somewhere

The Final Image.

Aging Textures - Paint and Wood

2011-11-01T17:42:42+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Aging Textures - Paint and Wood

Author: AlmightyQUEST

Tools Needed

Photoshop
Or another paint program with layers

Introduction

3D rendering tries to achieve visual perfection. Because of this, most models appear brand new, shiny, and as if they've only left the box for the image. Sometimes, however, you want an object that's been used, broken, and generally not well kept. Aging textures is simple once you've done it once, and I will show you some basic methods of showing age and wear that can apply to many textures.

Step 1 - Maps

For purposes of this tutorial, I am using the free nutcracker model, found at http://freebackend.daz3D.com/free_weekly/detail.php?free_id=108 . I am also using Studio, and in the last stage I will be giving directions based on Studio, I do not know if anything changes for Poser, but I will assume that applying displacement maps in Poser will be similar enough that a Poser user can follow along.

To begin with, you should have two files for the texture you wish to age. They are usually under content > runtime > textures. You should have the full color texture, and then the black and white transparency map.

We will be using this transparency map both for transparency (with the hair), and also using the same map as a displacement map to work with the 3D texturing of the object. If you have a texture that does not come with a transparency map to work with, you can easily create a base for our displacement map by selecting all the colored area on the texture, and filling that selected area with 50% grey in a new document with a clear background (or in the same document if you can handle a lot of layers). For displacement maps, 50% grey is no change, white is the highest positive value, and black is the lowest negative value. Transparency maps have white as 100% opacity, and black as 0% opacity, so we will have to make the change from white to 50% grey to change our transparency map to our displacement map. Anything outside the UV map range doesn't matter, I suggest clear to keep track of where borders are. All texture maps are UV mapped the same way for an object.

Step 2 - Basic Color Change

The most important part with art that strives for any level of realism is reference material. I have some I'm using myself, but I can't redistribute it, but a simple Google search tends to turn up enough. Now, the first thing we're going to work on is taking away a little of that shine. As objects such as said nutcracker age, a lot can happen to them. If an object tends to be handled a lot, it is likely to get dark spots from the oils in people's hands, and will grow darker overall from dirt on people's hands. An object for display will tend to lighten from the effects of the sun on the paint, and become less saturated. I will be using the lightened method for this tutorial, but lightening and darkening the basic colors is similar. Go to Image > Adjust > Hue/Saturation. For darkening the color from dirt, leave the hue slider where it is, bring the saturation up slightly (5-10 range, any more will tend to be too intense), and bring the brightness slider down to where it looks good to you based on preference or reference. Because handling is specific, you will also need to do a little more hand work. The easiest way to improve on this is to take the burn tool, at a low pressure and intensity, and run it over areas most often touched, in this case most likely the arms, back, and sides of the legs. Oil stains tend to not be too noticeable, but a little bit can make a big difference. Just make sure they are slightly irregular, and that they follow the shape of the object. This may be one of the times where you will need to make a mock-up of the template to load up on the nutcracker object, just so you can place colored areas accurately. Again, reference material helps a lot.

Now, for fading the paint, it is much easier. In this example I had the saturation at -35, the brightness and 10, and then shifted the hue a bit to 15, which causes the colors to yellow slightly, which tends to happen to paints and wood as it ages (as well as paper, which people are most familiar with). Now, logically certain areas of the object are going to be lightened more than others, based on where the light source is coming from. However, because it is very regular as opposed to finger marks, lighting in the 3D application will create that effect for us. If you would like, you can follow the same principles as I mentioned to make smudges, only using the dodge tool. This, however, is much more noticeable if there are any mistakes, so I don't recommend trying unless you have a very good reason to do so.

Also, don't be afraid to experiment. Maybe add a bit of a red overlay in a blue area for a slight stain, maybe have grass stains (basically the same as stains, only with more stringy lines crossing than a spot) if the object could have them, whatever looks good works, and just keep checking references in photos if you aren't sure how something should look.

Step 3 - Light Scratches

Now, despite the fact that I liked the faded colors more than the stained colors, I have decided that in the past this nutcracker saw too much time in the hands of a small child. Or a dog. Or something. So, what damage would be done to a primarily wooden object like this? Well, one of the main things is scratches. Scratches can vary a lot, from grazing scratches that barely affect the surface layer, to deep cuts that we will use the displacement map to simulate.

First, we will look at the surface grazing. Create a new layer above your new color layer, and fill it with white. Now go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Set the noise to monochrome, and I would set the amount to 100%, higher for more scratches, lower for less.

(See top image for a sample noise layer)

Now, you have a full screen of dots. We want scratches. Now, there are two ways of doing this.

One way is to go Filter > Blur > Motion Blur, pick a general direction that the scratches would move in, and set it to blur about 10-20 pixels, enough so it doesn't look like little dots, but also so it doesn't blend together too much. You may choose to go Edit > Adjust > Brightness/Contrast, and play around with the contrast to get an amount and intensity of lines you like.

Now, for both of these methods, you have, basically, three options at this point. One is to change the layer setting to overlay, or something similar like soft light, which uses both the white and the black to change the layer underneath. Another option is to set the layer to lighten, color dodge, or something similar, which uses the white to lighten the layer underneath. The third option, as you can probably guess, is darken or color burn, which darkens the layer underneath. Again, adjusting contrast or transparency of the layer changes its intensity, and you probably want this at a low opacity. You can also duplicate and combine layers, if you want scratches in multiple directions, or you prefer a darken and lighten layer instead of an overlay. Experimentation is always key.

You can either leave this as is now, with scratches over the entire texture, or you can now apply a layer mask, and erase sections of this layer, leaving it to only affect key areas that would scratch easily, like the arms and face.

(The image here shows general scratches using the motion blur. Note that the scratches were removed from the face, which I will pay more attention to later, but also from the hair, feather, jewel, and fringe, which wouldn't scratch. Unfortunately, this template is not very clear, but other templates tend to be labeled more clearly, and have groups based on the object, not the color, so you can more easily tell what is an arm, leg, or hair, or anything else).

Now, for the face region I will show you another method of light scratches. The only difference here between the previous method is that instead of using a motion blur, you use the blur and/or smudge tool on the noise. It may not seem useful here, but for objects with irregular shapes it is very good to know how to do this. Just make sure your smudge tool has its pressure turned down so you can still see individual marks.

Step 4 - Deep Scratches

Now, those last scratches weren't anything major, not enough for us to need to use displacement maps on the texture. However, sometimes there are major scratches in old objects. You know, the sort of thing where someone decides to stab their nutcracker. Well, that is a little more major, and that will be most effective using a displacement map.

Now, I will once again making mock-up textures to test. What I mean by this is that since Studio currently will not reload textures unless you quit Studio and start it up, I would advise you to save 'test 1.JPG', 'test 2.JPG', etc, for both textures and displacement maps, so you can see how it looks in Studio. Because I am not using this texture for a project, I am not checking it as I go along, and am not entirely sure how the outcome will look before I'm ready. I do not recommend this is you want to actually use the texture.

With that out of the way, we are moving right along on to displacement. Displacement maps, unlike bump maps, actually distort the mesh of the object as opposed to simply faking three-dimensional texture.

There are two ways we can use this to our advantage. One way is simply drawing on the displacement maps in shades darker than 50% grey where we want our scratches. Anything darker than 50% grey pulls the mesh inwards, while anything over 50% pushes it outwards. Lights will shade this area accordingly, and correctly unlike will happen sometimes with bump maps, which simply shade the surface.

However, we may not want to leave it at that. There are several reasons to make further changes to the color texture. The shading of the actual color can reinforce what the lights shade, which can be very helpful. Also, as is the case here, if there is any change under the top surface of the figure, you can show those. In this case, we have wood under paint. The most important thing when working with displacement maps and texture maps is to make sure that things line up correctly. If you draw in black on a separate layer on the displacement map, I suggest you copy the layer, add a plain white back to it, merge the layers, and copy this over to your color texture. Switch the colors for drawing with white. This will show you exactly where the spot lines up on the two images. You can do this working from the texture to the displacement map as well. If you have a gradient area that you wish to transfer between images, instead of sharp edges, then add the black or white layer as you normally would, copy it over, but instead of using the magic wand, click the tab next to your layers tab, 'Channels', and crtl+click any channel. This should select all the white, including the 'white' in gradients. You can then delete the white, or invert the selection and delete the black. Make sure you have any layers over the layers you are working on turned off, or this won't work correctly.

I have added a bit of a battle scar to our nutcracker, right across the chest. First, fill the area in with black on the displacement map, making sure it has soft edges so it isn't just a sudden drop straight down into the mesh. Use this area as a guide for the texture map. First, I would suggest making a new layer, copying a bit of the face onto that layer, and lining it up over the indented area. Erase gently but with sharp edges until the wood area is inside the indented area. Leave rough edges, for where the paint would have been pressed down. Conversely, you can make a hole in the color layer, with a copy of wood texture beneath the color layer. Try both and see which works better for you. I actually used the second method in this image. I also suggest making copies of any layer you are directly changing, and also using layer masks if you want to delete parts of major layer like the color layer. You also want to delete any of the smaller scratches going over your deep scratches, especially in areas where you have a color change.

This will be a case where users with a tablet will have an advantage, as it is easier to create tapered lines. That doesn't mean you can't do it by hand, it's just a little more work.

Step 5 - More Discoloration

Now, this is the part where I will go into several different things you can do to create a worn look. Odds are that you won't use everything in a single texture, though if there is enough space, you might. If you are trying to follow me exactly as I am, I can guarantee you the texture will look a little forced, simply because space is an issue here.

Now, for lack of any direction, I will quickly cover the hair and fringe.

This part is mostly reliant on a color change. You can go to the transparency map, and add darker lines into the hair to make it look thinner, like some has fallen out, but that is simple enough I think you can manage without an image to demonstrate. Simply make sure to apply the transparency map to the hair.

Now, thread, hair, and many other materials yellow as they age, as I said before. For the white hair here, it is simple enough to add a layer of yellow over it, and turn the opacity much lower. Alternatively, if you have colored thread or the likes, you can do the same thing setting the layer to overlay, or go to edit > adjust > hue/saturation, and move the hue slider until the colors yellow. The golden fringe I am adding a layer of dark green over, setting it to overlay, and lowering the opacity. This dims the color and helps achieve the dirty, aged affect. I did the same with the feather, only a dark blue layer instead of green, even going a little into the purple colors.

Again, with this sort of thing you can thin down the transparency map (drawing black over a white area: black=0%, white=100%), but other than that there isn't much to do with this little area. I plan another tutorial going more in depth into what happens with large areas of material.

Remember, anything outside of the map range doesn't affect the map, so if my area fills looks sloppy, that's why, because they don't need to stay inside the lines.

Step 6 - Rubbing

Alright, next I'm going to do yet another one that is mainly a color change. Actually, this is only a color change again, but it's more involved than the last one.

Paint can be rubbed off fairly easily if care is not taken, and it can rub off without even scratching the surface. In this case, the paint isn't really deep enough to warrant a displacement map change, though I will show how to do that in my next section on paint peeling, and explain it briefly at the end of this section.

First thing you want to do is make a copy of the wood texture. Basically, make a copy of the face on a new layer, and move that layer beneath your color layer. Line it up over the area you want the paint rubbed off, and use the rubber stamp tool if you need to cover more area. Now, go to the color layer, add a layer mask if you don't have one already, and then, using a soft brush, paint away the rubbed area. Make sure the edges stay soft, and it moves in the general direction of the rubbing. Since it is only rubbed, the smooth effect is needed. Peeling paint, the next section, will use harder edges.

It's as simple as that. Typically darkening the wood layer slightly will look better, but only slightly. If you want, try adjusting the wood layer to have a slight tint of the paint that used to be covering it. I have only done this to a small area on the arm, as peeling paint is more difficult and I want more room to demonstrate this.

I know the image isn't great, but I didn't want to spend too much time on this, as it's pretty easy to figure out the mechanics, just a little more work on the creation

Step 7 - Peeling and Chipping Paint

Now, we finally move on to peeling paint. This is a good time for source material.

Now, the first thing to work out is what the final image should look like. You need to decide the shape, which you want to start blocking in over the texture on another layer. Peeling typically has a larger center area, with little thread like areas where it is beginning to peel, typically in web like patterns. Sometimes, little 'islands' of paint will stay stuck on, but disconnected from the main painted area. The shape is probably the most important part of this, and the one where reference material is most handy. As said before, because this is not a texture I intend to use, I will not work as detailed as I normally would. It also helps to work very large here, and to taper ends.

For some excellent reference material, first return from a Google search:

http://www.mayang.com/textures/Architectural/html/Paint%20Effects/

(Shape at top of the page)

Now that you have the shape, continue with how it will look. Are there other paint layers under this one? If so, their shape may have to differ slightly. You want to begin blocking out areas of the paint, again using a layer of the wood texture under a color layer with a mask. Once you block out that area, you can add layers of a different color with a mask under this once. This takes a lot more work, and source material is once again highly recommended. You may notice in my image that the final hole in the paint was a slightly different shape than the original block. Just make sure you make these changes to the template you use on your displacement map.

Lastly, we tackle the displacement map. The paint will have curled up at the edges of the peeled area. This is a good time to bring that blocked out shape from your texture to your displacement map file. Now, remember that everything is scaled here. You can adjust how far the farthest indent can be and how far the farthest extruding area can be separately in Studio. This means that black does not have to go as far in as white goes out, once you work with it in Studio. You can have the black go much farther in. The only thing that has to be consistent is the scaling on the positive and negative sides separately. We will be using white for our highest point on the paint, even though this will only go out very slightly compared to the indents we have already made.

Now, the easiest way to do this is this: Select the shape of the peeled paint, invert the selection, then carefully, with a soft brush, paint on white around the edges of the selection. You may want to do this on a new layer. The white can be very slight, where only the very edge peels upwards, or a bit larger for areas where there may be air bubbles under the paint's surface. Again, experimentation and a lot of mock texture files are keys to this process. You can see some air bubbles I added in the lower left hand corner.

Step 8 - Paint Drips and other Details

Now, I think we can safely move on to extras. Little things you can throw in that make a difference. Let's try this first. Pick one of the buttons there. Select that button, just a small circular selection with the lasso tool, and then make it a new layer-via-copy. Now, use the eyedropper tool to select the same shade of blue as the rest of the shirt (with the scratches turned off so they don't get in the way), and paint over the button on the color layer. Now, use the magic wand tool to select the blue edges around the button, and delete those. Rotate the button a little, move it a little, then put a spot of light yellow behind it, so you can see a little bit of the yellow. There you have it, a button that fell off and was hastily glued back on. You may want to grunge up the buttons a little too with some scratches drawn directly on the buttons, they look too shiny and new for our purposes.

Let's say you want an area of the wood to have gotten rubbed down a little. Pick a color from the wood grain with the eyedropper, apply that SINGLE color to the area that was rubbed down, and then, if needed, darken that area slightly.

Now, let's say a not-very-skilled person tried repainting a section. Pick a spot, such as on a leg or the back, and color in an area of a different shade of the main paint color. Look for images of dripping paint to see the sort of shape you want.

Now, take that shape, and move it into your displacement map. If you are able, take a look at some paint that had dripped before it dried. Typically, rather than being a 'half-raindrop' shape on the surface, the 'thickest part' will have indented slightly. Keeping in mind how high you want white to go on your displacement map, draw in the paint drips accordingly. You may want to see my image as an example, as it is difficult to put in words.

I added drips to the lower part of the torso, which doesn't make sense based on the chipped paint and scratch already on the torso, but it was the best space to work with where I knew which way gravity would act. Typically, you will start your shape at the TOP of the region, so no change needs to be made to the upper part of the region on the displacement map. Here, I didn't make the changes to the upper region on the displacement map, since really this is only to demonstrate the paint drips.

You also can make a specularity map of the painted area, with everything except the new paint being black and the new paint being white, so everything else is dull except the new coat of paint.

Step 9 - Putting it All Together

Now, finally, we are putting it all together. Save your maps in some format that Studio can read, I tend to use JPG files, but Studio can read .tif files which many people prefer for quality. It's up to you.

Now, if you know how to make mat files, that's great. I don't yet, and therefore I'm going through this by hand. You can select all of the materials for the nutcracker under the material list, and change all the diffuse colors to white (if they aren't already, they should be automatically), and load up your final texture. This is typically the part where you notice some little mistake you need to go back and fix. Now, if you adjusted the TRANSPARENCY map at all for the hair, select the white node and apply that transparency map. Now, select everything EXCEPT the hair, and go down to 'displacement' (not bump), and apply the displacement map you made. This part takes some experimenting, you may simply be able to leave the maximum and minimum where they are, but most likely you will need to turn the maximum (the raised paint) down, and the minimum (the indentations) up.

Note that the displacement will ONLY show up when you render the image.

Now, the surface is going to be too glossy in this case, my suggestion is to select everything except the hair, turn it's glossiness down, and set the lighting model to glossy 'plastic' or possibly glossy metal. You may want to even set it to matte for things like the wooden areas, and you only want a very little bit of glossiness to the painted areas.

Now, these basic ideas can apply to just about anything. They relate most directly to painted and wooden surfaces, but the general ideas of displacement and color change remain similar.

As stated before, I intend to create another tutorial going more in-depth on the effects of wear and tear on cloth and similar materials.

You saw the final image at the top of the page, now, the detail shots:

This turned out decently, considering I hadn't been checking on how it looked as it went. I do see some obvious changes I would make if I were intending to use this, I would lower the opacity of the main scratches, and would add more black lines to the trans-map of the hair and feather, and would have included the specularity map. I also probably would have made the scratch on the face shallower. As you see in the last image, while the paint chips look good at a distance, up close I would want to have had a higher resolution texture with more detail. I also would have worked on the buttons. You can see the paint drips very well, better than I expected. Overall it's a pretty convincing texture, it would need a little more work, but since I'm not using the texture I'm leaving it at this. It's not that it needs different work, it's simply using the techniques I've already explained and applying it to different areas of the texture. It could probably use some more of the shallow/deep scratches on the body. Just take time and you will be happy with your final texture.

An easy way of painting country pattern

2011-11-01T17:42:42+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

An easy way of painting country pattern

Author: karanta

Tools Needed

Photoshop

Introduction

Hi :)

Today I would like to show you a very easy way to make tiling country patterns.

This tutorial was done with the German Photoshop CS version. I tried to show most of what I did with screenshots. You can also follow this tutorial with an earlier Photoshop version and also with other applications which work with layers.

I hope you'll have fun with this little tutorial :) It was fun to make it for you :)

Kerstin

Step 1 - First steps

We will make similar textures as I made for the girl clothes.

So let's start now :) It's very easy to make this kind of patterns.

Step 2 - Continue

Approaching Warp 11

2011-11-01T17:42:42+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Approaching Warp 11

Author: spinner

Tools Needed

Photoshop
Dogwaffle or any other 2D graphics app

Support Files

Spinners_Space_Actions.zip

Introduction

This tutorial will take you through the steps of creating a custom stellar image you can use either as a standalone image, or a backdrop for the cyclorama or millennium environment. For newbies and advanced users both.

Step 1 - Step 1 - The Background

Step 1 - The Background

We'll start with a new document - any size over 640 x 480 is fine, and set the background to black Create a new layer (CTR + N) - make that black too, and call it stars_background

Now we're going to make some noise: This time an amount between 08 and 12 %, and it must be set to a Gaussian monochrome. (Filters > Blur > Gaussian)

After that, go to Image > Adjustments > Levels and use the following values at the top: 0, 0.3, 105. (Make sure the dropdown is set to RGB). Tweak until you find an amount you are happy with.

Next time you want to do this - you can use the Photoshop action I made. I don't think there's a point in you running an action if you don't know what it does, so please run this w/o automation first.

Merge (CTR + E), and create an extra layer copy of the merge, for safety's sake - name it stars_background01. Lock it and make it invisible. This way, should you mess up completely, you have a clean, fresh layer, ready to be duplicated and used.

Start erasing parts of the stars, so you won't be left with a regular looking random effect until you have a background you're pleased with, like so:

Step 2 - Step 2 - Foreground stars

Add a new layer, call it stars_foreground and grab the airbrush. Start painting dots, ranging between 2 and 20 pixels in diameter, and up to 60 % in opacity. Click the dots several times if you want them to be brighter. These will be your foreground stars - small dots for far away, bigger dots for closer, as in the image below:

Create a new layer, and name the layer to 'colour_1'

Select a colour and start painting bits and pieces in the colours you like. If they are too bright - hit Ctrl + U and desaturate somewhat Create a new folder, and put the layers in them, and remember to lock it

Step 3 - Step 3 - Spatial Rip

Guess what comes next ? Yes ! New layer ! Call it Line and set your paintbrush to 1 to 3 pixels, and check the brush has opacity and flow set to 100.

Hit shift while you draw a line across - this will make it straight. But not for long - we're going to distort it by using the wave filter.

(Filters > Distort > Wave)

If you're feeling adventurous, hit random. If you want to play it safe, stick to :

Type=sine
Generators=5
Wavelength=min. 10 max 150
Amplitude= 5 / 40
Scale= horiz=100 vert=50

Tinker til you see a line you like, click Ctrl + T - and rotate it until you see something you like. If you want to play it safe - right click and hit one of the 90's.

Copy the layer, and then lock it and make it invisible, the invisible is your backup.

Duplicate the layer again, and do a radial ZOOM blur with the zoom set to between 35 and 50, depending on the image size. (Filters > Blur > Radial)

Merge it with the duplicated line layer, and repeat five times, until you see something you like - or something that resembles the image below

When you're done, merge down until they're all one layer.

Step 4 - Step 4 - Small energy surges

Create a new layer and call it mini_surges. Create some circles with the selection tool in the middle or vicinity of the surge, a typical place would be in the middle, where it's thickest.

Right-click and select stroke - setting the pixels between 1 and 3 pixels and the colour to white.

You now have white circles; use either the smudge tool or Shear (filters > distort > shear) to set the shape you want.

Step 5 - Step 5 - Main Surge

Create a new layer and call it Main_surge.

Select brush, and set the flow to somewhere between 60 and 90. Create a dot of about 65 to 80 pixels, depending on your image size, and place it as if the mini_surges are coming out of it - use blur, shear or smudge on the previous layer to help this look come about.

Step 6 - Step 6 - Lens flare

Create a new layer and call it Flare,

Fill the layer with black and set it to Linear Dodge - this will ensure everything on the layers under will show.

Create a Lens Flare (Filters > Render > Lens Flare) the size of your choice in the middle of the white dot - I kept mine between 80 and 100 and use the 105 prime one for this image. You may have to fiddle a bit to get this right.

Duplicate the layer, and start playing with the distort filters.

The image on the main tutorial page (and on the last Bit page) used a double whammy of polar coordinates.

Experimentation is everything here - Do so !

When you're done, create a new layer , set it to colour and colour it. When you're done: folder and lock, we're off to the last bit;

Step 7 - Step 7 - Space clouds and debris

Create a new layer and call it clouds1. Make it black and set it to Linear Dodge

Grab a big brush - David Nagell's cloudbrushes or vapour-brushes are ideal, or just hit Adobe, and start painting. It doesn't matter where or what, just fill the image with clouds.

Don't use the render clouds feature, you can smell it a mile off, and will look very fake. Use as many layers as you feel like, and as many brushes as you want to build a texture.

Merge when you're done. Duplicate and hide the original layer as backup.

Click the eraser brush, and grab another big ragged cloudy brush, and start erasing. Vary the sizes of the eraser brush to get an uneven and non-uniform erase going. Work until you're happy with the result.

Step 8 - Step 8 - Colourising and finishing up

I bet you thought I was going to say make a new layer, call it colour3 and set it to colour.

Wrong !

Hit Ctrl + B in order to bring up the colouring palette - I want a uniform colour for the clouds in this instance.

Of course, it's perfectly OK to create a new colour-layer, though

Set a colour you like, and tweak by using the Image > Adjust > Hue/Saturation palette.

Duplicate layers and change colours as you see fit.

Remember to tweak, tweak and tweak, there is no right or wrong here, just “looks good” and “looks bad”

After this, you're done, but I have one last tip before we're done;

In order to create a sense of motion, create a new layer, and make it black.

Set it to Linear Dodge

Fill it with the same noise settings as you had.

Now, go to Filter > Pixelate > Mezzotint, and set the dropdown to coarse. Tweak as you see fit.

You'll see a pretty fugly collection of dots after you're done.

Go to radial blur - and set it to 40, zoom, and best.

Click OK. Tada !

If it's too intense - fade the layer opacity and fill.

Flatten image. There, all done.

Avoid seams when making a texture

2011-11-01T17:42:42+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Avoid seams when making a texture

Author: Carole

Tools Needed

Photoshop

Introduction

The main problem when you decide to create a texture, is avoiding the seams, with this tut you will see how to prevent disgracious seams.

Step 1 - Selecting

Using the Magic wand, select the white area around the template.

Step 2 - Invert the selection

Choose “invert the selection”

Step 3 - Edges

Then go into “edition > edges”

Step 4 - Edges 2

Apply the same settings, be careful to choose the same colour as your texture.

Step 5 - Edges are covered

Finally, you have a template will all edges covered with the texture colour, now you can fill you template your your texture, you can paint inside the coloured edges, and you shouldn't have any seams at the end.

Create a Camouflage Texture

2011-11-01T17:42:42+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Create a Camouflage Texture

Author: Gary_P

Tools Needed

* Photoshop

Step 1 - Creating Clouds

Start with a square blank document with a resolution of 1024×1024. Make sure when you build your camouflage that the document you start out with is big enough to cover your template.

Yours may need to be bigger.

If this is an outfit for V3 or M3 or whatever, you may want to build it a bit bigger than the template that you are going to cover.

For this tutorial, I'm going to show you at a resolution of 1024×1024, but the outfit I was using was 1500×1500.

Note: Make sure you are in some kind of color mode and not grayscale when you create your document. I used RGB as my color mode.

Reset your foreground and background colors to default using the shortcut key D.

Apply a clouds filter.

Menu: Filter | Render | Clouds

You should have something that looks like my picture below. Do not worry if your picture does not look exactly like mine, but it should close.

Next, apply a Gaussian Blur filter

Menu: Filter | Blur | Gaussian Blur

Use a value of 20, so it's really blurred.

Open the Brightness and Contrast dialogue.

Menu: Image | Adjustments | Brightness/Contrast

Set the Contrast slider to full (+100)

Then slide the brightness slider until you get about the same amounts of white and black.

Step 2 - Cleaning your Image

Now we have a two color image that looks like a cow could hide behind it.

This would be great if all the foliage was black and white. It could also be used as an Arctic camouflage.

But this is not what we want. Besides, the image is way too sharp, and we will fix that now.

Apply a Blur More filter.

Menu: Filter | Blur | Blur More

Do this a couple of times until the edges are not as sharp. Better?

Step 3 - Layering and Three Colors

Duplicate your layer by right clicking on it and selecting Duplicate Layer, or just drag your layer down to the Create a New Layer icon. It's the one that looks like a piece of paper with the corner folded.

We're going to create a three color camouflage by duplicating and turning the new layer, but first we need to change the background into its own layer.

Change your background to a layer by double-clicking on it. This will bring up a dialogue box letting you name the layer. We'll leave it as Layer 0 by pressing the OK button.

Now we have 2 layers that look the same.

Select the bottom layer (Layer 0) and change its opacity to 50%. This will ensure we get a nice grey as a third color.

Select the top layer and rotate it to the right by 90 degrees.

Menu: Edit | Transform | Rotate 90 CW

What? Nothing happened, huh? You don't see 3 colors?

With the top layer still selected, change the layer's blending mode to Multiply.

You now should have three colors; black, white and grey.

Important: For the next step to work, you must flatten the image. If you'd like to save your image first, then do so, but the two layers must become one for the next step.

Step 4 - Adding in the Real Colors

This is pretty cool as a US Navy color as it is, but I wanted a green jungle color scheme so I looked for a way to replace the three colors with what I wanted.

Look no farther than your trusty Selective Color dialogue. This is useful for all kinds of stuff, but I'm using it today just to nudge the colors a bit.

Menu: Image | Adjustments | Selective Color

Dropdown the Colors box and choose Whites.

First make sure the Method at the bottom is set to Absolute, and not Relative.

Set the Magenta slider around +10 and the Yellow slider around +30. This will give us a nice yellowish color.

Next select Neutrals from the dropdown. This is for the gray color.

Set the Yellow slider from +80 to +100 to give us a nice pale green color.

Almost there.

Select Blacks from the dropdown.

Set the Cyan slider around -30 and the Magenta slider around -20. This will give us a nice brown color.

Don't be afraid to mess around and try different color combinations. Your forest may be full of red flowers.

Step 5 - Finishing up

So now we have a quick and easy camouflage texture for all of your outfits.

With the settings I used, this is my finished work.

Here are 2 different variations.

Feel free to email me if you have any questions.

Happy Rendering!

Creating a High Res ZBrush Mesh

2011-11-01T17:42:42+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating a High Res ZBrush Mesh

Author: Anonymous

Introduction

Here\'s a little of my work flow in ZBrush 1.55b. I do use Normal mapping in Lightwave and this method can be used to create high res meshes to be taken out of ZB and used for normal mapping in LW (but thats not why I do it, I just like the ZB output)

Step 1 - Idea Generation (step 1)

First off I create a mesh in Lighwave using the box method and point by point work (about 1600 polys). This is exported as an .OBJ

Step 2 - ZBrush Import

I import this into ZBrush (1) using the IMPORT button (this was new in this verison as we used to have to use a Polymesh star to get a mesh into ZB and that always seemed a weird way of working)

Step 3 - Divide / Tool

It is still only 1574 polys so I use DIVIDE (2) in the TOOL pallette.

The mesh now is divided to 6296 polys, then 25184 and the final mesh used here was 100736.

NOTE: I use an Athlon 2.4 with 1.5 gig of ram and a 128 Geforce4Ti (these days little more than entry level) and the mesh in ZBrush performs as well at 100, 000 polys as it does with 1500. In Lightwave my machine slows considerable at this count, a million would not be usable so having a normal map created in ZB in the next version will be essential!

Step 4 - Smooth

The mesh can be subdivied using SMOOTH (3) (or subdivision surface resolution if you hover over the button).

NOTE: This isn't changing the underlying geommtry and further just smoothing the mesh on display

With the mesh sitting in the TOOL pallette at a 100, 000 plus polygons it is time to put it into the document window and edit it. The main way to working on a MESH in ZBrush is with the MOVE and DRAW POINTER. Basicaly DRAW allows you to push or pull polys in or out and move lets you drag them around. (4)

NOTE: Hover your mouse over any button and hold Ctrl and you get all the info on that button. The buttons in the TRANSFORM PANEL tell you everything you could ever need to know about moving polys around. (5)

Step 5 - Z Intensity

The 'amount' or 'area of effect' is defined by the size of your brush and the 'Z INTENSITY' in the DRAW panel (6)

Small Brush/Z Intensity = small effect on the polygons.

Using these tools it is possible to 'draw' (sculpt) viens, pimples, warts, creases, wrinkles, blemishes, eyelids, nipples, folds etc onto the mesh.

What I am really intested to see is a mesh of a million+ polygons that I can DROP TO CANVAS (like Texturemaster or DeepPaint for those who know it) and use the multitude of 2D tools and brushes on the model in the document window then PICK IT BACK UP retaining the detail in the mesh not for a BUMP or SPEC map. That is worth waiting for!

Step 6 - Render

I rendered the image (Render settings 8.) above with the 100, 000 poly mesh using 1 light, (9) 1 material (SOUTHERN GI 7) specifically made to render in a document will ZB GLOBAL ILLUMINATION and ZMODE SOFT SHADOWS

Creating a texture template with minimized distortion

2011-11-01T17:42:42+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating a texture template with minimized distortion

Author: CHWT

Tools Needed

* Any 3D application that can export models in OBJ format (or file conversion utilities to convert your model into OBJ format)

* UV Mapper Classic

* Wings3D

* A 2D graphics application for texturing

Introduction

Suppose that you have created a 3D model. Now also suppose that you are on a budget and you only have the free UV Mapper Classic that can be downloaded at www.uvmapper.com. You can create a texture template using UV Mapper Classic, but sometimes you might not be happy with the result of the mapping. In many occasions the texture maps created by UV Mapper Classic have the vertices so close together that, when the model is being textured, distortions might be found in the render. In this tutorial I will show you how to create a texture template with minimized distortion with the help of Wings3D, which is also available as a free download at www.wings3D.com.

Step 1: Importing your model into UV Mapper Classic

I have created a pants model for Michael 3 using a Japanese (but can be chosen to run in an English interface) free 3D application Metasequoia LE which can be downloaded at www.metaseq.net. I exported the model in .lwo format and later converted it into OBJ format with some file conversion utilities.

Now open UV Mapper Classic. Click “File”, then click “Load Model” to load my model, in this case “michael3pants.obj”.

If a dialogue box pops up to ask you to correct any out of range UV coordinate data, click “Yes”.

I first apply a planar mapping to the model by clicking “Edit”, then “New UV Map”, then “Planar”, and choosing “Split By Orientation” in the dialogue box.

I really don't like planar mapping as the vertices on the sides of my model are so close together or even hidden, making it difficult to texture my model.

So I try the cylindrical mapping on my model by clicking “Edit”, then “New UV Map”, and then “Cylindrical”.

This time some faces of the thighs and legs overlap, again making it difficult to texture my model.

So now I try to map both my left and right halves of my model cylindrically. And the result is much better. No faces overlapped.

I will first export the model to “michael3pants_uvmapper_corrected.obj” by clicking “File”, then “Save Model”, and choosing “OK” in the dialogue box.

Export the texture template to “michael3pants_uvmapper_correctedBMP” by clicking “File”, then “Save Texture Map”, and choosing the bitmap size to be 2048 by 2048.

However, you can see the vertices at the crotch area are extremely close. You can actually see that when I render “michael3pants_uvmapper_corrected.obj” in Metasequoia LE with “michael3pants_uvmapper_correctedBMP” as the texture map, the texture at the crotch area is messed up.

So now we call Wings3D for help.

Step 2: Importing "michael3pants_uvmapper_corrected.obj" into Wings3D

First import “michael3pants_uvmapper_corrected.obj” into Wings3D.

Then click the fourth pyramid that is bound by the small white square and pointed by the red arrow in the following picture.

Then click “Ctrl+A” to select all the faces. The selected faces will be highlighted in red.

Then click “Window”, then “UV Editor Window” to activate the UV editor window.

Step 3: Optimizing stretch in the UV editor window of Wings3D

In the UV editor window, right click, then select “ReMap UV”, then “Stretch Optimization”.

When Wings3D has finished stretch optimization, press the space bar to deselect all the faces. You can see the UV of the model has changed slightly, especially around the crotch area. The vertices there are no longer so close. This will facilitate the texturing of the model.

Export the model as “michael3pants_wings3D_corrected.obj”.

Step 4: Importing "michael3pants_wings3D_corrected.obj" into UV Mapper Classic

Click “File”, then “Load Model” to import “michael3pants_wings3D_corrected.obj” into UV Mapper Classic.

Export the texture template to “michael3pants_wings3D_correctedBMP” by clicking “File”, then “Save Texture Map”, and choosing the bitmap size to be 2048 by 2048.

Step 5: Texturing

Now you can import “michael3pants_wings3D_corrected.obj” into a 2D graphics application to start texturing the pants for Michael 3.

To show how the UV has become better for texturing, the following is a test render of “michael3pants_wings3D_corrected.obj” in Metasequoia LE using “michael3pants_wings3D_correctedBMP” as the texture map. No more mess at the crotch area.

Step 6: Conclusion

Although we can directly use the “Unfold” function of Wings3D to unfold (i.e., to map) our models, the result may be undesirable such that the model is broken up along weird seams or the resulted mapping is messed up. It is better to use UV Mapper Classic to first obtain a draft UV map, and then use Wings3D's stretch optimization function in the UV editor window to fine-tune the mapping.

Happy modeling and texturing!

Creating Character Skin for Beginners

2011-11-01T17:42:42+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating Character Skin for Beginners

Author: Rebelmommy

Tools Needed

* Poser 5 or above

* Paint Shop Pro (or paint program of choice)

Step 1 - Getting started

Open up your paint program (this Tutorial is done in Paint Shop Pro but you could easily convert it to Photoshop if you have a working knowledge of Photoshop or to any other paint program)

Once your Paint program is open find a nice seamless Merchant resource base that you like. Open it up. We are going to use the base as guide and to ensure that your character will have no seams when you're finished. (In this example I am using my own Bethany for V4 head texture)

Step 2 - Step 1.

Find the seam guide for that particular base (For my examples I am using DAZ's V4)Generally you can find the texture Templates for all of DAZ's figures on the lower portion of that figures page within the DAZ's store. Make sure it is sized to match the base your working on and copy and paste it in top of the base. Now you have 2 helpers, the base your working with AND the seam guide! Set the seam guide's layer opacity to around 50%

Step 3 - Step 2

Now for this part you will need pictures that depict at least a front view, side view and 3/4 view of a face (of course for doing a body you will need to have pictures of all applicable parts)Find your front face image. Open it up in PSP.

Now you will want to use your lasso tool with a feather setting of 3 and circle her face. You don't have to be perfect as we will be blending later:)

Copy that selection of her face and paste it on your Base/Seam guide as a new layer.

It does not matter if it is too big or to small as we are going to tweak it to fit in a few minutes. You should however attempt to size the eyes so they are the

same size or close to the template/base size as that is what we are going to work on first:)

Step 4 - Step 3

Now is a good time to open your poser Program as well. Do NOT close your paint program simply minimize it and open Poser. The key to making a great skin is to render.. tweak.. re-render..re-tweak

It is a long process but worth it in the end to have something that is uniquely yours and it really will make your character stand out!

Now with your poser open and your character your creating for loaded into it, it is time to head back to your PSP.

You want to line up your eye on your base/seam guide as best as you can at this point and save as a PSD file (this way you keep the working layers intact and Poser 5 and above can read the PSD)

Don't close your paint program .. simply open up your poser window and go to the material room and change the material on your characters head to be the image you just saved. After that give a quick render.. see how your texture fits. Odds are it needs a bit of tweaking.

Step 5 - Step 4

Open your Paint Shop Pro window again and begin to “tweak” your eye. You can do this in 1 of 2 ways.

You can, if it is off by just a bit, take your warp brush tool and use it to move the texture around and fit it to the template (I use this method most often and have had excellent results) or you can simply lay a new layer over the one you have and blend the two together using a soft eraser brush..

After you tweak a bit and feel that you may have the eye into the proper position resave the image in PSD and re render.. see what needs to be tweaked.

Don't be discouraged if you spend a bit of time tweaking and rendering and tweaking and rendering just to get 1 eye done. Creating skin does take a bit of time and effort but with practice you will find that with each character you do it will become easier and will take less time than the previous one.

When you get the eyes done you can simply erase all the unneeded parts of her face you have from the layer. Do leave some skin above and below the eyes for blending with other layers later on.

Step 6 - Step 5

Once you have the eye done take your front face image again and circle the whole face again and copy and paste as a new layer on your working texture. Now we are going to line up the nose.. same principal as they eye.. paste the layer and see how it fits..I recommend concentrating on lining up the sides of the nostrils with the template as opposed to the nostrils as you can color those later. I also recommend using your clone brush and cloning the nose skin right over the nostrils on your noses I said you can always color them in later. Resize as needed and then render.. obviously this will need some tweaking as well. Most of the work you will be doing will be tweaking, resizing and rendering over and over again.

Step 7 - Step 6

Now that you have your nose and eye pieces on and lined up (as you have rendered and checked to see that they are in the right position) you may notice that they have a bit of overlap (or you may not..either way is perfectly fine) If you do indeed have overlap now is the best time to take care of it. You can do this simply by taking a soft eraser brush and erasing along the edge of the top piece. I recommend using a small circular brush with the hardness set to about 50 and the opacity at 65-70%

Step 8 - Step 7

Now that you have your nose and eye layer in place and blended you will want to add some cheek skin. You may have noticed that I have been working on one side of the face only. This is because it is easier for a beginner to do one side and them merge it and then duplicate it and mirror it and adjust for the other side.

Once you become more comfortable with your skin texturing abilities you can do both sides separately. Find a picture with some cheek skin showing (a front)

image is still best for what we are looking to do at this point) Copy the cheek part and paste it on your work and resize as needed. Of course you know the

rest.. render, tweak, render, tweak..

After you find it is in the right position you will erase any parts you don't need (like the white I have here) and blend together like you did the eye and nose.

Step 9 - Step 8

Now we want to do the area around the mouth.. not the lips per se but the skin that leads up to them. So find an image with the mouth and skin around it.

Highlight it and copy and paste. You will want to resize as needed but mostly what you should concentrate on is getting the corner of the mouth from your picture and lining it up with the corner of the template mouth. Don't worry if the lips are all over.. we aren't really concerned with them at the moment.

After rendering and tweaking it to fit you can erase any unneeded parts like the lips.. and blend it with your other layers.

You may find that you have gaps or spaces between your pieces where the white template shows. Don't worry about this, as the merchant resource base is under it and when we are all done we will attempt to color match them all. Or if you feel a bit ambitious you can take small pieces of skin from your photos and attempt to blend them in over the spots.

Step 10 - Step 9

Now you will want to start on the side of the face and for this you will need a side profile picture. I recommend having at least one that is at a 45 degree angle and one at a 90 degree angle. You will want to start with the 45 degree one if you have it and highlight the side of the face. Copy and paste.. resize as needed.. tweak, render, and then blend as needed.

You will want to do that same thing with the skin along the side of the eye (if you want at this point you can clone out the eyebrows unless you have gotten them to match well when you first arranged your eye.. (generally I add eyebrows and lips last and separately) and along the chin and forehead. Once you have those done you should pretty much have a whole half a face with the exception of lips and eyebrows. You will want to make your base layer and your seam guide invisible and them merge all the visible layers.

Once you have done that you will want to duplicate the layer and mirror and line up on the other side. You will want to erase anything that covers the original half of face you made generally from mid nose over. Now you can make your seam guide visible again.. lay it on TOP of your 2 face layers and find some eyebrows and lips.

Step 11 - Step 10

The easiest way to do lips is to find a nice big mouth picture, then highlight the lip area on your seam guide and copy it.. paste it as a completely NEW image.. now take your mouth picture and paste it onto of the new lip template you just made. Resize the picture concentrating on just matching up the lower lip at first. once you have that lined up you can use the magic wand tool to highlight the lip template and then select the layer with the picture on it and cut.. this will cut everything outside the template off) now do the same thing and make a top lip. Erase any part of the top lip that may go onto what the template designates as the lower lip section, then merge together your two layers (be sure not to merge your template in there as well) and copy and paste your new lips on your face. Now simply find some eyebrows.. cut around them.. paste and resize to fit and erase around them to blend in with your face. Now all that is left to do is make sure your face matches the Merchant resource base underneath. You can simply color/hue change the base (or your face) to match the face and then erase the edges of your face to blend, again with a soft brush with opacity set to around 65-70%.

Of course there are numerous merchant resources that have eyebrows and lips and you could simply choose from any of those you may have to find something that works for your character!

Now simply save your new characters head map with whatever name you wish and you are ready to start making your unique characters!

Creating Embroidery On Poser Clothing

2011-11-01T17:42:42+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating Embroidery On Poser Clothing

Author: FranE

Tools Needed

Poser 4 or 5
Painter 7 _Paint Shop Pro 7 or some other paint program
Steve Cox

Introduction

For this tutorial I'll be using the V3 MorphingFantasyDress, V3 and Poser 5 but the steps can be adapted to most clothing for other Poser figures including default

figures. Here I'll describe how to make a fabricated type of embroidery. There's afew other texture proceedures at the end of the tutorial for different effects(Steps 7 and 8). It requires Paint Shop Pro 7, Sinedotsll(a freeware plug-in) and India Ink 1.9 so I hope you've got software. Originally I wanted to do something with masks and the Smeary Bristle Variant of the Impasto brush because it looks like a good texture for threaded style embroidery but I don't know enough about masks in Painter yet so I had to come up with a different scheme. This is it. For the sake of keeping this tutorial simple and easy to follow I'm only applying embroidery work to the front of the dress. You can add more to the back, the arms, etc once you get the hang of it. This tutorial was done in Painter 7 but can be adapted to other paint programs if you're familiar with your software.

Step 1 - The UV Template

First fire-up Steve Cox's UV Mapper and open the clothing OBJ file in Poser5/Runtime/Geometries/DAZ Clothing/MilWom/V3 named

V3MFD. If you're working with existing clothing in Poser you'll have to load an item in Poser and export it to a folder as

an OBJ file first. Do remember where you put it unless you feel like going hunting later.

After you load the OBJ file go to File/Save Template(I use RGB Color). Pick a size, the V3MFD textures are 2000×2000 pixels so I'm going with that, give it a name click OK. Again remember where you put it. It will be a BMP file that you'll save later as a JPG.

Step 2 - Painting The Template

Open the UV template BMP in Painter 7, using the Zoom Tool right click and Fit On Screen, then zoom in(use this method all the time you're working with Documents bigger than your monitor screen in Painter). I hope you've got at least a 1024×768

pixel screen otherwise you need a new monitor. You can use your Eyedropper Tool to copy the colors I've used or pick your

own. Make sure they contrast the embroidery design colors so they stand out well. When you've got the base colors done

you should check the template out in Poser to make sure no seems are showing. You did read Mercytoo's tutorials didn't you?

Make a Clone of the template and save it for later use. You might get the meshes all painted up beyond recognition covering up seams and you may want to know where to place another piece of embroidery work later.

Step 3 - The Design

Open the template you painted and create a new layer from the Objects Palette, that's the 3rd button from the left. Right click the layer in the layer list box and click on Layer Attributes and name it Embroidery Design.

Resize it to 4000x4000pixels so we can see what we're doing better. Here I'll be using a few flowers from the Nozzles with the Painter 7 Image Hose. You can do this or hand paint them if you prefer. If you use the Image Hose you should create a new Document around 400x400pixels and apply the Nozzles to it one at a time until you find one you like. Just use the undo each time one comes up you don't want. When you find ones you like just copy and paste them to the painted template. This works well because each time you paste one to the template it creates a new layer and you can relocate it without moving all the other flowers. Don't do too many flowers in one design though because then you end up umteen layers to manage. Go about what I've got here with the center flowers, two leaves, and 5 smaller flowers on one side. With designs like this you can do one side then duplicate the layers move them to the other side and go to Effects/Orientation/Flip Horizontal which is what I've done here. Then Group(hold down the Shift key, select the layers you want to group, right click and click Group)what you've got in layers so they're not getting you confused in the Layer List Box and add the stems last on one layer. Here I hand painted the stems. You can always ungroup the layers later.

Step 4 - Texturing The Design

Now with the center flowers and one side of the design done group all the layers, right click on the group and Collapse.

Copy the layer to the clipboard, paste it back in the document, flip it as I mentioned earlier. You'll need to erase the center flowers in the new layer so there aren't two overlapping in the middle. Now adjust the layer so it's balanced on the other side. When it looks like one even design, again group and collapse the two layers to one. Go to Effects/Surface Control/Apply Surface Texture using the settings below with Basic Paper.

Step 5 - The Bump Map

Create a new layer just above the Canvas and flood it black. Now you should have a black image with just the embroidery work showing. Clone it, resize it back to 2000x2000pixels and save it as V3MFDbumpmap in JPG format. Back on the original template delete the black layer, resize it back to 2000x2000pixels name it V3MFDfinishedtemp or something and save it as a JPG.

Open the V3MFDbumpmap document and run the G-Force plug-in set at EC-171, the top Grain setting at 12 and leave the other two at 0. Then do an Effects/Tonal Control/Brightness&Contrast with the settings below.

Save it.

Step 6 - Mat Pose Edit and Poser

Mercytoo already explained all that to you, just load the template and the bumpmap from here. I didn't mess with any of the controls in Mat Pose I just loaded the template and bumpmap. Once in Poser after loading the dress and texture make sure Texture Shaded is selected for the Document Display Style near the lower left of the screen. Then in the Material Room click Object, V3FntsyDress, set the Diffuse Color to white and Bump to 0.12 for cloe-ups and 0.25 to 0.415 for farther away renders. You can see a bit of a difference in the pics below.

You may want to do alittle post-work after too. For this dress it's a good idea to use very light light settings.

Step 7 - Illusion Of Depth(requires Paint Shop Pro 7 and India Ink 1.9)

Here's a good example of how bump maps can create the illusion of depth. This bumpmap started out as a copy of the textured Paint Shop Pro tubes and turned into a design around the flowers. This effect was done on the V3MFDtemplate at actual size 2000×2000. Again I opened the template, put a new layer on it, then applied the flower tubes. I used the India Ink plug-in(boy that's a fun plug-in) with these settings: Style-splatter, Scale-1, Line-thinner, Gamma-invert light, Sharpen-100, Diameter-0, queen, Gray-on the lighter of the two settings on the flower layer. At that point I made a duplicate of the image, applied Brightness/Contrast: B-62, C-0 and saved the colored template. It merges automatically to one layer when you save as a JPG in PSP. Then I greyscaled the duplicate, added Brightness/Contrsat: B-50, C-0, then again with Brightness/Contrast B-62, C-100. Then I selected the background, flooded it black and merged the layers.

Then I was just playing around with different effects and I ran the CurlyQs filter on it. Settings: no. of columns-20, no. of rows-20, Size-59, Strength-23, no symmetric, Clockwise. It looked cool so I decided to work on it some by hand. Using the Cloner(Round, Sizes-5+3+1, Hardness-15, Opacity-100, Step-25, Density-100, no Build up) I enhanced the curlyQs a bit then using the Retouch Tool(Round, Size-5, Hardness-0, Opacity-72, Step-25, Density-100, Lightness Up, no Build up) I lightened it up in a swirl motion. Then when I applied it to the template as a bumpmap it gave the appearence of a threadwork design around the flowers in the same color as the dress.

In the this picture I did alittle filter post-work that added a metallic-like shine to the flowers. After selecting each flower individually with the lasso tool I applied the Sandstone filter from Paint Shop Pro 7(that's Effects/Texture Effects/Sandstone) with these settings: Blur-3, Detail-44, Angle-45, and Luminance anywhere from 10 to 19 depending on what looked good. For color try to pick a color that's close to the flower color, use the eyedropper and write the color down. It's a good idea to work with a duplicate picture open.

Step 8 - Sinedots2 Effect

This effect gives a good woven look. Select each flower individually with the lasso tool and use the eyedropper again to pick what looks like the base color of the flower and write it down. Apply the Sinedots filter at these settings

or just keep clicking the Random Button until a good effect shows up. Then apply Colors/Adjust/Brightness/Contrast at these settings

you might have to apply this two or three times and raise the brightness if the flower is on the dark side. These last two postwork filter ideas probably wouldn't work to well on clothes rendered at an angle but you could use them after the India Ink effect above and apply them to the bumpmap as described in Step 7.

This is my First attempt at texturing in Poser and it's by no means mastered but hey, you have to start somewhere right! Have fun and feel free to experiment with your own texture ideas. That's one of the beautiful things about computer art. There's no end to the possibilities.

Creating pitted, scratched metal

2011-11-01T17:42:43+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating pitted, scratched metal

Author: Gary_P

Tools Needed

* Photoshop or other editing software

Introduction

If you like to model as much as I do, you will find yourself on the internet looking for textures to use on your models. Some that you will find are copy protected, others you can buy on a full CD of textures? I would like to show you how easy it is to make your own pitted, scratched metal plate. There are many methods to this but I find this one works best for me. Depending on the usage, it can be made with a few different colors, layered over top of each other. Experiment with different layers and transparencies. There is no right or wrong way to do this. Experiment and have fun.

Step 1: Reference Material

Find a reference material. It is much easier to look at something and duplicate it, rather than try to make it from scratch out of your head.

For me it was right outside my front door.

Step 2: Starting Out

We will start by creating a new picture.

I set my test one at 800 pixels by 600 pixels.

It does not matter what your background is because you are going to be covering it.

Next we need to set our colors up.

We will be using a common technique for creating a starting picture by using the clouds filter.

Choose a nice dark brown and a lighter reddish brown for your two colors.

You will use these for the Clouds filter.

Or if you have a digital camera, take a picture and bring it into Photoshop and use the eye dropper tool to choose a light and a dark color off the picture.

The colors I used were:

For color

R = 83

G = 52

B = 58

Back color

R = 178

G = 152

B = 139

Next apply the clouds filter.

Menu: Filter | Render | Clouds

Your picture should look similar to this one:

Choose the Channels palette.

It's in Menu: Windows | Channels if it is not open.

I have mine docked just under the layers palette.

Create a new channel by clicking on the small button at the bottom that looks like a piece of paper with the corner bent.

Photoshop will create it as a new Alpha channel.

Step 3: Adding some Noise

Select the new channel by clicking on it and we are going to add some Noise.

Menu: Filter | Noise | Add Noise'

I used an amount of 20 but you may use what looks good to you.

Click on Gaussian for the Distribution type, and Monochromatic.

(Monochromatic is because we only want black and white noise).

Press OK on the Add Noise panel when finished.

Next we want to limit the amount of noise to the brightest ones, so we use Levels for this step.

There are other ways to do this but Levels is the best.

Menu: Image | Adjustments | Levels'

Start by sliding the right lighter triangle to the left almost to the half way mark.

Then slide the left darker triangle to the right until you have the right number of speckles. There is no right or wrong way to do this.

It just depends on how bad you like your metal to be pitted.

You can also type in the settings I used into the Input Levels at the top of the panel.

Your picture should look similar to the one below.

Step 4: Setting Some Levels

We want to make the noise dots bigger so they look like pits, and not like you hit the metal with a sand blaster.

(Hmm, an idea for later.)

We will scale up the dots a bit by using the Transform tool.

Menu: Edit | Transform | Scale

Drag the corners and scale it up as much as you can as shown here.

You may have to drag the window frame out a bit to make room.

If you cannot get it big enough, you can apply it again by

Menu: Edit | Transform | Again

Do this a few times until your picture looks like the one below.

Now turn the noise dots into a selection by choosing the little button at the bottom left of the Channel palette that looks like a dotted circle.

You can also do this by Ctrl+Clicking on the channel layer.

If it seems like all of the dots are not being selected then Deselect by using Ctrl+D.

Menu: Select | Deselect

Bring up your Levels panel again and slide the right lighter triangle to the left a bit to brighten the dots. Now more of them will be selected.

Next, turn the dots into a selection by using the method described above.

Select the Layers palette again while keeping the selection.

Select the layer you colored with the clouds and you will see the selection sparkling over it.

Copy and paste the selection by using Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V, or use

Menu: Edit | Copy and Menu: Edit | Paste

This will create a new layer.

Looks like nothing happened, huh?

Bevel this new layer by choosing Menu: Layer | Layer Style | Bevel and Emboss

Select Down for the direction because it looks better. That is unless your metal's paint is lifting.

I also set the color of my highlight to a gray or lighter shade of the brown so it looks less fake.

Press OK on the Layer Style panel and you should have something like this.

Step 5: Almost Finished

For some added effects, you could choose a large fuzzy brush and dab a little reddish color around the edges.

Use a large brush size with an opacity of 10 – 30%.

I also did the same with a medium gray color.

What's next?

How about some scratches?

Use the Lasso tool. It's the one just below the selection tool.

This tool has a flyout, meaning if you hold your mouse down on it, will show a panel with more options.

Select the layer you colored with the clouds and draw some irregular shapes over it.

You can hold down the Shift key to add to your selection.

After you have made a few selections then copy and paste the selections to create a new layer.

Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V, or use

Menu: Edit | Copy and Menu: Edit | Paste

Bevel and emboss this layer also, or right click on the layer you created earlier with copy and paste and choose Copy Layer Style.

Then right click on your new layer and choose Paste Layer Style.

This will copy the Bevel and Emboss setting from the previous layer.

Step 6: Finishing Up

Still looks a bit flat though, huh?

If it still looks a bit flat then apply it to your model and add a light or two.

Lighting does wonders to bring textures to life.

Just remember. There is no right or wrong way to do this. Experiment and find what works best for you.

Happy Rendering!

Once you have your metal, you may find the follow up tutorial useful as well: Pitted, Scratched Metal: Transparency Maps

Creating simple wood textures with GIMP

2011-11-01T17:42:43+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating simple wood textures with GIMP

Author: SnowFox

Tools Needed

The GIMP (gimp.org)

Introduction

This tut will show you how to use noise filters to create two types of wood textures, grain and bark. Note that this method creates procedural textures, but can also be used to make maps.

Step 1 - Grain

We'll start with the grain. Create a new image of whatever size you want. Note that the larger the image is, the fewer times it will repeat itself and the better it will look. Anyway, make the background a yellow color, and select Filters > Noise > Noisify. Set the levels to around 30ish.

Step 2 - Wind

Next, apply the wind filter. Filters > Distorts > Wind. Set the levels fairly low, a little bit goes a long way. Set the edge effect to trailing, this gives a stronger effect. Then apply the filter again, going to other direction.

Step 3 - Convert

Now you've got something like this. Convert it to grayscale to get your bump map. Save this version for a separate bump map.

Step 4 - Convert again

Convert back to RBG. Now we're going to make the color map. Select Image > Colors > Color Balance. Adjust the sliders to get the color you want. I made a light lumber sort of color. That's all for the grain! Let's make some bark now.

Step 5 - Noise

Make an image like before, but a specific color isn't important. Select Filters > Render > Plasma. Set the turbulance low. Then convert to grayscale. (Unless you want to make a rainbow colored tree!)

Step 6 - Adjust

Convert back to RBG, and select Image > Colors > Levels. Bring the top arrows closer together. This increases the contrast between the dark and light areas of the image and will give a better bump map. Save your bump map at this point.

Step 7 - Color balance

Select Image > Colors > Color Balance again. Set the sliders to get a tree bark color you like.

Step 8 - The End

Now you can apply these as procedural textures, complete with bump maps!

Step 9 -

Detailing Skin Maps

2011-11-01T17:42:43+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Detailing Skin Maps

Author: AntonKisiel

Tools Needed

Photoshop
Any paint program that supports layers

Step 1 - Greyscale

In Photoshop grayscale layers are great to add extra details to skin or clothing maps. The top layer needs to be grayscale so the colors of the lower layer are not corrupted.

The idea is fairly simple: Tansfer the details of a grayscale layer into a lower colored layer.

Convert the image with the details into grayscale.

Make that layer the top layer above your color layer.

Set the upper grayscale layer to either “Soft Light” or “Overlay.” This transfers the details into the lower layer without ruining the colors.

Slide the opacity until you are happy with it and collapse.

Easy Makeup

2011-11-01T17:42:43+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Easy Makeup

Author: cowham

Tools Needed

* Image editing program capable of layers (and opening PSD files)

* Basic knowledge of Photoshop is helpful

Support Files

* easy_makeup.zip

Introduction

Create fast and easy makeup for your version 3 mil. characters. I've included a .PSD file to get you started.

Step 1 - Getting Started

Open your image editor (I'm using Adobe Photoshop). Open your head base map texture.

Select all of the image (ctrl-a), and copy (ctrl-c) it to the clipboard. Close the file.

Open the PSD file. Paste (ctrl-v) the head map texture onto the makeup file. If it is not already open, open your layer tool box. (window menu, layers) Drag the face map to the bottom of the list.

Step 2 - The Eyes

We will start with the eye shadow. Drag the eye shadow layer onto the post it note icon to copy the layer. Use the little eyeballs next to the layer name to turn off layers that you do not want visible.

Go to the image menu, adjustments, then hue and saturation. Check the box that says colorize, and preview. Move the sliders back and forth to get the color that you want.

You will need to move lightness to see the color adjustments. Saturation changes the boldness of the color.

Repeat this step for the eyeliner layer as well. The eyeliner layer must be above the eye shadow layer in the list.

If you wish to change the strength of the color, adjust the opacity slider in the layers box.

You can also drag a layer onto the trash can to delete that layer.

Step 3 - The Blush

Moving on to the blush. Drag the blush layer onto the post it note icon to copy the layer. Again play with the hue and saturation to get the desired color. The blush layer is at full strength. Adjust the layer opacity in the layer box. Somewhere between 20-40 % usually works well.

Step 4 - The Lips

Last but not least, the lipstick. Again duplicate the layer, and play with the hue and saturation to pick a color you like.

Now set the layer to overlay in the drop down box. Change the layer opacity to around 60 % or so. Experiment with the layer options, you can achieve some nice color effects with them.

You may need to paint around the lip layer a little bit, depending on your base map. Use a small feathered brush to do this. (Feathered brushes fade outward)

Step 5 - Putting It All Together

Save your image (with all of the makeup layers you want to be seen visible) as a jpg file in the runtime\textures folder. (Click on the little eyeballs next to each layer to turn the layers on or off.)

Remember where you saved it!!

You can save your altered layers (as a .PSD file) for future use.

Load Poser or D|S and load your mil 3 char. and the base mats for the head map that you used.

Go to the material room, and choose skinhead from the drop down list. Click on the image source line in the color_texture box where the file name is, and choose the file you saved. Do this for the lips material as well.

Leave the material room, and you are ready to render!

Have Fun!

Easy Ornaments

2011-11-01T17:42:43+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Easy Ornaments

Author: karanta

Tools Needed

Photoshop

Introduction

This tutorial was done with the German Photoshop CS version. I tried to show

most of what I did with screenshots. You can also follow this tutorial with an earlier Photoshop version.

Step 1 - Let`s start

Step 2 - Continue

And done!

Easy Starry Night Sky

2011-11-01T17:42:43+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Easy Starry Night Sky

Author: cowham

Tools Needed

* Adobe Photoshop

Introduction

Make an easy starry sky using Adobe Photoshop.

Step 1: Make the Stars

Open a new file FILE menu, then NEW. Using the paint tool make your background black.

Go to the FILTERS menu, then NOISE, and choose ADD NOISE.

Make sure BOTH monochromatic and Gaussian are selected.

Step 2: Refine the Stars

Go to the IMAGE menu, then ADJUSTMENTS, and choose LEVELS.

Move the black triangle on the left towards the right, this will eliminate the unwanted noise.

Our finished stars:

Step 3: Add Some Clouds

Make a new layer by clicking on the post it note icon in the layers box. (The layers box can be opened from the WINDOW menu)

Choose a cloud color by clicking on the bottom color box, I choose blue.

Go to the FILTER menu, then RENDER, and choose CLOUDS.

Go back to the FILTER menu, RENDER, and choose DIFFERENCE CLOUDS. Run this filter 7 times or so. (The last filter you used will appear at the top of the list.)

Step 4: Refine the Clouds

In the Layers box, click on the upper left box with an arrow (which says NORMAL), and choose SCREEN.

This makes our star layer visible.

OPTIONAL:

Make a new layer, choose a new cloud color (I used purple), and repeat the above steps. You can make as many cloud layers as you need.

Fade each cloud layer by using the Opacity slider in the upper right corner of the Layers box.

Now that looks more like Nova clouds.

Step 5: Add Bright Stars

Click on layer 1 in the Layers box.

Go to the FILTER menu, RENDER, then LENS FLARE.

Each option makes a different kind (and color) flare.

The 105mm Prime is a white flare.

Pick a spot to put your flare and adjust the brightness, repeat as many times as needed. You can fade the flare from the EDIT menu, FADE command. You can only fade the last flare you made.

Step 6: More Examples

Black and White (colors used for the CLOUDS filter):

White and Blue:

Black and White:

Two of the above both visible:

White and Blue:

Easy Textures for MilHorse/Dog and similar models.

2011-11-01T17:42:43+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Easy Textures for MilHorse/Dog and similar models.

Author: Kemp Sparky

Tools Needed

* Bump map for the model in question

* Paint program with painting/blurring/merging capabilities

Introduction

If you ever needed a fantastical or otherwise unusual color for an animal, then this tutorial can help you make quick and easy color maps for just about any animal (especially the millennium horse or dog).

Step 1 - Painting

First, open the bump map, for this example, we will use the mildog. Paint your color patterns within the texture seams. Make the colors more vibrant than your desired final result. If you needed a tan dog with light stripes, it might look something like the above image.

Step 2 - Blending the colors

Blur the colors, until they are all well blended.

Step 3 - Tinting the bump map (Optional)

Re-open the original bump map. You may want to tint or adjust the color of the grayscale bump map to reduce color dilution when merged.

Step 4 - Merging the color and bump maps

Next, you will want to merge the color map and your tinted bump map together until the furry texture of the bump map is blended realistically with the colors you painted.

Step 5 - Final adjustments (Optional)

Lastly, you may want to adjust the saturation, contrast, etc. to better reflect your desired finished product.

Step 6 - Render and enjoy!

Now you'll want to apply your new texture to the model, render, and enjoy!

Step 7 - Legality

Don't forget to make sure that none of the components you used to make your texture are protected by copyright before distributing it.

Fantasy Foal Textures

2011-11-01T17:42:43+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Fantasy Foal Textures

Author: TSquare

Tools Needed

Millennium Horse Bundle

Support Files

T2FantasyMilFoal.zip

Introduction

The Millennium Foal is not as complex as the Millennium Horse, but it still requires a bit of knowledge to make a customized texture for him. In this tutorial, we tour his uv mapping to gain this knowledge in order to use them to the best capabilities. In this tutorial, you will find the guidelines for customizing your horses mane, hooves, and tail. It will cover the simple use of color and transmapping to give your horse a fantasy look. The support file includes templates for the Horse/Foal Hooves and the Foal's Mane and Tail.

Step 1 - The Hooves:

Starting out with a white foal, we start with the hooves. These are on the same template as the Millennium Horse uses, so if you do a nice one for the foal, you can use it for the horse as well. Each hoof is separate on the map, so you can color them all separately.

Included in your support file is a texture template for just the hooves so that you can color them separately from the body, maximizing your ability to customize this part of your horse. Pinky is the righty toe, and greeny is the lefty toe!! Pyschodelic footwear!

Step 2 - The Mane:

The mane has three layers which you can texture differently. The middle layer is sandwiched in between the right and left layers.

The picture shows the right and left sides and the correspondence to the texture mapping as indicated on the t2 template.

To get shorter mane lengths, you can make a separate copy of the transmap that comes with your foal, then black out one, two, or all three of the pieces indicated on the following picture.

Step 3 - The Tail:

These are always the toughest…. the foal was told about the twisted horse's tail and so I had to put up with a bit of lip when rendering these example pictures.

The template has three tail pieces that can be textured separately. Shown here is the three pieces, and the foal tail portions on which each are mapped. I didn't need to twist the tail this time… so he had nothing to complain about.

Step 4 - Just the beginning:

Now you can paint your foal with color!! Now let your imagination run wild and find magic! Besides the nice unicorn horn available at DAZ, they have many other super embellishments (cheap if you are a Platinum Club member!). Below are just a few of the things they have laying around.

The Faery Wings Deluxe has loads of nice textures to go with just about any color scheme.

Dreamer Wings for those mystical moments.

And the Songbird's wings are a must.

Try also the Eagle wings! Different horns and things are great too!

I hope that you enjoy your Millennium Foal!! - TSquare - July 2004

Fantasy Textures for the DAZ Mil Horse

2011-11-01T17:42:43+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Fantasy Textures for the DAZ Mil Horse

Author: TSquare

Tools Needed

Millennium Horse

Support Files

T2FantasyMilHorse.zip

Introduction

The millennium horse is one of the most complex figures that has yet been produced. The mapping is not the least of these complexities. If you need more than just a straightforward horsey map, the uv mapping needs to be looked at for the guidance necessary to customize your horse. In this tutorial, you will find the guidelines for customizing your horses mane, forelocks, fetlocks, hooves, and tail. It will cover the simple use of color and transmapping to give your horse a fantasy look.

Step 1 - The Hooves:

I have started out with a white horse for just the purpose of clear illustration. You may color your horse as differently as you wish.

We start at the bottom.. so we can tell our left from our right, and the horse can tell us his left from our right, well you get the picture.

Look on the horse's body template for your hooves. There are four. You can color them all separately!! What a deal!

Included in your support file is a texture template for just the hooves so that you can color them separately from the body, maximizing your ability to customize this part of your horse.

The horse of many colors is beginning to appear. Note the color coding!! And remember…… pinky is the righty toe, and greeny is the lefty toe. Horsey righty and lefty that is.

Step 2 - The Fetlocks:

The fetlocks have their own separate map. Each fetlock consists of 3 layers.

I am illustrating them as shown:

Top layer as Layer 1
Middle layer as Layer 2
Bottom layer as Layer 3

I have marked the layer numbers on the template included in the support file.

When you combine the coloring of the hooves and the coloring of the fetlocks, you have very stylish horsey footwear!!

Step 3 - The Forelocks:

The forelocks and mane are together on one template. I usually create a map just for the forelocks and the little strips of “mane end”, for then I can use the same coloring for the mane with a different forelock map. I have included a separate template for you, as well as keeping the forelocks on the mane templates, so you can use them either way.

The forelocks are separate strips and can be posed individually. The mane end is mapped as 3 strips, but can be posed only as one strip.

Look at the template and you can see, each strip may be mapped separately.

Step 4 - The Mane:

The mane is mapped a bit weirdly. This is where things get tricky as to the results that you wish to have and the way you need to go about getting them.

I have included templates that correspond to each side and the center manes. This is essential as you can tell from the pictures. Each mane part is mapped differently!! Where the Left Mane has blue for top and yellow for the bottom hair layer, the Right Mane has yellow for the top and blue for the bottom! So if you use the templates for each side, instead of using one template for all, you can better control what goes where.

Step 5 - The Tail:

The horse is complaining about this part already, because I twisted his tail parts so they better show the color coding.

The included template for the tail is coded in the same manner as the picture indicates. I put the transmap on and wow! Pretty tail! All happy now!

Step 6 - Here is the Insta-Punk Horse.

I hope that this helps you enjoy your horse more than ever and that you give it lots to do!

TSquare

Fire from Foil

2011-11-01T17:42:43+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Fire from Foil

Author: Locke21

Tools Needed

Scanner
The Gimp or image editor with layers and adjustable brushes.

Support Files

Foil_Base.zip

Introduction

Ever wanted a cool fire texture for your work, but couldn't find one? Here is one way using just a scanner and an image editor with programmable brushes. I'm using The Gimp, but I believe Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro are both capable of it.

Step 1 - Step one

First, you need to scan a piece of aluminum foil. This will give you the erratic background that every fire has. I will just include a sample if you do not have a scanner.

Step 2 - Step Two

Put a transparent layer over the foil and paint it a nice, vibrant orange. Then reduce the transparency to about 80%.

Step 3 - Step Three

Now is the time to be artistic, and to take advantage of the adjustable brush. Take or invent a brush with the following shape and attributes. Radius 25, Hardness .30, Aspect Ratio 3, and Angle 90. You should end up with a soft-sided oval like the picture.

Step 4 - Step Four

Add another layer, change the color to a warm orange-yellow and start painting in flames with your new brush. There isn't any hard and fast rule here, just remember that most flames rise and fall, and no two are the same height.

Step 5 - Step Five

Reduce the transparency of the flame layer to 80%. Then create another layer on top of that one. Change the color to a bright yellow, reduce the opacity of the brush 50%, and add a few highlights to the yellow sections. Don't overdo it, just a few bright spots here and there.

Step 6 - Step Six

Now here is how you get your flames out of the picture. Merge all the layers and flatten the picture. Then using “Select by color” select the orange that ISN'T part of the flames. Invert the selection, copy, and then paste it as a new image.

Step 7 - Step Seven

As you can see, there is a lot of clean-up to do, but a little time with an eraser tool, and you have a cool set of flames. To use them, just select the white background, invert, copy and paste. The images I put up show how to create flames for the bottom of a dress or coat, but with a little imagination, you could make about any flame you want. Have fun, and don't get burned!

Funky leather textures

2011-11-01T17:42:43+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Funky leather textures

Author: SaraC

Tools Needed

Paint Shop Pro 7
Photoshop

Introduction

Create your own funky leather tiling textures using any starting image and a few basic effects in your image editor. Great for sci-fi leathers and organic materials such as weird animal pelts.

Step 1 - Starting piece

Start with a square tile of any image. Here I've used a piece of the jungle cyclorama but anything with some detail will work well.

(Note that if you want to sell your textures, you can't use copyrighted images to start with.)

To ensure the piece is square, cut it out using the square marquee tool (no feather).

Open the pattern dialog box. (Effects / Reflection Effects / Pattern)

Play with the parameters until you get something that looks like a good starting point for your design. It should preferably include geometric repeats such as the one shown. Click OK.

Step 2 - Make a tile

To make the pattern into a repeating tile, draw a square marquee (no feather) from the center of one pattern to another center at the diagonal opposite. Crop the image.

You now have a seamless tile (ie. when you tile the image to repeat the pattern, all edges blend seamlessly into the surrounding edges).

Step 3 - Make a large repeating pattern

To make a larger repeating pattern with your tile, enlarge the canvas size by doubling each dimension in the Image / Canvas Size dialog box (above). Click OK.

Move the piece to the top left corner. Now copy and paste the piece (Ctrl+C, then Ctrl+Shift+E) and move it to the top right. Zoom in to accurately place the piece.

Repeat for the lower half of the image.

Step 4 - Add leather texture

Colorize the image. This makes it easier to work with because you can clearly see the effects of later steps.

This doesn't have to be the final color of your fabric. Click OK.

To add some leather 'cracking', go to Effects / Texture Effects / Fine Leather.

In this dialog box, adjust the number of furrows and other parameters to get some nice cracking. Choose a dark color that matches the color scheme of the image. Click OK.

Here's the image after adding 'fine leather' cracks:

Step 5 - Final effects

Now for the fun part! There are various special effects you can add. The aim is to get a shiny leather with low contrast. Higher contrast images (ie. where the light areas of the pattern show up strongly) are not as versatile when you're applying textures in Poser's material room rather than creating UV-mapped texture maps.

Here I've used various options from the Color menu:

-Histogram Functions / Equalize

-Solarize

-Colorize again.

These options have given my leather a crinkled, shiny effect. Experiment to get the look you want.

The final texture is shown at the top of this page. (Feel free to download, but no commercial use is allowed.)

Step 6 - Rendered examples

The image above shows Stephanie Petite sporting the new blue leather texture on the SD2 outfit from DAZ.

I also applied the texture as a bump map to enhance the render, gave the material a grey highlight, and made the straps of the costume a plain matching colour.

And here's the gargoyle hound wearing a green version of the same texture:

Getting Started Texturing Complicated Texture MAPs

2011-11-01T17:42:43+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Getting Started Texturing Complicated Texture MAPs

Author: Anniebel

Tools Needed

Texture Map
A Paint Program
Poser or other 3D program

Introduction

Firstly this isn't a tutorial on texture work, I am only starting out at this myself, this is simple a method I developed, that I thought I would share. For instance, some texture maps when you open them are very easy to texture because they are simple, consisting of one or two shapes only, like the Morphing Fantasy Dress. However some others are very complicated, like the HarlieKins outfit, consisting of multiple maps with multiple shapes. Some shapes are obvious, but with others, it is hard to work out which part you are actually texturing. This is how I worked around the problem - I created a key to work from.

Step 1 - Open the template

Open your texture map in your paint program and look at the shapes.

Above is the HarlieKins Hat, some of the shapes are obvious, like the ones I have labeled, the others are not quite so obvious.

Step 2 - Resize the template

Firstly for this exercise we don't need a huge texture map, so look at the map size. The one I am using is 2500×2500, way too big, so I am going to reduce this to 500×500. Of course for your actual texture, you will want to use a larger one.

Step 3 - Make a selection

Next, this will step will depend on what paint program you are using, but select all the shapes.

I am using Paint Shop Pro and to do this I use the Magic Wand Selection Tool and click on the white area around the shapes and then invert.

Step 4 - Color the template

Add a new layer and using the paint brush, color each shape a different color. You don't have to be too precise, it is only a rough guide. Then deselect.

Step 5 - Save your work

Save your completed map as a jpeg, then open Poser, or whatever 3D program you are using.

Step 6 - Open your 3D Application

Load the item you made the texture for and apply the texture to the item. You can either do this by making your own pose file using a program like MAT Pose Edit, or by using something like the material room in Poser.

Step 7 - All finished

Voila you have a working key of the item you want to texture and now, because everything is color coded you can easily work out what shape belongs to what part of the item you want to texture.

How to make curved seams

2011-11-01T17:42:43+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

How to make curved seams

Author: Kattey

Tools Needed

* Photoshop CS or higher

Introduction

During texturing it sometimes necessary to make a curved seam. This can be done by hand painting the numerous small stitches in the right directions all along the seam (the feat which not very easy done with the mouse manipulator) or it can be done with path instrument in the Photoshop and couple of tricks.

Step 1 - Place to make a seam

Here are two pieces of texture which we need to “sew”. As you can see the curve is pretty whimsical and use, for example, of the tool Wrap would leave a badly deformed image.

Step 2 - The seam line

With help of Pen tool (shown at the picture) with usual pen tool or freeform version of it make a path along the line of division of two textures.

At the picture this line is shown with thick black line because real path line is too thin to be viewed properly. Right click on Pen Tool will allow you to change the tool selected.

Not necessary at this step to make the path line going exactly in the same way as border between textures but you can use Direct Selection Tool (shown) to adjust the curve as needed.

Step 3 - The stitches

Now take a Text tool (located just near Pen Tool and Direct Selection Tool) and click with it on the beginning of you curved path line. The Text tool would automatically connect itself with the path and will allow you to print a text along it's curve.

Now select the font, it size and letter or symbol which will make your stitch. The color of the font can be any but it is good to make it in tune with color of the real treads.

Here I used the “X” letter to make a cross-stitch. Just press the same letter until the whole curve will be filled with it. With help of the Text Properties Panel (highlighted in red at the picture and usually located in top-right corner of the working window) you can adjust the spacing of you stitches and other properties as necessary.

The good letter for line stitches usually “l” and if you want to stitch along the seam (like at jeans) the “-” will help you. If you need to make a hole in the seam use a spacebar key.

Step 4 - Adjustment

Now with help of the Direct Selection Tool you need to adjust your path with letters in the way that it fully follows the seam line between of you textures.

I changes the color of the stitches at the picture for better contrast - you don't need to do the same with your work.

Step 5 - Finishing the seam

The plain letters look not very like a seam tread so we will need to give them real look. For that purpose the Text layer should be Rasterized and pay attention that after that step you will be unable to adjust the path curve of the text so make sure that you made all adjustments needed at the previous step.

Right click on the text layer approximately in the middle of its name (in my case this name is “XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX”) and choose Rasterize Type.

Now apply the style made for your tread via selecting it from the Styles menu or make the new style by quickly left-clicking on the layer or choosing Blending Option with the right click on the layer.

I'm not going here into the styles but Bevel and Emboss, Inner Shadow, Inner Glow, Pattern Overlay and Color overlay will be a good help when combined. You also can double layer (Ctrl+J), select lower layer, reduce opacity/darken it and slightly move it aside from the higher layer to create more 3D seam impression. The use of Dodge and Burn tools with the textures will help to make a folds and wrinkles at fabric if it is needed.

After you are happy with result you seam is finished.

Step 6 - The last little trick

If you use a dingbat (symbol/picture) font with ornament symbols and some fancy style (metallic, for example) you can do a nice trim along the edge of the texture. There are a lot of free dingbat fonts in the web so just search a bit to find something suitable for you.

This is all. Hope this tutorial will be a help and save you a lot of efforts and time.

How to make just eyes and lips

2011-11-01T17:42:43+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

How to make just eyes and lips

Author: Ruri ruri

Tools Needed

* DAZ Studio

Step 1 - Load your figure

Load whatever human figure you want into the scene Don't worry about clothes and props.

Step 2 - Settings

Open your surfaces tab (located in the view menu under tabs. (you can also find how to open it here Manga Style in DAZ Studio ) In the surfaces tab select your figure then set the ambient, specular and diffuse colors to white and their values to 100%.

Step 3 - Lashes

Now select the lashes, eyelashes (or whatever they are called in the list) set the diffuse color to black along with the ambient. Load transparency map with a drop down arrow by opacity.

Step 4 - Irises

No select both irises and pupils. Load any eye texture you want with the arrow by the diffuse.

Step 5 - Lips and nose

Now for lips and nostrils. Set a diffuse map for the lips. Change the glossiness to any medium gray and set it to 85% the ambient should be set to black.

The nostrils are optional but they look cute and complete the face in a realistic way. Select the nostrils and set the diffuse to black. set the ambient color to black and ambient strength to zero.

Step 6 - Rendering

Open the render setting box (how to here: Glitter Snow ) make sure you render this in 3Delight for best results.

Iris Texture Maps

2011-11-01T17:42:43+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Iris Texture Maps

Author: Anonymous

Tools Needed

Photoshop

Introduction

I've been searching for months now for a tutorial that explains how to create a texture map for the iris of the eye (the colored portion of the eye). Well, I didn't have much luck. So I decided to try and come up with my own method that could be done in Photoshop and not require a lot of hand painting. I think I have come up with a pretty decent method here that I would like to share. All you will need is Photoshop (any version will do, I believe).

Here is an image of the surface map and how it appears mapped onto the eyeball object:

My tutorial only covers creating the Iris texture map. Fair warning: This tutorial is a little on the long side. There are 12 layers to this map and I have separated the tutorial into 1 page per layer. I'm guessing it will take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes to complete, depending how familiar you are with Photoshop.

First open Photoshop. Then click on the File menu and then New. Make the new image file 400 pixels by 400 pixels at 72 dpi. Make sure the mode is set to RGB Color. Click on the OK button.

Next, grab your elliptical marquee tool from the toolbar, hold down the shift and alt keys together, click in the center of the image window and holding down the mouse button drag to the right until the circular marquee fills the window. Holding down the shift key constrains the elliptical tool to a perfect circle and the alt key allows you to create a circle by dragging from the center of the circle instead of from the outside edge of the circle. (I used guides in Photoshop to map out where the center of the canvas is).

Now save this selection by selecting the Select menu and then Save Selection then in the name field type Iris.

Step 1 - Layer 1 and 2

1. Create a new layer by clicking on the “create new layer” icon at the bottom of the layers palette. (See Fig 3) Double click on the layer icon in the layer palette and a dialog box will come up where you can name your layer. Type in “base color” (don't type in the quote marks) in the name field and click OK.

2. Select a base color for your eye. You get the color picker in Photoshop by clicking on the foreground color at the bottom of the tools palette. (See Figure 4) The black square in the front is the “foreground” color and the white square behind it is the “background” color. The eye I created was a brownish orange color but you can make yours any color you like. The base color I selected was RGB values 156, 105, 25. Hold down your alt key and press the backspace key. This will fill the selected area with the foreground color you just selected.

3. Create a new layer (click on the “create new layer” icon at the bottom the layer palette).

4. Double click on the layer icon in the layer palette and rename your layer “fractal color.” We are going to create a fractal noise pattern for this layer. Make the dark brown foreground color RGB 68, 40, 11. Click on the background color icon and make that a light brown RGB 189, 170, 118. Now make a fractal noise pattern by selecting the Filter menu, then select Render and then select Clouds. (Figure 5)

5. Select the Filter menu then Noise then Add Noise. When the dialog box comes up select an amount of 18, click on Gaussian and check on Monochromatic. Click on the OK button.

6. Select the Filter menu, Blur, Radial Blur. Select the amount of 20, click on Zoom for the Blur Method and click on Good for Quality. Click on OK.

7. Set the opacity of this layer to 45%. You do this by clicking on the arrow next to the field that says “Opacity” at the top-right of the layers palette. (Figure 6)

8. Remember: SAVE EARLY SAVE OFTEN. Nuff said there.

Step 2 - Layer 3

1. Create a new layer. I just called this one Dark Brown. Use the same brown color that you did in created the previous layer, RGB 68, 40, 11. Press alt and backspace to fill the circular area with the dark brown color.

2. Press ctrl-d to deselect your iris selection. We can get it back later by doing a load selection and selecting the iris selection you saved earlier.

3. Create a layer mask for this layer by clicking on the “Create Layer Mask” icon at the bottom of the layers palette (it is the icon immediately to the left of the “Create New Layer” icon - See Figure 7). Now all of the steps that you do in this layer will actually be being applied to your layer mask and not to the actual layer itself. Explaining what a layer mask is and how it works is beyond the scope of this tutorial. You may want to read about it either in your Photoshop manual or in a Photoshop tutorial book. What I will say, though, is as you can see in this layer you have 2 image icons. The one on the left is the image layer portion and the one on the right is the layer mask. Right now the layer mask should be all filled with white. The little icon next to the eyeball icon on that layer should show a circle. (See Figure 8) That means that you are in the layer mask and anything that you do will affect the layer mask. If you click on the image icon in the layer, that little icon will change to a paintbrush. That means whatever you do will affect the actual image layer. So make sure you are in the layer mask by looking at that icon. If it is a paintbrush, then click on the layer mask icon in that layer to change that little icon to a circle. (Figure 8 again)

4. Select the Filter menu - > Noise - > Add Noise. Amount = 115. Click OK.

5. Select the Filter menu - > Blur - > Gaussian Blur. Amount = 4.4.

6. Select the Image menu - > Adjust - > Levels. You need to move the little triangles underneath the levels histogram. Move the left one very far to the right and the one on the left should be moved just a bit to the left. The one in the middle moves automatically. The input levels should read approximately 195, 1.00, 226. (Figure 9) Click on OK.

Figure 7

Figure 8

Figure 9

7. Select the Filter menu - > Blur - > Radial Blur. Amount = 100, Zoom, Good.

8. Do another levels pass on this: Select the Image menu - > Adjust - > Levels and squeeze in the little triangles until your input levels are 68, 1.00, 170.

Here's what your image should look like after step 8:

Step 3 - Layer 4

1. Now create a new layer by clicking on the “create new layer” icon at the bottom of your layer palette. Name it “yellow fractal.” Load your iris selection: Select Menu - > Load Selection - > and in the Channel drop down selector, select the channel named “Iris” In the foreground color box select a nice bright yellow. I used RGB 255, 252, 101. Select a nice light yellow color for your background color. I used RGB 255, 254, 193. Create a fractal noise pattern: Filter menu - > Render - > Clouds.

2. Deselect the circle (ctrl-d). Add a layer mask (click on the “create layer mask” icon at bottom of layers palette). Load the iris selection again.

3. Filter Menu - > Noise - > Add Noise, Amount = 312.

4. Filter Menu - > Blur - > Gaussian Blur, Amount = 2.5.

5. Image Menu - > Adjust - > Levels. Input levels: 124, 1.00, 190

6. Filter Menu - > Blur - > Radial Blur. Amount = 10.

7. Image Menu - > Adjust - > Invert.

8. Filter Menu - > Radial Blur, Amount = 10.

9. Filter Menu - > Blur - > Gaussian Blur, Amount = .7

10. Image Menu - > Adjust - > Levels, Input levels = 33, 1.00, 201.

11. Filter Menu - > Blur - > Gaussian Blur, Amount = 2.3

12. Change the layer opacity to 22%.

Here's what your image should look like now:

Step 4 - Layer 5

1. Duplicate the layer named “Dark Brown” You do this by clicking on that layer in the layer palette, hold down the mouse button and drag it down to the “new layer” icon at the bottom of the layer palette.

2. Now click on that duplicated layer and hold down the mouse button and drag it all the way to the top of the layers so that it lands right above the yellow fractal layer.

3. Double click on the layer and rename it “orangish brown.”

4. Make sure your iris selection is active. If it isn't, load the selection (Select menu - > Load Selection).

5. Create a new foreground color in your color palette of RGB 124, 84, 0 and fill the circle with that color (alt-backspace).

6. Deselect the iris selection (ctrl-d).

7. Now click on the layer mask icon in that layer. You should now see a little circle icon next to the eyeball icon to let you know you are now in the layer mask.

8. Filter Menu - > Noise - > Add Noise, Amount = 200.

9. Filter Menu - > Blur - > Gaussian Blur, Amount = 4.4

10. Image Menu - > Adjust - > Levels, Input levels: 99, 1.00, 193

11. Filter Menu - > Blur - > Radial Blur, Amount = 70.

12. Image Menu - > Adjust - > Levels, Input levels: 47, 1.00, 180

Here's what your image should look like now.

Step 5 - Layer 6 and 7

1. Duplicate the layer you just created (the one named orangish brown) and make sure it resides on top of the previously created layer. Name it “blue outlines”

2. Make sure your Iris selection is active. Make sure the image layer is selected and not the layer mask (paintbrush icon next to eyeball icon). You can click on the image icon to make sure. (Figure 12)

3. Create a blue color in your foreground color palette. I used RGB 5, 34, 142. Fill the circular area with the blue color by holding down the alt key and pressing the backspace key.

4. Select the layer mask portion of the layer by clicking on the layer mask. (Figure 13) (Remember the icon will turn into a little circle next to the eyeball).

5. Filter Menu - > Stylize - > Trace Contour, amount = 118. (Basically what you want to do here is move the slider around until you get as many contour lines as you would like).

6. Image - > Adjust - > Invert.

7. Filter Menu - > Blur - > Gaussian Blur, Amount = 1.0

8. Set the layer opacity to 25%

9. Make a duplicate of the layer “yellow fractal” and move it to the very top of the stack of layers. Name it “orange fractal”

10. Make sure the image layer is selected and not the layer mask. Also make sure your iris selection is active (marching ants around edge of iris).

11. Now fill that selection with orange (alt-backspace). I used RGB 255, 144, 0.

12. Click on the layer mask (paintbrush icon will turn into a circle)

13. Filter Menu - > Blur - > Gaussian Blur, Amount = 2.3

14. Image Menu - > Adjust - > Levels, Input levels: 42, 1.00, 217

15. Filter Menu - > Blur - > Radial Blur, Amount = 30.

16. Change the layer opacity to 10%

Here's what your image should look like now

Step 6 - Layer 8

1. At this point you may want to create a layer for your pupil. You will need it there as a guide for the next couple of steps.

2. With the last layer that you created selected, click on the “new layer” icon at the bottom of the layer palette. Name it “pupil.”

3. You may want to display your grid lines for this step. View Menu - > Show Guides

4. Restore your foreground and background colors to their default black and white by pressing on the “d” key on the keyboard.

5. Press ctrl-d to deselect the iris selection.

6. Select your elliptical marquee tool from the tool palette.

7. Place the cursor where the grid lines cross over and while holding down the shift and alt keys, drag to the right to make the selection area for your pupil.

8. Let go of the mouse button and the keys. Pick the Select Menu - > Feather and type in the amount of 3. Press OK.

9. Hold down the alt key and press the backspace key. Your pupil should be filled with black now. (Figure 16)

10. Selection - > Save Selection and name it pupil in the name field.

11. Keep this selection active for the next layer.

12. If you want you can turn off the guides.

Step 7 - Layer 9

1. Create a new layer and name it “dark ring.”

2. This layer should be beneath the pupil layer (actually the pupil layer is the very top layer when this is all said and done).

3. If you have deselected the pupil selection, make the selection active again by loading the selection (Select Menu - > Load Selection).

4. Create a dark brown color in your color palette RGB 68, 40, 11.

5. Select your airbrush tool from the tools palette. In the options palette set the airbrush to the “dissolve” method in the drop down menu on the Airbrush options palette and set the opacity to 50%. (Figure 17)

6. Select the soft brush with a size of 45 in your brushes palette (Figure 18)

7. Click on the “path” tab where your layer palette is. Or you can take the Window Menu option - > View Paths. At the bottom of the palette is a “create path” icon. Click on it. (Figure 19)

8. You should now see a “work path” of your circle appear in that palette.

9. Now display the path menu by clicking on the side arrow at the upper right side of the path palette. (Figure 20)

10. Take the “stroke path” menu option.

11. When the dialog box comes up make sure you have the “Airbrush” option selected in the drop-down menu. Click OK.

12. From the path menu take the menu option “turn off path” or just click in an empty space beneath the work path in the path palette.

13. Click on the “layers” tab to make that visible again.

14. Filter Menu - > Noise - > Add Noise, Amount = 40

15. Filter Menu - > Blur - > Radial Blur, Amount = 100. Do this step twice.

Step 8 - Layer 10

1. Create a new layer and name it “light ring”

2. This layer should be on top of the “dark ring” layer.

3. Select your Path palette again and click on the work path. You should see the path in your image window. (Figure 22)

4. Create a light brown color in your foreground color RGB 189, 170, 118.

5. Select the Path Menu and take the menu option “stroke path” and select the airbrush option from the drop down menu. Click on OK.

6. Turn the path off by clicking in an empty area below the work path in the path palette.

7. Select the “layer” tab to display your layers again.

8. Filter Menu - > Blur - > Radial Blur, Amount = 100

9. Filter Menu - > Noise - > Add Noise, Amount = 25, Gaussian, Monochromatic.

10. Filter Menu - > Blur - > Radial Blur, Amount = 60

11. Filter Menu - > Blur - > Gaussian Blur, Amount = .6

12. Filter Menu - > Blur - > Radial Blur, Amount = 30.

13. Layer opacity = 90%

Step 9 - Layer 11

1. Create your dark brown color again in the foreground color swatch RGB 68, 40, 11

2. Create a new layer and name it “iris ring”

3. Your airbrush should still be set up the same way as in the previous 2 layers: Dissolve, 50% opacity and a soft brush of size 45 should be selected.

4. Load the selection named “iris” (Select Menu - > Load Selection)

5. Click on the Path tab to get to your path palette.

6. Click on the “create path” icon at the bottom of the palette like you did in the previous 2 layers only this time we will be creating a path around the iris instead of around the pupil.

7. Load your iris selection again (for some reason the previous step automatically deselects your selection).

8. Click on the path menu arrow and select “stroke path” from the menu and make sure “airbrush” is selected. Click OK.

9. Now with your airbrush tool go in a manually paint in some “irregular” areas. (Figure 24) Paint in some extra sprays.

10. Filter Menu - > Noise - > Add Noise, Amount = 40

11. Filter Menu - > Blur - > Radial Blur, Amount = 20

12. Filter Menu - > Blur - > Radial Blur, Amount = 10

13. Filter Menu - > Blur - > Gaussian Blur, Amount = .9

14. Click on the “layers” tab.

15. You may or may not want to change the layer opacity setting to your liking.

Step 10 - Layer 12

1. And now for the final step - yeah!

2. Create an adjustment layer underneath the iris ring layer but on top of the light ring layer (click on the light ring layer to select it). You do that by clicking on the “light ring” layer and then selecting the arrow at the top right of the layer palette and select the “New Adjustment layer” option. When the dialog box pops up take the “levels” option at the “Type” drop down menu. (Figure 22) Click on OK

3. When the levels dialog box comes up set the input levels to: 52, 1.41, 229. Click on OK.

4. I did this to give the contrast some oomph.

5. Voila!

Another thing you may want to do before you use the image map is to sharpen the image a tad with the “unsharp mask” filter. You would do this after you flatten the image since the filters will only affect the current layer when you run them.

I found a couple good tutorials on how to model and surface an eyeball so you may want to check that out as well here: eyeball-tutorial-lw He covers modeling the eyeball in part 1 and applying textures to it in part 2 using Lightwave 3D. And another tutorial for Max: eyeball-tutorial-max

By the way, a really nice guy by the name of Izzy Long was very generous to donate a Photoshop action that he created to somewhat automate the steps of this tutorial. I mean, this guy stayed up until 7:30 in the morning creating this action! He claims he does not have a life. So if you are too lazy, er, I mean to busy to go through the steps yourself, download the zip file here that contains the action and a read me file. Feel fre to visit Izzy's web site.

You're done! Make sure you save the file.

Keep in mind when you run the action that when you are asked to create a new file in Photoshop, make sure that at the bottom of the dialog box under “contents” you have “white” checked off.

Lip Texture Alignment

2011-11-01T17:42:43+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Lip Texture Alignment

Author: pbnj

Tools Needed

A paint program (Photoshop Painshop Gimp etc)
MAT Pose Edit or a similar program
If not that then knowledge on how to text edit a MAT pose file

Introduction

Here's a quick and easy fix to the common problem of getting lips textures to line up on models that share textures such as V3/SP, Sara1/Sara2, etc..

I will be using my freebie texture Galina for Sara1 as an example here because I know its lip texture does not line up correctly on Sara2. The upper lip comes much too high on Sara2 while it looks fine on Sara1.

Step 1 - Create a separate lip texture

Alright so we are going to open the head texture in our paint program of choice (Photoshop, Paintshop, Gimp, etc.).

Now choose your area selection tool and make sure it's on rectangle selection.

Now select the area around the lip area of the texture.

Invert your current selection. Now everything BUT the lips should be selected.

Add a new layer and choose your paintbucket or floodfill tool and with the color WHITE we're going to fill in the selection we've created.

Deselect your selection area.

Now Save As… to a new file. MAKE SURE you Save As… so you don't overwrite your original texture.

Step 2 - Removing lips from base texture

Now with our lips cut off and save as a new file we're going to remove the lips from our texture.

Select your clone or rubber stamp tool, then pick areas of the head texture that are the same color as the area AROUND or NEAR the lips.

Clone or stamp over the lips until it's smooth and blank in the lips area of the texture.

Now Save As… to a new file. MAKE SURE you Save As… so you don't over write your original texture.

You should now have 3 textures; 1 original head texture with lips applied, 1 with just the lips in the center of a white texture, and 1 with head texture with the lips removed.

Step 3 - Creating MAT Poses using 2 textures

I use MAT Pose Edit, which is an great free program for creating MAT and MOR poses. You can find it here: http://koti.mbnet.fi/~ilaripih/MPEHome/.

I'll be explaining how to create new MAT poses for the textures we've just edited, if you have another method you are more comfortable with free feel to use it. The follow instructions assume you have a bit of experience with MPE or MAT poses in general. If not there are tutorials on how to setup a MAT pose from start to finish on the MPE site.

Alright, start up MAT Pose Edit and load up either CR2 for Sara, or the MAT pose for the texture you are editing, in my case I am opening the MAT pose for Galina.

Holding CRTL, scroll through the list of Sara's material zones, clicking and selecting all the parts of Sara's head. Your parts may differ from the ones shown in the screen capture if you are using Sara 2, but I'm sure you can tell which ones are for the head.

Now click Invert Sel from the buttons just right of the parts list. Everything but the Head material zones should now be selected.

Click Delete from the buttons left of the parts list, now only Head zones are left.

Click the Lips zone from the list and click Invert Sel, everything but the lips are now selected.

Reassign all of the Head parts EXCEPT the lips to the new texture you've created WITHOUT lips.

Click Invert Sel again and now only the Lips are selected.

Reassign the Lips zone with the new texture you have created with ONLY lips.

Save As… a new file, make sure not to save over the original MAT pose unless you are sure you will not need it again.

Step 4 - Additional Notes

Now we have separate textures for the Head and the Lips and when you apply the MAT pose to either Sara1 or Sara2 it will only apply the lip texture to the Lip material zone, thus making a nice smooth edge all around the lips.

You might encounter some problems if the original creator of the texture did not make the lips larger then the Lip material zone. If you are creating your own textures I would recommend making the lip texture a smidge bigger then needed just to make sure you are getting full lip coverage on both models. All excess will be cropped of if it doesn't fit in the Lip zone.

This method also helps if you want to make a high resolution material for Sara's lips without having to make the entire Head texture hi-res.

If you are planning on releasing a texture set created like this there is no need to include the original base texture where the lips are applied to the head, it will just add to the file size.

Since the Galina texture was created for Sara1 there's not as much of a difference, but it does clean up the top lip a bit.

I hope this tutorial has been of help, please contact me with any questions: pbnj@digitalhippies.com

Make a seamless texture, Method 2

2011-11-01T17:42:43+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Make a seamless texture, Method 2

Author: cowham

Tools Needed

* Adobe Photoshop

Introduction

Turn an image into a seamless texture.

Step 1: Prepare our texture image

First we need to open our texture image (File Menu, Open). We also need to know the dimensions of our image. Photoshop will tell us this. Go to the Edit Menu, and choose Image Size. The new box will have the horizontal and vertical sizes listed. Write these numbers down. We don't want to change our image size, so hit cancel.

Now go to the Filter Menu, Other, and choose Offset. In the new popup box we need to enter half of our image sizes. My image is 500 x 500 so I will enter 250 and 250. Make sure Wrap Around is checked.

Click OK and our image is divided for us.

Step 2: Select an area

We need to select an area to use to cover the seams. Open the Tool Box (Window Menu, Tools).

Use the Lasso Selection tool and drag around the area to select it. Then we are going to quick mask the area.

On the bottom of the Tool Box there are two squares with circles inside of them. The one on the right turns quick mask on, and the one on the left turns it off. Click the one on the right and use the paint brush tool to paint around the area you want to use.

Make sure you are NOT using a feathered brush. The brushes can be found in the upper left corner, click the drop down box to change brushes. Feathered brushes fade out towards the edge. (Older versions of Photoshop will need to access the Brushes Box from the Window Menu)

Turn the quick mask off by clicking the icon on the left.

Step 3: Cover the seams

Copy the selection to the clipboard by going to the Edit Menu then Copy (Ctrl-C). Now paste the clipboard by going to the Edit Menu, and Paste (Ctrl-V). This will paste the selection we made onto a new layer.

Because we don't want all of our seam work to look the same, we need to transform our pasted layer. Go to the Edit Menu, and choose Free Transform (Ctrl-T). This makes a box around our pasted layer. Hovering around the corners will change the cursor to a curved double arrow. This will allow you to click and drag to rotate the pasted image. To accept your transformations, double click inside the box. Under the menu bar at the top of the screen (near the end) you will see a circle with a line through it, which will cancel the transformation (pushing the ESC key will also cancel). The checkmark next to that will accept the transformation.

Please note that if you see a double arrow with a straight line in any direction, clicking and dragging will scale the transformation box (holding down the shift key while dragging will scale in proportion).

If you make a transformation you don't like you can either undo (Edit Menu, Undo or Ctrl-Z) or step backwards, which is a multiple level undo (Edit Menu, Step Backwards or ALT-Ctrl-Z).

Continue pasting/transforming to cover all of the seams. Under the Edit Menu, Transform - you can Flip Horizontal, or Flip Vertical (you can also rotate in 90 degree increments). You may need to do this a few times to prevent the texture from forming a repeating pattern.

If your image has lots of colors or different shapes (such as jelly beans, or old coins) you may want to select several areas to copy and paste. You can only have one on the clipboard at a time.

When we are done pasting/transforming, our image will look like this:

Step 4: Cleanup Edges

Now we need to clean up the edges. Run the Offset Filter again.

Paste/transform any still visible seams.

Step 5: Making a Pattern

To fully utilize our new texture we are going to make a Photoshop pattern.

Go to the Edit Menu, and choose Define Pattern. Name it whatever you want.

Now make a new image (File Menu, New), and change the dimensions to a bigger size. Go the Edit Menu, and choose Fill. In the Contents box click on the drop down list next to Use: and choose Pattern. Just under that, click on the Custom Pattern drop down box, and scroll down to find your new pattern. Click OK, and your new image will be filled with your pattern.

Please note that you can fill inside of a selection. This is very useful for filling large areas of a clothing texture map.

Our new seamless image:

Our seamed image:

Make your own eyelashes

2011-11-01T17:42:43+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Make your own eyelashes

Author: roxcat

Tools Needed

Photoshop

Introduction

When I started doing textures for V3 I never found a tutorial about how to make the transmaps for the eyelashes, so I thought I'd show you how I do it. I'm using Photoshop 7 but any other imaging program, with a similar fade option for the brush, should work. I'm no expert in any way but hopefully this will be helpful for you if you need some guidance.

Step 1 - Loading the template

Start Photoshop and load the texture template for the eyelashes. I'm using the template V3TransTJPG, which you can download at V3's Base product page. The size is 1024×1024 and I will keep that size. Make a new layer on top of the template layer, and fill it with black. Turn down the opacity for this layer to 50%, so you can see the template beneath. Add a new empty layer and name it lashes. This is the layer where you are going to paint the lashes.

Step 2 - Choosing the brush

Now it's time to choose the right type of brush for painting the lashes. I'm using a tablet for painting, but this technique will work with a mouse as well.

Choose a hard edged brush 4px wide, and then go to the brushes tab at the top right corner in Photoshop. Under Shape Dynamics, set the first Control (under Size Jitter) to Fade, and make sure the Minimum Diameter is set to 0%. You will be using different numbers of steps for the fade options, ranging from about 50 to 120. Setting the brush this way makes the brush stroke fade out at the ends of the lashes. Since I have a Swedish version of Photoshop I've edited the the text in the screenshot for better understanding. Don't forget to set the color for the brush to pure white.

Step 3 - Painting the eyelashes

When you think it's looking good, it's time to get it ready for use in Poser. Duplicate the lashes layer, then go to Edit - > Transform - > Flip horizontal. This will mirror the eyelashes. Then press V and move the new layer so it fits with the eyelashes on the other side. If you think the lashes look to thin, try duplicating the layers. Then change the opacity for the black layer back to 100%, and save the image as jpg.

Step 4 - Loading the transmap in Poser

Load Poser and your V3 figure, and then enter the material settings. I'm using Poser 4 but it's more or less the same procedure for other versions. Choose Eyelashes, and load your file as a Tansparency map. Check that Transcparency Min is set to 0%, Transparency Max to 100%, and Transparency Falloff to 0.00. Render the figure and hopefully you'll have some nice eyelashes for your lady. It can take some time to get them right. A tip is to study real people's eyelashes to figure out what they should look like. Hope you found this tutorial useful!

Make your own head texture

2011-11-01T17:42:43+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Make your own head texture

Author: LunaL

Tools Needed

Poser
Paintshop pro

Introduction

In just a few steps you can make your own fantastic and unique skin textures..

Use brushes and even tubes, like I have done here.

Step 1 - New Layer

Let`s try to make our own skintexture..

This one is for the Millenium girls PT.

First up is the head.

First you take a headtexture you already have..make a new layer..and paint on top of you old texture.

Now add some “Noise” I used 15%.

Step 2 - Transparent

Now find your layer palette..

Make the layer you just made somewhat transparent.

Now you see the old head under your new one..so now it should be

easy to add your new eyebrows and lips and so on….

Step 3 - Add lips

Fint some lips that you like to use..

Rezise and copy it..go over to your head and past as a new layer.

Step 4 - Clean up

Your new lips are still a little bigger that your older one..but we`re gonna fix that.

Make your new layer somewhat transparent.

Use your eraser tool and remove the outside of your older lips..

Then set your layers back to 100%.

Step 5 - Add new eyes

Now let`s do the eyes..

Lower your first layer..so that you can see your older eyes underneeth.

Now you know exacty where to put you new eyes.

Make a new layer..In this case I used a wing tube.

Let`s try this new head texture on for size…

Make your own material groups

2011-11-01T17:42:43+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Make your own material groups

Author: dorkati

Tools Needed

Poser 4 or higher
Free UV Mapper: UV Mapper
Any paint program

Introduction

If you want to make perfect make-up you should use different eye shadows for different color clothes. But if you make another texture for head, you get another huge file of 2-5 Mb!

But if you'read this tutorial, you can make smaller textures for different make-up options.

For Personal Use only!

This method will change the original object file or make a new OBJ, so you may not distribute your files, unless you own the rights to the original object. Only for your own characters for your own renders. But I think it is enough! :)

Step 1 - Difference between group and material group

Using the grouping tool you can make different groups on the head or other objects. For example, the original V3's geometries is the full figure. If you load the original geometry you see that whole figure is loaded. And when you open the grouping tool and select a part, you see one object with many parts.

If you load a .CR2 and open the Grouping Tool, you see the groups as separate parts.

You can move separately the fingers and fingers' parts, because they are different groups.

So groups are important for .CR2 files.

Material groups are important for texturing. You can use different textures on different material groups.

See Victoria 3's body, for example. The material groups are not shown in Grouping Tool. They are not separate parts in object geometry.

If you use many material parts, the object geometry file stores the material information. The geometry file assigns the correct material group to each polygon. This is the reason why you can't use this tutorial for your products, only for personal use. Because if you make different material groups, that information is stored in the object geometry. And you can't redistribute the geometry file, unless it is your own product.

Step 2 - Open Grouping Tool

In this tutorial I made my own eye shadow and mask material groups for The Girl. I'm mostly using the V3 UV mapped Girl so I loaded this character. You can choose any of your favourite characters.

Load your character (in this case - V3 UV mapped The Girl)

Select the head, because eye-shadow and mask are on the head, and open the Grouping Tool.

Check that the head is one group named head.

We will use grouping tool only for assigning new material groups.

Step 3 - Make a mask part

If you want to make a mask material too, not only eye-shadow, you will need to make the mask first. It is the larger part.

1. Select the head and click on Remove all button. Now no polygons are selected.

2. With + and - buttons in Grouping Editor you can select the needed polygons.

(check the picture above)

You can select the needed polygons in 2 different ways.

1. Click on the Add All button so you select all polygons. Then remove with - button the unnecessary polygons. Be sure that you have removed all needless parts, because it may cause problems when you want to apply a texture. So check the secret parts carefully, like the lips. There are many secret polygons which you can't see well. Maybe with dials open the lips and you can see the hidden polygons. And don't forgot about the nostrils. So this is the harder method.

2 The other way for selecting needed parts if you use + button.

Click beside the head on the correct position, hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse to another side and make a squared selection.

After you can use - button and remove the unneeded polygons. Check all hidden polygons, like nostril in nose.

Step 4 - Assign mask material

You can select some eye parts too, because you will make another material group for eye-shadow and then the eye part will reassign the correct material group. This is the reason why you need to make this mask material group at first.

When you are finished with selection, you need to make the MASK material group.

Click on Assign Material button and type mask.

So we have a new material group…mask.

Step 5 - Select eye shadow parts

Now we can make another material group, the eye shadow.

The mask group is a good base for eye-shadow part. Remove with - button the needless polygons.

But you need to check all hidden parts now, because in this case it is very important to select all parts of eyes. Not the eyeballs (they are another group) but the lower and upper lids.

Pay attention because some eye-parts are inside the head.

Move closer to the head and check the inside part from all around.

You can select the hidden parts if you click on the parameter dials and dial up the blink to 1, so that you see all of the eye-parts.

Step 6 - Assign eye shadow material group

If you finished selecting all eye shadow parts, you can make the new eye shadow material group.

Click on Assign Material button and type : eyeshadow

No we have another new material group…eyeshadow

Step 7 - Done

I mentioned that we don't need to make Body groups, only material groups. So before you save your new remapped character, select all polygons for head group.

Step 8 - Save as new character (.CR2)

Go back to Pose room and save your new character. I saved this character as The Girl - With Mask

When you save it as new character, Poser will make a new OBJ file in the same folder. (Same as the library folder in which you saved your new character)

This character will use this geometry when loading. So you can't redistribute this set.

Step 9 - UV Map

For texturing, you need the perfect UV map. Go to UV Mapper (very useful free program from Steve Cox) and load the new OBJ file. Select by material, and select all materials except eye-shadow

Delete the selected materials and you see only the eye shadow parts. Save the UV map with the same resolution as your original head texture.

If the program asks about saving settings, don't worry. This won't write over the OBJ file.

Load the new object, and do the same as before. Select all materials except mask. Delete the selected materials ( or make the selection very small) and save the UV map for mask in same size as the original head texture.

Close the UV Mapper (thanks Steve!!) and don't save the obj file.

Step 10 - Textures for mask and eye shadow

Go to your paint program and load the head texture that you want to use.

Open the saved UV map for eye shadow. Copy it as new layer.

Select the eye shadow part, make the selection 20 pixels larger. Select the original head texture layer and copy this part from it as new layer. This will be the basic eye shadow texture for this character.

Delete the original head texture layer and turn the background to white.

Repeat this step with mask UV.

Step 11 - Bump maps

If you use different bump maps for mask part and eye shadow and head it will be awful.

So repeat the previous steps with bump map too.

Make bump maps for eye shadow and for mask texture from the original bump map.

Step 12 - MAT Poses

Unfortunatelly you can't use the old MAT poses perfectly with this character. You need to change mask and eye shadow materials by hand. Use the free Mat Pose Edit for this: Mat Pose Edit

But when you make your own character or apply your own texture, it is the best.

Step 13- Result

Here is the result of this tutorial. I made different eye shadows and mask without huge sized textures.

But don't forget! Only for personal using, or if you make your own character from your own 3D model.

I hope it was useful!

If you have any question, feel free to contact me.

fairyfan@freestart.hu

Making a jean texture

2011-11-01T17:42:43+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Making a jean texture

Author: Bobbie25

Tools Needed

Photoshop7

Step 1 - Make a new image

1. make a new image as I have done here

Step 2 - Paint bucket tool

2. I have selected a dark blue color and then I select the paint bucket tool and fill in the image.

Step 3 - Working with filters

3.I now goto filter and select noise I set the amount at 15.00 to 18.00% I set it on Gaussian and monochromatic and click OK.

Step 4 - Working with filters 2

4.I now goto filter and select texture and texturizer I make the texture canvas scaling from 75% to 100% relief I set from 3% to 9% and light direction I set top right.

Step 5 - Working with the rectangular marquee tool

5.I select the rectangular marquee tool and make a rectangular down the center of the image by hitting the Ctrl+c and Ctrl+v it will make a new layer of what I have selected I name this layer seam

Step 6 - Working with blending options

6. i now goto the blending options I add a drop shadow , Inner shadow , Inner glowon blend mode screen and make it a lighter color of blue then what I made my image with opacity at 50% to 80% noise to 0%.

Step 7 - Working with layers

7. I make a new layer name it theads with the rectangular marquee tool I make a long thin box in this box I will talk my paint brush with a light yellow color I will paint little lines in for theads

Step 8 - Useing the edit transform flip horizontal

8. Here I will coppie the theads layer from left to right useing the edit transform flip horizontal

Step 9 - Working with the dodge and burn tool

9. I will now take the dodge and burn tool and highlight the seam layer.

Making a Seamless Brick Tile with imageSynth

2011-11-01T17:42:43+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Making a Seamless Brick Tile with imageSynth

Author: Que Arres

Tools Needed

* Photoshop

* ImageSynth

* A photo of a brick wall

Support Files

* BrickPhoto.zip * BrickPhoto.zip

Introduction

imageSynth is a plug-in for Photoshop that creates seamless tiles out of photographs. It's great for texturing, and it's available here on the DAZ website at this link. Now, imageSynth can make some beautiful seamless tiles on its own, but bricks present and interesting challenge. Because the pattern of bricklay is very recognizable, the automatic processes for imageSynth won't work for turning a photo of a brick wall into a seamless tile. This tutorial will give you a step by step method for accomplishing the desired effect. NOTE: I don't know why the zip uploaded twice, but they are the same file.

Step 1 - Find Your Photo

imageSynth creates seamless tiles by blending parts of an image (or the edges of a whole image) together… well, seamlessly. The user can either select what areas (called chunks) he wants to be blended, or allow the program to randomly choose them. He can place the chunks by hand or, again, allow the plug-in to automatically fill in the tile. It's a very versatile and useful plug-in, especially for texturing.

First this tutorial, you'll need to find a photo of a brick wall. To make things easier, I have provided one for you. A larger version of the picture below is in the file provided (BrickPhoto).

Notice how there is a slight curve to the lines in the bricks. This is because of the camera lens.

Step 2 - Open imageSynth

In Photoshop, start a new project, a picture the size of the tile you want to make. I'll be working with a 500px by 500px image. Go to Filter > Luxology > imageSynth and load your brick photo. If you were to just tile the image yourself, trying to line up the lines as best as you could, you may get something like this:

Because the original image isn't perfectly straight, you get some very obvious defects in the tile. This won't work.

If you try selecting the straightest brick you can find and automate it, you get something like this:

Now that definitely doesn't look like a brick wall. You may be thinking, “Hey, why not take that one brick and set it out by hand, like in the first example?” You could do that, but then two more problems arise: 1) the bricks all look the same, so the seamless tile loses realism, and 2) unless you calculated the size of your image exactly, the brick pattern might not line up properly on the top and bottom, ruining the seamless effect.

Step 3 - Starting Your Bricks

Make sure the High Pass filter (in the lower left corner) is set to 25. Then, find the straightest brick edge you can and select an “L” shape, with the long edge on top and the short edge on the right. This will be your template for the bricks. Start lining them up in a brick pattern, working alternately from the top and bottom, making sure that the edges will line up correctly in the end. When you get to the middle, you may need to widen your bricks a bit to make the pattern fit (notice how two of my rows are a little wider than the others). Just bridge the gap with a short vertical edge. You should have something like this:

Step 4 - Fill in the Bricks

Now for the easy part. Select on your brick photo just red areas. Make as many chunks as you like (I selected 12). Now, use these chunks to fill in the areas between the edge lines, using the tab button to rotate through the different chunks. This will make each brick unique, so it looks more natural.

When you're finished, hit Apply.

Step 5 - Tile Complete!

Here's your new brick tile. It looks natural, like separate bricks were actually stacked, and it's seamless.

Making clothing folds on a specific fold

2011-11-01T17:42:43+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Making clothing folds on a specific fold

Author: Ravenhair

Tools Needed

Adobe Photoshop
Poser

Introduction

Hi, this tutorial will show simple steps on creating clothing folds using the gradient tool. This method is just one of the many used for applying folds, but is yet very suitable for beginners who are just starting texturing clothes and want to have a little extra detail besides the simple flood fill.

For this tutorial you will need a set of gradients named GRAYdients made by David Meaders and is available at the Adobe Studio Exchange, here is the link for you to download them, they are free:

GRAYdients

Once there, you will see that Photoshop is the one on top of the list for downloads, click on the down arrow and select the Gradients option from the drop down menu, and remember, the gradients name is GRAYdients. If you are new to the Adobe Studio Exchange site, it will probably prompt you to register, registration is free and it takes a minute or two to have it done. After downloading the gradients, install them so the process for this tutorial will be faster.

Also, you will notice that I have used the skirt for the Aiko 3 Amaya Princess as a sample to work on, but you are welcome to use any clothing template you wish, I used that one because is a just one piece item.

The image below shows you the results after I finished writing this tutorial, for you to see.

Now, lets have fun with this!

Step 1 - After applying the fabric textures to the texture template

At this point you already have used your paint bucket and applied the fabric pattern on your texture template, but… there is something missing, you don't want it to look similar to this:

So… we need to create a new layer above that one, like the image below shows

Remember, for this tutorial, we are not going to work directly on the texture map but on the new layer we just created that goes above the one that contains the fabric texture on the map.

Step 2 - Selecting the area where you want to work

Now, on the new layer that we just have created, we select the area were we want to apply the gradient, we use the rectangle marquee tool, just like the image shows, and we will make a rectangle aproximately by the center of the skirt.

Step 3 - Selecting and applying the gradient

Now is time to select the gradient we are going to work with, and for this tutorial, I selected the gradient shown marked with a red square like the image below displays:

Starting from the very left edge of the rectangle, we draw a line from there all the way to the right side, the results will look similar to what you see.

Step 4 - Changing layer opacity

Of course what you have seen above is not gonna stay like that, so, we now change the layer opacity to soft light.

And this is the result I've got, which is similar to what you've got.

Step 5 - Transforming

We select now the rectangle marquee tool

and right click on the image, and from the pop up menu we do the following:

Free Transformation/Perspective

With the mouse pointer we move the handles that are on top towards the center and do the same for the ones at the bottom, but for those ones, do not move it that much, just do it like the image below displays.

Step 6 - Adding a little extra

Now, we need to add a little extra, so, any object in PSD format will do the job, is just to hide the seam where the folds start up on the top, just like the image shows.

And this is the whole texture already finished, and ready to be applied on the actual object when we start using Poser.

Step 7 - The same tip again

Just to remind you that all this work is done on the new layer that we create on top of the one that contains the textured template.

I hope you had fun doing this, and if you have any further question just email me at the_gypsy_witch@yahoo.com

Enjoy it!

Step 8 - A couple of samples

These images are samples of textures done using the same technique, just with the opacity layer set to multiply instead of soft light.

Making Eye Maps in ZBrush

2011-11-01T17:42:43+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Making Eye Maps in ZBrush

Author: Anonymous

Tools Needed

ZBrush

Step 1 - Getting Started

In this short tutorial I will explain how to create an `eyeball` in ZBrush then paint onto it`s surface using the symmetrical mode. The final eyeball can be saved as a .ZTL (native ZBrush object) or you can export the eye texture and use it in any other 3D application.

-First things first, fire up ZBrush.

-Select a Sphere3D from the TOOL panel.

-Click anywhere in the document window and drag-out a sphere.

TIP: If you want to move the sphere around the document window press `W` to get the `gyro` as shown below. Then use the `gyro` colored ends to pull the sphere in the required direction.

-Go into EDIT mode by pressing `T`.Edit mode should give you the red dot and red ring as shown below.(2)

Step 2 - Subdivide the Sphere

To begin work on the eyeball texture we can subdivide the mesh to give us more polygons to paint on.

-Open MODIFIERS > INITIALIZE submenu.

-Set the mesh resolution to Hdivid=256, Vdivid=128.

Now we can start to apply color to the sphere.

-Go to TOOL > MODIFIERS > TEXTURE and select COLORIZE. The sphere will turn pure white (if it's not already).

-Go to TOOL > MODIFIERS > SYMMETRY and check `Z` then `R` for RADIAL SYMMETRY. Set the radial slider to 30. This should now give you a ring of red dots around the eyeball. We only want to color the eyeball and not effect the surface with depth.

(3)

-Go to the DRAW panel and click the green colored ZADD button to deselect it.

-Now go to the `COLOR` panel on the other side of the screen and select a black color. Bring the dots on the eyeball together and you are ready to draw your eyeball texture directly onto the sphere.

Step 3 - Drawing on the Sphere

Begin drawing` the eyeball texture by starting in the center/front of the mesh, where the pupil should be. (e.g.. Bring the red dots together at the front of the sphere)

if and too much color is being added go to the `DRAW` panel and adjust the 'DRAW SIZE' and 'RBG intensity' sliders.

Don`t for get the handy CRTL+`Z` undo.

When you have finished the pupil select another, lighter color for the iris (I used a couple of shades of gray) and draw the outer ring. Follow this with a thin line of black around the iris and then finish the eyeball with a cream/white color. (Figures 4 and 5)

You can get different effects by changing the `NOISE` slider/curve in the TRANSFORM > MODIFIERS panel. (Figure 6, to the Right) This will give you the imperfections or striations in the iris. (Figure 7)

Step 4 - Changing Material and Exporting

At this point you can choose a material for the eyes. (This will only apply to the model if you use it in ZBrush as the materials are procedural.

To simulate a glossy wet appearance I chose the default `Toy plastic` from the MATERIAL palette. It will update as soon as you select it.

TIP: You can explore the material panel for months if you like but one tip would be to make the eyeball material reflective. You can increase the slider in MATERIAL > MODIFIERS up to 100% reflective and you can use a reflect map to your liking (the little window at the bottom of the material panel). If you adjust the `graph for reflectivity you can make just the black areas reflective or perhaps just the white.

If you want to further edit the texture in Photoshop (or similar package) or indeed use the texture for another 3D package, you need to export it from ZBrush.

To do this go to SELECTION > and press COL > TXT. This will unwrap the bitmap and leave a copy in the TEXTURE Panel

Go to TEXTURE > INVENTORY and EXPORT. This will give you the dialog to save the Texture out as a .BMP or .PSD. It map be a very small texture so you can change the texture size in the TEXTURE > INVENTORY > WIDTH and HEIGHT settings. Change the settings, use CLONE then EXPORT the clone.

Step 5 - Wrap Up

When you have edited the texture and want to re-import it use the IMPORT button in the same window. TO apply it to a ZTOOL, have the tool `live` and editable in the document window and select the texture that you have imported.

I have a few Eyeball ZTools saved if you wish to download them.

Feel free to contact me with any comments or questions!

Making Gems

2011-11-01T17:42:44+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Making Gems

Author: NemesisT

Tools Needed

Paint Shop Pro 9

Introduction

Want to make Gems for you textures?

Don't have any plugins ?

This is the way to go.

Step 1 - Open an image.

Open up a new image by going to file/new set width to 200 and height to 200 unit set as pixels.Check raster background and set the color depth to 16 million colours.

Set resolution to 78 pixels/cm, check transparent.

Step 2 - Style colours

Set the style colours to the colour you want by clicking on the colour chart, use right click to select foreground colour and left click to select background colour.Both colour should be the same.

Step 3 - Preset shape - Circle

Select the preset shape circle. Make sure that create as vector and show nodes are unticked. Also make sure that antialias is ticked.

Draw a circle as big as you want your gem to be.

It is always better to make it larger than smaller.

Step 4 - Float

Go to selections then click select all.

Go back to selections and click float.

Then go back to selections once again and click modify then contract, set contract to contract by about 10 to 15.

This depending on how big you made your gem.

Step 5 - Gradient

Select your flood fill tool (the bucket) change the foreground colour to gradent. Then click the gradient and you will get material properties up. Pick a gradient you want, tick sunburst and set the setting as on the picture.

Step 6 - Flood fill

Put your mouse on the inside of the selection you made and click this will flood fill it with the sunburst gradient.

Step 7 - Invert selection

Now to invert the selection go to selections/invert

Go back to selections and click float.

Step 8 - Inner Bevel

Proceed by going to Effects / 3D effects / inner bevel

And add with the setting on the picture.

Go to selections/ Select none or press crtl + d.

Step 9 - Cropping

Select your crop tool and draw a box around your button as small as you can without making it too small.

Then click the blue showed as nr 3.

Step 10 - Install tube

Now for future use lets install it as a tube.

Go to file / export / picture tube.

Fill in the cell arrangement and placement options and name the tube. Now you will be able to find your tube in the tubegallery.

Painter 8 - Seamless tiling kaleidoscope pattern

2011-11-01T17:42:44+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Painter 8 - Seamless tiling kaleidoscope pattern

Author: karanta

Tools Needed

Painter 8

Introduction

Today I'll show you how easy it is to make beautiful seamless tiling patterns with Painter 8.

I hope you'll have fun with this tutorial :)

Step 1 - The image we will use

The image I used for this tutorial.

Please feel free to use it for your textures.

Step 2 - Let`s start :)

Step 3 - Continue

Step 4 - Last steps :)

Perfectly Imperfect Skin: Scarring

2011-11-01T17:42:44+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Perfectly Imperfect Skin: Scarring

Author: Agent_Unawares

Tools Needed

* Photoshop

* Basic knowledge of how to use Photoshop

Introduction

This tutorial will explain how to create realistic scarring on a skin texture using Photoshop. No tablet or other fancy drawing tools required. The altered textures created using this tutorial are not to be redistributed or sold unless you started with an original texture which you yourself created. Some knowledge of Photoshop is useful.

Step 1 - Select the Texture

First, open the skin texture you'll be working on. In this case, I'm using Grace for V4 from StephanieBT.

Rendering Victoria in DAZ Studio with this skin texture produces a nice result, of course, since it's a high-quality texture, and there are good shaders applied.

However, I want this texture to have a bit more character. After all, the final figure is supposed to be an assassin from a post-apocalyptic world. And logic dictates that people like that would probably get scarred at least once in a lifetime. So I will add some scarring in Photoshop.

Step 2 - Shape the Scar

Go to the opened texture, and create a new blank layer on top of the background layer. You can do this any number of ways, from pressing Ctrl+L to simply pressing the new layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette. Name the new layer 'Scar Template'

After the new layer is created, set your foreground color to black (hit the 'D' key). Take the paintbrush and choose a textured brush (I used brushes from Dave Nagel's series of skin brushes, but almost any brush can be used with practice). Make its diameter about the same width as you want the widest part of the final scar to be. Then, on the new layer, paint a line where you want the final scar to be.

Don't be discouraged. Of course it looks nothing like a scar yet. Now, take the eraser tool, set it to the same brush and diameter as the paintbrush tool was, and begin to erase away parts of the scar you don't want, to give it the right shape. When you're done, it should look similar to the following picture, depending on what type of scar you want.

Step 3 - Create the Scar

Now that the shape looks more like a scar, we are ready to create the actual scar. Ctrl+click on the 'Scar Template' layer to load its transparency as a selection. Then, hide the 'Scar Template' layer by clicking on the little eye icon next to it. After the black scar is invisible, but still with the selection loaded, click on the background layer to select it. Then hit Ctrl+J to copy the selected piece of the background up onto its own layer. The selection should disappear. Name the new layer 'Dark.' Press Ctrl+J another time, to copy the 'Dark' layer, and rename the 'Dark copy' as 'Light.'

You should now have four layers, the original texture on the bottom, a layer named 'Dark' on top of it, a layer named 'Light' on top of that, and an invisible layer named 'Scar Template' on top of that. You can delete the 'Scar Template' layer at this point if you wish. Now, click the 'Light' layer to select it, then Ctrl+click it to load its transparency. Hit Ctrl+Shift-I to select the inverse of your current selection. Then hit Backspace twice. Hit Ctrl+D to deselect the selection, or deselect in any other way you feel comfortable with. Now, make the 'Light' layer invisible. Select the 'Dark' layer and use Levels on it (Ctrl+L). Adjust the midtones (by dragging the middle triangle to the right) until the scar is appreciably darker, a little more than it needs to stand out, but not approaching jet black or anything.

That's closer to looking like a scar, but not close enough. Now, select the 'Light' layer, and set its blending mode to Screen. This should brighten up the center of the scar, but not enough for our purposes. So hit Ctrl+J to duplicate it. That usually provides the correct amount of lightening. If it's not light enough, duplicate the layer again. If it's too light, lower the opacity of the layer to taste.

Step 4 - Finished

And there you have it, a realistic scar that wasn't extremely difficult to make, and a technique that can be applied to any body texture. The methods used in this tutorial can be adapted to create effects from subtle to very extreme. Happy rendering!

All renders in this tutorial were done in DAZ Studio. Do not use this technique to modify and distribute other people's property.

Pitted, Scratched Metal: Transparency Maps

2011-11-01T17:42:44+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Pitted, Scratched Metal: Transparency Maps

Author: Gary_P

Tools Needed

* Photoshop or other editing software

Support Files

* finished.zip

Introduction

This is part two of the pitted, scratched metal tutorial, showing how to create a quick and easy transparency map. I used a sewer grate for the test image and I showed you how to create the metal. I have included a finished graphic and a transparency map, so you can see what it look like.

Step 1 - Step 1 - Using a Base Texture

Start Photoshop and create a new document 1000 x 1000 pixels.

Either create the pitted, scratched metal, or use your favorite texture that looks like the grate you want to build.

For demonstration purposes, I'm going to use the pitted, scratched metal texture I created in the other tutorial, and I'm using it at 1000 x 1000 pixels.

Step 2 - Step 2 - Setting Up

Turn on the Grid

Menu: View | Show | Grid

PC: Ctrl + Alt + '

I turned on the Rulers too.

Menu: View | Show Rulers

PC: Ctrl + R

Open the Grid settings window and set the grid to have a gridline every 50 pixels with 1 subdivision as shown below:

You can open this window either by double clicking on the rulers or by using the menu.

Menu: Edit | Preferences | Guides and Grid

Next make sure you turn on Grid snap.

Menu: View | Snap

PC: Ctrl + ;

We are turning on the grids so when we place our “holes” into the plate that we will not have to line them all up by hand.

Step 3 - Step 3 - Selecting the Holes

We could use the Marquee tool to select our cutouts and create our holes, but the original sewer grate has circular holes.

For this I am going to show you a trick.

Turn on Quick Mask mode by clicking the right button just under the foreground and background in the main toolbar.

Photoshop Trick:

The fastest way to draw a straight line in Photoshop is to single click at the start of the line then shift click the end of the line.

This will create a straight line between the two.

If you have the Grids and Snaps turned on, you will not have to worry about all the lines matching up.

All you need is to be close to the grid lines to create clean lines all in rows and columns.

Click on the paintbrush tool and select a brush size of 40 pixels.

Make sure the mode is set to Normal, and the Opacity is 100%.

Also make sure to choose a hard-edged brush and not a fuzzy brush.

With the paintbrush selected, single click on the first grid line from the left.

This will create a red dot.

You don't have to be centered on the grid, only close, and the snap will do the rest.

Count 4 spaces over, then Shift Click the end point of the line and you will have something close to what is shown below:

Skip a line then repeat this again for the second line, then repeat it again.

Skip a grid line vertically, then repeat all the way down until you have what is shown below:

Now we can turn these red lines into selections by turning off Quick Mask mode, by clicking the left button just under the foreground and background in the main toolbar.

Note:

Before you do this, you could add some vertical selections to make it look more like the original grate.

I have not included that, but you may use any pattern that you wish.

You will notice that now we have a selection, but it is not the holes that are selected, it is the whole grate.

That is not what we want.

You can fix that by inverting the selection.

Menu: Select | Inverse

PC: Ctrl + Shift + I

Only the holes are now selected.

If we produce a black and white transparency map from this alone, it will look fake and unfinished.

What I would like to do is create an indent in the metal, then cut the metal out.

Step 4 - Step 4 - Making Holes

Let us enlarge the holes just a bit, but first we should save the selection (we would not want to lose the selection we took so long to make).

Save the selection.

Menu: Select | Save Selection…

Name the selection Holes, and click OK.

Now we will make the selection bigger by expanding it by a few pixels.

Menu: Select | Modify | Expand

Expand the selection by 5 Pixels as shown below:

Hey! Now we have bigger holes.

Make sure the background layer is selected if you have multiple layers and Copy and Paste this layer.

PC: Ctrl + C then Ctrl + V

You should now see another layer labeled layer 1.

Let's emboss this to create a dimple effect for our holes.

Menu: Layer | Layer Style | Bevel and Emboss…

Set the Highlight Mode color to an off white, then set the Direction to Down as shown below:

Your texture should look like this:

Almost there!

Step 5 - Step 5 - Creating the Trans Map

Reload the previous selection.

Menu: Select | Load Selection…

Background:

When you create a transparency map, you create a gray scale image where everything that is white is solid and everything that is black is transparent.

Everything that is in between (like gray) is semi-transparent.

What we want to do is create an image where the whole thing is colored white and the holes are colored black.

Create a new layer by either clicking on the little button that looks like a piece of paper with the top corner bent, or use the menu option.

Menu: Layer | New Layer…

Name this layer Transparency

Click on the reset button to restore the foreground and background colors to black and white, or press the shortcut D.

Click on the foreground color (black) to make it active.

Make sure your new layer is selected.

Using the Paint Bucket tool, click INSIDE one of the selections to fill the holes with black.

Next we want to color the rest of the image to white so invert the selection.

Menu: Select | Inverse

PC: Ctrl + Shift + I

Click on the background color (white) to make it active, or press the shortcut key X.

Make sure your new layer is selected.

Using the Paint Bucket tool, click OUTSIDE the selections to fill the background with white.

Unselect everything.

Menu: Select | Deselect

PC: Ctrl + D

Step 6 - Step 6 - Saving Our Texture

Believe it or not, we now have 2 textures in our possession.

1. Our Metal texture and

2. Our Transparency Map.

They are on 2 different layers.

Turn off the Transparency layer by clicking on the eye at the far left of the layers box.

Then turn on the other two layers.

Now save your picture as a jpg file. You could use any file type that your graphics package can use.

File | Save As…

Turn on the Transparency layer by clicking on the eye at the far left of the layers box.

Then turn off the other two layers.

Now save your transparency picture as a jpg file. You could use any file type that your graphics package can use.

File | Save As…

The metal picture is the actual texture of the model and the transparency picture gets used as the transparency.

Here is a quick render of my sewer grate.

I hope this tutorial was helpful to you, and you may email me with any questions.

Happy Rendering!

Pixel Perfect Templates

2011-11-01T17:42:44+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Pixel Perfect Templates

Author: Crescent

Tools Needed

UV Mapper (www.uvmapper.com)
A photo-editing program that uses layers

Introduction

Need to quickly make a template so you can see exactly where each material goes?

Want to take advantage of the crisp, clean material lines?

This is the tutorial for you.

Step 1 - Why do it?

Why do this? Why make a template with each material on a separate layer?

1 - It's simple to match up seams when you can see where each material begins and ends.

2 - You can easily make trim by loading up a material as a selection, contracting (or expanding) the selection, and painting in the detail. (In Photoshop, you can even create paths from the selection and stroke the path with different brushes for very detailed trim.)

3 - You can get a better idea where on the texture you're detailing if you know which material you're working on at the time.

4 - To isolate materials that are surrounded by other materials, such as the lips on Michael or Victoria. (Not only does it keep the texture map clean by keeping colors inside the correct material zones, but it makes it easy to create textures with different colors/designs that easily swap out with MAT files, such as different lipstick options.)

5 - For body suits, it makes great generic superheroes - Clashman and Clashgirl!

Step 2 - UV Mapper, pt 1 - Isolating 1 Material

In UV Mapper:

1) Open up UV Mapper and import your item. (File: Open Model.) For this tutorial, I'm going to use the Michael 3 Body Suit, but this method will work with any mesh that has multiple materials. (By default, the suit can be found in Runtime:Geometries:DAZClothing:MilMan:M3.)

This will generate the UV map.

2) Click on Select: All then Select: Display: Hide. (That's Ctrl+A then [ for you keyboard gurus.) This will hide the entire map. Now go to Select: Deselect (Ctrl+D) so your template appears blank.

3) Now we need to select just one material and unhide it. Select: Select By: Material. (Ctrl+M.) For simplicity's sake, I'd suggest going alphabetically and selecting the first material on the list. For the body suit, that would be “Crew.”

Note: Normally I like to view my materials by color. However, some colors are pale and may not contrast well enough for the Magic Wand in Photoshop. I recommend keeping the entire template in black and white to avoid this problem.

4) Select: Display: Show. (That's the ] key.) Now you can see just the Crew portion of the body suit.

The first material has been isolated. It's time to save.

Step 3 - UV Mapper, pt 2 - Saving Each Material

5) Go to File: Save Template. Select the following options:

The “Exclude hidden facets” option will save just the material that is currently visible on your template map.

Note: You can set the size of the material to any size you want, but you MUST use the same size for each material you export.

Save the template as Bodysuit-Crew. (Or meshname-materialname if you're using a different mesh. Always include the material name in each template so you can keep track of them.)

6) Hide the material. Select: Display: Hide. (The good, old [ key again.)

7) Select the next material. Select: Select By: Material. (Ctrl+M.)

8) Show the material (Select: Display: Show or the ] key.)and save it.

9) Repeat as needed until all the materials have been saved individually.

Step 4 - Creating the template in layers

In Photoshop (or another image editing program):

1) Open up the first template. It will look something like this:

2) Use the Magic Wand tool to select the white area of the template map. Click somewhere in the large, white expanse - far away from the visible material.

3) Invert the selection. This will select just the material.

4) Create new layer. Give it the same name as the material.

5) Fill the selection(s) on that new layer with a bright, solid color.

Step 5 - Putting the layers together

6) Open up the next material and repeat the instructions in Step 4. Use a different, bright color each time. You want the colors to clash. It makes it easier to tell the materials apart. (Just don't make them clash so badly you can't look at the template!)

7) For Photoshop, hold down the Shift key and drag the new material layer to the first image. This will drop the layer on top and keep the correct location. Other photo-editing programs will have similar functions to align the layers properly.

YOU MUST ALIGN THE LAYERS! This is a jigsaw puzzle - each piece must be snapped back into it's original place.

8) Do this for each material, dragging the new layer to your original material, until you've built up the template.

Now you have each material on it's own layer.

9) Save the file as bodysuit-template.PSD. (Or whatever type of file that supports layers for your photo-editing program.)

Don't forget, you can always make a copy of this file and merge some layers together for ease of use. For example, if I wanted to make some pants for this body suit, I'd merge the hip, thigh, and shins together. I might also merge the other layers into a shirt.

You can also overlay the original wireframe template overtop the colored one for even better seam guides.

Now go forth and texture!

Re-colouring Textures

2011-11-01T17:42:44+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Re-colouring Textures

Author: xalthorn

Tools Needed

Poser
Photoshop

Introduction

Sometimes you have a texture that would be great for a scene you are thinking of, but it's the wrong colour. Perhaps it's black and you really wanted green.

This tutorial will show you how to alter the colour in Poser and also how to make the changes in Photoshop.

Step 1 - Get dressed

To start off with, I dressed Victoria in her tunic (boots, pants, and tunic) and her hooded cloak. I then applied the 'Tenacity' textures and added the hair.

So, first of all, let's look at the scene with her dressed in the default outfit.

Step 2 - Fiddle with the colours

This is all well and good, but lets suppose I wanted a dash of colour. For example, I might have wanted a blue cloak, red leggings, brown boots, and a green tunic. Okay, they might clash just a little bit, but let's also assume I have no taste.

We could resort to fiddling with the texture in a paint program, to modify the colours, but that would take time and require copies of files to be made, etc etc.

Thankfully if you want to make sweeping colour changes to something in Poser, it's really easy.

Select the 'Materials…' option from the 'Render' menu to bring up the 'Surface Material' window.

You'll see that at the top of the window there are two drop down lists. One for the Object and one for the Material.

The Object list contains all of the objects in your scene. In my example it contains Victoria, her hair, her clothes, and the ground.

The Material list contains the different material zones that are defined for the selected Object. With highly detailed objects you can have a whole host of material zones here.

Once you've selected an object and an appropriate material zone, you can start to play with the colours.

There are four colour changes you can make for the material zone without affecting the actual texture. They are 'Object Color' 'Highlight Color' 'Ambient Color' and 'Reflective Color'. The one we'll be messing around with is the 'Ambient Color'.

Clicking on the 'Ambient Color' button or the colour itself will bring up a colour selection window where there are various ways of determining the colour you want. To play around, I would suggest using the 'Crayon Picker' as it's a very uncomplicated way of getting a basic colour.

Once you've selected a colour, click on the OK button and continue selecting Materials of Objects and changing their colours until you've had enough.

You can then click OK on the Surface Material window and you will return to your scene editor where you should see a few colour changes in your scene.

Now you can try out your wonderful changes by doing a render. If you only want a quick render to see what the colours look like, then select 'Render Options…' from the 'Render Menu' and uncheck 'Anti-alias' 'Use bump maps' and 'Cast shadows' from the Surface detail part of the window.

Now do your render and you should find it renders quite quickly. Not the quality you will want with your final render, but it will show you what you need to see.

I've done a couple of full quality renders with my astounding choice of colours (yes, I'm joking, but you'll see what I mean) and they are shown below.

Step 3 - Make it look nice

There we go, it really can be that easy in principle to change the colours for a textured item, or even a non textured item.

The main thing to realise is that you can fiddle with the colours to your hearts content without worrying about damaging anything. You're not messing around with the textures themselves, and the colours can be changed again very easily.

A quick way to reset the texture is to simply apply it again. Then you'll get the colours all reset nicely, just as the artist intended.

Step 4 - Re colouring in photoshop

Okay, now the easy way has been demonstrated, I'll show you a slightly more involved method that actually gives the potential for more control.

The first thing you need to do is to find the texture you want to modify and make a nice clean copy of it somewhere where you can find it later (the desktop works quite nicely).

All of the textures are found in the Runtime folder of Poser, inside a directory called textures. If you need to find a particular texture that came with a DAZ product, check the readme file that came with the product installer. There will be a list of files in there, including the textures.

For obvious reasons, I cannot display the tenacity texture within this tutorial so I've made my own, astounding, perfectly seamed texture to demonstrate colour changing. It's shown below.

Told you it was astounding. Seriously though, it will at least let me demonstrate colour changing.

Whatever you do, don't mess around with the original texture, always make a copy and mess with that one.

Step 5 - Hue change

When you have made a safe copy of the original texture, in a place where you can find it easily, you are ready to play with the colours.

Load the texture into Photoshop and we'll get started.

An easy way to change the overall colour of a texture using the hue/saturation modification. I suspect that different versions of Photoshop have slightly different menus. In Photoshop CS, the Hue/Saturation option is in the 'Adjustments' sub menu of the 'Image' menu.

This control can give some rather extreme results, The three dials, Hue, Saturation, and Lightness all do different things. I'll explain them in reverse.

The Lightness control does exactly what it should do. Higher values move the colours towards white and Lower values move the colours towards black.

The Saturation control is like the colour control on old televisions. turn the control up and you get very very vibrant colours, turn the control down and you eventually end up with shades of grey.

The Hue control is the one we're really looking for, changing this value will change the hues or colours of your texture into other hues in a sort of cyclical way. The best way to see what I mean is to show you some examples.

The first example has a hue change of +30

The second example has a hue change of -30

You'll notice that the grey parts of the texture didn't change at all. This is because grey has no hue or colour and therefore cannot be changed.

If you have a grayscale texture you can tick the 'Colorize' option in the Hue/Saturation window and this will change the overall colour of the texture, just like the changes that we made in Poser.

Step 6 - Apply the new texture

Once you have completed the transformation of the original texture, you will obviously want to try it out.

To do this, setup the scene as you would do normally, and I would also recommend applying the original texture from the library. Not only does this set the correct base colours for you, but it also sets the various bump and transparency settings as well.

Once you've done that, go to the 'Render' menu and select the 'Materials…' option.

Once you are in the Surface Material window, you can select the object and material that you want to change. You will see the original texture in the 'Texture Map' section of the window.

Click on the 'Load…' button and find your altered texture. Load your texture in and you can then try a test render of your scene with your new version.

Sometimes you will find that your texture only covers a small part of the object. This will be because objects usually have multiple materials or areas of the object that use the same texture map. Simply go through the material list and for each one that is set to the original texture, set it to your texture. You won't need to reload the texture, as you've already done that. Your texture will now be in the drop down list for texture selection.

Real second skin - decor

2011-11-01T17:42:44+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Real second skin - decor

Author: dorkati

Tools Needed

Poser 4 or up
Paint program

Introduction

I made some head-decors and I wanted to use for my character. But sometimes I want to make some other make-up or maybe I want to use with another character. If I make decorated textures for all of my character os make-up I could be need an endless hard-drive. The skin textures are too big. Sometimes more than 1 or 2 Mb. So I wanted to solve this problem. And I found a way.

Step 1 - Make the decor in a paint program

Open the skin-texture and make your decors on another layer(s). Fit the place where you want and delete the base skin-texture. Export with white or black background. Check that it is only 100-150 kb, not 1 or 2 Mb.

Make the transparency map. Turn the decor to white and background to black. You need make only one map, it will be good as transparency map and as bump map too.

Step 2 - Make your second skin character

If you want to use this decor on a simple character, it is enough to load the base character, like Vic 1 or 2 or MilGirl or what you want. But if you want to put this decor to a more altered character, like an alien or a different head-shape than the base character, you need to load the altered character for decor.

In this tutorial I used my altered Vicky, because her head-shape is very different than base Vic.

Set all material's transparency to 1.

I made a head-decor so because it is on V's brows and forehead, I only need to use SkinHead and Eyebrows materials. Apply the decor texture on these materials and apply the transparency map. Use same map to bumping. Set these to 1.

If you want to use this decor more times you can save as a character.

Load your character on what you want to use this decor. Check that you only see the visible character. So go to the decor and scale a little bit so it will be a little bigger than the original and you will see the decor. Or use zTran and bring forward a little. Conform the decor-character to original, so you can posing now.

Step 3 - Use the decor on another figure

If you want to use this decor on another character, you can do it. Because you can scale your decor-character, you can to fit to some other head-shape.

But only if they are a little similar. If the head shape is very altered, you need to make this procedure again. But if you make a MAT pose file for all transparency MAT, you will have easier work in later.

So here are some samples. I made them with a character and with decor character.

Step 4 - Result

Oh and another profit…you can change your decor's base color without changes your character's skin.

Realistic sky reflection without textures

2011-11-01T17:42:44+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Realistic sky reflection without textures

Author: dorkati

Tools Needed

* Poser 5 or higher

Step 1: Make a basic glass material

Create glass material.

I used a light blue color. Transparency now is 0, but Transparency Edge is 0, 4 so window will be a little bit transparent.

Later we can play with transparency, but now we see materials much better.

Make a render. Not bad, but boring. We could use a sky photo, but maybe have not any digital cameras or don't find CD with photos or simple don't want to use any photos (maybe the same as always), only shaders.

Step 2: Create clouds

So we need some clouds. We can do it with some shader nodes (yes, there is a clouds node-but it not makes separated fluffy clouds), but I think fBm is the best for this (in my opinion)

So create an fBM at reflection color.

With basic settings we got too many clouds (as you see on image below)

So need to make some changes.

In next image you see some settings. At first set y_scale value a little bit smaller for rounder clouds. After you can make with Bias a little lighter (or darker) and adjust contrast with Gain.

Make some blur with a higher Fractal_Increment value.

Still too many clouds, so check off Signed checkbox.

Render and enjoy your sky reflection!

Step 3: Variations

If you like, you can play with transparency value for more transparent look.

See some other settings:

On left image I attached fBm node to reflection_value too. Transparency is now 0, 3

On right image Transparency is 0, 3 and now I didn't attach fBm node to reflection_value, only to reflection_colors.

But I checked off Reflection_Lite_Mult checkbox and checked on Reflection_Kd_Mult checkbox.

See differences and decide what is better for you.

Step 4: Colors

If you better like to use white color for glass, your sky reflection will gray. It is good for heavy clouds or a rainy day, but for a sunny sky, you need some blue.

In this case you need to attach some colors.

At first set Diffuse_Value to 0, 5 or less or your window will be too bright.

Create a ~ New node — Math — colorramp ~ node and attach to Reflection_Color. This will detach fBm what need to attach to ColorRamp Input line. In ColorRamp node you see 4 Colors.

This colors will replace fBm's grayscale colors. fBm's black parts will be replaced with Color1, dark grey with Color2, light grey with Color3 and white parts will be replaced with Color4.

For a simple cloudy sky you need to set Color1 to a light blue, Color2 a lighter (close to white) blue, Color3 a much lighter blue (almost white) and Color4 left White as you see on image below:

Render and see result

Step 5: Final tip

We have beautiful sky reflection on window but what about “real” sky ? I mean background.

Solution is: use same settings for background.

Attach ColorRamp to Background Color as you see below and fBm to ColorRamp Input as before.

And now you will have a really nice scene:

I hope you find this tutorial useful. If you can improve settings or you have another (maybe better) idea for clouds, please let me know.

Second Skins using Procedural Textures

2011-11-01T17:42:44+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Second Skins using Procedural Textures

Author: Tkrain

Tools Needed

* Poser 7

Support Files

* overlays.zip

Introduction

I'm sure we've all seen the excellent 2nd Skin resources out there on the net, but generally speaking, they all require the same thing, for your character to be locked down to one specific skin texture and one specific clothing texture. This would then have to be saved as a file, adding another texture map to your runtime which contains information already IN your runtime. This tutorial will use Poser 7's Sydney (included with Poser 7)to demonstrate using the default texture map for Sydney along with a very simple layer mask (see support files, above) to blend together a texture within Poser. These same techniques can be applied to any character, though obviously the layer masks and which textures to modify would need to be changed.

Step 1 - Load Sydney

First things first, Load Sydney into Poser.

Once Sydney is loaded, head to the Material Room and make sure her Body texture is selected. You should see something like this

, with her default texture plugged into the Diffuse channel.

Special note: You can use ANY valid Sydney body texture at this point. If you've created or purchased a killer body texture, this would be a good time to load it into the Diffuse channel. Complex textures that use a lot of special effects channels won't plug directly into this system, however. (For these, you'll have to create similar blenders for EACH channel on the Poser surface and plug them in separately).

Step 2 - Create a Blender node

Click on the plug next to the diffuse channel. A pop up will appear, select New Node, and follow the popups to select Math, and then Blender.

Once you have done this, the default body texture will be disconnected. Drag a wire from the default body texture to the new Blender Node's “Input 1” channel.

Step 3 - Create a cloud node

Now, we want to create a texture that will be the second skin. To keep the tutorial simple, I chose a simple cloud node. Click on the Input2 plug of the Blender, and select New Node, 3D Textures, Cloud.

. Your material room should now look something like this.

Note: You can use virtually any shader nodes or textures you can think of, simply plugging them into the Input2 channels. Keep in mind that complex shader combinations that use different channels on the Poser Surface will each need their own blender to work properly. The clouds surface was chosen for speed and simplicity.

Step 4 - Add your clothing mask

Now for the fun part, adding the clothing mask.

I've included a couple of very simple swimsuit masks for SydneyG2. They are very simple, very rough, and you are welcome to do anything you wish with them. The important thing about the masks is that they are all black for the sections you want regular skin textures, and all white for the sections you want to use as the second skin. For interesting effects, you can create a mask with some gray areas or patterns, and these will simulate semi-transparent lace effects very nicely.

To add the mask, click on the blender's Blending plug, and select Add Node, 2D Textures, Image Map.

Then click on the image map's Image Source and Browse for the mask (this tutorial used the “simpleoverlayblcksmallJPG” found in the resource file of this tutorial. A higher resolution version of this is included in the resource, though I highly recommend you make your own masks or purchase some of the excellent merchant resource 2nd skin overlays that are out there.

Once you have selected the mask, make sure the Blender's Blending level is set to 1.0. This will make all black areas the default skin texture, and all white areas the second skin texture.

Step 5 - Render and enjoy!

Render the image, and you'll see you now have a swimsuit applied to Sydney.

It is very important to note that due to the way Poser handles preview textures, you will not be able to SEE the swimsuit in the preview, you'll see the nude Sydney. It isn't until the image is rendered that you'll be able to see the new clothing. Poser7 is supposed to have a Shader Preview mode, when used with certain advanced graphics cards. I don't have one of those cards. It's possible with the advanced cards you'd be able to see the preview properly.

Feel free to play around with the nodes to create even better effects.

For added realism, plug the layer mask into the Displacement channel with a relatively LOW displacement value (say… .001 or less). This will create the illusion that the second skin is actually a separate model.

This system will work with any character you wish, just be sure and use skin textures and layer masks designed to go with that character.

Simple Fabric Folds

2011-11-01T17:42:44+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Simple Fabric Folds

Author: westonmi

Introduction

Just a quick tute thingie for creating reasonable fabric folds using Greg's Pool Shadow filter. Don't even really need to do pics for this one…but I will just for you. ;)

I'm using PSP8, but the steps have been tested in PS6 and should work in other graphic programs with little or no adjustments.

Step 1 -Setting up

Ok ya need a new image 400×400 with transparent background and your foreground color set to #C0C0C0…it's a lovely shade of gray that gives a good base for what your about to do.

Flood fill your image with the foreground color

Step 2 -The folds

Go to Effects > Plugins > Greg's Factory Output Vol 2 > Pool Shadow (yours may be different depending the program used)

Settings: (this goes from the top down folks)

Diagonal: 0

Center: 0

Horizontal: 0

Diagonal: 0

Horizontal: 0

Vertical: 175 (you can adjust this one to get your folds wider or narrower)

Intensity: 114

Lightness: 217 (you can adjust this one to get lighter or darker folds)

Click Ok

Save the results so you can have it handy for later use.

Step 3 -Spicing things up

Hmmm…gray folds…needs a bit of spicing up don't ya think? Well to do that you can colorize it…

Or you can do the following…

Open a fabric/texture image of your choice

Change your foreground color to Pattern and select your fabric/texture image

Create a new layer

Flood Fill the new layer with the foreground color/pattern

Adjust the layer blend mode and opacity to get the effect you want.

See now you have fabric with folds!!

Step 4 -Summary

Just a few finishing notes…

If you don't have the Greg's Pool Shadow Filter (it's in the second set) you can get it from here…

http://www.pspug.org/filters/filtersff.shtml

PSP8 has a wonderful tool called Mesh Warp that allows you to shape parts of your image. I've found it easier to increase the canvas size by at least 50 pixels on all sides so that you can move the edges of the layer you're working on.

I showed you haw to create a base that you can use over and over again, but you can also use this method directly on the texture you want to have folds on.

Simple Texture Creation Using GIMP

2011-11-01T17:42:44+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Simple Texture Creation Using GIMP

Author: JonnyRay

Tools Needed

* GIMP

Support Files

* SimpleGIMPTextures.zip

Introduction

This tutorial is intended to help beginners understand the process of creating textures for 3D content models using the freeware GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) tool. I've chosen to use Axeswipe's free T-shirt model as the object that we'll be texturing. The texture template for the shirt is included in the attached ZIP file, however to get the shirt, you'll need to visit Axe's website. The following links are where you can go to get the items that you'll need to complete this tutorial: ( GIMP: The Gimp ) ( Axeswipe's T-shirt: Axeswipe's site ) Note that while I explain the pieces of GIMP that I use in this tutorial, this isn't a comprehensive lesson on using that tool. There is a lot more power and detail to using GIMP effectively than I can go into within this document.

Step 1 - Using Layers

After starting GIMP, the first thing to do is make sure that you have the Layers window open. Placing each of the elements of the design on a separate layer of the texture allows you to adjust the pieces independently if your final result isn't what you were hoping for. To enable the Layers window, you can either use the File > Dialogs > Layers menu selection or use the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+L).

Step 2 - First Layer

Next I'll open the template file that Axeswipe provided with his T-shirt model. This will serve as both the bottom and (as we'll see next) the top layer of the texture project. After the template is loaded, I lock it by clicking on the button between the eye (visibility) and the name of the layer.

Step 3 - Top Layer

Once the template is loaded, we'll duplicate the layer using the button with two sheets of paper on it. I like to rename this layer as the name of the texture I'm creating. It's going to serve as the cut-out that outlines the finished pattern.

Step 4 - Cutting the Pattern

Now to cut the pattern in the top layer. We're going to use the Contiguous selection tool to accomplish this.

Once we have this tool selected, click anywhere in the white area around the texture pattern. What we want to do is make the initial selection be the area that isn't going to be part of our texture. Once we have that area outlined, we'll invert the selection.

You may not notice the difference immediately, but as far as GIMP is concerned, you're now selecting the outline of the front and back pieces rather than the empty space. To cut the pattern out, we're going to clear the current selection.

Now that the pattern is cut, we'll go back to selecting nothing. You should get in the habit of choosing 'Select None' whenever you're done working with the current selection. GIMP tools typically only affect the portion of your image that you have selected.

The last thing I do is to hide the top layer. This makes it a bit easier working with some of the next steps we're going to do.

Step 5 - Middle Layers

With the lower and upper levels set the way we want them, it's time to populate the middle layers of our project. I create each layer to be the same size as the original template using the Transparent option.

I'm going to create 4 layers. One for the back, and one each for the white, black and red elements on the front. I order the layers as shown in the screenshot below. Order isn't technically important for the middle layers of the project, I just tend to place them in order like I'm layering the colors on to the final texture.

Step 6 - Coloring the Back

Now that the layers are created, it's time to start coloring them. We'll begin with the back which I'm going to make a solid red. I know that visually there may be more interesting ways to deal with the back, but we'll be putting more details on the front of the shirt and deal with how to match seams and such in the next tutorial.

The process for making the back red is pretty straightforward. We're just going to cover that whole part of the template with a red rectangle. Since we're going to be re-using this technique a few times in later steps, I'll go ahead and describe the whole process once here.

Make sure that the Back layer is the active layer in your Layers dialog box by clicking on it, then choose the Rectangle Select tool.

Next we'll simply draw a rectangle that completely covers the back part of the template.

Now we need the Bucket Fill tool. Change the foreground color to pure red by clicking on the foreground color square to display the color chooser. Type in 255 in the Red channel and accept it. Set the Bucket fill to use the foreground color (FG Color) and to fill the entire selection.

Click anywhere within your rectangle outline to fill the selected rectangle with red.

Once you're happy with the color of the back, you can optionally lock that layer so that you don't accidentally make changes to it. I'm familiar enough with GIMP that I don't normally take that step with something this simple, but if I spend hours working on a layer, I will lock it so I don't inadvertently damage my work.

Step 7 - White Layer

For the first layer on the front, we're going to cover the entire front with white. Use the same procedures we used for the back to create a white filled rectangle covering the whole surface. Don't forget to change to working with the Front-White layer before you get started!

Once you're done, click on the eye next to the Front-White layer in the layers dialog box to hide it. Otherwise you won't be able to see the template while we're working on the next couple colors.

Step 8 - Black Layer

The second front layer is going to change the left shoulder and sleeve to black. After double checking to make sure we're using the Front-Black layer, we'll use the same techniques we've used already to create a black square that would roughly cover the whole front of the shirt.

Next we'll do something new by rotating the layer. Since we want the black to be at an angle across the shoulder, we'll need to use the arbitrary rotation option.

Set the rotation angle to 45 degrees, leaving the center X and Y coordinates alone.

Now we need to move the layer into position. Choose the Move tool from the Tools > Transform Tools menu. Or press the 'M' shortcut key.

Press and hold the left mouse button while your cursor is over the black square and you'll be able to slide it around. Move it up until it covers just the left shoulder and sleeve. It should strike right at the center of the neckline as well.

If you look at your Layers dialog, you'll see you have a new 'layer' called 'Floating Selection'. To lock your moved black square into place, you need to anchor the floating piece back to its original layer.

Once the black is anchored in place, I reduced the opacity using the Layers dialog box for the Front-Black layer to 50%. That lets me see the template through the black, but still see it a little bit for positioning the red diamond in the right place.

Step 9 - Red Diamond

The last layer in our shirt is the red diamond detail. We're going to use a very similar technique to the black shoulder that we just finished. Once again, make sure that you're working with the Front-Red layer in your layers stack.

We're going to use the Rectangle Select again, but with some different parameters. This time instead of drawing our selection, we're going to tell GIMP that we want to create a selection of a 200 by 200 pixel square. I came up with that size by experimenting with different sizes to find the one I liked best.

You can click anywhere on the layer to select a square centered on that spot. Then use the Bucket Fill to fill the square with red, rotate the layer 45 degrees, and move it into position just touching the black left shoulder and the tip of the neck. Anchor it once you're happy with the location.

Step 10 - Finalize and Export

The final step in GIMP is to export it. First go back to your layers dialog box and make sure all the layers are visible at 100% opacity.

Save your project! Save it first as a GIMP file (extension .xcf). Then, to be able to use it in DAZ Studio or Poser, save a copy of it as a JPEG file. When you attempt to save a layered project as a JPEG file, GIMP will warn you that the format doesn't support layers.

Choose that you want to export the project. GIMP will then ask for the quality of the JPEG you'd like to use. JPEG quality is a bit of a hot topic. Some people like to use 100% quality since that's the 'best' quality they can. However realistically you probably won't see much difference in doing that. However you will vastly increase the size of the texture file. I've found that something in the 80-90% range is sufficient for most work.

Step 11 - Test the results

I'm going to use DAZ Studio to test the texture. I've loaded a simple scene with Victoria 4.1 and Axe's t-shirt. On the surfaces tab, I find the T-shirt's 'shirt' material and click on the arrow next to the diffuse color to browse for my image.

Once I've browsed and loaded the image, I can take a look and see how it looks on the model. At this point I might try some more tweaking of the texture (notice that the neck and cuffs have different materials). You may also see a seam or two where the template doesn't seem to exactly match how it's mapped in the 3D space.

For now, we'll call this 'good enough' and do a quick test render.

Step 12 - Conclusion

I hope that this tutorial helps those of you who would like to get started on learning how to create new textures for either your models or others. There is certainly a lot more that can be done, and GIMP has some pretty powerful tools to help as you get more complicated in what you're trying to do. But this should get you on your way to changing the look and feel of your 3D models.

Specular Maps

2011-11-01T17:42:44+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Specular Maps

Author: taniab

Tools Needed

* Poser

* DAZ Studio

* Graphic Program

Introduction

Simply said specularity is how “shiny” an object appears. In Poser or DAZ Studio you can set different values to make objects more or less shiny: higher values make the highlights more spread out on the object surface (like in metal objects), while a lower value makes highlights more spot-like (think of plastic surfaces). It is possible to set also a color for specularity and an image map. This tutorial deals with the latter, showing how, through a map, it is possible to set different glossiness areas on the same object.

Step 1 - Specular Maps

A specular map is usually a grayscale/black&white image that works together with the numerical settings for specularity in this way:

- white on the map is for areas of the objects affected by numerical values

- black on the map is for areas where specular s settings don't apply.

Without a map an object has the same specular value all over it, while by using a map you can set some parts of it to be more or less “shiny” than others.

In this tutorial I am not going into detail about the different numerical settings, just note that in DAZ Studio a more diffuse shiny is obtained with low glossiness values and high specular values; in Poser you need to increase the highlights value for the same effect.

This is true generally speaking, I suggest to play with the settings to see how they work.

Step 2 - Setting a Specular Map

To specify a Specular Map in DAZ Studio go in the Surfaces tab- Advanced and click on the triangle (red circle in the image below): a dialog appears asking to locate a file.

In Poser you can set a specular map in the material room - Simple tab clicking on the image square as shown below:

or in the Advanced tab by attaching a image_map node to the specular color setting:

Step 3 - Difference in renders with and without a specular map

Below are two Poser 6 renders:

- the first one has no specular map applied. Note how the entire object is shiny.

- the second one has a map applied. You can see that only the central part of the vase is somewhat shiny, while the top and bottom are more dull. That's because we applied a map that is colored black for the top and bottom and white for the center (the map is below)

- Same example rendered in DAZ Studio.

And this is the specular map used:

Step 4 - One more example

The following image is another example that shows how you can completely change the look of an object by using maps:

The images above use bump, color(diffuse), displacement, transparency and specular maps.

Step 5 - Conclusion

The vase used in this tutorial is a freebie by Ravynsworld (Renderosity).

The template used for the maps was created by me with UV Mapper

To learn more about bump, displacement and transparency map I suggest the “Understanding Maps” tutorial

Texture making from real clothing

2011-11-01T17:42:44+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Texture making from real clothing

Author: ironsun

Tools Needed

Poser
Paint program

Support Files

SblouseTut.zip

Introduction

I found pretty shirt from my closet and thought that it'll look nice on Sandy blouse by EnglishBob. You can also use any kind of cloth to use this tutorial. We'll be focusing how to best fit the embroidery in the texture template that comes in sandy.zip package = runtime/textures/Morphography/Sandy/Template and TextureJPG So get your scanner and paint program ready and let's make some fashion :) I've included also texture parts and final texture with mat poses in the zip (1.35mb)so you can actually create same texture yourself while following this tutorial.

Step 1 - Planning and scanning

Let's start again with some thinking. Most important thing is to outline what parts of the real cloth will be used. In my case decision is quite easy. Shirt has embroidery on it so I've scanned most parts of the neckline decorations and one of the flowers in sleeve. I've also scanned part of the white fabric itself to be used as the base texture.

To get the most detail of the cloth, I've had my scanner settings in 300x300dpi to capture most of the details while keeping file size reasonable. Bigger resolutions can be also used to increase amount of detail.

Step 2 - Sewing

Alright! Now we have bunch of scans that contains main parts that we want to transfer into digital shirt. Myself I have three close-ups of neckline, one of the sleeves and the basic fabric.

Now open the Template and TextureJPG and save it in different name like sandytextureJPG or something:) Change size of the image to 2000pixels wide to get more room to work around. For the first thing we'll be doing is to fill the texture in the basic fabric.

So open clothJPG and click Edit- > Define pattern. New window will pop up showing thumbnail of the texture. Name it sandy cloth.

Go back to sandytextureJPG. Click with magic wand tool in any white area outside template and press ctrl-i to invert selection. Create new layer. From Select- > Modify- > Expand give it value of three to get rid of possible seams in texture. Choose paint bucket tool and change its fill from foreground to pattern. Pattern drop down menu will be available. Click on downward pointing arrow and locate the newly created sandy cloth texture. Select it and click anywhere inside selection to fill it up with cloth texture.

Save texture in both .PSD and in JPG. use PSD to make changes and modifications and jpg to use in poser. At this point you can use quite low quality to keep file size in minimum while making changes to the texture. When we're finished, use better quality to get more detail.

Now start poser and add Sandy blouse to the scene. In material room change blouse's texture to sandytextureJPG. Try rendering to see that cloth texture tiles up pretty nice.

Step 3 - Embroidering

Now comes the most tedious part. Switch back to Photoshop and take pen tool. We're going to cut out those decorations. You can select areas also with lasso tool, but placing anchor points with pen tool gives you more control over the path and selection.

When you have finished creating path around flower load it as selection and press Ctrl+c to copy pattern to clip board. You can also create new document and save pattern for future works. Activate sandytexture.PSD and press Ctrl+v to paste it above cloth texture layer. Make that layer invisible to see the template. Rotate and resize embroidery to fit sleeve's bottom part. Make cloth layer visible again and save it as in jpg format in same name as in previous step. When asking about replacing already existing file, just press OK. Head back to poser and make test render about right sleeve. Make more adjustments if needed.

Keep repeating cut 'n pasting for the parts that you want to transfer in to texture. Make paths, turn them into selections, copy selection and paste it over cloth texture. Resize and rotate to fit template, save in jpg and make test renders along the way to see how it looks in poser. :D

Lot of work to do but it is worth of it.

Step 4 - Bumpy bump map

Shirt is looking pretty good now but it still needs some depth. So now we're creating bump map for it. Save your work as sandytexturebump.PSD and flatten all layers. Press ctrl-shift-u to desaturate image. Save it as sandytexturebJPG and apply it to bump node. You can make test render to see that it doesn't look pretty anymore.

So back to Photoshop. Press ctrl-i to invert colors. Save and head back to poser. Change bump map strength to 0, 1 and render again. Now it looks much better! :)

Poser 5 users can also use these node settings to use sandytextureJPG as a bump map.

Step 5 - Work done!

All right! We're finished! Now Vickie has brand new pretty shirt to show her friends.

This was one way to create textures, hope that you liked it. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me.

Texturing Eyes with The GIMP

2011-11-01T17:42:44+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Texturing Eyes with The GIMP

Author: SnowFox

Tools Needed

The GIMP
Available at gimp.org

Support Files

support_eye_tex.zip

Introduction

This tut assumes you already know the basics of using The GIMP. It simply shows you where the tools are for making eyes the way Photoshop does. GIMP has the same effects as Photoshop, but the process is a bit different, and the tools have different names.

Step 1 - Start

Start out with your template. We need to keep the lines for now, so make a new layer and name it “base color”. Create a square selection around the iris guidline. (Hold ctrl when you create the selection, it will constrain and is easier to use) Put some extra space around it, because the filters cause some distortion, and you don't want that showing up on your eye. Fill the selection with the color you want.

Step 2 - Noise

Create a new layer and name it “noise”. We're going to apply filters to this layer. Don't bother filling the selection with color, the first filter is only black and white anyway. Select Filters > Render > Clouds > Solid Noise. Set the axes to 10, and detail to 15.

Now you should have something like this. But it's black and white! Let's fix that. Select Image > Colors > Color Balance. Tweak things until you get something close to what you want. Make sure to uncheck Preserve Luminosity.

Step 3 - Adjust

Select Image > Colors > Levels. Adjust the second slider by bringing the two arrows closer together. The point here is to dull the contrast a bit. If you don't do this step the eye will look overly bright and flashy.

Step 4 - Quiet down!

We're not done with the noisyness yet. Select Filters > Noise > Noisify. Uncheck Independent, and apply a little noise. 27 works well.

Step 5 - Blurring the lines

Now the fun part. Radial Blur. But Gimp doesn't have a Radial Blur setting, you say? Actually it does, but it's a little hidden. Select Filters > Blur > Motion Blur. Select Zoom, NOT RADIAL!! Set the length to 57 and angle to 45.

Looks pretty neat huh? See those squiggly things around the edges? Those are why I said to make the selection square, and overly large. A circular selection would distort all the way into the middle. Now let's make this look more like an eye. Make a new layer and name it “pupil”. On the layers dialog, hide the base color. That makes the guideline show up again. Make a circular selection on this layer. To make it in the right place, position your cursor in the center of the eye guide, click, and hold ctrl. Then fill the selection with black.

Step 6 - Detailing

These next steps are optional, they just add a little more depth to the eye. Create a new layer UNDER the pupil layer. Name it “ring”. Go to Select > Feather and set it to 5. Then go to Select > Grow and “grow” the selection by 1 pixel. On the new layer, fill the selection with white. This makes a small ring around the pupil. Now get rid of that selection and select the whole thing again.

Step 7 - More detailing

Select the noise layer again. Select the Dodge/Burn tool, and get a really huge brush, with soft edges. You're going to burn (darken) the area around the pupil, and dodge (lighten) the edges of the iris. Set the opacity high, and the exposure low. Click around the edges of the eye (follow the guide!), then do the same thing with the other tool.

Then turn the exposure down a little and go back over the eye with both tools in the middle of the eye.

Step 8 - The end

That's all for the coloring! Now just Fill the areas of the template that should be white, make the base color layer visible again, flatten the image and away we go!

Whoa, creepy huh?

Tips for Texturing

2011-11-01T17:42:44+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Tips for Texturing

Author: Locke21

Tools Needed

Uv tool
Paint program
Poser or Studio

Introduction

Now before you go any further, this isn't a tutorial for learning all the ins and outs of texture work. That is beyond the scope of any one tutorial. Texturing is an art form, just like painting or sculpture. What this tutorial is for is to answer some basic questions that any beginning texturist usually has, and to take a look at some tools that may have you scratching your head. So lets just jump in and get started creating this.

Step 1 - Step 1

The first step in any piece of texturing is to get an idea. Maybe you see a flaw in someone's seams or you think you have an idea for something everyone would like. Or maybe you just can't find what you want in any of the online stores. Whatever the reason, you need to have a texture applied to someone or something and you need it now! Well, here are some of the basic steps to getting it.

Step 2 - Step Two

First you need a template. Right here is where a lot of people start scratching their heads. “Whats a template? Do I have to pay for them? How to I get one?” Well, if you'll look up templates and easy seamguides, you should find my OTHER tutorial on making those. If not, it'll be up on my site real soon. Its really simple, and we won't go into it here. So, the first thing is to use your favorite UV tool and image program to create a seam guide. I'm using LithUnwrap and Photoshop.

Step 3 - Step Three

Now that we have our seamguide/template, this is usually where the most basic work begins. We apply the Base Layer. This is the foundation on which everything else will set. One tip before you begin, have Poser or Studio open and running the object your working on. It really helps if you can have real-time feedback on your work. Ok, now about that base layer, there are several ways to do it. The simpliest is to create a pattern and use that to overlay your work. Since there are several different programs you can use, I won't go into detail for everyone, I'll just use Photoshop, and let you look up the information for your own program if your using something else. Ok, here is how you create a pattern. Open a picture of the material you plan on using, I'm using a grape cotton(I know, just wait!) and select part of, or in the case of a seamles tile, the entire picture. Then in Photoshop go to Edit, Define Pattern, and give your pattern a distinctive name. I use so many patterns and fabrics, that I do it like this: ClothCottonGrape. I just find it easier this way.

Step 4 - Step Four

Ok, now that we've puzzled out how to make our own patterns, what do we do with it? Well the first thing to remember is that NO texture IS SEAMLESS! No matter how hard you try, you'll always have seams. They may not be visable to the untrained eye, but they're there. Also, your SUPPOSED to have seams on clothes, have you ever seen clothes without seams?! So now that seamless question is out of the way, lets get started on your new texture.

Step 5 - Step Five

First, we have to create a base layer on which all our future work will set. To do this, I always create a new layer by clicking the new layer button on the Layers palette. As long as you use layers, for EVERY step of your work the underlying work won't be damaged by any mistakes you make, so make good use of them.

Step 6 - Step Six

So now that we have our Base Layer ready to go, we want to make sure that we overlap the edges of our template. To do this we are going to use the Path Tool. It uses several different names, Pen, Path Tool, but each one means the little tool that lays down points connected by lines every time you click on your work. In my opinion, this is the second most important tool in texturing. Why? Because with the path tool, you don't have to hunch down over your work trying to follow a small line with your mouse pointer. The Path Tool has an option called Stroke Path that does a wonderful thing. When you have your path set down, you can “stroke” it with the tool of your choice! You simply set your tool, in this case the Pattern Stamp Tool, lay out your path, and then “stroke” it!

Step 7 - Step Seven

Ok, now that the edges of our seams are covered, we can deal with the rest of it. Their are two ways to do this. The Path Tool also has an option that allows you to fill the inside of your path with whatever color or pattern you want, but since this tutorial is more about the tools, we're going to use, what is in my opinion, the greatest tool ever created, the Clone Brush. Now the Clone Brush has several different settings. One works with the image itself, and we'll go into that a little later. The other setting is as a Pattern Brush which allows you to “paint” with your pattern. Just watch. First we choose the Pattern Brush, just click and hold down the brush button, select our brush size and pattern, and then “paint” on our pattern exactly where we want it.

Step 8 - Step Eight

Now that we've got our base layer, we have to decide what we want on top of it. Actually, the t-shirt looks pretty good on its own, but lets add something that allows us to use some more tools. Lets start with the Elliptical Marquee Tool. Don't let the fancy name throw you, it just means Circle Maker! To get it, just click and hold down the Marquee button. We are going to put a very familiar symbol on the front of our t-shirt, and it all starts with a circle, and a nice bright yellow. To get a perfect circle, remember this, hold down both Shift, and Alt BEFORE you start your circle. Start at the center of your future circle, click the left mouse button, and pull till you have the size you want. DON'T let go of Shift and Alt UNTIL you let go of the mouse button. When your done, right click in the circle, choose Fill, and you can fill in your circle. Oh, to get rid of those annoying “Marching Ants” just click Shift+D to “DeSelect” the circle.

Step 9 - Step Nine

We're almost there now. I promised to show you the Clone Tool, and why I think its so important. Well the reason is that with the Clone Tool, you can actually paint right over anything in the picture, and use the picture itself as your palette! Here's how you do it. Chose the Clone Brush, brush size and then go to the picture and decide what you don't want. Choose an area right next to it, an area with what you DO want, and then hold down ALT and click the left mouse button. What you've just done is tell the Clone Brush to use that particular section of the picture as a temporary pattern. It will repeat it over and over again. There are also two important aspects of the Clone brush, the Aligned and Unaligned states. The simple explination is this, when you have the brush Aligned, then the point it is getting it's info from will always be a certain distance from your brush point. Thats real useful for removing seams from a long piece of material. You just pick a “good spot” right next to the seam, ALT+click, and follow the seam down the picture. The Unaligned option means that every time you let go of the brush, the selection spot will always snap back to its original spot. That means you pick JUST the spot you want, and start clicking your way down the picture, putting in the same spot over and over again. Here I'll be using unaligned, because I don't want any particular area, but even more importantly I don't want the selection spot going off the purple area.

Step 10 - Finally!

There we go! All that's needed now is to merge all the different layers and save our new T-Shirt. I hope that you've learned one or two new things about the tools used in texturing. Or perhaps I've just raised new questions? If so just email me at locke2121@yahoo.com and I'll answer them the best that I can…..you know, in my day, t-shirts were white and made to make you look tough!

Turn any image into an oriental pattern

2011-11-01T17:42:44+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Turn any image into an oriental pattern

Author: Ravenhair

Tools Needed

Paint Shop Pro 8

Introduction

Sometimes, well, most of the times we get frustrated when working on a specific image project and then we get the results that we don't like, that's what happened to me when working on a MFD texture map, I didn't like it, and experimenting, I found out that I can turn that usless image into a beautiful texture that I can use in later projects, and I want to share this with you, so, you will see that your previous efforts worth a lot.

You can use any image for doing this, the main purpose is to see how it can be transformed into something that we need at a specific moment.

Below, is an example of what I am talking about, I turned a texture map that I created and then didn't like it, into that oriental like pattern, which can be used in creating carpets, wallpaper for your 3D scenes, well, you name it.

Well, enough with the talking, let's get started.

Step 1 - Opening the image

Here is the image that I use, like I said before, a texture map for the MFD that I didn't like at the end.

Feel free to save the image, this is the one we are going to use to get the results seen above.

Step 2 - The mosaic antique filter

Go to Effects/Mosaic - Antique and set the values as shown on the image below.

Step 3 - The Add Noise Effect

After setting the mosaic as mentioned above, go to Adjust/Add/Remove Noise/Add Noise and set the values like the image below shows.

Step 4 - The Pattern Effect

Now go to Effects/Reflection Effects/Pattern and set the values like the image below shows.

Repeat this three more times and DO NOT change the values for you to see how I have achieve the results shown on the main image.

And you are done.

Step 5 - Variations

The images below are the results of duplicating the layer, setting the blend mode to Overlay, opacity to 70%, and playing a bit with the hue and saturation.

I hope this tutorial helped you all to archive any pattern that you like, and of course, to give some use to those images that you made, and at the end, you didn't like.

Thank you very much,

Ravenhair

the_gypsy_witch@yahoo.com

Understanding Maps

2011-11-01T17:42:44+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Understanding Maps

Author: JonnyRay

Support Files

* Map_Template.zip

Introduction

Step 1 - Map Files and Settings

All three maps are created using 256 level grayscale images. Colors are ignored in these maps, it's the value (gray scale) not the hue (color) that makes a difference

Step 2 - Bumping and Displacing

( We'll talk in another tutorial about the difference between diffuse, glossy and specular reflections, for now hang with me on this. )

The picture below illustrates what happens when light strikes a surface with or without one of these maps applied to it.

Step 3 - Bump Maps

For comparison sake, I also created two series of pictures showing just the right half of the sphere.

The first series shows the same bump map applied at 50%, 100%, 150% and 200% strength (keeping the negative and positive settings at the default of -0.1 and 0.1 centimeters).

The second series keeps the bump map at 100%, but set the bump values at 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, and 1.0 centimeters.

Step 4 - Displacement Maps

The scene below illustrates the same texture applied as a displacement map using the default 100% +/-0.1 cm settings.

Like with the bump map, I created a two series of images. The first showing the effects of keeping the displacement values the same and adjusting the strength of the map.

The second series shows the effect of keeping the strength consistent (100%) and varying the positive and negative limits.

Step 5 - Choosing a Surface

So if the displacement has advantages like realistic shadows, why would you use bump maps?

Step 6 - Transparency Maps

Step 7 - Summary

Using Displacement Maps as Character Morphs

2011-11-01T17:42:44+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Using Displacement Maps as Character Morphs

Author: Kemp Sparky

Tools Needed

* Paint Program

* UV mapped Character

Introduction

Displacement maps are handy for adding realistic little details to characters, clothing, animals, etc. But have you ever explored the full potential of displacement maps?

Step 1 - Bump vs. Displacement maps?

Before you get started making displacement maps, you'll have to understand how they're different from bump maps. Bump maps are generally used for subtle details, like creases in skin, threads in a fabric, and so on. Displacement maps are not necessarily as mild as bump maps. The difference in the results is illustrated in the image.

Step 2 - How does a displacement map work?

Displacement maps read the colors you make a map with from dark to light, like a height map. the darkest color, black, is the base mesh, and as the colors become lighter, the higher it pushes the surface. Thus, displacement maps make it possible to make very noticeable differences in your character's appearance, in ways impossible with bump maps.

Step 3 - Introduction

If you can't model, or simply don't want to, you can use displacement maps to emulate the effect of a custom morph. For this example, I will use my project of a certain vampire from a certain game series, the acronym of which is L.O.K. This was an especially difficult character to do, because he has so many unusual features which could never be accomplished with the morphs I had for M3. At the time, I had been playing around with one of Stonemason's hell columns, changing the displacement maps and so forth, when I thought that maybe I could use the same technique to achieve my vampire's horns and bony facial structure as stonemason had used for his columns' designs. It was not difficult, and the effect was quite pleasing, if not as good as a morph would be–it was still much quicker than modeling would have been. You have to begin by deciding what effect you are looking for. I was trying to give M3 a set of horn-like protrusions along his hairline, and sharp cheekbones.

Step 4 - Making the Displacement Map

Step 4A: First, open the color map you are using for your character in a paint program. Once you've got your color map open, you'll want to use the lasso selection tool to select the areas that you want to alter. I wanted to make the cheekbones and the brow bulge, and lead up to the horns.

Step 4B: Once the appropriate areas of the texture are selected, make them white either by painting inside the selection, or by turning all brightness and contrast to zero and polarizing it.

Step 4C: Invert the selection and make the rest of the texture black using similar methods.

Step 4D: If you were to apply the displacement map this way, you would find that it takes the height difference rather suddenly, leaving sharp, and likely ragged edges. To remedy this, you'll want to blur the whole thing, until the edges around the white areas are smooth, and have a nice grey area around them to ensure a gradual ascent.

Step 5 - Setting the Height, "amount" field

This is an important part of using displacement maps, because it tells the program just how extreme the displacement will be. You will probably be setting the height higher than you are used to setting it for bump maps or traditional displacement maps. You will want to experiment, but the setting I used for this effect was: 0.083333 ft. Only you can discover the settings to make your displacement map work perfectly, so don't take any of the integers proffered here as an absolute.

Step 6 - Rendering

The first render will either show you the fruits of your efforts, or more likely, a mess that needs to be tweaked and experimented with.

Step 7 - Experimentation

Try not to get frustrated with it, but have a bit of fun with the inevitable experimentation. Try blurring the map more if your results look too abrupt, or try fading parts of it back to black to make it more subtle in particular areas. You can also try putting in some extra details, like skin texture or lines in the face (such details should probably be extremely dim, or darkly colored, to avoid overly evident marks, depending on how high the height setting is set).

Using displacement maps to make a 2D image 3D

2011-11-01T17:42:44+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Using displacement maps to make a 2D image 3D

Author: Kemp Sparky

Tools Needed

* Paint Program

* Poser

Introduction

This tutorial will show you how to make a 2D object, mapped onto a two-sided plane appear 3D using Displacement maps. Use this technique for simple props, that you don't really need modeled, or that you cannot model. For this example, I will be using my project which involves the hilt of a sword that belongs to a certain vampire from a certain game series, the acronym of which is L.O.K.

Step 1 - Mapping the plane

Mapping a plane is quite easy. Load the two-sided plane prop from the library, and go to the materials room. Select the image you wish to texture it with and change any other settings you would like. We will be using the transparency and bump options later. If the image appears skewn after it is mapped onto the plane, resize the plane until the image appears to have its correct proportions.

Step 2 - The transparency map

Depending on whether your object is rectangular/square or not, you will need a transparency map to rid the object of any unnecessary area around it. Open the image with which you textured the plane in a paint program. Using a lasso selection tool, cut out the area of the image you wish to show on the plane. Make the part where the object is white, and anything surrounding that black. The transparency map will act like a cookie cutter, and only the part of the image represented by white will be seen once the transparency map is applied to the plane.

Step 3 - The displacement map

This is the most difficult part of the project. You may be able to use the image to make the displacement map itself. For now, load the image, make it black and white, and use the lasso selection tool similarly to the way you used it when making the transparency map. Make the area surrounding the object black. Now look at what you have left. Does the object have shadows where is it recessed and highlights where it bulges or is highest? If so, you can use the image as a displacement map. If not, you will have to paint it like a height map with black as the lowest area, and white as the highest. Those of you with images that have the afore-mentioned properties, will also have to do a little painting. Make sure that the areas in between high and low points are well blended to ensure gradual ascent and remove any excess noise to avoid a sloppy, bumpy result. Blur it to soften edges and help with the blending.

Step 4 - Setting the "amount" for the disp. map.

This is an important part of using displacement maps, because it tells the program just how extreme the displacement will be. You will probably be setting the height higher than you are used to setting it for bump maps or traditional displacement maps. You will want to experiment, but the setting I used for this effect was: 0.066667 ft. Only you can discover the perfect settings to make your displacement map work perfectly, so don't take any of the integers proffered here as an absolute.

Step 5 - Rendering

The first render will either show you the fruits of your efforts, or more likely, a mess that needs to be tweaked and experimented with.

Step 6 - Experimentation

Using the Gimp to Change Eye Texture Iris Colors

2011-11-01T17:42:44+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Using the Gimp to Change Eye Texture Iris Colors

Author: DragonEagle

Tools Needed

The Gimp

Introduction

For this tutorial you will need the gimp from http://www.gimp.org. We're going to change the iris color on an existing texture in as few steps as possible.

Step 1 - Load your image in the gimp

Load the image you want to modify into the gimp. It will usually be a jpeg image.

Go to the layers dialog and select duplicate layer.

Step 2 - Setup the layer for your new color

Click on the background color in the Gimp toolbox twice and set the sliders for your new base eye color

In the layers dialog make sure you have the bottom layer selected. Hit Ctrl+A (Select|All) Ctrl+K (Edit|Clear) and Ctrl+Shift+A (Select|None) to fill the entire layer with your new background color.

Step 3 - Store the existing eye color for removal

Make sure that your top layer is selected.

Use the color picker tool to select the lightest (or close to it) color from the iris.

Step 4 - Select the iris for filtering.

Using the wand tool, select the iris.

You will have to hold down the Shift key and click in the iris a few times to get it all selected.

Step 5 - Filter out the original color

This is where the real magic happens

Click on the foreground color in the toolbox (the one you saved 2 steps ago.) Select the text in the Html Notation box and copy it to the clipboard

Select Filters|Color|Color To Alpha from the menu in the picture edit window and you will get a dialog box like the one above. Click on the Color Select (outlined in red, ) paste the foreground color text into the HTML Notation box and click Ok.

Click OK in the Color to Alpha dialog and watch your eye color change.

Step 6 - Save the new texture

Hit Ctrl+Shift+A (Select|None) and save your new image as a jpeg somewhere where you can find it. Click “Export” if a dialog comes up saying that JPEG can't handle transparency. Apply your new texture to your model and you're done.

Using Transparency Maps

2011-11-01T17:42:44+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Using Transparency Maps

Author: Stargazy

Tools Needed

Poser 4 or higher; Paint Shop Pro or any other graphic program

Introduction

This tutorial shows the basics of using a transparency map in Poser. With transparency maps you are able to design the appearance of a figure very individually in addition to give it textures and colours.

Step 1 - WHAT IS A TRANSPARENCY MAP?

Basically a transparency map looks like a texture map for a figure. But it shows not the colour or the texture of an object, it shows which areas of an object should be visible and which not. You can define different flavours from “fully visible” over “more or less transparent” to “invisible”.

To create a transparency map, you use the template (seam guide) of an object like for the creation of a texture map. Here you fill the areas not with textures, but with colours from black over grey to white.

The darker the area is, the more transparent the area will get. That means a white area will be visible, a black area totally invisible. Different levels of grey will cause different transparency levels.

Step 2 - STARTING WITH THE DEFAULT OBJECT

For this example you can take our Posette and dress her with the halter dress.

Step 3 - GET THE SEAM GUIDE

Now we are going to work on this dress. Load the texture map in your graphics program.

Fill the texture map of the dress with white, the background with black. The result should now look like this:

http://documentation.daz3d.com/tutorials/images/400-02C11.jpg

Step 4 - CREATE A TRANSPARENCY MAP FOR TRANSPARENT PARTS

Now think about the areas you want to hide. Paint these areas black.

Here is an example of a shorter dress with a fishnet in the middle.

And here is the result:

Step 5 - SEMI TRANSPARENCY

And now here is an example that shows parts of the dress as semi transparent areas. As you can see, the semi transparent areas are painted in grey.

And here is the result:

Step 6 - APPLY A TRANSPARENCY MAP

This step finally explains now, how a transparency map will be assigned to an object.

We assume that you have created your own transparency map for an object and you will now assign it. Copy the file into a folder in the runtime/textures directory, where you are able to find it later.

Open the “Render - > Materials” dialog box. Select the object and the appropriate material. Now apply your transparency map in the “Transparency Map” section with the “Load” button.

Adjust the following settings:

Transparency Min 0%

Transparency Max 100%

Transparency Falloff 0.00

Happy Rendering!

Make Your Own Nail Colors For Any DAZ Character!

2011-11-01T17:42:44+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Make Your Own Nail Colors For Any DAZ Character!

Author: Amber

Tools Needed

Poser
Any daz character
Any paint program such as photoshop or psp

Introduction

In this tutorial I will show you how to make your own fingernail colors for any DAZ character and make the MAT pose files for applying the colors.

Step 1 - Starting Out...

Begin with one of the character templates available here at DAZ. I used the Victoria 3.0 template.

Using your selection tool click on any plain white area of the image.

Then go to Select > Inverse, Select > Modify > Expand > 3 click OK.

Make a new layer.

Step 2 - Choose Your Color

Choose any color you like, I chose a deep red, #981A29, for this tutorial.

Using your paintbrush tool, any size brush (I used a brush size of 53)…color in the fingernail area only.

Make a new layer.

Step 3 - Make Your Highlight

Using a small airbrush and white color, #FFFFFF, put a small line down the middle of each nail. The line shouldn't touch the top, bottom or sides of the nail, and they don't have to be perfectly straight.

Step 4 - Blur It!

Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set it to 6.3 and click OK.

Step 5 - Background Layer

Click on your background layer, create a new layer and flood fill it with white. Go to Select > Deselect. Save your image as a jpg file with a quality of 12.

Step 6 - Rendering

In Poser simply make sure you are on Vicky's body and go to Render > Materials > Fingernails and load your image.

Step 7 - PSD File

If you are using Photoshop to make your texture save your fingernail image as a PSD, and on the color layer go to Image > Adjustments > Variations and change the color to whatever you

want and save that as a separate jpg file.

Step 8 - Make Your MAT Pose File

Now we need to make a pz2 file. The only thing that needs to be in the pz2 file is the information for the fingernails themselves.

version

{

number 4.0

}

figure

material Fingernails

{

KdColor 1 1 1 1

KaColor 0 0 0 1

KsColor 0 0 0 1

TextureColor 1 1 1 1

NsExponent 12

tMin 0

tMax 0

tExpo 0

bumpStrength 0.3

ksIgnoreTexture 0

reflectThruLights 1

reflectThruKd 0

textureMap “:Runtime:textures:nameoftexturehereJPG”

0 0

bumpMap NO_MAP

reflectionMap NO_MAP

transparencyMap NO_MAP

ReflectionColor 1 1 1 1

reflectionStrength 1

}

material Preview

{

KdColor 0.74902 0.54902 0.45098 1

KaColor 0 0 0 1

KsColor 0.498039 0.498039 0.498039 1

TextureColor 1 1 1 1

NsExponent 30

tMin 0

tMax 0

tExpo 0.6

bumpStrength 0.75

ksIgnoreTexture 0

reflectThruLights 1

reflectThruKd 0

textureMap NO_MAP

bumpMap NO_MAP

reflectionMap NO_MAP

transparencyMap NO_MAP

ReflectionColor 1 1 1 1

reflectionStrength 1

}

You can use any text editor to do this, I used Edit Pad for this tutorial. Then save the file into your

CuriousLabs > Runtime > Libraries > Pose > Folder Of Your Choice. Be sure to save it as a pz2 file! You can just type in nameoffile.pz2 and it will get saved as a pz2 file.

Step 9 - Change The Length Of Your Nails!

You will need to have the body morph pack where applicable, this depends on which character you're making the fingernail mats for. I used Victoria 3 for this tutorial so we'll apply her “Nails Long” morph which is located in the Pose > !V3 Full-Body INJ folder.

Click the Nails Long Icon and then go to Figure 1 > Body and change your dial to 1.0

Step 10 - All Done!

And there you go…you've made your own fingernail colors and mat pose files to easily apply them!

Creating Brocade Fabric Textures in PSP8

2011-11-01T17:42:44+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating Brocade Fabric Textures in PSP8

Author: westonmi

Tools Needed

“PSP8”
“EyeCandy 4000”
“DC Special”

Introduction

This technique was originally created in PSP8 using EyeCandy 4000 and DC Special Perssian Rug filters along with several built in effects/filters to create a brocade type texture.

Step 1 - Setting up the workspace...

This technique is also very flexible in that you can adjust any (or all) of the settings and still get the same effect. :D

The settings:

Open a new document 400×400 pixals, transparent background

Set your foreground color to #C0C0C0 or R: 192, G: 192, B: 192

Flood fill with your foreground color

Now the reason for using a grey for this technique is that we are creating a “base” from which we can create a multitude of hues with just a few clicks. I do duplicate after each step in this technique so that I have a variety of bases from which to further work with. ;)

Step 2 - A bit of EyeCandy...

Go to Effects > Plugins > Eye Candy 4000 > Swirl

Click on Settings and select any one of the presets. I used Wispy for this tutorial.

Make sure the Seamless tile box is checked.

Click OK

After the effect is applied duplicate the layer, (Layers > Duplicate), then hide the lower layer by clicking on the eye. Your layer palette should look like the image below.

*Note* You can use EyeCandy 3 also for this technique

Step 3 - Cutting a Perssian Rug...

Go to Effects > Plugins > DC Special > Perssian Rug (this may be slightly different as they've changed the name of the pack this filter is in)

Slide the top slider all the way to the left (you can vary this till you get the look you want)

Click OK

After the filter is applied duplicate the layer, (Layers > Duplicate), then hide the lower layer by clicking on the eye. Your layer palette should look like the image below.

Step 4 - Doing the Mosaic thing...

Go to Effects > Texture Effects > Mosaic - Antique

Use the following settings:

Number of Columns: 50

Number of Rows: 50

Symmetric: Checked

Tile Diffusion[%]: 80

Grout width: 4

Grout Diffusion[%]: 50

Save these settings as a preset so you can use it later. I named mine fabric1.

Click OK

After the filter is applied duplicate the layer, (Layers > Duplicate), then hide the lower layer by clicking on the eye. Your layer palette should look like the image below.

Step 5 - Going a bit Glassy...

Go to Effects > Texture Effects > Mosaic - Glass

Use the following settings:

Number of Columns: 50

Number of Rows: 50

Symmetric: Checked

Glass Curvature[%]: 50

Edge Curvature[%]: 0

Grout width: 2

Grout Diffusion[%]: 50

Save these settings as a preset so you can use it later. I named mine Fabric1.

Click OK

After the effect is applied duplicate the layer, (Layers > Duplicate), then hide the lower layer by clicking on the eye. Your layer palette should look like the image below.

Step 6 - A bit more of the Antique...

Go to Effects > Texture Effects > Mosaic - Antique

Use the following settings:

Number of Columns: 42

Number of Rows: 42

Symmetric: Checked

Tile Diffusion[%]: 80

Grout width: 4

Grout Diffusion[%]: 50

Save these settings as a preset so you can use it later. I named mine fabric2

Click OK

After the effect is applied duplicate the layer, (Layers > Duplicate), then hide the lower layer by clicking on the eye. Your layer palette should look like the image below.

Step 7 - Add some Noise...

Go to Adjust > Add/Remove Noise > Add Noise

Gaussian: Checked

Noise[%]: 5

Monochrome: Checked

Click OK

After the effect is applied duplicate the layer, (Layers > Duplicate), then hide the lower layer by clicking on the eye. Your layer palette should look like the image below.

Step 8 - Setting the Pattern...

Go to Effects > Reflection Effects > Pattern

Use the following settings:

Horizontal Offset[%]: -77

Vertical Offset[%]: 65

Rotation Angle: 234

Scale Factor: 0

Number of Columns: 6

Number of Rows: 3

Horizontal Shift: 0

Vertical Shift: 0

Save these settings as a preset so you can use it later.

*NOTE* Most of the settings here can be adjusted to get the pattern you want, but the Scale, Columns and Rows settings should remain the same so the finished tile will tile properly.

Click OK

After the effect is applied duplicate the layer, (Layers > Duplicate), then hide the lower layer by clicking on the eye. Your layer palette should look like the image below.

Step 9 - Getting Edgy...

*NOTE* This step is very variable as some of the edge effects give better results with some patterns than with others, so experiment to see what works best. :D

Go to Effects > Edge Effects > Enhance More

Duplicate the layer, (Layers > Duplicate), then hide the lower layer by clicking on the eye. Your layer palette should look like the image below.

Step 10 - The Brocade look...

This step will give depth and color to your brocade tile and can be done with other methods or effects.

Set your foreground color to the color of your choice.

Go to Effects > Artistic Effects > Hot Wax Coating

Sometimes you have to adjust the lightness of your foreground color to get the look you want.

For further variety try some of the following…

* play with the pattern settings

* try using the kaleidoscope effect

* use a grey foreground color for the hot wax effect and then add a new layer and flood fill it with your color of choice then adjust opacity and blend modes.

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and wish you many hours of texturing fun. :D

Leather Textures in Paint Shop Pro 7

2011-11-01T17:42:44+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Leather Textures in Paint Shop Pro 7

Author: beckyh2112

Tools Needed

Paint Shop Pro 7
Xero

Introduction

I put this technique together while trying to develop a way to do stone textures based on the way I did it with a physical brush. A little experimentation with one of my new filters made me go “Hey, that looks like a leather!”

However, the creative process behind this tutorial isn't why you're here.

—

I usually start with a 400×400 image to start playing around with textures with. This is no exception. I'm using a black background to start with, though it will be mostly obscured by our later work.

Step 1 - Loading the Brush

Next we load up the paintbrush. Keep your tool options at the ready, as this is something we'll fiddle with a bit. For this type of texturing, I like to start out with a fairly big brush size, but a very low particle density. I usually never go over 35 when doing this stuff.

Hardness is up to you. I've been doing it a hundred, but I'm starting to experiment with lower levels. I've kept opacity and step at 50%, but do experiment and see what works for you.

Step 2 - Playing with Colors

Load up your fore and background colors however you like. I find having one of them be white to start with is very useful, but the other color depends on what color leather you're going for. Now, alternate your colors by right- or left-clicking with your mouse.

Cover the canvass however you'd like. I tend to dab it on pretty thick to start with. I also periodically change brush size and density to see how the effect goes. Don't worry about using layers anywhere in this.

Step 3 - Thinning the Paint

Now, change one of your brush colors to match the background color. It's time to thin out the colors you've been using by painting in some black. If you use similar settings to what you've been using with the other colors, it looks quite nice.

Step 4 - Plug In, Turn On

When you're done with thinning the colors on the canvas, call up Xero's Tekstya plug-in. (Effects > Plug-In Filters)

You can duplicate your original canvas layer, before you go messing around with the plug-in, but you don't have to. It is a nice way to save that part of your work, though.

I recommend turning the zoom on the example box up to 100% so you can see exactly what you're doing.

This filter has two default colors. I've yet to figure out what effect the second color has on the image, but change the first color to suit you. I'm using a dark green. Fiddle with the other settings as you see fit, but leave Use Source checked and Sparsity at 1.

Step 5 - Blurring the Issue

Now, if you want to, you can make a few changes to your image before you leatherize. I find that a small Gaussian Blur blends the colors nicely. (Effects > Blur > Gaussian Blur)

Step 6 - Leatherize!

Finally, use the built-in Fine Leather filter. (Effects > Texture Effects > Fine Leather) Choose a leather color that works for you. If it's too near the color of the original image, then the furrows and such will barely show up. Then fiddle to your heart's content - the little eye icon makes checking out how it looks on your image a snap.

Step 7 - Samples

And there you have it. Here are a few examples that I put together while making sure I could repeat this technique. (And to think this originally started as me trying to do a stone texture.)

Make second skin in Paint Shop Pro 7

2011-11-01T17:42:44+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Make second skin in Paint Shop Pro 7

Author: LunaL

Tools Needed

Poser
Psp7 or lower

Introduction

Well, your renders can look good even without clothes.

Here is a second way to do it.Let`s make “paint on body clothes”.

Step 1 - Choose your textures

With this one I used body texture by JenniFS for V3.*over*

First I find the texture I like.Can be only one or more.

I`m gonna use this Leather and Gold textures.

Step 2 - Add your textures

First paint with the leather, wherever you want of course.It is your creation you know*s*

Here is what I did.

Let us now use the gold one.

Step 3 - More details

Want some more? Oki, here goes.Here I put a jewl tube on as well.

Here is how my render turned out:

Making a Burn scar or wound texture with Photoshop

2011-11-01T17:42:45+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Making a Burn scar or wound texture with Photoshop

Author: Vadlor

Tools Needed

Photoshop

Introduction

This is something I developed for a character I was making, who had his face badly burnt in a magic duel.

I've been using the Liquify tool for quite some time, but always to do funny stuff, like caricatures. Finally I managed to find another use for it.

Step 1 - Prepping the image

Open the selected image. In this tutorial, I'll be working with the Naiar head texture. Then, select the main area you'll be “burning” and copy it into another layer. (Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V will do it, since this will paste it in the same spot but in a new layer).

Step 2 - Desaturating the image.

Desaturate this new layer (Ctrl+Shift+U). Now we're ready for the liquify.

Step 3 - Playing with fire

Apply Auto Levels (Shift+Ctrl+L) and start Liquify (Shift+Ctrl+X). For those unfamiliar with Liquify (or those who don't have Photoshop 7 or higher), this tools is very similar to the smudge (the one that has the Finger Icon), but has some more functions. Smudge should work fine but will not be as good as Liquify. In Liquify, you have a variety of tools to use. The more useful for this effect are the Warp Tool (think of it as SuperSmudge), the Turbulence Tool (be mindful that too much of this will create a hole in your texture), the Twirl Tools (clockwise and counterclockwise), the Pucker Tool (deflates the surrounding pixels into the point you click in), the Bloat tool (inflates the pixels away from where you click), and the Reconstruct Tool (this reconstruct you original image, it's like a gradual undo, very useful to fix the holes Turbulence does). Here's kind off free style. There is no fixed formula, but rather good sense and knowing what you want it to look like.

Some pointers: Start deforming the general area you want to burn, with a big brush (64 Size). Then, start detailing, mainly with the warp tool and a smaller brush (30 or less). Don't be afraid of overdo it. That's what the Reconstruct tool is here for. Play around with deforming and reconstructing, sometime you'll get a better effect than with the other tools alone. The more lines you get, the better the effect looks. For a more realistic look, try to follow the direction of the muscles.

Once you're happy with your deformation, click Ok and let it apply to your figure.

Step 4 - Cleaning up the wound a little bit.

Now, pick up the Lasso Selection Tool and select from the image you deformed the un-deformed skin that might have stayed. Apply a Feather to the selection (Alt+Crtl+F). The size must be according to your image. I used 15 pixels. This will help the burn to blend more smoothly with the main image. Use the Eraser Tool or invert the selection and press the Del button to clear.

Step 5 - Blending

Now, let's change the layer blending mode. This will transfer the burn layer to the main image and give it a livelier look than grayscale. Duplicate the layer at least three times. Name them Layer 1, Layer 2 and Layer 3. Invert the Layer 1, and change the blending mode to Overlay.

In the next layer, apply Levels (Crtl+L) to sharpen it and then change the blending mode to Color Burn.

In the last layer, change the blending mode to Soft Light. Then, play with the Levels (Ctrl+L) until it looks more defined. Use the Eraser tool set to 50% opacity to blend the borders with the main texture.

Step 6 - Bumping it up

Select the layer 3 (Click the layer while pressing Ctrl), and copy it and paste it into an Alpha Channel (Go to the Channels Tab and create a new layer, then paste in it).

Go back to the RGB channel. Select the Third Layer and select Filter/Render/Lighting Effects. This will add volume to it, like a bump map will do in poser. In the dialog box, there is a drop down menu that says Texture Channel. Select the Alpha One and adjust the slider according to the amount of Bump you want to give it. 60 is a good value. Put an Omni light in the middle of your burn and adjust its size until it covers the whole selection. Now, set the Exposure at -36 and the Ambience to -14 to reduce the burn of the light. Value can change according to your image, so feel free to play until it looks right. Apply and you'll have you burn mark in there.

Step 7 - Variants

You can use this to make your bump/displacement map to go with it. All you have to do is hide the second layer (the darker one), duplicate and Desaturate the main texture to turn it to grayscale. You can also play with the Levels to sharpen a little the burn part so it “bumps” better in Poser. You can also hide Layer 1 or 2 to achieve a more healed look.

Step 8 - Done

Flatten image and save. It's ready for use.

I hope you find this useful.

Wrinkles and Designs with Photoshop

2011-11-01T17:42:45+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Wrinkles and Designs with Photoshop

Author: Locke21

Tools Needed

Photoshop

Introduction

When a person becomes a texture artist, they have to learn a lot of tricks! Their job is to make their creations as realistic as possible. One trick that that can reap a lot of benefits is what many people call displacement. No, I'm not talking about creating displacement maps. I'm talking about making a raised or lowered design on a texture map. If done right, they can be wonderfully realistic. The tool I'm using is Photoshop 7, but I think most image programs are capable of this. Ok, let's have some fun!!

Step 1 - Step One

The first step is to have your map. Since I'm just showing you how to do pattern design, we'll forgo this and just work on a square of leather I happen to have lying around. Just remember, the steps are the same! First get your map; this is a piece of micro suede and using this procedure, we're going to make it look like it's been tooled! If you've ever bought a belt or wallet at a state fair, you know what I'm talking about. I'm going to tool my name right into this leather.

Step 2 - Step Two

Now you have to decide on what kind of design you want. I'm using my screen name Locke. Once you've decided on a design, create a new layer and fill it with grey, the numbers are between 120 and 130 on the RGB scale. Then lower the opacity so you can see your layer in relation to your cloth or leather.

Step 3 - Step Three

Now using solid black draw your design. Like I said before, it can be almost anything. Since I'm using a font, I will have an extra layer with the letters on it, but it will be flattened down onto the grey layer later. Now that you have your design drawn on; it's time to decide how you want it to look. Is the light coming from above, below or from one side? Whichever one you chose, take a brush and paint pure white from that side about half-way into the black. In mine, the light will be coming from above and to the right, so I put my white there. I find the Pen tool invaluable for this type of work!

Step 4 - Step Four

Ok, here is where I think Photoshop is different from other image programs, I really don't know so don't start emailing me asking why Paint Shop Pro doesn't work right! First make sure your design and the grey layer are combined into one layer. Next you'll want to blur the black and white design a bit, not much, not much more that 1.5 Gaussian. Then select and save the grey layer/design as a PSD, it HAS to be a PSD. Now here comes the fun stuff. Turn off the design on your original by clicking the little eye next to is on the layers palette, don't delete it! Then select the fabric or leather and use the following commands. Filter/Distort/Displace. The horizontal and vertical boxes define how severe a stretch will occur. For this tut we'll use 30%

Step 5 - Step Five

Yeah, I know it's hard to see. But do you'remember what I told you earlier? Not to delete the design, but just turn it off in the layers palette? Well turn it back on. Then set it to Hard Light. Once you've set it to Hard Light, turn the opacity all the way down, and then start bringing it up one number at a time. You'll see your design pop right out of the texture! Be real careful here, too much opacity and the effect is ruined, not enough and the effect isn't strong enough. Experiment till you find the right one. This effect is even more stunning on fabrics, and you might want to try Vivid Light for plastics! Check out the cloth example I made up for you. Well there you go, a nice displacement design right on the texture! If you ever do this to an already rendered picture, remember, to get the effect of a hole reverse the black and white. Put the white on the side furthest away from the light source.

Step 6 - Cloth example

Making a jeans texture

2011-11-01T17:42:45+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Making a jeans texture

Author: Bobbie25

Tools Needed

Photoshop7

Step 1 - Make a new image

1. Make a new image as I have done here.

Step 2 - Paint bucket tool

2. I have selected a dark blue color and then I select the paint bucket tool and fill in the image.

Step 3 - Working with filters

3. I now go to filter and select noise I set the amount at 15.00 to 18.00% I set it on Gaussian and monochromatic and click OK.

Step 4 - Working with filters 2

4. I now go to filter and select texture and texturizer I make the texture canvas scaling from 75% to 100% relief I set from 3% to 9% and light direction I set top right.

Step 5 - Working with the rectangular marquee tool

5. I select the rectangular marquee tool and make a rectangular down the center of the image by hitting the Ctrl+c and Ctrl+v it will make a new layer of what I have selected I name this layer seam

Step 6 - Working with blending options

6. I now go to the blending options I add a drop shadow , Inner shadow , Inner glowon blend mode screen and make it a lighter color of blue then what I made my image with opacity at 50% to 80% noise to 0%.

Step 7 - Working with layers

7. I make a new layer naming it threads with the rectangular marquee tool I make a long thin box in this box I will talk my paint brush with a light yellow color I will paint little lines in for threads

Step 8 - Using the edit transform flip horizontal

8. Here I will copy the threads layer from left to right using the edit transform flip horizontal

Step 9 - Working with the dodge and burn tool

9. I will now take the dodge and burn tool and highlight the seam layer.

Introduction to Textures in Poser

2011-11-01T17:42:45+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Introduction to Textures in Poser

Author: Quoll

Tools Needed

Poser 4

Introduction

What is a texture?

You may have noticed by now that your Poser characters can look a bit bland sometimes. And you may have seen some characters that appear radically different from the ones you see in Poser when you first install it. These varied appearances are primarily accomplished through the use of morphs and textures. While 'morphs' change the character's physical shape, 'textures' change the appearance of the skin, hair, clothing, etc by applying different color characteristics. In this tutorial I am going to focus on textures, and tell you everything you need to know about getting started using textures, where to find them, and how to make them.

A texture is a way for you to change the appearance of your poser character beyond simply changing the character's base color. For instance, when you look at most of the Poser 4 skin tones, they tend to be kind of an orangey-peachy color. That's fine if you want to make pictures of orangey-peachy people, but what if you are trying to create an African American character? Or a Spaniard? Or a bug eyed green monster? It becomes apparent right away that something else needs to be done in order to achieve a more realistic appearance for just about any character you'll want to set up.

That's where textures come in. A texture is really just an image file specifically designed for use with a 3D Poser character. Think of it as a sort of bottle label. If you had two bottles, one full of ketchup and one full of mustard, you could take a big sticker and write 'ketchup' on one of them and then wrap it around the ketchup bottle. Write 'mustard' on the other one and stick it to the mustard bottle. Even though both bottles are exactly the same shape and size, we now see clearly when looking at them which one will contain our favorite sandwich topping. It's much the same with Poser characters. While you probably don't want to put a poser character on your sandwich, you might want to create one with a distinct skin tone to differentiate it from other characters. Lets use the African American example. In this case you would get or create a texture file that had a rich dark skin tone, and then apply it to the standard poser model. Poser would wrap the texture around the model and it would then have the new skin tone.

Step 1 - Applying Textures

Poser applies textures to characters using 'UV Mapping'. There are many kinds of mapping modes in use by 3D programs, but UV mapping is the best choice for the sort of precise texture placement needed on 3D characters. Don't let the language fool you, this is all really easier than it sounds. Basically, you paint on a flat, 2 dimensional image and Poser then sort of shrink-wraps it around the character.

Imagine a toy stuffed animal. Before that animal was a complete figure, it was pieces of flat fabric that were later stitched together to create a complete 3 dimensional object. This is how Poser textures work. Think of that process in reverse. Take the poser figure, cut it from head to toe right down the middle so you have a front half and a back half. Then lay the pieces out flat on a 2 dimensional texture image. That's a texture map.

If you put some red color on the hands area of that texture map, when the texture is applied in Poser the 3 dimensional characters hands will be red. Paint the eyes green, and they will be green on the Poser character. This works with all areas of the Poser figures.

Below, you see the standard Poser 4 nude female on the left and the P4 female nude texture template on the right. I have painted some red on the hand area's and green over the eye area's. The image on the left shows the results of applying this texture map to the figure in Poser 4.

Of course you would probably want to use a much more interesting texture than the one I have used in my example! Poser textures can become very complex and detailed. With the abillity to exactly match an area from a texture to an area on a 3D model artists can accurately represent very fine detail such as creases in lips, scars, freckles and anything else you might need to show.

You can use this sort of texturing on not only every Poser character, but also all the clothing, hair, props and anything else you find in Poser. This precision mapping ensures that the 3D models look the way you want them too with a minimum of effort. You wont have to worry about aligning textures, rotating them or any of the other efforts involved in other mapping modes. Just choose a figure, choose a texture, then your done!

Step 2 - Choosing the Right Texture for the Job

OK, here comes the one and only really tricky part of the whole Poser texturing process. You must use the texture template that matches your figure or prop! Remember how I talked about how a texture is applied specifically to a figure so that if you paint the eyes green they show up as green on your model? Well, this is the key. Each figure has a UV texture map created especially for it and only it, and if you don't use the right map on the right figure you will get all kinds of strange results.

Lets take a look at the texture template maps for the P4 Nude Male and the P4 Nude Female that come with Poser 4.

These models have been 'unwrapped' so to speak, and applied as flat shapes to the texture templates. Each of the little squares or triangles matches up exactly to a polygon on the Poser character. But do you see how they look different? Look at how the head on the female map is on the right side and the head on the male map is more towards the left. What do you think would happen if you tried to use the female map on the male figure? Right! The colors on the face would not line up with the face of the 3D character.

Below-left, you see an image of the P4 Female texture template with some utility marks and colors applied. Below-right you see that map applied to the P4 Female model. All of the area's of the model are covered with texture, and the area's line up appropriately. The pink square with the 8 in it appears on the front of her head as we would expect, the yellow 2 on her stomach, and so on.

But in the next image I have applied the P4 Male Texture Map (below and to the left) to the same P4 Female Model (below and to the right). See how the map is not applied correctly? The yellow 2 is on the Male right hip but on the female model it appears on the stomach. The head textures show up in part on the right arm, and much of the body has no texture at all!

Actually, the area's on the model that appear to have no texture actually do, but it's just white color. That's because the white color from the area's in between the body outlines of the character (where the textures have been placed) are being applied. Look at the two maps below and notice how some of the body area's on one appear in the same location as plain background on the other. This is why it is very important to use a texture based on the character you are using at the time!

I can't stress this enough. Always make sure that you are using the right map for the right character. If you download or purchase new texture maps, be sure that you are getting the right one for the model you are using.

Step 3 - Unwrapping

You see an image of the P4 Female texture template with some utility marks and colors applied. Below-right you see that map applied to the P4 Female model. All of the area's of the model are covered with texture, and the area's line up appropriately. The pink square with the 8 in it appears on the front of her head as we would expect, the yellow 2 on her stomach, and so on.

Step 4 - Comparison

But in the next image I have applied the P4 Male Texture Map to the same P4 Female Model. See how the map is not applied correctly? The yellow 2 is on the Male right hip but on the female model it appears on the stomach. The head textures show up in part on the right arm, and much of the body has no texture at all!

Step 5 - Comparison 2

Actually, the area's on the model that appear to have no texture actually do, but it's just white color. That's because the white color from the area's in between the body outlines of the character (where the textures have been placed) are being applied. Look at the two maps and notice how some of the body area's on one appear in the same location as plain background on the other. This is why it is very important to use a texture based on the character you are using at the time!

Step 6 - Finding Textures

Now you understand what a texture is, why you would want to use one, and the nuts and bolts of how they work. But where do you find textures? Did any textures come with Poser?

The standard Poser characters each come set up and ready to use immediately. Most of them have one texture map and one texture 'template'. The idea is that you have a character, clothing and props ready to use without any extra work. But if you want to start changing the appearance of these things then you will need new textures. Poser does not ship with a selection of them for you to use.

There are three ways to get new textures. You can download free ones from the web, buy textures from an array of artists, or create your own. I'm going to talk about each one briefly.

Free Textures

Free textures are the best way for you to get your feet wet and start exploring. They cost you nothing other than your time, and the selection is really very large. You can find free textures at many locations. Some great starting points are listed in the Poser Arcana links section.

Purchasing Textures

While some of the free textures are really of outstanding quality, you will probably want to eventually get your hands on some really highly detailed or specialized textures. There are many artists who have created some amazing textures, and the prices are usually very reasonable. Often purchased textures will be of a higher resolution, which gives your characters much more detail.

These are some starting points for purchasing textures. (These links do not represent an endorsement, nor do I profit from your use of them.)

DAZ3D

RuntimeDNA

Renderosity

Creating Your Own Textures

When you just can't find what you need, or you simply want to try your hand at texturing, creating your own is the way to go. All you need is an image-editing program, and anything from MS Paint to Adobe Photoshop to Maxon's Body Paint 3D will do.

You will need to start with a texture template. All of the Poser figures and props that ship with Poser should have a texture template already made for you. These will either be located in your 'Textures' folder at the directory Poser4/Runtime/Textures/, or they will be located on your Poser 4 Content CD in the 'Texture Templates' directory.

A detailed explanation of creating your own textures is beyond the scope of this tutorial, but you can dip in and get your feet wet, then move on to more detailed references.

Step 7 - Common Texturing Questions

How do a figures colors affect textures?

Each poser character or prop will have two values that affect it's appearance. A base color and a texture. The texture is like a big sticker or painting that has been wrapped around the character. The base color is simply a solid color applied to the model.

A base color and the texture will be blended together to create the final appearance of the character or object. This can be both a problem and an opportunity. If you apply a realistic human texture map to a character that has a base color of blue, the blue will blend with the texture and create a very sickly and unrealistic look for your character. But this works in your advantage if used wisely, and you can get more mileage out of your textures. For example, apply a fair colored skin texture map to a character that has a dark base color and you get a whole new look! Vary the base color and intensity to create a wide range of ethnicities and styles from one texture map.

If you want your texture map to appear on your figure exactly, with no base color added, simply set all the material base colors to white.

There are many reasons why you might want to use a base color. Many of the Poser models have no texture applied by default, and instead have a color assigned for skin tones, eye color, etc.

Lighting can also have a big impact on the appearance of your textures. Any color applied to a light will be transferred to some degree to the objects that light illuminates, so be careful to use white lights when trying to gauge the natural appearance of a texture.

Why don't the P4 Textures work on Vicki?

All models that use UV Mapping have their own custom texture templates. This ensures that all the areas on the flat texture map line up correctly with the areas on the 3D model. It is possible to assign a map to a model other than the one it was designed for, but the results will always be unpredictable and unsatisfactory. The P4 female, P4 male, DAZ Victoria and DAZ Michael all have different texture maps!

Can I make my own texture templates?

Yes. This will require some new skills, but it is possible. There are many programs available to help you do this, and several tutorials to get you started. I recommend starting with my tutorial Creating Texture Maps in UV Mapper.

Can I make a new texture template for a character?

Yes and no. It is possible to do so but you will need a special program that supports that sort of thing. And creating a texture template for a character isn't like painting in a 2D program so you would also need to develop some new skills. Most of the characters, clothing and props you will be using have already been set up with very good texture maps and unless you have a special need you wont need to create a new one.

Will textures slow down my computer?

This really depends upon your computer system and what texture you are using. Loading a texture into Poser will increase the demands on the system, but if you have a fast processor and more than 128mb of ram you probably wont notice much of a slowdown. Be warned, most high-resolution textures will require at least 64mb of free ram just to load, and possibly more to render!

Can I use textures on more than just one figure?

Yes. As long as the texture is designed for the appropriate figure, you can use it as many times as you want to. For example, if you have a texture that works on the P4 Standard Female, you can use that same texture again on a different character that is based on that same P4 female. This applies to all Poser characters, including the P4 figures, Michael and Victoria.

What is a good program to use when creating textures?

There are many software tools available that are commonly used to create Poser textures, and what you choose comes down to a matter of preference more than anything. Of course, the more features available to you while painting textures the better.

I personally use Adobe Photoshop and Maxon BodyPaint 3D for creating textures. Other excellent choices could include Corel Painter, Corel Photo Paint, Deep Paint 3D, Paint Shop Pro and many others. In the end you may even use several programs to create different parts of the same texture.

Step 8 - Wrap Up

Texturing 3D characters really is an open door into a new world, and there is a lot to explore for both the new and experienced artist. With the basics you just learned you are prepared to make the most out of your texturing journey.

And don't forget that the same texturing principles apply to not only the Poser characters but also their hair, clothing and props! Each of these has a texture template especially designed for it.

Have fun!

Making UV Maps for Poser using UV Mapper by Christopher Orth

2011-11-01T17:42:45+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Making UV Maps for Poser using UV Mapper by Christopher Orth

Author: Anonymous

Tools Needed

UV Mapper for Macintosh or Windows

Support Files

Introduction

Christopher begins with a quick explanation of mapping modes and UV Mapping, then walks us through making a UV Map using UV Mapper.

This is Part One of a two part tutorial. Part Two covers using the results of this tutorial to paint texture and bump maps, and applying them in Poser.

Step 1 - What is a UV Map?

Everyone knows how dull a 3D scene would be if we went ahead and left all the objects in our scene the default gray color. A brick wall would look like a gray slab. A table would be a low detail collection of gray cubes. In fact, nothing would be very exciting or compelling at all without the rich detail that texture maps bring to our 3D worlds.

But most times, simply applying a texture to an object isn't enough. To achieve real believability in our objects we need to apply those textures in a way that will make sense to the viewer. While different 3D programs will have a variety of ways to apply textures, all of them follow a few basic mapping “modes” or “projections”.

Planar - Imagine a poster that you hang on the wall.— The poster is put up against your wall, which is a flat plane. The map sits on one side of the object only, and many times the texture map is the same size and shape as the object it is being applied to.

Cylindrical - This creates a map that looks flat when you work with it, but really represents the outside surface of the cylinder.— Think of a Roman column that had been “unwrapped” and laid flat.—

Spherical - A spherical map would look somewhat like an orange peel would look if you'removed it from the orange and pressed it flat on a table.

Box - This mapping mode is similar to Planar in that it applies an image directly to the side of an object, but in box mode the same image is applied to all six sides of the box. If you use a UV Map in box mode, you will be able to see all the “sides” of the object laid flat. You can then paint unique material on each side rather than applying the same texture to all sides.

Cylinder Cap - The same as cylindrical, but the top and bottom “caps” are treated separately to more accurately represent the shape.— Important if you needed to see texture on the top of a cylindrical object.— Where the Cylindrical map would work fine for a Roman Column, you would want to use a Cylinder Cap map for an oil drum, so you could more accurately paint rust, stains or other detail on the top.

You can determine the right map for any given object depending upon its shape and detail level.— Try to pick a mapping mode that most resembles the basic shape of the object you are applying the texture to, or you might get unexpected results. I encourage you to use the obelisk_simple.obj model to experiment with later.— For this tutorial we will be using a Box Map.—

Why use a UV Map?

A UV Map is a bit different than these other mapping methods described above, though it is still built upon them. In a non-UV Mapping situation you are simply taking an image and applying it to an object with no relation between the two. But a UV Map actually matches up specific parts of the image with specific parts of the object. This allows you to paint unique detail where it is needed with the confidence that it will appear correctly in your rendering. For instance, if you had a model of a wall with a door in it, its UV Map would clearly indicate what parts will be the door, the door jam and the wall, so you can paint each one a different color with confidence that everything will line up correctly in your 3D program.

“UV” actually refers to the coordinate system used to keep track of the mapping. Where 3D spaces use an X, Y, Z set of coordinates, the texture is two dimensional, needing only U and V coordinates.

If you have ever looked at any of the default texture maps for your Poser characters you have noticed that they look kind of like something you would find in a coloring book. Put some blue color on the shape that is the head and the character will then have a blue head. Paint the legs brown and you get brown pants. This is because those shapes on the texture map are matched up to those specific parts of the model. A regular texture map could not offer you that level of control.

Sounds Great! What's the Catch?

While UV Mapping is a great method to use, not all file formats support UV Maps. You cant use a UV Map on a DXF file, for example, without first converting it to an obj. This is why Poser, and some other programs, use OBJ as their default 3D geometry format.

Not long ago OBJ files were only available on high end 3D systems, but now many more programs have added support, including Lightwave, 3D Studio and Cararra. Poser uses OBJ files as its default format, which is why you have a UV Texture Map for all of the characters that come with Poser.

While Poser can import many file types, it will not automatically generate a UV Map for use with them. You need another program to do that. While you could use a program such as Body Paint 3D or Deep Paint 3D to make your UV Maps, these programs are very expensive. UV Mapper is just as competent at the job, and the price is much better. Free!

UV Mapper

UV Mapper is written by Steve Cox, and made available to the Macintosh community by Steve Martin. Information and downloads are available for Macintosh and Windows at::

UV Mapper

If you have not already done so, please take the time to download it now. You will need to have UV Mapper to complete the steps in the rest of this tutorial.

Step 2 - Making the UV Map

Because of the differences in the versions of UV Mapper, this part of the tutorial will split off into Macintosh and Windows sections. This was necessary to cover the differences in software without writing an unnecessarily confusing tutorial. The actions and results are exactly the same in each version.

First off, lets take a look at what our model really looks like so we will be familiar with its shape when generating a UV Map.— You see it here above displayed in gray, untextured.

Step 3 - Making the UV Map - Windows

(Screen shots and instructions will reflect vesion 0.24d)

Open your version of UV Mapper.— You should see a small window resembling the one above.

Now lets import the model we want to build an image map for.— From the FILE menu select “Load Model” and locate the “obelisk_simple.obj” file you downloaded for use with this tutorial, and click “Open”. You should see a Statistics window displaying some information about the model we just loaded. Clock “OK” to proceed.

You may notice a message telling you that this model has no UV texture coordinates.— This is because this model does not yet have a UV map, so there is nothing to display at this time.— Lets change that now.

From the “EDIT” menu, select “New UV Map”, and then “Box”. Click “OK” when the next dialog box appears.

Go to the “EDIT” menu and select “Settings”.—

“Output Bitmap Size” refers to the size of the UV map we will save to use later, For this example, we will be using 800 X 600. Enter these numbers in your dialog box, and then click “OK”.

You should see something that looks similar to this.

UV Mapper has taken each side of our Obelisk and laid them all out flat where we can work with them.— You will notice that some of the sides/shapes are overlapping each other.— We will need to rearrange them so we can paint on them later.

Step 4 - Making the UV Map - Macintosh

(Screen shots and instructions will reflect vesion 0.27a)

Open your version of UV Mapper.—You should see an empty window. Go to the “Map” menu and select “Preferences”.—

“Exported Map” or “Output Bitmap Size” refers to the size of the UV map we will save to use later, and “On Screen Map” refers to the size of the image map as it will display on our monitor as we work with it.— I would suggest setting these both to the same size to ensure that what you are working with as you set up the map is exactly what you will have when you are done.— If you have a smaller monitor but wish to create a larger image map for higher detail, set the Exported Map settings to the size you want the final to be, and the On Screen Map settings to a size that you can work with on your monitor.

For this example, I will be using 800 X 600 for all settings. Enter these numbers in your dialog box, and then click “OK”.—

Your UV Mapper window may not display the entire working space we just set up.— Drag the bottom right corner of the “Empty Model” window out until you can see the complete working space.

Now that we have created a clean slate to work from, lets import the model we want to build an image map for.— From the FILE menu select “Open” and locate the obelisk_simple.obj file you downloaded for use with this tutorial, and click “Open”.

You may notice that nothing has appeared or changed!— This is because this model does not yet have a UV map, so there is nothing to display at this time.— Lets change that now.—

From the MAP menu, select “Box”— Match your settings to those below.

Click “OK”.

You should see something that looks like this.

Step 5 - Arranging the Map

Note - The screen captures in this section reflect the Macintosh version of UV Mapper, but the contents of the windows is virtually identical. Windows users should have no difficulty following the steps.

Now that we have generated our UV Map, we need to move some of the shapes around so we have a better map to paint on later.— Each of the shapes you see represents a polygon from the model.— The obelisk_simple.obj is a very basic model with only one polygon per side for each shape.—

We want to move some of those shapes.— The first problem with the map as it is now is the base tops and bottoms.— Since they are stacked on top of each other we could not completely paint their surfaces.— We will be moving these apart to provide better access.— Its probably also a good idea to move the base sides away from the upright sides.— While they are touching, it will be harder to paint cleanly on them and we may end up with color showing up on the parts we don't want.

On our UV map you can clearly see the upright part, the edge of the base, and the top and bottom of the base.

Ready to get started?— Lets begin with those overlapping base parts.—

Locate two squares on the top of the map, one inside the other.— Using your mouse, left-click and drag a selection around the inside square, being careful not to select any of the outside square.— When you let go of the mouse button, you should see a selection box and a red dashed box around the inside square, indicating that you have it selected.— Click inside that selection again with the left mouse button, and hold and drag the square to the right.— Another method of moving a selected space is to use the arrow keys on your keyboard.— Use these when you want to make finer adjustments when moving polygons.

Now select the larger square you just moved the smaller one away from, by clicking and dragging again.— Move this square down to the lower right hand corner of your map.— Use the arrow keys to line it up more precisely with the other large box on the bottom

Experiment a bit here with moving the squares around now.— If you accidentally put a square on top of another shape, you can select only that square again by dragging a selection around a part of that square; the entire shape will be selected and you can move it safely away.— You can unselect an object by left-clicking once anywhere on the map outside of the current selection.

When you are done working with selections and moving, arrange your boxes so they match the ones in the image below.—

Hint - You can select and move more than one object at once!

Hint (for Windows users) - Be careful not to resize the selections by dragging the black boxes on the outermost selection box!

It is important to point out here that even though we have moved the shapes on our UV Map, the geometry of the model itself has not been changed.— We are only changing the way the UV Map is laid out for us to work with.— When we apply color to these shapes and render on the object, everything will still be in the right place.

Now that we have some free space up at the top, we can arrange the rest of the shapes to create more room in between them and allow us easier access to paint on them.

Drag a selection around all four uprights and their caps, but do not include the base shapes.— Move the selection up so it is about in the middle of the free space.

Now press the “ + ” key on your keyboard several times.— You should see the entire selection get larger!— You can also use the “ - ” key to shrink shapes.— We are going to make our selection larger so we have more room to paint on these shapes, and the detail will be better on the final render.— Go ahead and increase the size of these shapes until they take up almost the entire width of your map.— Then, while still selected, move them to the top.

Hint (for Windows users) - You can use the selection box to resize your selections, but I advise against doing it that way. Using the + and - keys instead will ensure that your selection scales uniformly, so that no distortion is introduced into the final renderings.

Since we have some free room left, lets go ahead and increase the size of the other shapes as well.— Lets start with the base side shapes directly below the uprights.— Increase them to the width of the map as well, and then move them up closer to the uprights.

Finally, select all the remaining shapes and adjust them to about the size and position shown below.

Step 6 - Saving the Map and Object

We're almost done with our UV Map!

Now that we have set up our UV Map to our liking we can save it and move on to painting it.— We will need to save a new version of the model as well.— Remember how a UV Map lines up exactly with specific area's on a model?— Well, that model has to store information inside it about how to make that work.— Since we have changed the map, we have also changed that reference information, which means we need to save a new version of the model to ensure it knows the changes we made.

First save the Map.

Macintosh - From the FILE menu, select “Export Texture Map”.
Windows - From the FILE menu, select “Save Texture Map”. Click “OK” on the dialog box.

Name the file “new_obelisk_map” and click “SAVE”. Macintosh files will be saved in “PICT” format and Windows files will be saved in “BMP” format.

Now save the Model.

From the FILE menu, select “Export Model”.—— Match the settings below for either Macintosh or Windows.

Notice that we have selected “Swap Coordinates Y and Z”. UV Mapper gives you several options for adjusting the coordinates of your model when you save it. I created the Obelisk model in Lightwave, and I happen to know that it will need its Y and Z coordinateds swapped before I use it in Poser. Otherwise all the textures we apply using our newly created texture map will appear backwards on the model! If you ever experience textures that look flipped or upside down, try the settings in this dialog that involve “flipping” the coordinates until you find the right setting. Its best to try one at a time so you can monitor the changes each setting makes.

Click “OK”.— Name the file “new_obelisk.obj” and click “OK”.

You can now safely quit UV Mapper.

Step 7 - Wrapup

Congradulations! You have now completed Part One of this tutorial, and know how to make a basic yet fully usable UV Map using UV Mapper.

While I used UV Mapper as my tool of choice, this tutorial did not cover it's more advanced features. I am sure you will now feel confident enough to explore the other features of UV Mapper. If you are a more casual user and go no further with UV Mapper than this tutorial, you will still be able to make a UV Map for almost all of the models you will find or buy.

Making the Map is just the first step! In Part Two of this tutorial we will use the UV Map we just created to paint Texture and Bump maps like the ones used in the images shown here, and then apply them in Poser to the obelisk object we have been working with. I will include some tricks for creating rock textures and etching runes and edges using bump maps.

Look for Part Two in early March, right here at Poser Arcana!

Thanks for your time, and my best to you! Please feel free to Contact Me, Christopher Orth - with your comments, questions and suggestions, and by all means to share your art!

Mastering Bump Maps for Poser and Bryce

2011-11-01T17:42:45+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Mastering Bump Maps for Poser and Bryce

Author: Anonymous

Tools Needed

Poser

Bryce

Corel PhotoPaint 9 (or comparable image editor)

UV Mapper

Introduction

It is important to understand and appreciate just what bump maps are capable of, and how they can be used to enhance your Poser- and Bryce-created artwork. In this tutorial you will be creating a bump map for the nude Poser Male to make it look like he is wearing a tight-fitting body suit, building in some wrinkles and surface details with the bump map.

I often feel that bump maps are the most underutilized tool in the 3D artist's arsenal, and this tutorial hopefully will give you a bit more insight into how to create and work with them and to get them working for you!

Step 1: What is a Bump Map?

Bump Maps, in simple terms, are bitmaps that utilize depth values that, when applied to a 3D object, simulate the appearance of a rough surface. Depth values are created using a gray scale where the lighter tones (more towards white) are used to simulate raised details and darker tones (more towards black) to simulate the impressed details.

Here's how bump maps work:

Here a bitmap with a grayscale gradient applied to a flat surface. From the top it would look like this.

But if rotated in three dimensions and the grayscale values used as a bump map, the following result will be created. With the technical stuff behind us it is now time to get into the nitty-gritty of creating a bump map.

Imagine for a moment that the grayscale of the bump map represents a cross-section of a mountain. All the darker values belong in the valley and the lighter values on the peak of that mountain. The tones in the middle would be halfway up (or down) the mountain, on the slopes.

The grayscale is a scale of grays from pure white to pure black. They are represented by 256 tonal values, or 0 to 255. Pure White is 255 Red, 255 Green and 255 Blue. Pure Black is 0 Red, 0 Green and 0 Blue. The mid-gray (or 50% gray) is 127 Red, 127 Green and 127 Blue. (Note that I don't use 128 as a value because if 0 is the starting value and 255 is the end value then 127 is in fact the middle, but a single digit doesn't make that much of a difference. Grays are created with EQUAL values of the Red, Green and Blue components)

I treat mid-grays as the “plains” of the bump map, laying a mid-gray tone down for the bump map and working in the “valleys” and the “mountain peaks” on either side of that middle ground.

Step 2: Making a UV Map

In this tutorial you will be creating a bump map for the nude Poser Male. You will try to make it look like he is wearing a tight-fitting body suit, but will build in some wrinkles and surface details with the bump map.

Firstly you need a basic texture map or template to work with. Use Steve Cox's UV Mapper to do this. But first start up Poser and load the desired figure you want. Leave the figure in the default pose. (we just want to extract the UV Map from it)

Export it as a WaveFront OBJ file.
Ensure the Export settings are left as such.
Now start up UV Mapper and before loading the WaveFront OBJ file use the Settings and ensure that the output map is 1024 X 1024 pixels - it is easier to work with.
Because this was a default Poser figure, there will be an embedded UV Map with it and UV Mapper will detect it and display it correctly. The results should look like this.

Now save the texture map.

Step 3: Setting Up a Bump Map

Now it is time to fire up your paint program. I mainly use Corel PhotoPaint 8 and 9, but I am sure that Adobe Photoshop will work just as well with this method, but may need some adaptation.

Load the exported UV Map.
Convert it from a 16-colour bitmap to a 24-bit bitmap. (Mode…RGB (24-bit) bitmap). (UV Mapper saves its files as 16-colour picture).

Before we go any further you will have to draw in some important reference points. Because the UV map consists of 2 halves, a front and a back, the bump map texture must be created so that the seams will meet up. (I found these templates by “SnowSultan” to be very useful.)

Male Seam Template

Female Seam Template

Mark important points like the edge of where you want a collar to be or where the hip joints are. A 2-pixel brush with a bright color such as red can be used to create the lines.

(Draw outside the template extents and one or two pixels into the map area to create a visible line on the rendering.)

This is very much a touch-and-go process. Often to test whether or not the textures line up, I keep Poser running in the background. (You will need a fairly fast PC with enough RAM to do this successfully - I currently have 256Mb but this process works with 64Mb)
In Poser, Load the figure, go to Materials.
Load the UV Map that you have just been working with. (Here's an important tip: Load it as a texture and NOT as a Bump Map for now as you just want to see if the halves line up correctly. If you load it as a bump map, Poser will create a .BUM file and that file will be used. If you then change the original bump map file in Corel PhotoPaint it will not be updated in Poser, and furthermore if you delete the BUM file Poser will not be able to load the original Poser file, and in some cases will crash the program!)

Now render the file and with a bit of tweaking here and there, and a whole lot of luck, you should be able to see the seams line up when rendering in Poser.

Now with the important points lined up and “mapped” correctly it is time to draw in the basic lines that you want to have on the bump map such as collars, beading, panels, pockets, seams etc. (the wrinkles will come later.) If you load the bump map as a texture and not a bump map in Poser, updating will work better when you're-render the picture. Poser will take the updated Bitmap and render the figure with the changes.

I find using a single pixel line tool with a bright color is the best way to map out the main lines I need.

Once the main lines are sketched in, the work on the bump map can start in earnest, but these are a few tricks that I have learned that will make you work much easier.

Step 4: Making Selections

It is always easier to have the UV map as reference when painting the bump map. This is difficult to do without destroying it when you paint over it. It is best to first create a separate layer with the UV map and then paint onto the underlying image, always keeping the UV map intact.

Here's how to do it: (Remember this is Corel PhotoPaint specific but this method can be adapted for Adobe Photoshop users as layers are supported in Photoshop.)

Use the Magic Wand mask tool - with a tolerance of 0 and anti-aliasing off - and click on the white background color.

All the area within the templates will be masked. (I use the Mask Overlay tool to show the masked area in the default pink tone.)

Use the Color Mask (Mask…Color Mask) tool to add the white areas between the UV grids to the existing mask. With the Color Mask requester open, select the Eyedropper Pick tool and click on one of the white areas between the black lines of the template. Then ensure the Smooth setting is 0. Select OK to add to the mask.

The final effect should look something like this….

Then with everything except the black and red lines masked, reverse the mask using the Invert Mask Tool .An an object consisting of the black and red grid lines will be masked.
Finally use the Copy menu item (Ctrl+C) and a Paste as New Object menu item (Ctrl+V) to add the grid as an object on top of the background. Open up the Object docker to see if your Copy…Paste operation worked.

Here is what you have done if it was possible to see it in 3-D.

Open the Object Docker (on the right margin of the Corel PhotoPaint window) and ensure that the “Background” item is highlighted (in red) and not the grid Object itself, otherwise any painting that you do will be done on the grid object and NOT on the background as you want.

The basic groundwork for all your work is now laid. I would suggest that you Save this file, just in case you want to return to it.

Step 5: Painting on the Map

Now comes the interesting part.

Select the “Grid” object (the object with the UV Map lines) and change the Opacity value to around 33%.

I find this Opacity percentage will allow you to see where the bump details must be added and yet not obscure too much detail. You can always hide the grid object temporarily by clicking on the small “eye” icon in the Object Docker.

With the Background highlighted in the Objects Docker choose a large brush and choose a 50% gray as the main color.

This will be the foundation for the bump map. Remember that a mid-gray is the middle ground for the bump mapping. Lighter tones will be rendered as high spots on the model and darker tones will render as the deeper folds and hollows. Cover all the areas within the UV template. You can go over the lines a bit. Anything outside the lines will not be included in the bump map. Be careful however not to cover too much as you could lose your reference points.

With this done, you are ready to begin creating the bump details. Firstly details such as ribbing and textile patterns can be worked in. This must be done before the folds. This is pretty much a logical thing to do because folds can be found inside the patterns on the textiles of clothes.

Step 6: Painting on the Map cont

In this part of the tutorial you will be applying a strip of ribbing running down the sides of the suits and on the shoulders and arms.

Work out how the ribbing should look, and create a basic pattern using white lines and curves on a mid-grey background. Don't worry if it doesn't turn out right at first. Here's how the basic pattern should look and how it renders if you apply it to a flat square surface as a bump map.

With the ribbing detail finished you can now cut out and scale the basic pattern, and apply it to the UV map in the sections were you want it.

Here's how to do it…

It is best to draw the pattern in a New window (Ctrl+N) or on the original UV Map where there is a little bit of doodling space.
Use the Rectangle Mask Tool to mask out a block containing the basic pattern.

Copy (Ctrl+C) this masked area to the Clipboard and use the Paste… As New Object. (Ctrl+V) to paste the object repeatedly into the areas of the UV Map.
As you add objects, you will notice the object appear in the Object Docker, (if it is maximized) at the right edge of your Corel PhotoPaint 9 window. If the pattern sections that you paste start to appear above the reference grid that you set up in the previous section, then you will have to “reorder” the objects to put the “grid” object at the top of the list.
If the grid object is lying at the bottom of the list, click on it and drag it to the top of the list to make it sit in front of the other objects. You can see the results of reordering below.

Of course, another way of doing this is to select the grid object in the image itself and use the Ctrl+Page Up and Shift-Page-Up key combination to move the object through different layers. (Don't forget to click again on the background layer to continue to edit it afterwards.)

Once you have pasted all the objects and positioned them (using the arrow keys) you are now ready to “merge” them with the background. Again save the file at crucial points as it is a real hassle starting from scratch all the time should you make a mistake.
Use your mouse to highlight all the small pattern objects by drawing a marquee around them. (Make sure the “arrow” or Select Tool is selected to do this.)

Another way is to use the Shift or Ctrl key when selecting all the objects in the Object Docker. DON'T highlight the grid object you don't want to merge that. (Use the Ctrl Key to remove it from the selection as shown above) It is just a reference for now.

Now with all the pattern pieces highlighted press Ctrl and the Down Arrow on your keyboard's cursor pad to merge the objects into the background. (The same command is found in the Objects menu) Corel 8 users would use the small red icon in the Object Docker window to merge the objects with the background, or select the Objects - Combine - Combine object(s) with Background menu item.

I am sure you are dead keen to see how it is turning out, aren't you?

The best way to satisfy your curiosity is to now Import your new bump map into Poser, but you have some work to do first.

Save the file as it is in Corel PhotoPaint native CPT format to maintain all the layers. Once saved, right-click on the “Grid object” on the Object Docker. Choose Delete Selected Object from the popup menu that appears The grid will disappear and you will be left with the following result:
Now save the file as an ordinary Windows BMP file, go to Poser (you might still have Poser running) and import the picture as a texture map. Leave the bump map in Poser alone for now. You just want to see how the texture is looking.

Note: If you'really want to see the bump map in action in Poser then you will need to load it as a bump map. Allow Poser to create a BUM file and set your bump height to 100% in the texture settings. (Poser and Bryce differ tremendously in their scaling of bump maps. Poser rarely shows bump details below 75%, whereas any bump map set more than 15-20% in Bryce's Materials Editor will render the bump with extreme vertical distortion which is not very desirable!)

Is your hard work starting to look something like this?

Return to Corel PhotoPaint and Load your picture that was saved as a Corel PhotoPaint CPT file with all the layers and objects in place. You can continue to add details like seams and surface detail to the bump map. Always use a brush with the anti-aliasing on or with a soft edge. If you draw a hard line with visible “jaggies” or pixilation, the detail will look blocky and unnatural. Remember clothing in general is soft and pliant.

Step 7: Making Folds

Now comes the really challenging part - the folds!

I cannot overemphasize the need for good reference work. Search magazines and books for photographs of folds in clothing. One thing that I have learned is that folds that are not carefully (and correctly) done, look stuck on and unnatural. Try standing in front of a mirror and bend your arms, legs and torso observing how the cloth folds over certain areas and stretches smooth over other areas.

You will need a 2 or 3-pixel airbrush for this part. Go to the Brush Options and choose the “Small Stream” preset.
Now with the preset selected you can now tweak it into a “fold-creating” brush. Folds usually taper off and almost never end abruptly. Your brush settings too must fade out to the mid-gray foundation layer. Set your airbrush to fade by clicking on the Brush Settings Docker and use the settings shown at the beginning of this tutorial.
I would suggest saving this preset so you can use it later. Save it as Airbrush Medium Fade or something like that. Select the Brush Options tool and choose the Save brush pop-up menu option. (If this tool does not appear on your Corel PhotoPaint, you may have to install it using the Tools… Customize menu item - You can also access these commands by clicking the flyout arrow in Artistic Media Docker window.
Now choose pure white from the palette and start laying down the “peaks” of the folds. Don't overdo it. Remember the “valleys” will come afterwards. Use your reference to construct a realistic “network of folds. A good thing to keep in mind is the pose that you want to put your Poser figure into. Limbs with extreme bends will have more and deeper folds than normal, and straight limbs need not have too many folds. The fold lines are like a spider web connecting points of attachment.
Once you feel you have laid a good foundation of lines, switch to a black shade for your brush. Lay down lines between the white lines. Do not worry about them lining up exactly. The next step will fix that.

The bump map should now begin to look something like this.

At this stage, you might try using the Pointed Smear tool to spread the folds into more natural shapes. The tool can be found by clicking on the Effects flyout and selecting the Smear tool.
The default Pointed Smear is a large 20 pixel brush. Bring it down to 2 or 3 pixels for the fine work. You can work into the ribbing and seam detail that you created previously, but don't destroy too much of the detail.

The Smear has a very subtle effect but stops blobby folds!

Step 8: Smoothing Folds

Now you perhaps want to keep the ribbing detail but want to smooth your folds somewhat.

Without smoothing the folds will tend to look blocky and unnatural, especially if you use them in Bryce, but with smoothing the improvement can be quite dramatic.

In order to do this, the ribbing detail needs to be masked out before you can soften the folds. Use the Freehand Brush Mask with the anti-aliasing switched on to create a soft edged mask. Brush in the areas you want to mask. I find the following settings to be the best.
You can Add and Subtract from the mask by pressing and holding in the Ctrl and Shift keys while you use the Freehand Brush Mask.

Always select the Additive or Subtractive mode setting because if you select the Normal mode it will wipe out all your previous strokes with every new stroke that you lay down. Keep the Mask Overlay button switched on to see where your mask is. It is a lot more accurate than the normal “marching ants” mask.

There we are! Almost finished! Is your mask starting to look like the first image in this step (above)?

Now the final step is to invert the Mask so that the ribbing is now covered by the pink Mask Overlay color. Don't forget to save your image!

In order to get the slopes between the peaks and the valleys of the folds smooth a slight Gaussian Blur is needed.

Go to the Effects…Blur…Gaussian Blur menu item and change the Blur Amount to 1 or 2 pixels. Select OK and check the results. It might be wise to go to the Objects Docker and switch the Grid object off and set the view magnification to 100%, before applying the Gaussian Blur to check the results.

You can always undo (Ctrl+Z) the Gaussian Blur if you cannot get the effect you want. (Note that the area that is masked is protected from the effects of the Gaussian Blur.)

(Tip: You can remove the mask and move in with your Pointed Smear tool to clean up any odd defects in the bump map.)

Save the file and then remove the grid object and save the file again as a Windows BMP file.

Now load it into Poser (or Bryce) again to see how it looks.

Add the bump map as another texture channel in Bryce and give it a 15% “strength” setting

Finally the Poser figure comes to life and his clothing, albeit a bodysuit, takes on the appearance of real clothing and not “painted on”.

A high amount of detail is possible as you can see when you zoom into the face.

Step 9: Wrap Up

If you feel really adventurous you can experiment with the facial area and the hands as I have done with this picture. This can be a real challenge, but with carefully created wrinkle lines you can give your character real life. (Try masking off the beard area and try a faint spray paint of a slightly lighter tone than the skin mid-gray to create some stubble. Eyebrows and eye lashes can also be rendered. I find that a single pixel airbrush on a black foundation can give the impression of the hair of the eyebrows.)

Hair is another area that can be bump mapped. It is rarely suitable for full bodied flowing hair, but ideal for close-cropped or short hair. Again reference will show you how hair flows from the crown. Experiment with everything. Try different brushes and blurring. Increase the detail by boosting the contrast or the gamma on a bump map.

With a lot of practice and experimentation you will be able to get some really spectacular results.

This tutorial has not covered how you work with UV maps in Bryce nor working with Bryce's Materials Editor. I don't intend to repeat the efforts of those experts. There are already some fine tutorials available if you want to learn more.

I have come to my final point, and that is that this tutorial is not carved in stone. I am sure there are mistakes, and places where improvements can be made. Let me know, and I will certainly try to improve it.

Happy Bumpin'!

Low Resolution Texture Tutorial

2011-11-01T17:42:45+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Low Resolution Texture Tutorial

Author: Gary_P

Tools Needed

DAZ Studio or Poser
Photoshop or The Gimp

Introduction

Ever want to put more than a handful of characters in your scene and Poser or DAZ Studio runs out of memory? It's not the number of characters you are using. It's the size of the textures that your characters are using. First of all, I would like to thank my friends in the DAZ forums for helping to make this tutorial possible by helping me learn this trick. In this tutorial, I am going to show you how to create computer friendly low resolution character textures so your computer has some breathing room. To do this, we'll be resizing the graphic files and editing the Poser .pz2 files to apply the new textures. This is much easier than it sounds, so let's get to work.

Step 1 - All about folders

I am going to be using the Griffin character by StephanieBT for this tutorial, but you may use any character of your liking.

First, let's take a look at what makes up a character.

If you open up your Windows or MAC file explorer and look in your Poser's Runtime folder, you will find a few folders:

Open the libraries folder and the Pose folders and you'll find your character's files, which are the pose files that convert the model into the character. I have omitted some of the other folders from this screen shot to show only the folders we will be using.

These are all the files that go into creating a character.

You will also see a textures folder that goes with the pose file. How do you know what textures go with what character?

I'll show you in a little while how to find them.

Under the characters name folder, there are 3 file types depending on what version of Poser you have.

Files of type .rsr, are special Poser files that contain the thumbnail image of the pose for the character.

Files of type PNG, are graphic files used by newer versions of Poser like 5 and 6. DAZ Studio also uses these files as a thumbnail image of the pose for the character.

And Files of type .pz2, which contain the “code”, or instructions for building the character.

It's this file that runs when you click on the thumbnail in the contents folder to apply the morph and texture for the character.

If you do not see any PNG files or you are using DAZ Studio, then you will have to either open the folder in Poser Pro Pack, Poser 5, or Poser 6, to let Poser create the PNG files, or use a free program called P3DO Explorer to convert the files for you.

It seems that Poser Pro Pack, Poser 5, and Poser 6 will read PNG files, but Poser 4 will not. Poser 4 requires files of type .rsr to use for thumbnails, which can only be created by saving something to a library within Poser.

What we need to find out first is where the textures for our character are stored. A quick peek into the .pz2 file will give us that information.

We are not concerned with the INJ or REM files, but with the ones that apply the textures like: !Griffin MAT Hairy.pz2. These are the ones that will give us the information we will need.

Step 2 - Editing the .pz2 files

First let's open the .pz2 file with a text editor. I'm using the free program called EditPad Lite by JGSoft, but you can use any text editor that will not corrupt the files, i.e. Windows Notepad.

Open the file and scroll down a bit until you come to a section that looks like this:

See the highlighted line?

It means the Texture Map will be found in the Griffin folder, under the StephanieBT folder, under the Textures folder, under the Runtime folder, and the filename is griffin_body2JPG… HUH?

Relax. This means on a PC, the folder would be here: Runtime\textures\StephanieBT\Griffin\griffin_body2JPG

Ah, we have found where our textures are!

Navigate to that folder and you will see a lot of files, but which ones do we change?

I changed any head and body textures. If says beard, you can bet it is part of a head texture. The easiest way to tell is to look in the .pz2 file and see what it uses to make the character.

Griffin uses these textures:

griffin_headJPG

griffin_bodyJPG

griffin_body2JPG

griffin_beard1JPG

griffin_beard2JPG

griffin_teethgumsJPG

Don't worry about the transparency maps. They are always small.

If your file contains any bump maps, then you will have to resize these too, or just delete them from the .pz2 file like I did. If you are making low resolution figures to save space, chances are that you are using them either for comics or crowds, and you don't need the bump maps anyway.

Important: If you delete the bump map line from the .pz2 file, then make sure you delete the two “0 0” on the next line too.

You could also replace it with this line:

bumpMap NO_MAP

Here is a sample file from the free V3 Gabriella from Hahtor, showing you what I mean.

Go through the .pz2 file and change all of the Texture Map lines and append an LR to the end of the filename as shown. You may use any letters or numbers, but I used LR for Low Resolution.

The trick here is to change the filename so we are not destroying the original files.

You may use the Find and Replace in your text editor, but I found it faster to just read down the file manually.

Rename all of the lines of the graphic files that you are going to change.

After that is done, make sure to save your .pz2 file with a different filename, and take note as to what you'renamed your graphic files to be, so you may refer to it later.

I saved my .pz2 file as !Griffin MAT Hairy-LR.pz2.

Step 3 - Editing the thumbnail files

Next we need to change the graphic files but before we do, let's create some new thumbnails to go with our new .pz2 files.

This step is not necessary, but I hate seeing that little missing thumbnail picture.

Open each of the thumbnails (PNG files) with the same name as the .pz2 files that you have changed, and using your favorite graphics program and change them. Change the picture to show that by clicking on it, it will load our special reduced resolution texture.

I added the text “LowRes” to mine like this so I know this is different:

Make sure that you save the PNG file with the SAME NAME as your new .pz2 file, or Poser or DAZ Studio will not be able to find it.

Step 4 - Editing the texture files

Now it's time to change the actual texture files.

We are almost finished!

Using your favorite graphics program, open each one of the texture files in Runtime\textures\StephanieBT\Griffin\ or where ever your character's texture files are stored.

I used IrFanView, but you can use Gimp or Photoshop.

Choose Image / Resize Resample and you'll find out that Griffin's body texture is a massive 3000 x 4000 pixels.

Wow! We don't need it that big.

Here is where your eyes come into play. I sized my files one third or one quarter of the size of the original. You may like them bigger or smaller.

I changed mine to 750 x 1000 (Sorry StephanieBT).

Save the changed texture file to a different name then the original. Save it to the same name as you used when you changed the .pz2 file.

You could have done this step first, but either way, they have to match.

Step 5 - Finished

Now we have everything in place to create a character with a computer friendly texture.

Here is what our finished thumbnails look like in DAZ Studio:

Here is what our finished thumbnails look like in Poser 5:

I hope this tutorial was useful to you and as usual, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Happy rendering!

Textures & Maps

2011-11-01T17:42:45+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Textures & Maps

DAZ 3D encourages you to upload your tutorials here to the ArtZone Wiki so that they have a permanent home and are hosted on our servers. If you do upload your tutorials, please add them to the appropriate software category and create sub-pages/categories as needed. If, for some reason, you do not want to host your tutorials here, please add links to external tutorials in the appropriate categories as well.