Blender Texturing

Hello guys,

I started using blender for modeling my medieval weapons but i am not really experienced with texturing them. Are there like a place where i can find good tutorials for making textures and such? I have attached 2 models i created in blender.





I hope you guys can help me out!

Kind regards,

Alex Heijnen

 

http://bit.ly/RXVhip

http://cgcookie.com/blender/2011/01/21/intro_uvmapping/

 

Thanks for the quick reply. I have looked at the video and it starts to get clear to me. Thanks!

 

Might want to watch some modeling tutorials too, specifically on topology. Your models are kind of meh, they could be better. One tip for you: always avoid creating cylinders and spheres. What you should do instead is create a cube, add some edge loops, and make it a sphere that way.

By the way I made a battle axe quite like the one you made a while ago.



Anyway good luck and keep learning!

 

Thanks for the tip. Ill certainly try it out. Yeah i know my models arent the best but these are the first i actually made without following any tutorials or something and besides that i am new to Blender so i am still learning alot. I made these 2 after like following a 5minute tutorial about how blender works so in my opinion they arent that bad if you know i have only followed a 5minute tutorial. How did you make that texture and added it? Were they separated or already joined up into 1 object?

Kind regards

Alex Heijnen

 

The guy said he was new to it, I don't think you can really criticise him yet- he's just getting started.

Like Khelton said, to texture it like create3Dgames has, you'll need to look into UV mapping. Once you get your head around that, it will be very obvious how to texture the axe like in the picture above.

There's nothing wrong with using cylinders or spheres..? Sure, spheres are harder to unwrap, so I'd avoid them for the time being (until you know more about UV mapping), but cylinders can and should be used where appropriate. I don't know why you'd say it's better to have a cube and add edge loops in when you can't be certain you'll end up with a perfectly circular shape, and you'd end up with the same topology in the end. (You might have a triangle fan at the caps but you could swap that for a quad only surface).

I would say it's very bad advice to say outright "One tip, always avoid cylinders or spheres" - they're both very important primitives and should be used where appropriate.
Sorry if that sounded rant-ish, but it seems odd to use a cube to produce a quad only cylinder when everything in a game engine gets converted to tris anyway, so if you're trying to avoid them in the caps, it makes no real difference. With a quad cap you could potentially end up with more triangles than a fanned cap.

At the end of the day, adding edge loops to a cube and smoothing them out will produce a less accurate version of a cylinder. I'm sorry I keep repeating that but I'm having a hard time understanding why you'd suggest he do such a thing; nothing really jumps out as a plus for your method.


Anyway, back on track; faltaint, when you start making some more complex models, look into baking 'Ambient Occlusion' maps (AO) they add shadows in cavities and help make your model really pop Happy blending.

 

Thanks for replying!

Yeah i tried doing it with cubes but it just started looking weird 0_o. So i went back to using the cylinder and circle again.

the first model i made was that sword and i did that one through a tutorial so yeah it looks weird around the hilt but still i am progressing slowely and that axe was the 2nd model i made without following a tutorial and i know its really basic but i find it a nice axe for someone that has like 0 experience with blender. I somehow cant get the cylinder to unwrap correctly like how it should look on the picture and to be honest i dont know what i am doing wrong. What is like better to do. like keep the parts separated and add the textures or join them up and then add the texture?

Kind regards,

Alex Heijnen

 

I tried adding this rusty metal texture onto my axe and it got all weird and i dont know what i have done wrong.

A picture of the texture applied to it:



Any tips on how i can fix this or how i should apply it correctly?


Kind regards,

Alex Heijnen

 

Hey guys,

After trying a couple of new things on a new Battleaxe i finally got the textures about right. What do you guys think?

 

I think the problem you had at first was an error in scale. It looks like your texture doesn't tile, and because of a weird UV map or something, it's being squashed along the y axis. Projecting the UVs from the top onto the texture would work perfectly well, I think. (By top I mean the view that the screenshot is taken in, where you can see the largest surface of the axe head).

Your second image looks like good progress! Though, it looks like the axe head is made of stone. If you were going for that, good job, if you were going for metal, then you should be aware that metals have very little variation in colour on their surface (not much texture) unless there's surface rust. You should try and perfect your UV mapping skills and then start learning about 'Specularity maps' (often called Spec maps for short). Also are the dark parts shadows, or in the texture? If it's in the texture, you'll want to find a different one (you don't want *any* lighting information in your diffuse).

Also, regarding the axe handle, usually the grain of the wood will run along the length of the pole for strength, rather than cutting across it (it would make it much weaker). Little details like that help to make the asset seem more believable. Think about how your model would be made in real life, and what purpose each component serves. Here's what I mean by the direction of the grain:




Other than that, good job! Keep up the good work.

 

Thanks for answering!

Yeah i had a error there and i was able to fix it by using a different type of uv unwrap. Yeah i fixed that. I accidently made it smooth haha. It looks alot better now. Here is the next result:

What do you think?

 

You have successfully mapped two plain textures onto the mesh. Gratulations. This is usually where the texturing work starts. You are close to finish when your version looks like the one in the image above, the one with the direction of wood grain at it

First thing, as already mentioned by tweedie, the wood grain direction is wrong. Then the cutting edge is usually polished. Then there are some worn edges areas. And some other irregularities. I would even go and make a sculpt here to bring the irregularities into a normal map when you can see the weapon this close. The blade texture is simply too regular at the moment. Have a look at the reference image above.

A last finishing touch could be to bake GI and AO into the texture. The effect shouldn't be this dramatic here though.

At the modeling end it looks like the axe breaks after the first push. There is no real socket for the blade. Also here, have a look at the version above. Or do a google search for medieval weapons. Reference material is important.

 

Pretty much everything Tiles has said will improve your texture

To demonstrate what we mean, I did a really quick paint over to show you how you could improve the quality of the texture.



(If you can't see an image, here's a link to it: http://puu.sh/93LNf.gif)

Just by changing the direction of the wood grain, and adding some polish to the blades, you could make the axe feel much more believable. You can use Blender's texture painting mode to add these polished strips.

You should go a lot further than this for a final texture (like Tiles said, add some more worn edges and general wear and tear) but just these improvements should make a big difference

 

Thanks for the replies! Yeah i know it isnt finished yet and the wood grain will have its texture changed aswell to the right way. I will wait with painting the blades untill my drawing touchpad arrives. Then i can draw more precise and careful. How am i supposed to make the worn edges areas? What picture do you mean Tiles? What does bake GI and AO do ? Yeah the blade is still a work in progress and i was planning on adding something like a socket next for the blade. I am slowely but surely making it more realistic and building to the final result. In the mean time i am learning alot from making this axe.

 

Waiting for your tablet is a good idea, it's horrible to paint textures with a mouse. To add worn edges you just paint in a lighter area on the metal, with some scratches etc - places you'd expect it to get worn down a lot (not everywhere). GI means global illumination and AO means Ambient occlusion. AO is what you'll want to concentrate on first, but as Tiles said you won't see a big impact on this axe. AO basically darkens areas of a model where there's a crevice, or two faces that are close to each other - adding shadow in the places light wouldn't reach as much. It helps to add form and depth to the model, allowing you to make out the bulging areas and recessed areas more easily. But because axes don't have much in terms of recessed areas, or any faces close together, you'd only see the AO where the blade and handle meet/intersect. But on most models it makes a huge amount of difference.

 

It should be here in a couple of days. Okay so lets say the tips of it would be worn out since when you hit something that will take the blow right? Okay well yeah this one is a learning project so yeah everything i am doing here is learning new skills on how to use blender.

 

Edges would be worn down because you intentionally wear them down when sharpening the blade. Otherwise it's a hammer.

 

Don't expect to learn everything in a few days. It takes a pretty while to become a master at texturing. It took me years, and i would still not call me a master really. You are at a good way already. So don't worry too much. The next axe will be better

Mh, another issue that i forgot to mention is dirt. The wood may look a bit more polished / dirty where you hold it. And the blade may have some old blood at it. Dirt also usually adds in corners.

 

Okay my tablet arrived a couple days earlier then i expected but how am supposed to make all these things in blender? So far i know i can only add the textures itself. I know i wont learn it in a few days haha. Then everyone could do it haha

 

If you have your UVs unwrapped, you can do this. Blender's texture paint mode supports the use of tablets. You'll want to eventually pick up GIMP/Photoshop though and use that for texturing. Blender's texture paint mode is really quite good though, it allows texture brushes, stencils, bump/spec map painting etc, but no layers. Also, don't take this the wrong way, but please do try and use Google a bit more, there's an abundance of documentation, tutorials etc on Blender's texturing capabilities, and also on how to texture models in general. Anyway, with that said, here are the basic steps to painting textures in Blender.

To paint on the texture you already have, don't add in a new one- just make sure it appears when you select all your UVs in the UV image editor. This means it's the active image, so you can use it in texture paint mode.

 

I have tried out a couple of things and added some more on my battleaxe.

Here it is:


I added a more realistic blade on the battleaxe and tried adding some leather straps on the handle as on where you will hold it. i am not certain if its realisticaly placed but i have tried to make it look a bit realistic.

I tried painting on it but it somehow just isnt updating on the texture itself except on certain parts of it. Cant really find the thing what i am doing wrong.

 

This is most likely because of the way your vertices line up. Try giving me a snapshot of your UV image editor screen, so i can help you. I could also help texture it if you like, I have used blender for a long time.

 

Do you mean this?



If you cant see the image. here is a link to where you can see it.

http://s1093.photobucket.com/user/prestoterror/media/Uveditor_zps250aab00.png.html

 

Yep, I thought it sounded like what FuzzyQuills said, and he was right!

Your UVs are overlapping all over the place. This means that if you paint on one part of the image, it will also show up on whatever parts have UVs under it. For example, if you were to paint where that selected vertex is (the orange point), it would appear on the axe blade (as its UV island is under that point) but also on another part (looks like the handle) because that island is also under it.

A quick way of fixing this would be to select all your UVs, and then go to UVs> Pack Islands. OR simply press 'Ctrl+P'. This will arrange your islands so they don't overlap. It will be good for you to use for now, but in the future you will want to manually do it to maximise your use of the texture space (letting blender pack it often leaves big gaps, which means you're wasting precious memory on a poorly laid out texture).

It does look like you should watch some more videos on UV unwrapping though, because it's important to know how you should lay your UV islands out, and what makes a bad island (i.e. one where the texture is warped on it).


If that UV screenshot isn't just for the axe blades, but also includes the wooden handle, are you using multiple materials, or applying the texture with a mapping setting of (something like) 'Generated'? Because you couldn't apply a wood texture, and a metal texture with that same UV layout, as things are overlapping.

 

So it should be like this?



Yeah i should probably look at some more vids about unwrapping but last couple of days i have been sick in bed so couldnt really do that.

The UV screenshot i showed u guys was just for the axe blades.

Sorry for the late reply

 

Yes, that's a hundred times better. It looks like nothing is overlapping now, which will mean you should encounter less problems while painting.

Ok, in future you may want to put the handle in the same UV map, but this is absolutely fine for a beginner. Proper UV mapping/unwrapping can take a while to get your head around.

And no worries, we all get sick at some point!

 

Well now i tried painting it again but now it all seems to be upside down. when i look from above and paint it, then it will paint the bottomside of the blade which makes it really annoying to paint. I know i am most likely doing something wrong but idk what.

 

Possibly your normals are inverted. Try selecting all faces and choosing recalculate normals. Also, you can change the shading to GLSL w/ Backface Culling enabled to get a better idea of what it will look like in Unity since Unity shaders do backface culling by default.

 

The upside down part sounds like one of your UV islands might be rotated, (if you were painting onto the texture and not the model) but the 'painting through to the bottom face' issue sounds like, as niosop2 said, a normals issue. The shortcut for recalculating normals is Ctrl+N, in case you want to know. And as Niosop2 said, you must select all of your faces first.

If a normal is inverted, then we see through it, and so does Blender's paint brush, which is why you could paint through to the bottom. As mentioned before, you can set up a GLSL material which helps you see these errors, as faces appear to be missing.

 

Thanks guys! i did the recalulation and now i can just paint on it . now i just need to find a tutorial on how to make bloodstains haha. Time to google!!!