I have been lurking these forums for awhile now. Reno and CJ and Cracker Jack know me quite well. Just finished a rather exhaustive project and was approached by someone to do a map for TS. This is the first texture in a series of textures for a map I like to call TS_SushiBar. This first one is for the kitchen area. I will post the progression textures as well so people can see the stages of production. I am drawing this all by hand as well.

Enjoy!

FoX1

ive worked in lots of environments with these kinda fridges (i think thats what yours are!), and if you wanted to add extra detail, I have a few ideas..

rubber seals, more shine, bumped effect along the bottom (like you see on floors... cant describe it), bits of scum on the corner of the venting/scum dripping down (yes, you get this in our national supermarkets etc ^_^)..

lights (red/green)? having said that, they look excellent to me all the same but im not the resident texture buff...

Cassius- The idea of snapping photos to make textures sends shivers up my spine. This type of "art" has no place in my style of work. I have been a natural media painter for 17 years oil,acrylic,watercolor and India Ink as well. Transition to Digital Art started with me in Doom Days. In the years that I have considered my work art I have never given up look at Bushido for a good HL reference. I joined Bushido with very little idea of what was needed for Japanese Texture Design. It took a year of my free time to study architecture and design to make over 400 hand drawn textures for that mod. Photos might be an easy way out for some but not for me. My current Freelance work has me at tight deadlines due to my style of hand drawing everything I get assigned for projects. I don't shortcut cause I spent good money on the tools I use. I have a USB 9 X 12 Wacom and a 6 X 8 Wacom as well. I guess the reason for this rant is that when people look at textures they automatically have it in there head "oh it's a photo". It takes an artist to make them think that.

Cassius,

Wanted to appolgize for the snap I made to the post. Lot of stress last week with Bushido going live with Samurai Wars and hardly any sleep during that time beforehand. Should have some updates soon the sushi bar set, I am working on a oven and a few other items in my spare time which is nil due to the Mod Release. If your not sure what I am talking about go check Bushido for all the new details.

FoX1

Stab...

Textures don't have to be photo-realistic to be great-looking.

Plus, I agree with Alien_Sniper. Put some heart and intensity into that stab.

Have you ever seen Slicky's textures? He has very little technical skill, at least up against the bigger names in texturing. His textures are almost entirely spliced, sharpened, and shadowed photos. However, he reaches a level of realism that not many other people can match.

Clearly, resizing a photo does not make a realistic texture, as it sticks out like a sore thumb and will generally look terrible. On the other hand, there is no texture artist who consistently creates textures of a decent variety of subjects and types that can start his textures with a blank document in Photoshop.

So I think that for a refridgerator, you're free to use photoshop only, because you clearly have the skills to make a good looking fridge by hand alone. However, why waste your time using the same technique to create a grass texture when you could use photos as a base?

I think it breaks down like this, and I use this as my own style: feel free to use photos so long as you are in control of the texture's specifics, not the photo. Mix photos with overlay styles. Photos should be for material, not real details upon the texture.

Beyond that, remember that the object of your texture art is not to follow a strict moral code for their creation, but number one, to look good, and number two, to look real.