Textures of the Grim kind

(edit: I appoligize to any modem users, there are a number of images in this post.   I managed to keep them all under 80KB though :smile: )

I wasn't able to read the responces on these textures when I posted them just before the new site build was launched, anyway here they are:





The two tested via (secret copy of HL2 :wink: , shhhh)



 

I kinda like the rockwork with moss in the cracks, but the other is way too cartoony for my likeing.

Cartoony?   Not sure how your seeing it that way but ok .   Its pretty detailed, typically I associate "cartoony" with lack of detail and very smooth transitions between color (or higher contrast between colors).   You'll have to give more detail so I understand what you mean.

Heres some wood to sit on while you think about your reply :biggrin: :

Yet another texture from the pile that I am so so with:

feed back welcome as always

for me this last one is the best but about the first one... it looks weird, like very 3d and with a strange colour. Furtheremore, I have never seen so many "perfect" rocks in a wall, they are too perfect and don't look like real.

The wood is great! 

That last texture is superb :smile:   It looks much more realistic than the other stone ones.

the last one is bloody good work tbh, not so keen on the others.

here's my feedback: (by the way how do you make those pictures from scratch, i'd love to know :smile: )

1) I think it's quite good, but a bit too much contrast with the colours, maybe dull them a bit, and maybe the rocks stand out a bit too much, look a bit "too" 3d.

2) I like this one, it would go well as the floor for a level, but the moss looking higher than the stones, it doesn't look natural imo, maybe (somehow) make it appear lower than the rocks, then it would look v nice

3) I don't particularly like this one, it looks very 2d and dull for wood, real wood is more . . . lustrous, more deep in hue. also those are very long and thin planks :wink:

4) This one is the best, its only problem being it's not 3d "enough" :razz: . . . The smaller and larger rocks look awesome, but the effect is undermined by the seeming lack of depth. the colours are great though.

hope I've been useful :smile:

my tupence worth  :smile:

1.  most feedback so far reckons there is something about the 1st pic that isn't quite right. could it be that all the rocks give the impression of being rather round, but have been set in the normal brick shaped pattern? looks like lots of round rocks in square holes.

2. i go with 2dmin on this. looks good, would look great if the moss seemed a little lower to the ground.

3. very nice. you cant have enough wood textures. i dont go with the idea that wood should be  "lusterous, more deep in hew". certainly some pieces of wood would, but no two pieces are exactly alike.

4.is this a photo of a real wall, just to confuse us?  :wink:

I see Grimlock has learnt to use the render effects and lighting effects in photoshop....

(the "HL2 secret copy" :razz: )

I really like the moss ground (2nd texture) and the last texture. You ever gonna release a pack, or are your waiting for HL2?

I guess what I mean by "cartoony" is non realistic. you may never have seen a fieldstone wall, but:

a. rocks in walls like that are never the same size the way yours are (near enough).

b. when walls are made out of ronunded stone, the rocks are rounded because they are naturaly smooth, like from a river bed or ocean, so it looks very wrong to put irregularities on the faces of those stones.

The wood has similar problems. in this case it's just too regular. real wood always has knots and irregularities in the grain. I realize you need to make it tile well, but it looks nothing like real wood IMO.

I'm not a texture artist so I can't give technical feedback, but I think I have a pretty good eye for nature.

IMO you are conceptualizing too much. you think "rock wall" and equate it to rough, even though the type of rock you are useing is smooth in reality.

I really like that last one though. very natural.

Wow, lots of feed back, I wasn't expecting that.   As always it is appreciated.

I am still learning so a lot of my texturing techniques are experimental.   I know Photoshop very well, I read a lot of books on the application.   Most books however hardly touch the topic of texture creation in photoshop so as a result I am kind of making it up as I go.   I just recently read a book by Owen Demers titled "Digital TEXTURING AND PAINTING".   It really didn't get into applications either but more into the proper mind set when you are looking at the world from an artistic stand point, capturing the essence of the subject and translating it into digital art.   A very good book, I'm actually reading it again just to get anything I missed.

With the techniques being experimental it's good to get different view points.   Considering how long I have been working with textures (not very) I'd say I am atleast on the right path.

Here is something I was experimenting with, its more of a horror theme, blood running down some stone, the colors are brighter in full RGB rather than what you may see in explorer:





I know the stones don't look intirely real but like I said most of my work is currently experimental in nature.

The blood should taper off as you go downwards. The distrabution is too even. I know, picky picky picky.

 

Tracer Bullet said:
The blood should taper off as you go downwards. The distrabution is too even. I know, picky picky picky.

 

 I thought it did.   Sorry but again I'll need more detail as to what you mean.   Are you talking about from the upper rocks to the lower as far as variation in the blood running down the wall?   Right now it tiles nicely in any direction, If I where to put less blood on the lower stones then it wouldn't tile well in a vertical direction.