WIP + Help with texturing

[Davie]

Well, here's a WIP. As usual, all critique is appreciated.

One of the biggest problems I've seen with my Photoshop work is that everything looks like it's made out of the same material. Her face and torso both look like they're made of clay or something. I don't fully know my way around the program yet--I'd love a few tips on how to texture things properly. Thanks in advance.

[Truepinkas]

Well for starters, don't use white for highlights, it'll give the exact chalky clay problem you currently have. Use a color (depends on your lightign scenario). And for that matter don't use black for shading, also use a color, typically either the complement of your light source, or the color of ambiant bounce light in your environment.

[alex_86]

Hey there. Hope this helps...

Two things before going any further though:
1. If two surfaces are alike in real life (e.g. skin and rubber), then they will have similar values.
2. Micro textures might not be worth drawing unless you have a closeup shot.

So I think you should forget about textures for now and focus more on values and colors. Skin, being a semi-transparent and semi-glossy surface, has numerous ways of transmitting light/color to our eyes. Rubber, being a semi-glossy but opaque surface, only has two ways of transmitting light/color to our eyes. In the end, the difference between them is mainly color!

It would be a hellova task to explain skin rendering in this thread. So here's a link that I found, and maybe there are others out there, even on this forum perhaps.
http://www.imaginefx.com/02287754333...fect-skin.html

To render any kind of material, including a rubbery suit, you will want to understand the terms "diffuse highlight" (a.k.a. midtone) and "specular highlight" (a.k.a. highlight). Those are the two that control the shininess of all materials. I found it really hard to get any related links, but here are some related threads from this forum.
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...ffuse+specular
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...ffuse+specular

As for shading with white and black, you can use semi-transparent white to create highlights, just don't create midtones using white. You can also use black for shading extremely dark corners and small crevasses and whatnot (adds depth and contrast), but definitely don't use it to darken midtones like you're doing on the skin.

cheers

[Davie]

Hey there. Hope this helps...

Two things before going any further though:
1. If two surfaces are alike in real life (e.g. skin and rubber), then they will have similar values.
2. Micro textures might not be worth drawing unless you have a closeup shot.

So I think you should forget about textures for now and focus more on values and colors. Skin, being a semi-transparent and semi-glossy surface, has numerous ways of transmitting light/color to our eyes. Rubber, being a semi-glossy but opaque surface, only has two ways of transmitting light/color to our eyes. In the end, the difference between them is mainly color!

It would be a hellova task to explain skin rendering in this thread. So here's a link that I found, and maybe there are others out there, even on this forum perhaps.
http://www.imaginefx.com/02287754333...fect-skin.html

To render any kind of material, including a rubbery suit, you will want to understand the terms "diffuse highlight" (a.k.a. midtone) and "specular highlight" (a.k.a. highlight). Those are the two that control the shininess of all materials. I found it really hard to get any related links, but here are some related threads from this forum.
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...ffuse+specular
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...ffuse+specular

As for shading with white and black, you can use semi-transparent white to create highlights, just don't create midtones using white. You can also use black for shading extremely dark corners and small crevasses and whatnot (adds depth and contrast), but definitely don't use it to darken midtones like you're doing now.

cheers

Thank you! Those links are hugely helpful.