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Tiling Texture Creation 101

nfrrtycmplx
polycounter lvl 18
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nfrrtycmplx polycounter lvl 18
Hey guys,

Just wanted to share with you all a video tutorial I did for creating tiling textures and normal maps using ZBrush.

The video can be found here: http://www.cg-tube.com

tv001_thumb1.png

tv001_thumb2.png

Runtime: 1:30:00
Skill level: Beginnerish

It's a bit long... But covers the entire process i used to create the texture in the example.



CG-Tube.com is a website I just started dedicated to sharing techniques and resources with artists who are trying to learn processes we use in the industry, and to share tips/tricks/resources among professionals.

This is the first video tutorial, so all your feedback is important! I'd like to be able to provide the most helpful information (either by doing tutorials like the one currently posted on the site, or by having my peers or any other interested parties sharing their techniques.)

The site is still a WIP and is very simple... which I'd like it to stay that way. :)

The videos and resources that will be posted there are absolutely free. I'll also provide the final textures and models created during the tutorials for people to use however they'd like.

If there's one thing I've learned from being part of the Polycount community, it's that sharing is caring. Polycount has been around for as long as I can remember in various forms, and the goal has always been the same... share your shit. I'd like the CG-Tube.com project to continue that, but focus on education.

This is the first of many tutorials I hope to put on the site. Let me know what you think! If you're interested in becoming a part of the project, shoot me a message!

Thanks guys,
Don

There are no memberships required to view or use the content.
The video will stream using flash and is at 1080p resolution... even though the quality of the capture isn't too great at times... The video currently ways in at 2 gig... if anyone has any problem watching the thing for any reason let me know and I'll fix it... This is kind of a test run here :).

Lots of stuff planned for the site, so please send us your ideas, we're doing this for you... so if you want to see a particular video tutorial on something, or a feature for the site, let us know.

also please mail your comments to dons@envartist.com until we get our mail situation figured out. Or post them here to share with the group :).

Replies

  • NAIMA
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    NAIMA polycounter lvl 14
    Thankyou I hope this soon gets sticked in the tutorials list here ... plus as for me bookmarked^^ :) ... thanks a lot for sharing I will soon hopefully follow it ....
  • iniside
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    iniside polycounter lvl 6
    Nice. But i'd like to download video, instead of streaming it.
  • ayoub44
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    ayoub44 polycounter lvl 10
    awesome , thanks you :)
  • xXm0RpH3usXx
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    xXm0RpH3usXx polycounter lvl 13
    looks good at first sight, but there is no register button, only a login mask :)
    also yes, saving to harddrive would be awesome...

    here in germany streming is really slow though
  • mdeforge
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    mdeforge polycounter lvl 14
    The site needs a ton of work, but I think your mission is strong enough to warrant some traffic if you get it fixed.

    It looks like you've made this page yourself. If so, no offense, but you need to scrap it and start over.

    If I were you, I would install Wordpress on my server and purchase a custom theme. There are some great themes over at Elegant Themes that are cheap that you could use (and modify the graphics for) to give your site a ton of usability and a nice look to boot. Plus, it will make your site really easy to update and maintain.

    These two aren't half bad for what I'm thinking: http://www.elegantthemes.com/gallery/evid/ and http://www.elegantthemes.com/gallery/grungemag/

    EDIT: This one is semi interesting as well: http://www.wordpressthemes.com/themes/magazinum-by-wpzoom/
  • Visceral
    Amazing stuff. I didnt know that you could group a bunch of meshes and import the group into Zbrush. This solves alot of issues for me.

    Also a download link would be really nice :D
  • Kawe
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    Kawe polycounter lvl 8
    1080p is a little overkill for most people :)

    should let people choose resolution or just make it 720p. would shave down the file size by quite a bit.
  • nfrrtycmplx
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    nfrrtycmplx polycounter lvl 18
    @everyone - great feedback already!

    @stradigos - none taken. however the site currently doesn't need a bunch of functionality simply because there's not a bunch of stuff on it. The site design will change once we have more to show... i have about 30 different template's and layouts here kicking around ideas. I was thinking the same thing "this site sucks"... but before i throw out a huge page with buttons and links and check boxes to a bunch of stuff that doesn't work... i thought i'd get everyones feedback on what they would want from a site like this. But you're absolutely right, the site needs a lot of work.

    @login issue - There's no register button, because there's no reason to register ATM... you don't need to sign in to view the content... And we're still working on the backend for the site.

    as for downloadable versions of the videos... I'll get a version up that is d/l friendly...

    i'll also make a 720P and a "standard" def version

    thanks for the feedback duders!
  • Kawe
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    Kawe polycounter lvl 8
    right, I actually took a look at the video now. the sound may be a little too low. I usually have my headphones up a bit so when I cant hear anything it usually means the sounds is too low. Heh.

    May want to check other videos on youtube or just some regular quality music that you can reference with and bring that audio up.
  • mdeforge
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    mdeforge polycounter lvl 14
    So I take it then you guys are building this site from scratch then? I have nothing against it, I'm just wondering what functionality you guys need that isn't already built into an existing platform. You say it's not complicated because there's no need for it yet, but I'm inclined to believe you should try and retain people who are checking it out, but don't plan on returning because of it's current state. Doing a half baked launch probably isn't best if you're in it for the long haul. Plus, by going with something like Wordpress, you know it's already going to be relatively stable.

    EDIT: Sorry, didn't finish my sentence, lol.

    I wonder what other people would think about streaming your video's in DivX? It probably wouldn't matter.
  • nfrrtycmplx
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    nfrrtycmplx polycounter lvl 18
    @stradigos: Thanks for the feedback. We're working very hard to get as much information from the people checking out the video as possible. Like I said, we have a lot planned, and your feedback is important! So thanks. Whether we build the site from scratch or go with a third party content management system... we still need feedback on our videos before we spend a buttload of time making a few and find we're making all the same mistakes... This is more of a test run for a video tutorial we would post on the site.

    @Kawe: eww, not good... i'll check the sound here at work and i'll do another pass on it! Thanks!
  • Visceral
    Yeah the sound is REALLY low. Cant wait for a download however :D
  • nfrrtycmplx
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    nfrrtycmplx polycounter lvl 18
    download will be posted later today/tomorrow morning... i got a lot of feedback and need to make a lot of adjustments. You guys are great! thanks again
  • NothingHappens
    I personally have a logical issue...

    I'm following exactly what you are doing, however, when I subdivide the model into ZBrush, the bricks changes into pills, which is logic because of the edges.
    I may have missed an important step that you didn't show (I'm watching the video without the sound, can't have sound until I'm back home).
    If yes, may I know what that step is, please ?

    Thank you in advance and thanks for this tutorial.
  • Sean VanGorder
    NothingHappens - When subdividing, switch off the "Smt" button next to the subdivide button. This will tessellate the mesh without smoothing it.
  • nfrrtycmplx
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    nfrrtycmplx polycounter lvl 18
    great point... I need to edit the video to include that step visually... I mention it with the commentary, but it's clearly not enough... GOOD CATCH! THank you!
  • NothingHappens
    SeanEG > Oh, thank you. =D

    nfrrtycmpix > Well, if you say it, I guess that's enough, I'm an isolated case that just couldn't have audio for a certain time.
    But, yeah, adding it visually would prevent some stupid questions like mine. =)
  • Oniram
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    Oniram polycounter lvl 15
    i set the vid to download this morning.. a few hours and 2gb later.. nice job. there are really some interesting methods in there. tho next time you could probably speed up the video to reduce file size and time, as i found myself skipping through quite a bit.
  • nfrrtycmplx
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    nfrrtycmplx polycounter lvl 18
    @nothinghappens: no way man... no such thing as a stupid question... it was a really good point, and i'm super glad you brought it up! thanks broham.

    Oniram: yeah, with the feedback, I was going to spend a lot of time reworking the editing. Glad you found some of it useful... I'll give it another once-over and try to take out a good chunk of time where I can. Thanks man...

    This feedback is amazingly helpful, and it will really help in the upcoming videos I plan to do, as well as editing videos when the come in from other artists!

    Cheers!
  • jimmypopali
    Looks like a great resource! I'll watch it today.
  • Kawe
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    Kawe polycounter lvl 8
    So.. thinking some more about it...

    Ya, I downloaded the 2GB video and it was a little too long and I ended up just scrolling by it. There was one part that seemed interesting though.

    If I were you I'd try to plan ahead and maybe break it down into 10-15min "chapters"... or even shorter if possible. Each chapter should also get to a point where it's like.. "this is what I wanted ti show you, get it?"

    Oh... and I have a request for a tutorial. I'd like to see one on mountains. Always wondered what a mountain in a game consists of. Heh.
  • nfrrtycmplx
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    nfrrtycmplx polycounter lvl 18
    thanks Kawe, you confirmed my own thinking after getting feedback from others...

    I'm going to break the tutorials up into parts... and make them more clear and focused.

    each video will be 15-20 min with an option to d/l the entire video
  • nfrrtycmplx
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    nfrrtycmplx polycounter lvl 18
    if you want to watch the video, you can watch it here:

    http://www.cg-tube.com/VT001.php

    the current front page is broken (after getting feedback on the lameness of the site layout/design/functionality) I feel it's necessary to get this fixed asap...
  • nfrrtycmplx
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    nfrrtycmplx polycounter lvl 18
    and jsyk a lot of you are probably thinking

    "why is this dude posting a site that isn't even made yet... it's broken, and doesn't have any content... wtf?"

    But basically, this is a project i've wanted to do for a while now... but never really had the modivation until recently. I've had a lot of free time and a strong passion to do this website for a while...

    Unfortunately, I'm doing it all myself at the moment, and without a team of people to bounce ideas off of, I'm looking to you guys for that. You're sort of like a dev-team in that respect. Things are going to be moving slowly, but eventually I hope to build this thing into something really useful. Your feedback is already pointing me in a much better direction!

    Thanks again for your feedback and continued support while I build this here website.

    @Kawe, as for the mountain tutorial - Great suggestion! I didn't have anything planned for the next video. I think I'll do that. Luckily, i've spent a great deal of time doing organic terrain for most of the projects i've worked on!

    Cool deal guys, thanks again
    Don
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