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i made another tutorial

polycounter lvl 12
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Racer445 polycounter lvl 12
a texturing tutorial... gee, what a surprise!

newnoise.jpg

if you haven't checked it out already, go see it:

http://www.nextgenhardsurface.com/index.php?pageid=racer445

i'm interested in hearing what you folks think about the split text and video idea. i personally think putting the important "theory" bits in text for future reference will satisfy the types who learn from reading, and the video will help the visual learners like myself. is this something you'd like to see again in the future?

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  • nordahl154
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    nordahl154 polycounter lvl 9
    Great tutorial! It brought up topics that I was consciously unaware of, such as more natural noise as opposed to generated noise. Other things like critical analysis, and more obvious things like attention to structure, shapes, and frequency are also important to focus on.
    I love the idea of 2 part tutorials. It touches on skills that should be utilized every second, and provides a video for those who learn by example, like me.
    I have yet to finish your long-ass video, but from what I've seen it's absolutely fantastic.
  • Grimm_Wrecking
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    Grimm_Wrecking polycounter lvl 8
    I think doing the two part tutorial is one of the best ways to do it.
    Like a lot of people I get different kinds of information from the different sources of material. The wall of text and photos to illustrate things works well to emphasize points, and the video opens up the opportunity to pick up workflow ideas as well as audibly reinforcing the tips you go over in static text. As well as to visually show how and why they work.

    Entertaining as usual, glad you went over texturing, I think its generally the weak link for a number of people, myself included. So, good job, and thanks man!
  • Artifice
    "It's on the internet. You can find it."

    That'd be my main concern with the text+video approach. At some point, for someone, the video is going to be decoupled from the page unless you can somehow guarantee it (like by hosting it yourself). I suppose it depends on how important you think the two are together...if you feel like they stand alone, then it's probably ok.

    One option might be to take your written info and pictures and build it in at the beginning of the video as a slideshow kind of deal. That way, you still get the effects of text+pictures, but embedded in a single package that will live on in its entirety and won't become lost to antiquity. Being able to pause it makes it just as legible as a webpage.

    Another option would be to build what you have as a webpage as an image, then release it and the video together as a zip. I know I personally tend to save zip packages of stuff like this, so the chances of it getting diseminated as a whole package is probably higher.

    As for the content, it's awesome as always. Thank you for taking the time to do stuff like this.
  • G3L
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    G3L polycounter lvl 9
    Racer445: love ur tutorials man! will watch the video when i've got the time.

    i love the theory and the visual. it's good to have the best of both worlds. just having the visual is what most people will go for but never have the foundation or the theory (the reason, meaning) behind stuff like noise in textures as you were talking about in your tutorial.

    if anything more theory would be great because it's something that i am guilty of missing out on when i first started texturing and even now i continue to miss important key elements while texturing but thankfully things have come along with better understanding.

    thanks again for the tutorials you post up! :)
  • G3L
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    G3L polycounter lvl 9
    btw does vtools work in cs4 or cs5? not sure if that's been tested by anyone yet...
  • keizza
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    keizza polycounter lvl 18
    damn...this is funny.
  • m4dcow
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    m4dcow interpolator
    I discovered vTools relatively recently (Where was it all my life?) and it works fine with CS5.
  • ayoub44
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    ayoub44 polycounter lvl 10
    Thanks you very much :D very very helpful tutorial ... thanks a lot
  • Shogun3d
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    Shogun3d polycounter lvl 12
    Great stuff Racer, thanks for the tut!
  • Oniram
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    Oniram polycounter lvl 15
    yeah.. the theory bit before watching the vid definitely helped understanding a lot.
  • Ihazard
    The ideas you present in this tutorial are so much more advanced than the ones in your other videos. The other videos seem more like 'you paint it like this' or more direct teachings, but in this one it really challenges the viewer to actually think about their art and what they're doing with it, which is a nice change as tutorials can go. I'd like to see more like this as I think the text/video combination is great, but like someone else said before, they're likely to get seperated at some stage which would be a shame
  • throttlekitty
    I really like the theory stuff in text, very helpful and insightful. Yes more of that please.
    One crit: You use Blend If a lot, but I don't think you explained how to do it. It'd be a help for newer users, since it's not really an upfront feature.
  • Internet Friend
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    Internet Friend polycounter lvl 9
    You have all these motion graphics and borders, how about setting up a redirect on your site (ie racer445.com/ObservingMaterials), including the URL prominently, and then pointing the redirect to wherever it's currently posted?

    This is a little thing, but it'd be nice if you gave the video a more meaningful filename too.

    I enjoy the tutorial itself, and I have the feeling I won't be able to live without vtools now.
  • Shaffer
    Thanks again man, I really enjoyed it just like everyone else. Both were great and much appreciated.
  • Racer445
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    Racer445 polycounter lvl 12
    good points fellas, thanks for the feedback!

    i originally was going to put the text portion as a slideshow type deal at the start of the video, but i scrapped it because i didn't think people would want to sit through it. i think a short redirect url at the start for the associated learning materials would work.

    throttlekitty: yeah it's not something explained or used very often, but it's super super useful. i'll try to include that next time.
  • ceebee
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    ceebee polycounter lvl 14
    Every time you do a tutorial I immediately link it to my classmates. Well appreciated dude :]
  • Eric Chadwick
    Nice job, man! Keep 'em coming! And re-post your older stuff, I miss them. :(
  • Perfectblue
    Thanks for the tutorial. It has been a great help, especially since I am just now beginning to learn texturing, and the theory page was also a great supplement to the video.

    I do have a question however. In the theory text you state its best to extrapolate natural noise from materials instead of generating it artificially in photoshop. With that being said how do you approach doing this?

    I am new to photoshop and I was thinking something like this, but I am not sure. Filter->Sketch->Bas Relief. Afterwards you could adjust the output with levels or curves. Obviously like you stated in the text you make the noise a bit larger than it is in the reference particularly for hard plastics. I would appreciate any clarification.


    bas_relief.png

    Here is an example of racers hard plastic he uses for those that have not yet read the article.
    hard_plastic.png
  • cryrid
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    cryrid interpolator
    I am new to photoshop and I was thinking something like this, but I am not sure. Filter->Sketch->Bas Relief. Obviously like you stated in the text you make the noise a bit larger than it is in the reference particularly for hard plastics.

    Might I recommend giving Filter > Other > Highpass a try (perhaps with better source images to manipulate).
    i originally was going to put the text portion as a slideshow type deal at the start of the video, but i scrapped it because i didn't think people would want to sit through it.
    Thanks for keeping it separate, my connection and bandwidth limits are such that I'm always hesitant to start 300+mb videos.
  • ENODMI
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    ENODMI polycounter lvl 14
    Thanks for taking the time, excellent tutorial. I can always use to learn more about materials, and you use of photoshop was very insightful for me. Now go make us another one!:)
  • Racer445
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    Racer445 polycounter lvl 12
    high pass is the way to go for sure... just don't desaturate your source so you can keep the sick color from your photo!

    protip: use lab color and go to the brightness channel, it makes it real real simple to neutralize the brightness of your source for better overlays.

    hp.jpg
  • Oniram
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    Oniram polycounter lvl 15
    wow thanks for that!
  • ENODMI
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    ENODMI polycounter lvl 14
    For anyone curious, vTools does work in CS4
  • passerby
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    passerby polycounter lvl 12
    ENODMI wrote: »
    For anyone curious, vTools does work in CS4

    and cs5 works in both 32bit and 64bit.

    very useful.
  • G3L
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    G3L polycounter lvl 9
    excellent! yeah just installed it on my machine at work and it works like a charm :) awesome scripts ><
  • passerby
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    passerby polycounter lvl 12
    though has anyone found a quick way to add and remove the set markers from layer groups.

    would be nice if there was a 1 key soultion (maybe via action) to add or remove the "~" from the layername prefix.
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