Texturing 101

Okay this is a really simplistic making of, it's really more of a texturing tutorial cause I get quite a few questions on texturing so, I've just take a simple Coke Can and decided to show you how I textured it since most of my texturing follows these principles.

Okay so I get my hands on some Coca-Cola label graphics.

I get into photoshop and stick this on one of my layers. I then duplicate this layer, and keep the original untouched if I need it for some reason. I then make my base metal texture, the texture that will be underneath the label/printing if it's worn away.For this you can use a photograph or textures from you texture library if you will. I place this Base Metal texture underneath i.e. on the layer below the Coke Label layer in photoshop. I then begin to erase at 100% the coke layer, revealing the Base Metal below, just like what would happen if you scratched away at the actual can.

So now you have something that looks like the Map "A" below. I added a slight dropshadow to the coke label to slightly seperate the two layers. The Bump map will add to this later.I then add dirt and sunspots using simple airbrushing in photoshop. This is to make the can look nice and worn and weathered, other than the scratches, a perfect label with heavy scratches top and bottom will look weird. After I have created the Colour Texture Map, I duplicate desaturate and tweak for Bump and Specular Maps.

More info on that is found alongside the images below. Left is a photoshop look at the layers involved.

So now I have all my textures. I apply them to my surfaces in Lightwave. I won't go into specifics here as it will become more Lightwave specific. If you have any questions further than this please mail me. Otherwise, here's a look at the finished can.

Anyway, that's all for now. Please if you have any further questions or requests mail me at dave@wickedpixels.com