Crafting a Detailed 'Next-Gen Boiler': Part 6, Texture Creation

In part six of the boiler series we'll move into Photoshop and begin creating our textures. In this part of the series you'll learn how to combine the ambient occlusion maps we generated last time with image based textures to create a detailed Diffuse map suitable for our model's aged look. We'll also look at how Photoshop's layer styles and masking options can be utilized in conjunction with hand painting techniques to add additional detail and depth to our map.

Project Overview:
In this tutorial I'll show you how to create a next-gen, game model of an old weathered Boiler, with the help of only one black & white reference image. The tutorial will cover the entire process from Low poly Modeling to High poly Modeling, UV mapping, Textures baking (i.e Normal and Occlusion maps) and Diffuse Texturing. Finally we'll be applying Xoliul's shader in Maya for realtime rendering of the model.

Additional Files/ Plugins:

Download Reference Image

Step 1

We'll start with pretty much the basics and create a new file, under which make two copies of your ambient occlusion map. "Layer 1" is your UV screen shot and "BG" is a layer filled with Black as the background.

Step 2

Here is an image of both Occlusion layer's blending modes. The bottom one was kept on "Multiply" with an opacity of 80% and the upper one was set to "Soft Light " with an opacity of 67%.

Step 3

Now using the "Marquee" tool (Rectangular and Cylindrical) make a selection of the UVs where we can block in our colors (1.) Then set the "Background Color" to a slightly darker Green color (2.)

Step 4

Now create a New layer and name it "GreenBase" as our first color block of the diffuse texture.

Step 5

Now following the same procedure we'll fill in the other color blocks. Create a New layer named "Brown Metal" filled with a dark Brown color for the dark metal (1), and then another New layer called "Base" for the wall base color which is an off-White. Finally create a small layer named "Base_2" filled with a slight Bluish-Grey color for the small metal parts (2.)

Step 6

Now to get some surface details i.e. Metal, Concrete etc... we need to have some photo textures. Here are few which I have collected from cgtextures.com (1) Now just bring the required texture in the PS by dropping it in your file as a new layer. Resize it using "CTRL+T" to fit the required scale (2.)

Step 7

Now Duplicate the same selection in the layer and Flip it horizontally (to avoid unnecessary seams)using the Transform tool (CTRL+T)(1.) Create a full map sized texture, following the same procedure (2.)

Step 8

Now just set this under your occlusion layers so that it can get the shading also. And then using the Marquee tools make a selection of the area where we need this chipped paint texture (1), and then Invert the selection by pressing "CTRL+Shift+I" and Delete the rest of the area. After this while keeping the same section of the layer press "CTRL+L" to edit the "Levels" and set the mid value to .35 and last value to 235 to enhance the contrast of the texture (2.)

Step 9

Now just press "CTRL+U" to edit the "Hue/Saturation" and give the Hue a value of +38, the Saturation a value of -8 and the Lightness a value of -46 to increase the lightness of the base texture.

Step 10

Now for a bit of color tweaking go to Image>Adjustments>Color Balance... or press "CTRL+B" (1), then under the Color balance window kill the Magenta color a bit by toning it down to -47 (2.)

Step 11

Now as we have still not reached the desired result, we'll do some more tweaking. So again go to Adjustments>Selective Color... (1) and then in the newly opened window, first select the "Green" color from the uppermost tab (this will allow us to only affect the greens in our image.) Then set the values of Cyan to +28, Magenta to -31, Yellow to +14 and finally Black to +23 (2.) Now this gives our texture much more contrast and realistic rust and metal tones.

Step 12

Now a little tweak using "Hue/Saturation" again setting the value of Saturation to -20 only.

Step 13

Now we'll move onto the Rust texture. So I have brought a plain rust texture into Photoshop from my collection of textures (1) and using the same procedure of duplication, we'll fill the whole area with it (2.) While doing the scaling always keep in mind the actual scale of the texture according to the surface.

Step 14

Now make a selection of the areas in which we need this rust, and again Delete the inverted selection area. Name this layer "Rust" and keep it over the "Chipped Paint" layer (1.) Now we'll again have to tweak it to match the rust color of what we have in the Chipped paint layer. So open Levels by pressing "CTRL+L" and set the mid value to 0.42 to darken the contrast overall (2.)

Step 15

Now tone down the saturation to -41 using "Hue/Saturation" and finally we'll change the Blending mode of this layer from "Normal" to "Darker Color".

Step 16

Now we'll add few more metal textures to give it some extra detail, so bring one texture in just like we brought the other textures into this PSD.

Step 17

Now we need to make this texture seamless while duplicating it. So keeping the same selection, duplicate it and then press CTRL+T and then Right-click > Flip Horizontal (1) and it will do as it said, and then there will be no visible seam in the texture. Though it will make the texture mirrored, we're gonna use it with a blending mode so it wont be visible. Now make a selection of the whole area, then Duplicate and place it over it and then again Right-click > Flip Vertical (2) and it will again remove the vertical seam from the texture.

Step 18

Now name this Layer "Brown_Metal_01" and make a selection of all the metal areas and then Invert the selection and Delete the area. Then bring in the other two metal textures and name them "Brown_Metal_02" and "Brown_Metal_03" respectively.

Step 19

Now set the Blending mode of the "Brown_Metal_01" layer to "Vivid Light" and "Brown_Metal_02" to "Hard Light".

Step 20

Now set the Blending mode of the "Brown_Metal_03" layer to "Vivid Light" (1), and then bring in the metal texture image to use over the boiler base texture. Name this layer "Chipped_Paint_02" (2.)

Step 21

Set this layer's Blending mode to "Vivid Light" and also change the name to "Metal_Grunge" for better identification. Now we'll add some more grunge using image textures only.

Step 22

Name this layer "Dirt_03" and set it's Blending mode to "Overlay". And we'll move onto the Concrete wall base using another image texture and placing it over the wall UVs only.

Step 23

Now a little tweaking on the image first using Levels with the mid value set to 0.67 and the end value set to 245 (1.) Then tweak the Hue/Saturation by setting the values of Hue to -3, Saturation to +59 and Lightness to -21 (2.)

Step 24

Now just a few more level tweaks, with a mid value of 0.65 and an end value of 227 (1.) Then set the Blending mode to "Overlay" (2.)

Step 25

Now just place this layer above both Occlusion layers to get a better result. Now we'll add some more surface details like leakage on the concrete walls.

Step 26

Place the Leakage texture over the concrete wall base, name it "Dirt_02"and set it's Blending mode to "Multiply" as shown.

Step 27

Now to add some ground dirt, just a little color tweaking via Hue/Saturation by changing the values of Hue +9, Saturation +66 and Lightness to +24. And just to check the proper opacity of this texture, we'll keep the visibility of the "Concrete wall base" off.

Step 28

Now make a selection of these bright areas and using Hue/Saturation, change the Lightness to -15 (1), and then finally switch the visibility of "Wall_Base_01" to On (2.)

Step 29

Now at the center piece of the boiler, make a selection of the middle edge loop (1) and then Right-click > Feather... (2.) This will soften the selection, we'll learn in a later step what's it used for.

Step 30

Now under the Feather Selection options, set the Feather Radius to 3 and then create a New layer and name it "Shading", then press Right-click > Stroke.

Step 31

Now under the Stroke options window, set the Width to 1 px and set the Location to "Center". This will create a stroke at the center of that selection, giving it the illusion of a self shadow, adding a bit more depth to it.

Step 32

Now to add some more shading to the shape, create a New layer and keeping the same selection fill it with a White color (1), and then set the Blending mode of this layer to "Darken" and later name the layer "Shading_02".

Then simply Double click on the extreme right side of this layer (Generally the Empty area) and it will open the Layer Style window where we can play with a lot of cool effects to get things done. In this particular case we will use the "Gradient Overlay" effect, first simply tick it on, and then set the Blend Mode to "Overlay" with an opacity of 65%. Keep the Gradient at default but set it to "Reverse" and the Style to "Radial", and we'll get a nice round surface shading to it (2.)

Step 33

Now we'll move onto some of the smaller elements that also need some attention as these will add more life to it. So here I've made a selection of the two switches on the main control panel and filled them with classic Red and Green Colors in a separate New layer (1.) After that create another New layer just over it with a new rectangular selection and simply fill it with a White Color and name this layer "Shading_03" (2.)

Step 34

Now just open the Layer Style window and set the Blend Mode to "Darken" (1), then simply tick on the "Outer Glow" option and set the Blend Mode to "Overlay" with an Opacity of 75% , Color Swatch to White, Spread to 0% and the Size set to 2 px (2.)

Step 35

Now tick on "Inner Glow" and set the Blend mode to "Multiply", Opacity to 75% and the Color Swatch to Black only (1.) All these effects will give us a nice intruded surface with dark shadows inside and a little highlight on the corners. And then just to add some effects to the switches also create a New layer and name it "Shading_04" and fill the same selection with a White color (2.)

Step 36

Now We'll edit the Layer Style again, set the Blend mode to "Darken" (1) , then we'll add the effect "Drop Shadow" and set the Blend Mode to "Multiply" with an Opacity of 75%, Angle 90*,Distance 3 px, Spread 0% and a Size of 3 px (2.)

Step 37

Now First tick On the "Outer Glow" option and set the Blend Mode to "Multiply" with the Opacity set to 93% , Color Swatch to Black, Spread to 0% and Size to 4 px (1.) Then we'll also enable "Bevel and Emboss" and set the Style to "Inner Bevel", Technique to "Chisel Hard", Direction to "Up" , Size 2 px , Soften 0 px, Angle kept to "Global" only, Highlight Mode "Screen" with opacity 75% and the Shadow Mode set to "Multiply" with an opacity of 100% (2.)

Step 38

And this is the neat effect we've got that will enhance the overall look of the switches

Step 39

Now we'll paint on some shading. So for that select the Brush tool by simply pressing "B" and then from the left corner of the screen select the brush type "No. 17" as this is a soft brush that works really well while painting soft shading. The brush size you can change simply by using the [ and ] keys, and you can always tweak the opacity and flow of brush from the same upper section of the UI. But first create a New layer named "Shading_05" and set the Blending mode to "Overlay", with an opacity of 51% and then carefully paint the the black color over the UVs. Later I Changed the opacity to 59% for better visibility.

Step 40

Here I've added a Broken Wall texture to a new layer named "Broken_base" extracted from some random concrete texture.

Step 41

Now onto a New layer named "Darken" with the Blending mode set to "Darker Colors" and using the same brush with various colors (Black, dark tones of Green and Blue mainly) I've painted over the wall base, metal control panel and base to give it a more used feel.

Step 42

Now we'll take a copy of the same Rust Layer that we've used before and name it "Rust_02" and place it just below the "Rust" layer. Then we'll create a mask by pressing the "Add Layer Mask" switch in the bottom menu of the Layers Window (1.)

Then select the mask and fill it with a Black color (2.) Now this mask will work in such a way that any areas painted with black wont be visible and areas painted in White will be visible in the layer. This is just like erasing non wanted areas from the layer but it's not destructible, we can easily go back to an area which we have deleted somehow but want again, which is very useful when having a lot of layers of detail.

Step 43

Now select the same brush again which we've used for painting the shading earlier and start painting with a White color in the layer mask over the surfaces where you need some more rust.

Step 44

Here are the screens of all the areas where the Rust had been painted using the same masking technique.

Step 45

And here are the final screens of the painted rust.

Step 46

Now simply make a copy of the same rust layer again, Desaturate it by pressing "CTRL+Shift+U" and then place it just over the "Metal Grunge" Layer, again fill the mask with a Black color and start painting where we need some chipped off paint. This grey metal will give a feel of bare metal as in the actual paint has been chipped off and the base underneath has been exposed.

Step 47

And here are the screens of what's achieved using the Grey metal with masking. Even the small Scratch details are achieved using the same procedure.

Step 48

More surface details added, like scratches and chipped off paint.

Step 49

Now Here is the final diffuse texture, using photographic and hand painted textures.

And here is our Low poly model with the Diffuse and Normal maps applied on a default blinn material. The next part of the tutorial will cover the Specular map and use of the Xoliul Shader in Maya, that will give almost real-time results in the viewport.