[TUTORIAL] Painting a Skybox

[Ritz]

So, people seemed to like the skybox I started on for my contest map. Since it really wasn't that hard to do, here's a little tutorial.

This is just getting the image made, once I've figured out how to turn it into a working skybox I'll add it to this post.

Results:

One thing I forgot to add: If you're aiming to make a skybox out of this you want the image to be huuuuuge, like 4096x2048.

So there you have it. I made the tutorial image really quickly so it's pretty rough, but if you spend some time on it you can get a pretty nice image out of it.

Edit: Since apparently I didn't make it clear in my original post, you're still going to have to paint over the end result to get a valve-quality texture. Photoshop tricks can only get you so far, eventually you're going to have to do ART.

 

[The Political Gamer]

If anyone is having problems getting the skybox into TF2 read this: http://forums.tf2maps.net/showthread.php?t=5268

 

[Jimmy]

Looks sexy. I love you. I want to have your babies. Now to go reinstall photoshop...

 

[Freyja]

This is good. I might be inspired now to remake my bad skybox.

 

[ANova]

Is it okay if i use that mountain picture for a background? lol

 

[Dr. ROCKZO]

/me Braces for influx of Alpine Maps with Skyboxes consisting of 3 rows of mountains. But good job, easy to follow with great results.

 

[ricardojvc6]

I... I... can't believe... This is my dream. This is the best tutorial i ever seen to make skyboxes I <3 you RITZ xD

 

[ColonelBD]

Ive been meaning to try and have a go at making a skybox, but I have trouble getting the style right. So this is GOLDEN! And with artpass going on this couldn't have come at a more better time!

 

[grazr]

Didn't Ravidge pass on a skybox template for us, that's easier to understand the distortion affects...

 

[Ravidge]

Didn't Ravidge pass on a skybox template for us, that's easier to understand the distortion affects...

http://forums.tf2maps.net/showthread.php?t=11988

Can't use it for much though, in a practical sense. It justs gives a clue to how the skybox is distorted.

 

[Leminnes]

Hey Ritz, could I perhaps steal your brush you're using there?

 

[Terr]

Had a nutty idea. Might not be do-able.

Construct a UV sphere in Blender, using the inside faces. Then use the texture painting tool to paint (from the perspective of being in the center of the sphere) a scene. In a sense, it's "undistorted" because you're doing first-person painting of the sky.

Then if there was some way to transfer/bake/transform it to an unwrapped cube instead... do final touchups in a real graphics program.

 

[Ravidge]

Had a nutty idea. Might not be do-able.

Construct a UV sphere in Blender, using the inside faces. Then use the texture painting tool to paint (from the perspective of being in the center of the sphere) a scene. In a sense, it's "undistorted" because you're doing first-person painting of the sky.

Then if there was some way to transfer/bake/transform it to an unwrapped cube instead... do final touchups in a real graphics program.

I think newer photoshop versions have a tool for painting on 3d models? I'm not sure since I still use the good old CS2

However, I did something like this and it's very easy to spherify a cube and project the 6 textures inside. (3ds max though)

(hmm.. from july 2009)

 

[Leminnes]

:O That's very cool, Rav. Also, PS CS4 does have such a thing, but I have no idea how to use it.

 

[Grim Tuesday]

Alright, this is getting stupid. I guess its time for me to make the long due space skybox hdrshop method tutorial!

 

[ricardojvc6]

Actually as i far know... i noticed some errors. Never use guassian blur on skyboxes. It makes them worse. Use gradient or just paint it by yourself. Never use Filters.

 

[the DT's]

Never use guassian blur on skyboxes. It makes them worse. Use gradient or just paint it by yourself. Never use Filters.

How come?

 

[ColonelBD]

Because it can leave artifacts and other messed up effects.

As for the sphere in blender, to do that you want a normal cube, subdivide (Not subsurf) about 3 or 4 times, before hitting "to sphere" on editing, mesh tools whilst in edit mode. Im using 2.49 so I don't know if they changed the layout for 2.5.

Your gonna want too uv map the cube before rounding it out, don't lay any seams, then set the dimesions for each face, then reticulate your nomals inwards.

Also give each face its own material (up down right ect). That way when you subdivide you can easily select all the faces for each side. When you done painting, render bake from textures only.

I don't know if you're supposed to scale the ball by 0.5 if your dimensions are like 1024x512, so if your baked image is stretched, you might want to try that, im not 100% about that though.

Just my two cents