Texturing and skyboxes

Nov 14, 2009
1,257
378
OK, so I bought my self a tablet mainly for the use of making textures for TF2. Its a cheap Genius model, but it works quite well. So, I have come wondering: How do you make TF2 style textures, of metal, wood, ground, rock, etc... I can't seem to get the style down. Also, how do you make styled Skybox textures? Do you start from scratch, or paint over a reference? Im just getting used to using it in Photoshop Elements, so how do you get a "paint brush" like the Valve guys use?

Thanks in advance!
 

Exist

L6: Sharp Member
Oct 31, 2009
306
136
What I see in Valve's rock textures

-Start with a base. Use this more as a ref for shapes and shading.
-Use a ton of layers, one for brush strokes, etc

Start with a solid foreground color, use the dropper tool to pull the most prominent color from your ref

-Draw big organic shapes for rocks (I suggest the pen tool). This is just a guide layer, so no coloring happens here.

-In a diffrent layer, use a wide bristle brush on a high opacity(I don't know what brushes come with PSE, so you might want to download a few).

-Many of the rock textures that Valve has made use a fading gradient on their strokes to simulate weathering (with a tablet that would be pressure and sensitivity).

Wood----------
-Again, the almighty ref is used

-Start with a solid fore ground color

-GIMP comes with a filter that makes strips (grains in wood in this case), use this on a seperate layer. Of course, you could draw them yourself, but with a mouse it's diffcult.

-Gimp also has a swirl filter which can create imperfections on the wood, I belive PS has this as a tool.

-Create a new layer for dirt and chips.

-Dirt to Valve is a large rectangle which you then use a eraser on to show diffrences around it.

-the dirt also has a gradient on it that shows fading as i goes more towards the center.

Tile-----------
-Start with 4 squares. These are relevant to the texture's size (512 x 512 texture = 256 x 256 sized tiles.

put each tile in it's own layer and make each a diffrent color (for selection).

These are just pointers, tips, guidelines, whatever. Just go nuts on that tablet
 
Nov 14, 2009
1,257
378
Bump

Although Rexy's tutorial covers the mechanics of skyboxes, he leaves much to be desired in the design, and style of them.
 

Rexy

The Kwisatz Haderach
aa
Dec 22, 2008
1,798
2,533
Start with a skycolor, use a gradient, but keep in mind your env_lighting settings and how that should tie in (http://forums.tf2maps.net/showthread.php?t=5268). Use slightly saturated colors and follow the rules of aerial perspective. Also be sure to paint in items that should fit with your map's setting.

This is the one I painted for loot:

loot_skybox_001.jpg
 
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