Hey all, I just wanted to upload a tutorial for you guys on how to make great scifi textures. This textureing method can also be used on other surfaces too (like a fantasy or modernday type texture).
I have included this texture as a freebie attached. Use it however you wish!
Its actually pretty easy once you get the hang of it. I have cranked out quite a bit with this.
you need a graphics art program (preferably Fireworks) and GIMP.
Step 1-
First you need to create an ambient occlusion map. This is the key component of this texture. You will use it later to render your D, N , and D2 maps. If you are using Fireworks put innerglow around your shapes and give it a low opacity and color it black (you will see in the picture) if you dont do that then your normal map wont render correctly. Try experimanting woth this process. If you arent then blurring should work too (use gaussian blur)
Here is the one I made in Fireworks:
Step 2-
After you are done with that open it up in gimp and render the normal map. Set the scale somewhere in the NEGATIVES. NEVER POSITVE, OR IT WILL BE INVERTED. Pretty much straight forward here.
Step 3-
After that we move on to the diffuse map. Open up your ambient occlusion map in GIMP again and set the layer to multiply.
Get a base texture to put behind the ambient occlusion layer. (generally any concrete texture works good for this, just make sure it's a PLAIN texture and with not too many spots or anything like that.) I made mine a deep brown color. You can select portions of the base texture to make those different colors too (like the top and bottom gray panels - rectangle marquee for that)
You can then dress it up with text and caution lines/signs/etc. to your liking. Here is the result:
Step 4-
After thats done we need to "bake" the texture (which is a fancy name for making a D2 map) After you have exported your D map open it up again. Then open up your ambient occlusion map that you made in the first step. Put the occlusion map under your D map in the layers window.
Go to filters-map-bump map. Leave the azimuth where it is (it adjusts the direction the light or "sun" is reflecting the texture)
Where it says Bump map set that to your ambient occlusion map layer (make sure it is in your layers), or your texture will be bumpy and won't look so good.
Set the elevation in the negatives again. Dont set it too low, you just want a nice, well, bumped look on your texture. Here is your end result (try to use it as a reference)
Export your D2 map
Step 5- and last-
Make your specular map. This is kind of self explanatory, but dont just desaturate your texture. For this texture ( and all my textures) I desaturated the image, duplicated the layer, then used the threshold tool, set it to screen, and then adjusted the opacity. Also blur the threshold with gaussian blur
And thats it. Happy texturing! Oh and heres the .rar with this tutorial texture included. Thanks for reading my tutorial!
