Art help I guess?

[Guest Suited Prawns]

2 days ago I started working on my own armor retextures, and ive been managing to get the base materials to look good. But I was hoping if i could get some pointers, especially on details, like cloth folds and making things stand out from the rest( Stand out as in a 3d effect not using Normal maps)

 

I feel this post is kind of vague, but it's a new topic for me so I don't really know what to ask. 

[Vioxsis]

Do you mean painting a fake ambient occlusion on the diffuse?

And things like folds should be modeled in, unless you meant creases? Then you would use a normal map to add that kind of detail...

 

There's only so much you can get away with, just editing the diffuse.

Maybe if you post some pics of what your doing it might help make your post less vague.

[Guest Suited Prawns]

Right, allways hated showing the stuff I do but I want to get good at this so yeah...
So I started by making a texture at 8k res and resised it to 4k I assumed starting with the texture is the best way to do it.(Brightness subject to change)

(Im working off two textures other More talented people made)
Now im facing the issue of adding details that give of a sort of 3d effect, I know how to shade basically but it all ways looks strange on the texture 

 

 

[Vioxsis]

So you do essentially want to fake AO, should take a look at this video for a few ideas/tips

 

 

 

 

But it is basically its just shadow and highlight, so watching some vids on drawing will help

 

 

 

 

 

Though the big difference is that you will want to visualise where the light is coming from on the 3D model and then translate that to where it is positioned/orientated on the UVs.

 

There is also the technique of simply using an image and multiplying it on top of the base texture.

 

 

 

 

 

And with some fake AO

 

 

 

 

 

You can find some pictures (or take some of your own) of the detail you want to recreate and cut it out and merge it in.

Though the same thing still applies, you will need to have the light/shadow orientated correctly.

 

Normally an ambient occlusion map would be baked from the high poly model and then combined with the diffuse.

Its best to keep it subtle and not be too heavy handed with it, plus detail like that should really leave the heavy lifting to the normal map so that the shaders can take care of it.

 

And try not to be neat/perfect after all, imperfection is perfection. And also, its better to make the texture at the resolution you intend it to be used at, rather then scaling it down.