How do you create textures???

Like, how do developers or artists create textures? How would you do it in say Photoshop???

I am quite confused as to how they convert a photo into a texture. Some info would be great.

I got yer textures right here buddy!

Textures are just 2D images.  To convert one from a photograph, you just have to take a photograph and scan it onto a computer, and then save it in an image format.  You can then use an image-editing program like Photoshop to enhance the picture to suit your needs.

These are some examples:

Plant/Grass Texture

Brick Texture


Not much more to it than that.  Developers can then map the textures to a 3D model to make it look more realistic.  But that\'s a whole different field.

[videoholic]

Any picture can be a texture.  You just map it onto an object in the 3D program.

But could a PS2 render one of those textures (say the grass on) in realtime??? This is what I don\'t understand. What do developers do to the photo to make the PS2 or a PC be able to render it?

Like, in GT3 for instance, the road does not look like a photograph. You can tell that its a graphic and not a photo, but it still looks very realistic.

Hmm...

You have to edit the edges of the 2d texture image to make sure that when it\'s tiled over and over, like on a 3d game surface, it will look uniform.  If there are any obvious patterns in the image, they\'ll be repeated on every iteration, and the tiling will become apparent.  That is what makes game textures look fake.  You can enhance the tile-ability of the texture by using a particular Photoshop feature.  I\'ve forgotten what it\'s called, but it allows you to offset the image within the canvas, and then it automatically tiles the image to fill in the blank space.  After activating that, you can smooth over the border between the repeated sections to make the image appear more uniform.

Hmm, but I am still wondering as to how a PS2 can render these textures that they make.

I am trying to get a digital folio together for submission to Brisbanes QUT, one of the most respected art university\'s in the state.

I am just trying to figure all this out...

You\'re asking for a rather technical answer to the question of how a 2d image is mapped onto a 3d model in real time.  I think few people on this forum are qualified to answer the question properly, and even if they were, the answer would much more complicated than you probably want.

Unless you\'re interested in becoming a game programmer, you don\'t need to know how it works, you just need to know how to use the tools that make it work, like 3D Studio Max or Maya or Lightwave, or whatever 3D modeling/rendering software you prefer.  I would guess that most of the artists doing this stuff for game developers don\'t know how it works either.

I am interested in doing a variety of different things, such as special effects in movies or graphics in games.

I dunno, a variety of things.

You should get a subscription to Cinefex.  It\'s been THE Hollywood journal of visual effects for more than 20 years.  Well written and very worthwhile if you want to  learn how the business works.  http://www.cinefex.com/