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Texturing Color Maps for a Character: Mesh Baking and Photoshop techniques
This demo looks at a few sample techniques which may be used for a variety of other extended purposes through varriations in the modeling/sculpting process or the texture filters applied. Our purpose here is to examine how to use a sculpt-first workflow to enable rapid texture creation. For me, the process of baking High Poly data to a texture is the basis of maybe 90% of all the Texture work that I do. Several additional skill sets are assumed by the user before attempting this Tutorial. Basic working knowledge of Maya, Zbrush and Photoshop is key. When needed, links to alternate tutorials will be provided for elements glossed over here, and believe me, there are many. Texturing a Character requires a wealth of background knowledge, and more than anything else is about bringing it all together. So, things such as CREATING A DISPLACEMENT MAP IN ZBRUSH, or, CREATING A MATCAP MATERIAL will be linked to, as will Tiling a Texture and Creating a Brush Shape for Photoshop. For look at how the color maps for the skin were created (with Zapplink and the Image Plane Plugin) visit this link: CLICK HERE: TEXTURING REALISTIC SKIN FROM PHOTOS USING PROJECTION PAINTING

The first step of this process is to create a wonderful sculpt. To be honest, there is little difference between a good sculptor and a good texture artist in my opinion. Without understanding of one, you really don't have the basis to understand the other (but again, this is my opinion). Additionally, 3d sculpt programs like Zbrush make the process of sculpting detail much more natural than trying to paint in representations of that detail onto a flat UV layout in Photoshop later on.

When I think about my sculpting process, I look at 3 distinct levels of detai as described herel. Click on the Image below to Enlarge:


I have used this thought process to inform my sculpt for this character: The Floundress.
In 3 steps, here's how I sculpted the model:
1-I added waves of fabric, the spines of the fins, and made proportional adjustments with the Move, Clay, Pinch, and Flatten Brushes (among others)
2-I added seams using the stitch brush and custom alphas to give the bodysuit a manufactured feel.
3-Using leather alphas and various spray strokes with the Standard and Inflate Brushes, I sculpted in the leather pores of the suit's surface to give a fine noise across the model.

Click on the Image to Enlarge:




NOW WE START THE ACTUAL TEXTURE PROCESS:

1. I have assigned a new material to the surface and edited it's parameters to my liking in the Zbrush Materials Palette.
   I will use several of Zbrush's Materials in these next steps (repeating this process a few times) as I create my displacement map/doc export for several varriations.
   You can use any of Zbrush's already included materials, MAKE YOUR OWN, or DOWNLOAD ONE FROM THE LIBRARY.
   
   
   
2. I will generate a Displacement Map. Here are my settings. For More Information on how to Generate A Displacement Map, Please Click Here.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Once the map is created it will show up in the Alpha Palette (in Zbrush 3.2 and Above, you will need to Clone Disp from the Tool-Displacement Map menu to send the map to the Alpha Palette).
   From the Alpha Palette, I can hit CropAndFill. Now, my alpha will displace the backgroun canvas, applying shading based on whatever material you have selected.
   
   Here's a crop and fill with the Mah_Modeling Material, and one with the Gold Material.
   Save these images out by going to Document-Export (this will save only as PSD, TIFF or BMP, which you can edit later)
   Use anywhere from 1 to 100 of these material-cropped, document exports to generate layers that we can mix in photoshop.
   
   
   
   You can even edit your material settings in the Material Palette's Modifiers section to get results tweaked to your liking.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Now its time to start some basic combination in Photoshop.
   -Create 1 document with all of your layers overlapping each other.
   -Erase out detail from one map to see below to another
   -Try altering the blend modes (Soft Light, Multiply, Overlay are always good ones) to mix effects
   -Edit the levels, or hue/saturation to your desire
   -Paintbucket a new layer of solid color (purple seen below) to add a change in hue and tone (and feel free to erase areas where you don't want it)
   
   
   Without much effort during the texture process (because it was all done while sculpting), we have created a texture that has the beginings of all 3 levels of detail.
   
   
   
   After adjusting my settings, and doing some erasing, I have toned down some of the harsh contrast, and edited my colors to fit my desired palette
   
   
   
   When working with Photoshop Brushes and Erasers, I love to use some of the default organic brushes from the "Dry Media", "Faux-Finish", and other packages which can be appended.
   Brushes can be loaded in (there are many, MANY brush packs located on the Art Institute of California, San Francisco's Resource Drive).
   Brushes can be made on your own. CLICK HERE TO LEARN HOW
   
   
   I will also alter my brush preferences, changing Shape Dynamics, Scattering, and Other Dynamics (similar to what you see below, but please experiment with your own settings!)
   Creating these scatter effects gives me a much more un-even and natural feeling brushstroke as I paint or erase. As such my marks don't look as heavy-handed.
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. After More erasing, and some buring and dodging with these same brush techniques, this texture is looking pretty sharp. But wait! What about my UV seams?????
   Since I've been painting on my flat UV layout, I no doubt have seams in this texture file when I apply it back to the model.
   
   
   
   I load the file (saved as a flattened PSD.... use a copy, don't flatten your original file)
   We see it here in Zbrush. Don't forget to flip the texture vertically since Zbrush is upside down from Maya and Photoshop
   
   
   
   Lets take a closer look. Knowing where my UV shells were cut, I zoom in on those areas of the model.
   When I get close enough to see the seam, I will press Document-Zapplink (a downloadable plugin for Zbrush 3.1.... not available for Mac on 3.2)
   
   
   Hit Drop Now from the Zapplink Projection Pop-Up Menu
   
   
   
   This will link up with Photoshop, sending over an image in 3 layers that should look exactly like what you see in Zbrush.
   DO NOT EDIT THE TOP OR BOTTOM LAYER. These are shading layers that are there for you to see what you are working on. You can hide them (I often hide the top layer while working so that I can sample color correctly with the eyedrop tool, or use the clonestamp tool without interference).
   -------you can add new layers to the document, but all layers must be merged back into the Layer 1 (Preserve the Mask when it asks), before you pop back out to Zbrush.
   
   
   
   Find your seams, and hit Zapplink.
   - Use the Clone Stamp tool to paint out the seam, or usea fresh texture source to over-write it.
   - When done, save the Photoshop Canvas, and return to Zbrush.
   -In ZB, hit the "Re-Enter Zbrush" button, and your texture will update. If you don't see this button, then go back to Photoshop, hit save again, and it should be there. Photshop CS3 and CS4 have been having this issue, where as CS2 and previous I have not seen this ever happen.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   FOR MORE INFORMATION ON PAINTING OVER SEAMS AND PROJECTION PAINTING, CLICK HERE
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Ok, so now we've got a texture that has my detail captured, and has no seams. Well, what If I want to add detail that isn't in the sculpt, like a pattern?
   For The Floundress, I wanted to add a spotted pattern to the suit. So....
   -I made a new document, 500x500 pixels
   -I used a black brush (regular round, full hardness) to create some various shapes
   -I made the texture sample tile using Filter-Offset. IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO DO THIS, CLICK ON THIS TUTORIAL HERE.
   -From there we can define the image as a pattern (see image below)
   
   
   
   
   I use the paintbucket, but switch it's paint mode from foreground (color) to pattern, and choose my newly defined pattern. Here I can set the color as well.
   Paintbucket this to the document, and save it out as a new texture PSD, in this case, I called my file spots.PSD
   
   
   
   
   
7. Let load this texture file onto our model in Zbrush, and again get back to the Merry 'Ole Task of painting out seams.
   Here I find an area where there are seams
   I paint that area all white in Photoshop using Zapplink
   Then paint new "custom" dots where I need to
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. When done, you should have a fully painted spots texture with no UV-seams visible. Export this texture back to Photoshop as well.
   
   
   
   
   Add this into your stack of images in your main texture file. Here I am using Soft Light and an Opacity of only 27% to blend these spots onto my underlying texture (Layer 9, which is the texture file from earlier where I painted out my UV seams).
   -I used the magic wand tool to select all the white areas, and hit CUT (CTRL-X)
   -I have also added an Inner Shadow and Outer Glow to very subtly reinforce the edge fidelity of my spots.
   
   
   Here's a close up shot of the texture
   
   
   
   
   
   This pretty much wraps up my Body Color Map. I have also used this technique for the Boot, which I layed out onto my skin color map.
   For the Texturing of the Skin, I have used a combination of Zapplink and the Image Plane plugin for Zbrush to project photos right onto the model.
   For more info on that process, CLICK HERE.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Here is my final color map information applied to the model. NOTE, there are no spec maps, normal maps, displacement maps, SSS maps,..... ANYTHING OTHER THAN PURE COLOR shown on this model. This is rendered with a Surface Shader node, GI, FG, and CAUSTICS enabled in the render settings (mostly for the RoeBomb), and is composited with a simple AO pass.
   For more on these render techniques, click here.
   
   
   CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE:
   
   
   
   
   
   And here is what the character looks like with full lighting, materials, and all texture channels added (normal, spec, SSS, etc...)
   
   CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE:
   
   
   
   I hope you have found this tutorial helpful in your texture creation process!
   
   -Andrew K