How to take good texture photosHere are some of the most important qualities in a good photo for texture making:
- Clear definition of the texture
- even lighting
- good picture resolution
- no distinct, highly noticeable features (mostly for seamless tiling)
- as direct a shot of objects as possible/good alignment
Clear definition of the texture -Fuzzy pictures do not make for good textures. Unfortunately, they make fuzzy textures. Up close, fuzzy textures are hard to distinguish from a swirl of colors, so the better the detail in your picture is the better the detail in the texture will be. A way to get the good definition in your photo is to find good contrasting colors, take as high as resolution a picture as you can mange, avoid overly shrinking a picture (if you do minor edits before submitting) to avoid detail loss, and take the picture in even lighting.
Even lighting -One of the functions of 3D programs and 3D engines is that they will allow you achieve certain effects through computer calculations rather than you having to do each frame’s details by hand. This is particularly true for lighting; the 3D program/engine will calculate lighting issues, such as brightness, shadows, and highlights. Due to this, it is better if pictures for textures don’t contain really dark shadows or extra shiny spots. True, pictures will always have these elements to some extent, but is better to get as even lighting as possible for the photo, so that the texture artist doesn’t have to spend extra time editing out extra lighting details. The editing would be done to make sure that the texture doesn’t conflict with the lighting due to the 3D program/engine.
Good picture resolution – Everybody has seen it… the pixely look of internet jpegs. That pixely look is due to low resolution, and while the pixel thing works for 8 bit retro art it doesn’t look as good in game in a texture. Most cameras take good enough resolution pictures, but if you happen to tweak the picture after taking it, try not to mess with the resolution too much. Resolution is typically given in dpi (dots per inch) or ppi (pixels per inch). To give an idea of the relative values, internet jpegs have a low resolution at 72 dpi, the next step up is 150 dpi (this is good resolution without being really high), and print materials which need high resolution usually start at about 300 dpi. For your photos, around 150 dpi is good enough, and even a little lower can be accommodated.
No distinct, highly noticeable features – When you have a texture that needs to tile, especially over large area, you don’t want it to look like it is obviously repeating across the whole textured area. The way to avoid this is to use a photo that doesn’t have a lot of distinct features in it. For instance, a picture of a grass patch by itself is better than a picture of grass with a ball sitting in the middle of it. The ball would have to be edited out, same for a large weed patch or any number of other things that can turn up in the picture. Or for instance, a picture of smooth concrete is better than a picture with a large crack going down the middle of it. There are some instances when the distinct feature is needed, such as in reference pictures, but when you are taking a picture of a material to be used as a tileable texture, such as tree bark for making a bark texture, you don’t want things like the knots on the tree in the photo.
As direct a shot of objects as possible/good alignment –When taking pictures for textures, you want to give as good and angle as possible; however, this actually winds up being the most boring angle of all, 90 degrees… It is best to get a direct head on picture of whatever it is that is going to make up the textures. Another thing to avoid aside from odd angles is weird tilt on the picture. Sure, it can be edited out but it is better if it doesn’t need to be. Direct pictures make it easier for the texture artist to kick out textures are fast as possible.
