Week 5 - Materials

This week I had a go at rendering some textures in photoshop. I started with tree bark, using the above image as a reference. I started by shading in a sphere for a 3D effect by using masks and a soft brush, then again using masks along with some harder and more textures brushes to layer the detail on top. I used the colour picker tool to grab some of the values from the image before blending between them myself. I worked mostly from dark to light as I find this a more natural flow when rendering materials. I finished by cutting in the sides of the object to make it appear more 3D and communicate the feel of the material. I done this on a new layer so that I wasn't deleting any of the material I had already painted.

The next material I created a mossy brick material, this time using photobashing. I achieved this again by using masks - I rarely paint without them these days - and painting with a low opacity brush to make the textures blend together. I done this over a shaded sphere and added more shading on top to add to the 3D feel.

This was my first time photobashing and it turned out to be easier than I thought it would have. I can see its usefulness, particularly when creating intricate textures or when a speedier workflow is needed. Saying that, I think it is also useful to be able to break down, analyse and recreate hand painted textures yourself. I can see where both techniques have their usefulness and I am going to experiment more with them both in future.