Building a Texture for the Medusa Tree Frond
Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 1:45 pm
Well, I am tasked with created a texture for the fronds of the medusa tree, which Dakro will then be able to use on his model. I think it's going to be an interesting ride, so I wanted to post my progress as I go along and share what I'm learning. Any thoughts or suggestions you guys have for me would be much appreciated!
So, to start off...
First, I tried to edit a picture of a real fern (which I had acquired on my trip to Hawai'i) as the alpha texture. Unfortunately, even though it was a cloudy day when I took the photograph there was still a lot of specular reflection (and shadows) on the leaf. I tried to correct this problem using Color Burn and a variety of other tools, but it turned out all covered in light and dark patches and very unevenly colored or undetailed. So, the next thing I'm trying is to make a basic green fern leaf shape in Illustrator. I plan to load that up into Photoshop when it's finished, and then to try to lay a semi-transparent leaf vein texture to it from various leaves. I might also experiment with layering a skin texture on it too, to make it look more animal-like.
So, to start off...
First, I tried to edit a picture of a real fern (which I had acquired on my trip to Hawai'i) as the alpha texture. Unfortunately, even though it was a cloudy day when I took the photograph there was still a lot of specular reflection (and shadows) on the leaf. I tried to correct this problem using Color Burn and a variety of other tools, but it turned out all covered in light and dark patches and very unevenly colored or undetailed. So, the next thing I'm trying is to make a basic green fern leaf shape in Illustrator. I plan to load that up into Photoshop when it's finished, and then to try to lay a semi-transparent leaf vein texture to it from various leaves. I might also experiment with layering a skin texture on it too, to make it look more animal-like.