When it comes to 3D artwork, textures can make or break the realism of the finished product. This article offers five tips for squeezing the most mileage out of your texturing efforts. Although these tips will be relevant no matter what apps are in your toolkit, this article makes special mention of the popular seamless texture editor Genetica
1. When in doubt, add more detail
Our brains are most at ease when they are flooded with more information than they could possibly process. In the natural world materials are covered with folds, cracks, blemishes, and grit. And no matter how close you look, more detail reveals itself all the way down to the microscopic level. Make no mistake, our brains filter most of this information out so that our conscious mind can focus on the important stuff. Nevertheless, experienced texture artists have noticed that our brains expect multiple layers of detail before a material is accepted as realistic--whether or not the conscious observer ends up noticing most of it.
Here's the interesting bit: It often doesn't matter what detail you add. In many cases it's the mere presence of additional detail that increases the feeling of realism. An artist working on a rusty metal texture, for example, can increase realism by carefully layering in photos of wood, rocks, and grounds. As long as the colors of each layer are adjusted appropriately, your brain will usually accept the added detail as proof of realism without ...
