How do you make textures look like the textures used in Amnesia?

[X4anco]

Hello peoples.

For my total conversion I am making my own models. I also wanted to use my own textures. I looked at the textures for the walls etc... In Amnesia. While they look real, they're not photographs, they look kind of cartoony (sort of ). How do I make my textures look like that?

- Thanks, Xanco

[Juby]

The reason why the textures in Amnesia have such depth to them is because they use normal maps and specular maps. Normal maps fake the lighting of bumps and dents. Specular maps define a surface's shininess and highlight color.

In order for you to obtain the same level of detail with custom textures, you must venture and create some spec maps and nrm maps. You can create your own using some image editing tools, such as GIMP.

[X4anco]

Thanks Will do

[Rapture]

@Juby - Explain some more, what you have said would probably confuse a newcomer a lot.

@X4anco - Like Juby said, you can make them in GIMP/Photoshop, but you will probably need special plugins to create them. (Or hand paint them, but I haven't tried either yet.)

(1) What 3D modeling software are you using (Blender/3DS Max/Maya/Other)? You can typically generate your own Normals in the program itself.

(2) You can create spec maps in GIMP/Photoshop.

(2a) I hope I'm not telling you the wrong thing (Sometimes they make my Model look funny, sometimes they turn out fine), but this is what I do...

(2b) Get the diffuse texture that you have made. De-saturate so it is B&W. (From GIMP, go the Menu>Colors>Hue-Saturation. Take the slider and pull it to the far left.)

(2c) Now we have to change the levels. (GIMP, Menu>Colors>Levels. Play with the 3 "Input Levels" triangles.)

(2d) From what I understand, white means how shiny it will be and black will have no shine. Grey in between is a mix (Darker = Less Shiny, Lighter = More Shiny). So you have to find a balance (I prefer to go with really shiny whites and really dark blacks) and tweak areas depending on how much you want them to shine.

(3) The Normals and Specs depending on your model can and cannot be that important, which sounds a bit stupid. But it really varies between each model.

What is important is the diffuse texture, it's the weakest link.

(3a) If your like me (A noob), you would use real life pictures and use that as a base texture.

As you watch more videos or other people doing it (And with self-taught practice, that is the most important thing!), you'll learn to start to tweaking pictures, taking others and meshing them together. And then lastly making your own textures.

So expect for awhile your models to look really bad.

(3b) You just have to have dedication to the work to improve, their is nothing else we can do to help except on technical issues like how to make Normal/Spec maps among other things.

[ExpectedIdentifier]

Hello peoples.

For my total conversion I am making my own models. I also wanted to use my own textures. I looked at the textures for the walls etc... In Amnesia. While they look real, they're not photographs, they look kind of cartoony (sort of ). How do I make my textures look like that?

- Thanks, Xanco

Do you mean the shininess/depth of the textures or do you mean the actual texture itself? You can't really just use a photo, they should be edited in a way that makes them suit the game more using filters and brushes in photoshop/GIMP is the way to do this, as well as ambient occlusion maps (these basically fake shadows on 3d models. This means the model will have darker/lighter areas, even if no lights making them create shadows)

[WALP]

Hello peoples.

For my total conversion I am making my own models. I also wanted to use my own textures. I looked at the textures for the walls etc... In Amnesia. While they look real, they're not photographs, they look kind of cartoony (sort of ). How do I make my textures look like that?

- Thanks, Xanco

Do you mean the shininess/depth of the textures or do you mean the actual texture itself? You can't really just use a photo, they should be edited in a way that makes them suit the game more using filters and brushes in photoshop/GIMP is the way to do this, as well as ambient occlusion maps (these basically fake shadows on 3d models. This means the model will have darker/lighter areas, even if no lights making them create shadows)

if you have a baked normal map mixing in a desaturated version of that is a good idea and a good start too.

[Traggey]

Has nothing to do with the artstyle itself guys, normals and speculars are used in everything.

What gives Amnesia its look is actually the result of what I call sloppy texturing, lots of photosourcing and clone stamp tool used.

If you open the original textures up you can quite clearly see that they lack any kind of detail, and the stuff that's in there is merely blended from other photos, they also have very heavy shadows painted into the textures already which helps with the dark environments.

So just keep in mind to not make your textures too bright and just have fun with photosources, whilst using the sources I'd suggest you use photoshops remove shadows/highlight feature aswell, it'll help you alot.


Good luck!