Recommendations for texturing

AndrewJJP

Although I do a lot of modelling, I have not done much in the way of texturing. I tend to just apply shaders.

I'd like to start creating textures both for my own products, and commercial products. I've done messed about in Affinity Photo (my postwork tool of choice) but the one issue I have is aligning things across seams, especially when trying to manipulate normal maps.

I'm wondering what kind of tools I should be looking at. Is this doable with a photo editor and I'm just going about it wrong, or would I be better off using something like Substance? I tried Quixel, but found it painfully slow on my i9 / 3090, and there is no guidance on using it with Daz I could find, whereas there's a fair bit on Substance.

Just hoping for some high-level thoughts before committing any money!

Thanks :)

felis

If you by "aligning things across sems" means that the UV seam should not be visible, then it is to my knowledge not an easy task. You can use a 3D painting program where you can paint across the seams.

Blender has the ability to do that, although I haven't really used it for that.

AndrewJJP

felis said:

If you by "aligning things across sems" means that the UV seam should not be visible, then it is to my knowledge not an easy task. You can use a 3D painting program where you can paint across the seams.

Blender has the ability to do that, although I haven't really used it for that.

Thanks very much, yes, that's what I meant. I use Blender for modelling, but I never thought to try it here!

I wouldn't know where to start, I expect you have to plug some nodes together first, but one thing I will say for Blender is that there is a lot of help online.

 

FenixPhoenix

I really like Substance3D Painter (now Adobe 3D Substance).

AndrewJJP

FenixPhoenix said:

I really like Substance3D Painter (now Adobe 3D Substance).

Thank you :)

The thing that definitely has going for it is that there is information on how to use it with Daz, and it looks like it uses iRay too. Might have to do the free trial, see how I get on...

FenixPhoenix

AndrewJJP said:

FenixPhoenix said:

I really like Substance3D Painter (now Adobe 3D Substance).

Thank you :)

The thing that definitely has going for it is that there is information on how to use it with Daz, and it looks like it uses iRay too. Might have to do the free trial, see how I get on...

If you're not in a hurry and you don't like subscriptions services, there's a perpetual license version over at steam which goes on sale around black friday and christmas. There are a lot of tutorials for it and if you're familiar with photoshop, then you'll find the transition not as difficult. You can also check out substance source, as they have free substance painter materials for you to use as a starting point (think as them as shaders).

AndrewJJP

FenixPhoenix said:

AndrewJJP said:

FenixPhoenix said:

I really like Substance3D Painter (now Adobe 3D Substance).

Thank you :)

The thing that definitely has going for it is that there is information on how to use it with Daz, and it looks like it uses iRay too. Might have to do the free trial, see how I get on...

If you're not in a hurry and you don't like subscriptions services, there's a perpetual license version over at steam which goes on sale around black friday and christmas. There are a lot of tutorials for it and if you're familiar with photoshop, then you'll find the transition not as difficult. You can also check out substance source, as they have free substance painter materials for you to use as a starting point (think as them as shaders).

Now I definitely appreciate you mentioning that! I do my postwork in Affinity Photo precisely because I prefer a perpetual licence (although it doesn't have everything, I believe it's similar to Photoshop), and no, I'm in no hurry. I'll have a look into it tomorrow, but from a skim now, Substance Source looks very interesting. It looks like you have to subscribe to get the non-free assets as far as I can tell. Decisions, decisions...

Thanks again, very much!

FenixPhoenix

AndrewJJP said:

FenixPhoenix said:

AndrewJJP said:

FenixPhoenix said:

I really like Substance3D Painter (now Adobe 3D Substance).

Thank you :)

The thing that definitely has going for it is that there is information on how to use it with Daz, and it looks like it uses iRay too. Might have to do the free trial, see how I get on...

If you're not in a hurry and you don't like subscriptions services, there's a perpetual license version over at steam which goes on sale around black friday and christmas. There are a lot of tutorials for it and if you're familiar with photoshop, then you'll find the transition not as difficult. You can also check out substance source, as they have free substance painter materials for you to use as a starting point (think as them as shaders).

Now I definitely appreciate you mentioning that! I do my postwork in Affinity Photo precisely because I prefer a perpetual licence (although it doesn't have everything, I believe it's similar to Photoshop), and no, I'm in no hurry. I'll have a look into it tomorrow, but from a skim now, Substance Source looks very interesting. It looks like you have to subscribe to get the non-free assets as far as I can tell. Decisions, decisions...

Thanks again, very much!

Yes, unfortunately you do need to subscribe to get the credits for substance source. That said, you can find a TON of great materials for substance painter over at Art Station and they run sales on resources regularily, so you should also keep an eye out on that as well. You can likewise find free materials doing a search, you just need to keep track of which ones you can use comercially.

Enchanted April

With the subscriptions you can download 30 assets per month for free says my CreativeCloud account. The "little" Substance subscription includes Painter, Designer and Source for 20€/month. But I have yet the Photographer subscription to pay (Photoshop, Lightroom and Bridge) for 10€, sigh, decisions, decisions ;)

AndrewJJP

FenixPhoenix said:

AndrewJJP said:

FenixPhoenix said:

AndrewJJP said:

FenixPhoenix said:

I really like Substance3D Painter (now Adobe 3D Substance).

Thank you :)

The thing that definitely has going for it is that there is information on how to use it with Daz, and it looks like it uses iRay too. Might have to do the free trial, see how I get on...

If you're not in a hurry and you don't like subscriptions services, there's a perpetual license version over at steam which goes on sale around black friday and christmas. There are a lot of tutorials for it and if you're familiar with photoshop, then you'll find the transition not as difficult. You can also check out substance source, as they have free substance painter materials for you to use as a starting point (think as them as shaders).

Now I definitely appreciate you mentioning that! I do my postwork in Affinity Photo precisely because I prefer a perpetual licence (although it doesn't have everything, I believe it's similar to Photoshop), and no, I'm in no hurry. I'll have a look into it tomorrow, but from a skim now, Substance Source looks very interesting. It looks like you have to subscribe to get the non-free assets as far as I can tell. Decisions, decisions...

Thanks again, very much!

Yes, unfortunately you do need to subscribe to get the credits for substance source. That said, you can find a TON of great materials for substance painter over at Art Station and they run sales on resources regularily, so you should also keep an eye out on that as well. You can likewise find free materials doing a search, you just need to keep track of which ones you can use comercially.

I had a look around, and yes, there's loads of stuff. Decision made, I'll give it a go. I think I'll do the free trial, then decide which purchase model to go for (probably Steam). Thank you!

AndrewJJP

Enchanted April said:

With the subscriptions you can download 30 assets per month for free says my CreativeCloud account. The "little" Substance subscription includes Painter, Designer and Source for 20€/month. But I have yet the Photographer subscription to pay (Photoshop, Lightroom and Bridge) for 10€, sigh, decisions, decisions ;)

Yes, I've always tried to avoid subscriptions and it looks like you can with the Steam / ArtStation and other places I found. I still need to look into how useful Designer might be as I really don't know a lot about it.