some models have texture maps made in skin builder that are not made from the difuse?

mangosteins

I noticed that some characters have an albedo and normal that are related but the roughness, specular and stuff dont match the difuse and look like they were not made from the difuse at all, a lot of times there is a water mark saying skin builder. Is there an advantage to making the roughness and other maps independent of the difuse? 

DrunkMonkeyProductions

The short version yes.

Maps that are generated separatly are generally "cleaner".

What i mean by this is that a texture derived from the diffues texutre can have various baked in details that, when converted to grey scale, cause all sort of weirdnes from artificating to math errors that lead to a less than ideal result at render time.

 

Now, from what you're saying, it's a bit of a different situtation.

It seems as though the PA you got your product from is using SKin builder for that particular figure.

In this case, it's not too suprising that things don't "match up", especially if the diffuse/albedo doesn't also have the water mark on it.

Without knowing what product you're talking about, my best guess would be that they're using the skin builder textures instead of going through the process to generate "proper" texture maps for the figure.

Could be some shady stuff going on, but i'd need more info to determine if that's the case or not.

 

 

 

 

mangosteins

DrunkMonkeyProductions said:

The short version yes.

Maps that are generated separatly are generally "cleaner".

What i mean by this is that a texture derived from the diffues texutre can have various baked in details that, when converted to grey scale, cause all sort of weirdnes from artificating to math errors that lead to a less than ideal result at render time.

 

Now, from what you're saying, it's a bit of a different situtation.

It seems as though the PA you got your product from is using SKin builder for that particular figure.

In this case, it's not too suprising that things don't "match up", especially if the diffuse/albedo doesn't also have the water mark on it.

Without knowing what product you're talking about, my best guess would be that they're using the skin builder textures instead of going through the process to generate "proper" texture maps for the figure.

Could be some shady stuff going on, but i'd need more info to determine if that's the case or not.

ok so would it be more ideal if I remade the roughness, and specular and other maps from the included normal? 

DrunkMonkeyProductions

mangosteins said:

ok so would it be more ideal if I remade the roughness, and specular and other maps from the included normal? 

That is one option, but...

Normal maps are, generally, intended as a "better" or alternative for bump and/or displacement map, not for the other channels.

While you can convert them to greyscale to use in the other channels, you can get some of the same problems as with using the diffuse map.

 IMHO, unless there's an issue with the render resutls, there's not really much point in worrying about the different maps being used.

If you are having a problem could you elaborate on the issue?

mangosteins

DrunkMonkeyProductions said:

mangosteins said:

ok so would it be more ideal if I remade the roughness, and specular and other maps from the included normal? 

That is one option, but...

Normal maps are, generally, intended as a "better" or alternative for bump and/or displacement map, not for the other channels.

While you can convert them to greyscale to use in the other channels, you can get some of the same problems as with using the diffuse map.

 IMHO, unless there's an issue with the render resutls, there's not really much point in worrying about the different maps being used.

If you are having a problem could you elaborate on the issue?

The issue isnt so much the maps as my lack of knowledge. I'm trying to understand the best way to create each map for my character or when to know to redo included maps. What would be the "cleanest" way to create the roughness, specular maps, and sss map? 

DrunkMonkeyProductions

mangosteins said:

The issue isnt so much the maps as my lack of knowledge. I'm trying to understand the best way to create each map for my character or when to know to redo included maps. What would be the "cleanest" way to create the roughness, specular maps, and sss map? 

Well, the way i learned to make these various maps starts with a high resolution model(multiple millions of polygons), where the various details(pores, veins, etc) are part of the model, then each map is generated from that model using distinct lighting techniques(such as Red,green and blue lights for normal maps) to prevent the various issues i mentioned.

 These maps are then taken into a photo editor for adjustments, and then applied to the lower resolution model.

If you're making your textures based on photos, things get a bit more complicated, and it's often a matter of "close enough".

I'd suggest hitting the youtube's for some tutorials on generating the various maps and different techniques for them.

 

mangosteins

DrunkMonkeyProductions said:

mangosteins said:

The issue isnt so much the maps as my lack of knowledge. I'm trying to understand the best way to create each map for my character or when to know to redo included maps. What would be the "cleanest" way to create the roughness, specular maps, and sss map? 

Well, the way i learned to make these various maps starts with a high resolution model(multiple millions of polygons), where the various details(pores, veins, etc) are part of the model, then each map is generated from that model using distinct lighting techniques(such as Red,green and blue lights for normal maps) to prevent the various issues i mentioned.

 These maps are then taken into a photo editor for adjustments, and then applied to the lower resolution model.

If you're making your textures based on photos, things get a bit more complicated, and it's often a matter of "close enough".

I'd suggest hitting the youtube's for some tutorials on generating the various maps and different techniques for them.

thank you, im working with converted g8 game characters so i think I have to go with the close enough method.