Quote:
Originally Posted by Taranis
Textures are important for CGI .. ..very important .. pity I am so bad at it
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100% agreed.
Texture is the difference between realistic and cartoon.
I am a specularity fiend because for me, it is the difference between a shot that works and one that doesn't.
Bump Maps are also a magic bit of coolness.
I purchased a killer dragon mesh from TurboSquid a couple of years back and the download was buggered up and the bump map files were not included. I had to wait until TS got ahold of the vender and then hooked me up with the bump map. When I rendered the dragon without the bump maps it looked like a slick wet dragon made of nylon and spandex - with the bump maps it suddenly had tons of nasty and gnarly scales and little etches in the teeth, claws and horns. It made all the difference in the world.
I know that when I render beauty passes of starships (doesn't matter what universe or era) I always look for at least one part of the shot were either a star, the sun, or a running light creates a bit of specularty across the hull. It make all the difference in the world to somebody viewing it.
I've shared my animations with my inner circle for years and when I learned how to do the specularity maps every one of them came to me at some point and told me how much more realistic my renderings were.
Yah, that was a long was to a short point!
LOL!
But yeah, 100% agreed - maps sell the mesh.
Not to say a great mesh isn't a great design... but the devil is in the details.
