In my latest project i wanted a cartoon style, But as its a quick prototype something simplistic and easy was the way to go. This Requires Photoshop.
Find a texture
For this I get textures from free sites such as http://www.mb3d.co.uk/mb3d/maxTextures_Home_-_Free_Seamless_and_Tileable_High_Res_Textures.html . There are plenty of these types of sites around, But do not expect to find exactly what you need as well as most sites requiring registration. You can find more resources locations via places like www.reddit.com/r/gamedev .
here is one i’m going to use for this post: http://www.mb3d.co.uk/mb3d/Wood_Seamless_and_Tileable_High_Res_Textures_files/Wood_13_UV_H_CM_1.jpg
Photoshop:
One loaded into photoshop the first thing to do is to apply the Filter “Poster edges” as found here:
This should open a box showing how it would look with some adjustable settings like so:
I generally stay near the default, only increasing Edge Intensity on textures that are similarly coloured throughout. Next you need to apply the cut-out filter, Press the “New effect Layer” button by the bin icon below the Poster edge layer and choose Cutout which should be on the top line of the open artistic effects. On the cut-out settings i generally put them higher then default to simplify the texture down quite a bit.
This is the end result:
Bump Mapping and specular maps:
Specular maps are quite easy to achieve, This can be simply done by going to “Image -> Adjustments -> Hue and saturation” then sliding the Saturation down into the Gray. This should come out like so:
Bump map:
Bump maps are not so easy to accomplish by yourself, but don’t worry, Nvidia has a tool just for this. https://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-texture-tools-adobe-photoshop , This is a plug-in for Photoshop that allows you to create bump maps in a few clicks. All you have to do is go to “Filter -> NVIDIA tools -> normalMapFilter”, The default settings are generally fine so click ok and you are set.
You should end up with something like this:
It may not be very noticeable but it mostly comes down to the engine shader settings to how it comes out.
Well I hope this was of use to some people!