spec map
assmonkey
Posts: 0
Can anyone say what the purpose of it is?
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They tell where the shine/highlights should be on a surface. If you have no spec maps, you can still increase the value and you end up with a sheen wherever the light is hitting the surface.
http://wiki.splashdamage.com/index.php/Specular_Maps
To adjust specularity across the surface. Human skin has different specularity in different areas (I think nose is shinier than the rest of the skin) and sometimes you need a bright specularity on a dull surface, that you can't model in or make a separate material - for example, a delicate metal details on a wood.
then what's the bump map?
Where the surface is raised. For example veins in the human body. Some people have veins that protrude from the skin's surface. You'd use a bump map to show this, and the value for how much it should be raised. Also used for wrinkles and such on clothing, details on the texture for dirt, sand, rocks, gravel, etc. You get the jist.
The most common you'll find with human figures is to help bring out the pores and whatnot for closeup shots.
Bump map is to make surface to appear more detailed than it is, and to emulate shadows on a surface when surface can't have a lot of geometry initially, ilke, say, seams or other small details. Displacement and bump maps are similar but different: displacement actually shifts geometry in render, while bump only emulates shadow and not suitable for big and drastic details because the resulting surface is still flat.
For example, the slight unevenness of human skin or small stubble could be done with bump map. If you want to, say, make thick and noticeable embroidery appear more elevated, you can make it with displacement map. Both are basically height maps but they behave slightly differently.
Ok, what I did for a skin I got was I removed the eyebrows and put my own on.
Is their a tutorial in make a spec & bump maps?
Spec is easy. Greyscale the skin and edit it- whiter areas will have more shine than darker areas.
Either google 'spec map' and look at the image results for an idea, or look at one of your current texture sets that may have one already.
Bump maps I'm not too sure about. I think they work the same way except the whiter areas will be raised more than darker areas?
/edit
Greyscale wasn't the best term. Desaturation would probably be better to avoid confusion with converting from RGB.
....well, seeing as I have no idea how to make a diffuse map...yeah, I'm at a loss om it
I edited my above post w/ more info.
Diffuse maps are just textures. Your actual skin map with the color would be plugged into the diffuse.
Ohh that is the worst way to make either bump or spec maps, and certainly useless for displacement.
Ohh that is the worst way to make either bump or spec maps, and certainly useless for displacement.
That's why I added to edit the converted map. Somewhere along the line something needs to be converted to greyscale to get the details from the skin. Whether it's the skin tiles you used, or a model's photo.
The only other thing I can think of is to hand paint the greyscale tones over the UV and manually dot in the pores and such, but that sounds like a pain in the rear.
Rather than just telling me it's the worst method, can you offer any advice?
Ohh that is the worst way to make either bump or spec maps, and certainly useless for displacement.
Oh dear Lord, do NOT do that for a bump map! You're basically bump mapping the different colours, which is nothing like what a bump map is.
A bump map follows contours, not the different colours of an item and need a lot of special attention to make it work naturally. Lighter areas are raised, darker areas are lowered, and sometimes you're lucky if you try to greyscale the diffuse map, but not to the degree that you can call it an accurate map. You really do need to follow the contours and lighten/darken accordingly.
Hope that helps,
Barry.
Oh dear Lord, do NOT do that for a bump map! You're basically bump mapping the different colours, which is nothing like what a bump map is.
A bump map follows contours, not the different colours of an item and need a lot of special attention to make it work naturally. Lighter areas are raised, darker areas are lowered, and sometimes you're lucky if you try to greyscale the diffuse map, but not to the degree that you can call it an accurate map. You really do need to follow the contours and lighten/darken accordingly.
Hope that helps,
Barry.
Thanks. To my defense I did admit I wasn't too sure about it. =P I had the basic idea (lighter=raised; darker=recessed), just the wrong way of going about it.
You people think that's the WRONG way to do it...why don't you back it up.
As Vaskania said, as least they're telling a method in steps...not saying it's the wrong method
quick demo of part of a skin map, spec and bump for the same area of just one face map I have (not mine). The 4th image is what you would get if you simply turned the skin map into grey scale
here is a quick and simple difference between a texture a bump and a displacement map.
Image is taken from my tutorial on the surface tab while based on DS3 it still explains the basics. http://homepage.eircom.net/~neilvpose/ds-settings.htm
I think you can just grey-scale the texture map...if you have gimp anyway...there is a bump map filter...thingy
@Cho, I don't lose all that detail. Perhaps we have 2 differing methods.
/edit
The one that produces the best results, imo, is using SilverFX by Google/Nik, but I know not everyone has that, and you have to re-add some of the highlight. (last pic)
well, thanks for the help...guess I'll just play around with setting and stuff...and gimp
I'll load gimp and see if I can duplicate it with it's available tools.
Try this in Gimp to at least give you a starting point. Since buying Photoshop, the last Gimp version I have is 2.8 and I don't think I had any plugins so what I used should be available to you.
Open your skin, duplicate the layer and hide the original. Go to Colors > Colorify > Set it to white to give you a desaturated map. Duplicate that layer, and set the new layer to Multiply. Duplicate the Multiply layer 2-3 times and you should get something similar. You will have to add in your highlights on the lips/eyes and such.
It may not be the best method, but it's the closest I've been able to come by looking at spec maps that were included with some of the characters I've bought.
I do, however, also have products with spec maps that are as light as the result from just a simple desaturation without any darkening of the map. You just have to figure out what works best for your figure.
I've also editing my initial post where I used the term 'greyscale'. Desaturation is a better term as you don't actually convert from RGB.
Well as long as you are happy with what you are doing, then carry on doing it your way. I hate baked on shadows as well I must admit.
OK I very rarely make skin maps, and then only for my own use, but even with clothing textures I would rather use Bump, Displacement and spec where necessary, and I don't make them nowadays by just desaturating my diffuse maps, although I have to admit I did when I first started.
For skins I have my Fave PAs and I will buy from them, because they do it the way I like things done,
I've only been learning as I go by looking at some of the maps that come with the products I buy and trying to duplicate the result since I've never actually found a definitive guide on how the process is actually done. I can find what the spec map is/does and how it works, just never how to actually create it (ie specific filters, adjustment layers, hand painting..?). So I go with what I've got. lol
I can't say I dare touch a clothing's UVs. >.< I'm a shaderholic in that regard, and will play with with the polygon editor before I work with a UV (in this regard, I'm probably a masochist, but eh). Haha
However not all characters look good in a texture made for a couch. =P
I can't say I necessarily have a fave PA yet for human skins. I thought I did, but overtime all of the characters started to look the same. Now for horror, I definitely have my fave for those.
When I started making some textures the tutorials I found all spoke of the grey scaling methods ... or making things black/white.
IMHO it can certainly be better than 'nothing' as one can make adjustments with the dials.
Learning how to make better bump/displacements maps, there are a variety of filters that various image editors use and some can produce some rather interesting results. Not everything is good for skins mind you.
And sadly I have seen too many times from a variety of folk who may or not know better ways remarks that do come across as rather callous and not helpful at all. Some people really prefer 'baked' textures and while that may be a neat way to do things ... "how"???? Everytime I've seen anything in the program for baking ... it doesn't appear that it has actually 'done' anything inspite of dire warnings that whatever it is it's supposed to be doing can't be undone ... and I have yet to find any files allegedly created by my D/S in any such attempts.
However when making a request one day for some information, some nice people told me about "ShaderMap 2".
It creates very quickly an entire set of images for any one image added to the program with a simple drag/drop in method.
Not expensive and worth every penny IMHO.
I have also since discovered at least one really nice skin MR set that does have baked bump/disp maps for a very decent price. Bought it just to see what that does and like WOW! So yes I'll go with the 'baked is better' IF one knows what one is doing. ShaderMap 2 and the like are great for most of us. And in a pinch, greyscale or blk/white may do the trick just fine.
The problem is that around 90% off all characters in the market ship with utterly horrible spec and bump maps, so you have to find good items to learn from. hint hint DAZ Elite Textures (especially Lana) hint hint - They are - imho - absolutely crucial to get a somewhat realistic look for characters, though, so trying to understand them is time well spent.
I've never really created maps by myself, but I'll share a few assumptions I have about their creation.
For spec maps, most people seem to use a greyscale version of the diffuse map with a rather high contrast. problem is, just because an area in the diffuse texture is dark, doesn't mean it should be dark in the spec map so you'll have to brighten a lot of areas. In the face those areas would be the nose, the area under the eyes, eyebrows and the lips (depending on how shiny you want them to be). Also, nipples tend to be a problem area. afaik they usually need to be brightened as well.
In addition the that, since human skin is made of many small facets, you'll have to find a way to simulate that as well. That's the part I still don't quite get tbh :D Best I've come up with so far is to apply some sort of mild noise filter to the entire map.
With bump maps it's very similar. You'll have to find areas in your greyscale map to brighten up, because the protrude a bit from the skin. This usually includes birthmarks, the lips (again), eyebrows (again) and the nipples (again).
If you do that, your map will probably compare quite favorably to a lot of what the market has to offer.
OK, I have a Spec map question, but not for skins. I have the M3 Katana Set, and have been working on creating a custom texture for it to give the blades a highly polished "black" sheen with lighter hammon. From my research, while the main body of the blade is supposed to have a "mirror finish" when polished, the hammon is supposed to have a somewhat more matte finish. Would a specular map be my best option, and, if so, what's the best way to go about creating such a map? For the record, here's the texture (applied to the sword) I'm using:
And the answers, additional info, for the above posts would also vary in accordance with which program is being used.
For eg. Poser and Daz Studio handle 'black and white' in the opposite fashion. This is why skin textures primed for Poser to bring certain body parts 'out', push them 'in' in D/S renders. And vice versa I'm sure.
In D/S whether one goes for a matte finish or glossy is also an option selected on the Surface Tab.
Seems the product is no longer available so, pardon the topic but this is the only black image I have handy atm.
The screen grabs are of ShaderMap 2's default interpretation for a specular map which appears to be making the black shiny.
It's still there. Hit download and it should work. I was logged in at the time, so that may be an issue as well.
It's still there. Hit download and it should work. I was logged in at the time, so that may be an issue as well.
I hit download and got a rather amusing 404 page.