Working on Tau Ceti for ArcBuilders

[Dollan]

Okay, thought I'd share this preliminary version of Scylla. The texture has been tiled, but nothing else has been done yet. Still, I really like the look of it, so I thought I'd share it right now.



The texture is a high resolution image of a sedimentary rock used for decoration (one of several, actually) at our local train depot. The reddish material is actually mudstone, and if you look carefully, you might be able to see the mudcracks preserved in it.

As for further correcting, there won't be much to do. Pole pinch, of course, and bump mapping. But I *might* overlay some craters, perhaps from a nice neutral-colored world such as Mimas (yes, I'll be avoiding Herschel Crater; that would be too obvious!).

Anyway, thoughts?

...John...

[Cham]

Dollan,

you should try to remove the shadows in the cracks. It's too obvious it's a picture of a stone texture maped on a sphere.

[Dollan]

Alright, I removed the most obvious shadows with a clone brush, but there are still some minor ones remaining. I think once I bump map it, these shadows will be more fissure-like. Also, I want to see what overlaying a crater field will do. If they're still too obvious, then I'll remove the rest. Here's the updated version:



I might have to take the camera out and get some snow and ice shots next, for some of the upcoming outer moons that I'll be doing....

...John...

(Edit) It's interesting how the "minor" shadows appeared so innocuous in the flat map, but how they come to stand out once the texture is placed on a sphere....

[Cham]

Dollan,

I think the shadows are still too much visible. It doesn't look very "natural" on the sphere. The bump map will make it worst.

What is your texture resolution ? 2k ? I suggest you work at the 4k resolution to get some better results, and reduce it to 2k after, if you prefer.

Also, be carefull about the poles stretching. This is really important. I suggest you use LunarCell (only for the poles), if you're working with Photoshop.

[Dollan]

Hi Cham...

I've just overlain a crater field onto the map and am about to test it. Right now, though, it looks like the shadows are pretty much eliminated. I might do some further color correcting as well; I'll have to see what the result of the craters do for me. But regardless, if it still doesn't work, then I'll probably just chalk today's work up to shadow-removal.

As for pole pinching, I usually go to polar coordinates and use some careful cloning and such to remove the problem. I've tried lunar cell, but registered or not, I can't get it to work past a couple of generation attempts. It will generate a map, but will not export it. This is the same for Photoshop AND PSP .

...John...

[Dollan]

Okay, here's Scylla with craters overlaid... not the effect that I was hoping for, though. I wonder if I should just leave it as it was, and work on removing the shadows?

But then, one would expect craters on a world smack in the center of an asteroid belt.....



...John...

[Cham]

As for pole pinching, I usually go to polar coordinates and use some careful cloning and such to remove the problem. I've tried lunar cell, but registered or not, I can't get it to work past a couple of generation attempts. It will generate a map, but will not export it. This is the same for Photoshop AND PSP .

Sounds very tricky to me. Poles are a strong constraint. I can't tell about your LunarCell problems and I guess you're working on a PC. I'm on a Mac, so I can't help there. However, I don't think there's a better solution than LunarCell, for the poles. I don't believe at all in the polar coordinates trick, but I may be wrong on this. Maybe some clever uses of the polar coordinates can gives some good results, but I doubt it.

Planet texture design is an art in itself and needs a lot of practice, experimentations and ... time. Don't stop. Keep working on them, at the end you may get some very interesting results and it may be pretty grattifying.

EDIT : I just saw you new picture. Looks better. You don't have any bumps yet, I guess ?

[Dollan]

Hi Cham...

Do you have, or do you know of, a mini-tutorial for Lunar Cell and pinched poles? Can you import directly a texture to Lunar Cell and use it to correct the problem? My own problem may stem from the very old version I am using (1.something, I think).

The polar coordinate method can be tricky. If you're not careful, all you end up doing is stretching out and blurring the rest of your texture. I don't much care for the method when dealing with Earth-like worlds, but generally it is okay with less distinct planets.

And no, I haven't done the bump map yet. That won't happen until the poles themselves are fixed. Which is, of course, my next big thing to do.

...John...

[Cham]

No, you can't import a texture into LunarCell to map it on a sphere.

All LunarCell is able to do, is to map a "fractal like" texture on a sphere. Its textures are very boring, in the long run, but it's doing a very good job at the poles. So I take a texture made from LunarCell, erase all the middle part, and paste the poles on my custom texture.

[Dollan]

Well, come payday I may look into purcasing the newest Lunar Cell available. We'll see; might make it my Christmas present to myself!

Anyway, here's Scylla with a bumpmap, the height of which is set at 1.0. Any more, and it starts to look like a stipple-painting.



Gonna work on Charybdis next, from a similar image of a rock, but with much more subdued colors.

...John...

[Michael Kilderry]

Scylla looks interesting.

Maybe you could make Charbydis a bit of a bluish colour to contrast against Scylla's redness.

[Dollan]

Actually, this is what I came up with:



...John...

[Michael Kilderry]

Looks good, even better than Scylla.

[Dollan]

Thanks! I have some minor tweaking to do to the system, and then it'll be ready for uploading to the Motherlode. Depending on my schedule, now that I'm well enough to get back to work, it could be a couple of days or so....

...John...