<GaryDavidBOUTON> I'd like to start this with a "canned lecture" and then move on to Q and As . Okay?
<DAZ_Rhyno> That sounds great. Take it away Gary
<GaryDavidBOUTON> I'm an author of after-market books, most of them covering computer graphics. I started creating artwork with a pencil and sketch pad when I was about 5 years old I believe, and thank goodness for computer graphics, because at the rate I was going there would be no trees today. My first graphics application was CorelDraw and I think like a lot of you, I continue to add programs I think will serve my creative needs, and over the past few years I've been straying into animation and video editing.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Today's topic is textures. Don't yawn yet: If you're using DAZ Studio, you're using pre-made color and bump maps; if you're designing a page layout, you probably need textures. Textures surround us in the natural world and to better simulate the world in your design work, the most efficient way to go is with seamless tiling textures.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Let me define a "texture" for a moment; It's the fill that goes inside a stroke, and it can be one of several different types of textures. For example, going from unstructured to structured, dirt, the bark on a tree, a snowy sky, these are all textures whose component objects are randomly placed; you can't quickly detect a pattern, although the component objects might bear some visual similarity. Then you have more structured textures: snakeskin, the rows of kernels on a cob of corn, the fur on a wooly caterpillar, these textures are irregular in that they don't repeat in an obvious order, but the elements of the texture are clearly recognizable.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Finally, you've got your made-made textures: clothing patterns, a brick wall, diamond plate no-skid metal cases you see in the rear of SUVs. Pattern textures can have elements that are highly ordered such as a checkerboard, or the elements can be offset in some way to disguise an obvious repeat.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Bob turned me on to Luxology's imageSynth plug-in for Photoshop a while ago, and it's been a blessing and a curse because I can't put the darned thing down! imageSynth is a workspace that you access after installing it from Photoshop's Filters menu (I believe it also works in other apps that accept Adobe standard plug-ins such as Corel Painter), and it is so easy to use I think Luxology wasted their money printing owner's manuals! Here's the deal: if you're familiar with the Clone Stamp tool, this is the paradigm for imageSynth; you load "chunks"…image files you want to stitch together, and then stamp away to create a texture that repeats without seams.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Here's an example:
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Here's how to create an alligator, or any other skin using imageSynth:
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Now, you want to keep in mind that if your document in Photoshop is larger than the workspace window, you'll see scrolls and you want to use them so your pattern doesn't have gaps. Before you click, your image chunk is ghosted so you can help imageSynth with the aligning of the elements in your image; this also give you more creative control. You'll also notice the when you get to the edge of the workspace window with your chunk, it wraps to the opposite edge. It's like having Painter's Define Patten command in Photoshop. When you've filled the window, you click Apply at bottom right and you have your seamless tile in Photoshop.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Done, done, done. Those of you who work with modeling apps have a lot of flexibility with seamless images because although the "biggies" such as 3DS, Maya and C4D have procedural textures, I've almost never seen a procedural that looks as photorealistic as a photo (doh!).
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Slide 3 shows a finished render that I composed in Cinema 4D; one of the interesting things about texture mapping is that the better modeling/rendering apps give you a choice of mapping options. This image uses several different geometric mappings: cubic, cylindrical and I had to use Spatial mapping instead of UVW on the alligator model to prevent stretching.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 
<GaryDavidBOUTON> All these files I'm posting and yeah, in Firefox they're really teensy here, can be downloaded after the chat.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> When you think of textures, don't stop at color mapping; a good seamless bump map can serve many different design situations. Slide 4
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 
<GaryDavidBOUTON> is a grayscale version of a brick wall (I actually photographed a castle wall on the Saint Lawrence Seaway) that seamlessly tiles thanks to a pass through imageSynth.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Slide 5 is my own castle, using the saved image as a bump map.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Let me explain bump mapping for those of you who don't use modeling programs. James Blinn presented a paper in 1978 to SIGGRAPH on his discovery that a grayscale image (of a texture) could be used to simulate irregularities on a 3D surface in modeling space. By default, darker areas represent coves and lighter areas represent peaks across the surface. In Photoshop, you can do bump-mapping on a 2D surface through Filter-->Render—Lighting Effects; that's what the Texture Channel option is for. These are simulations and don't change the silhouette of a 3D object, so if you want a visible dent on the edge of a surface, bump-mapping won't get you where you want to go (but displacement mapping can; I'll explain this in a moment and you can use an imageSynth bump map as a displacement map). Bump mapping is a very quick calculation for a rendering application and most of the time it adds the visual complexity you want to make something look more authentic.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Okay, it's Silly Time and I've got a tutorial for Photoshop users who also use DAZ Studio.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> First, go scout down the body texture for your favorite model; it should be in the Textures folder. Then download the goodies pack I've provided for this chat; you'll use the pineapple texture to give your favorite DAZ model a fruity skin. The pineapple file in slide 6 was passed through imageSynth so it already seamlessly tiles; use an image of your own if you really want to flex your creative chops, as follows:
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 1. In Photoshop, make a seamless tiling texture. Then duplicate it (right-click the document title and then choose Duplicate Image).
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 2. More than half the time, an image map can be turned into a bump map because in photography, lighter image areas seem to protrude while deeper areas look like recesses. On the Channels palette, click the red, then the green, and then the bluee thumbnails to see which one has the best contrast. Select it and then choose Image-->Mode-->Grayscale; dismiss the annoying attention box.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 3. If you've got a noisy image, it'll make a poor bump map because there will be unpredictable spikes on the surface of your model, so choose Filter-->Blur-->Gaussian Blur and then set the blur amount to about 1 pixel. For high-res images, you can type in fractional amounts such as .7 and this works well.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 4. For both the image and the bump map, choose Edit-->Define Pattern. Save your images; you won't need to use them in this tutorial because they're saved in Photoshop now.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 5. Open the color map for your favorite DAZ character in Photoshop. Click the Quick Mask button on the Toolbox and then with the Brush tool stroke over the body map to select it, as shown in slide 7.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 6. Click the Quick Mask button again to toggle back to Standard Editing mode. Hide the marquee if you like by pressing Ctrl/cmd+H.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> http:// 6. Click the Quick Mask button again to toggle back to Standard Editing mode. Hide the marquee if you like by pressing Ctrl/cmd+H.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> http://www.theboutons.com/images/stories/chat/Bouton08.jpg.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> oops, bear with me here!
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 6. Click the Quick Mask button again to toggle back to Standard Editing mode. Hide the marquee if you like by pressing Ctrl/cmd+H.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 10. Repeat steps 5 through 9 to create the body bump. Close Photoshop and go to DAZ Studio.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 11. Pose your character and map the bump and the color textures to your model. As you can see in slide 9, there's a reason why I called this "Silly Time". Render the pose out to PNG file format so the background areas are transparent.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Doodle around with the composition in Photoshop. In slide 10, I added a few Cinema 4D renders; the volcanoes have got particle systems in them to simulate the fire, and my pose's lovely chapeau is a bunch of leaves uses a freeform deformation block to make them fan out. And the drink is a virgin Pina Colada I created in Trader Vic Studio, version 1.2.1.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 
<GaryDavidBOUTON> I'm going to stroll away from all this modeling stuff for a second because not all of use are modeling weenies.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> If you want to get into what's being called "3D" now but feel a little intimidated, you're not alone and I think I spent a good year creating nothing but chrome spheres before I did some serious reading. I found along the way that a good entry point from 2D to 3D is a plug-in made by Andromeda Software called 3-D Luxe.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 
<GaryDavidBOUTON> In slide 11, you can see the interface with a texture of some wood I built in imageSynth. 3-D Luxe provide the models themselves; all you have to do is decide on the lighting angles, the amount of shine, and the geometry and camera position. Slide 12 is an illustration I did entirely within Photoshop with imageSynth and 3-D Luxe.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Okay, still in the 2D world, ImageSynth reads and writes transparency into layers and image files, too, and here's where you can perform a Painter Nozzles sort of composition without owning Painter. I have a 2D tutorial here that might appeal to graphics folks on ArtZone, particularly design work in desktop publishing. Here's the steps to creating a fancy diner menu border; after this tutorial I'll show you how to add dimension to the menu through Photoshop's Vanishing Point filter (Photoshop CS 2 and later):
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 1. For this menu that's used in a burger joint, I thought some images of burgers and shakes would at very least be Honest in Advertising. So I modeled them, a burger and two shakes, at different camera angles, and then saved them out to separate image files (PNG) with transparent backgrounds. You can see, or rather you can't see, the transparency in slide 13.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 2. You create a new document with transparency for this example, then you load up the files in imageSynth, and then stamp away. You can also rotate and scale image chunks, so I actually didn't need all the rendered files I did. To scale a chunk, you use the mouse wheel and to rotate a chunk, you hold Ctrl/cmd and use the mouse wheel. In slide 14 I'm slingin' the burgers just like I did during summer vacations, and in slide 15, I'm supersizing the meal by adding triple thick shakes.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 3. I want a garish background for my seamless tile, a simple repeat gradient. So I create a new layer, put it behind the fast food layer, and then press Ctrl/cmd+R to bring up Photoshop's rulers, the only way to access the guides. I drag a horizontal guide down to the 50% mark in the document. I made this tile 600 by 600 pixels so the halfway point was sorta easy to calculate :).
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 4. With guides snapped on (View-->Snap to), I create a rectangular marquee around the top half. Then I use red and yellow as my foreground/background colors, and then with the Gradient tool set to linear, I hold Shift to constrain the angle of the gradient and drag down, as shown in slide 16.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 5. I duplicate the gradient layer by dragging its title into the New layer icon on the Layers palette, then hold Shift and select the gradient layer and the background fast food. Then I click the align bottoms button on the Options bar to get the duplicate gradient flush with the document's bottom.
<GaryDavidBOUTON>  ]
<GaryDavidBOUTON> From here on it, it's pretty much up to you how to put the text on the menu. I find Xara Xtreme Pro to be excellent for short DTP documents.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> I'd mentioned Vanishing Point a moment ago. Vanishing Point is a Photoshop filter that enables you to create multiple perspectives from a clipboard copy of an image, so the clipboard image fits right into a scene with a perfect suggested camera angle. I rendered a scene of a pair of hands holding a menu with the camera at eye level from the direction of the person's head. Unfortunately, the menu is blank; fortunately, I know how to use Vanishing Point, and so will you, as follows:
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 1. Lets' say you have a render of a pair of hands holding a menu. First, you put the flat menu image on the clipboard, you copy it.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 3. Choose Filter-->Vanishing Point. This is a strange interface; let me explain what to do here. Fist of all, by default the Create Plane Tool is chosen for you, and this is good.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 5. Hold Ctrl/cmd and drag the nine o'clock plane handle to the left; this extends the plane and as you can see in slide 19, the child plane wants to extend at a 90 degree angle to its parent plane. All is okay; just extend the plane.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 6. With the left-hand (child plane) selected-it's selected when you see the grid inside of it—hold Alt/Opt and drag up or down on the nine o'clock handle of the child plane to rotate it.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 8. Drag the pasted menu into the parent plane, not the child plane and then move it around. If the dimensions of your menu don't fit the dimensions of the blank menu in the document, choose the Transform Tool in Vanishing Point, move the paste around until you can see its bounding box handles and then scale the menu.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> In slide 20, it took a little fussing, but the menu has the right perspective now. The nice thing about Vanishing Point is that the planes you set up are persistent from editing session to editing session; they stay as info in a PSD file.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Getting back to using imageSynth as a Photoshop "nozzle", I needed some paisley for another one of my goofy modeled scenes. I created the paisley elements (the objects) in Xara Xtreme Pro, exported the elements as a layered file to Photoshop file format, and then saved the pieces off to individual files to build the pattern in imageSynth; the capability to rotate chunks proved indispensable to recreate paisley.
<DAZ_Rhyno> \who
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 
<GaryDavidBOUTON> In slide 24, you can see a close-up of the paisley pattern and how I misused it. Slide 25 shows a close-up of the pattern as applied to the gentleman's frilly blouse. The scene was a labor of love for a borderline obsessive-compulsive artist; I moved the people out of Poser using TransPoser, a plug-in for Cinema 4D and Awesome's head is not a Poser model.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 
<GaryDavidBOUTON> I used a program called FaceGen to create a highly detailed face; it's a program used by police sketch artists, but it has non-forensic uses! It was just very easy to sculpt a caricature of Mike Myers in it, and then assemble the piece in one application with almost no post retouching except for the glasses. I hand rendered the reflections because the glasses had flat lenses which wouldn't pick up reflections and highlights.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Continuing the survey of silly uses for imageSynth, here in slide 26 are a few textured brush strokes and some individual hairs I complied in imageSynth, and then applied them to the big guy in slide 27. The imageSynth seamless tiling texture was saved as a PNG with transparency so I could decide and redecide the background color while assembling the scene. The bump map was created in Reichert Software Engineering's TextureMaker, a terrific little sidekick to imageSynth that does interesting procedural renders.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Animation is a good arena in which to use imageSynth, too. Jarrod told me we're going to do a podcast after this chat and we'll play two shorts I did. I created a biplane in Luxology modo, rendered out the file with a transparent background and then I puzzled for a while over what to put underneath the flying plane. Funny thing: a head of broccoli looks quite similar to an aerial photo of trees, so I created a seamless tile of broccoli. Then in After Effects, I put the tiling broccoli image under the biplane layer and changed the broccoli's position over time, from above the frame to below it, apparently making the plane move forwards, as you can sort of see in slide 28.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 
<GaryDavidBOUTON> I also did a dance number whose hero is a jacket, a hat, and the invisible man. I thank fellow ArtZoner Doug Sturk for guiding me through the logisitcs of mapping the texture of the jacket, a feat I'm slowly getting a handle on! The rigging of the jacket was not difficult; I gave the model wearing the jacket no opacity and no highlights, similar to hiding a prop or character in DAZ Studio. I then bound a mocap file to the model and poof, instant canned animation! If you watch the podcast, the animation shows off the seamless tiling nature of the jacket pattern, shown in slide 29, in a way that's difficult with static images. The fellow is bopping around, you can see the pattern and the hardest part was manually moving the camera, because with the jacket's frenetic dancing, using a target camera would make the scene jitter and give the audience a headache! Less is more.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> 
<GaryDavidBOUTON> There's a gentleman I'd like to mention who has been a big creative influence to me, and you've probably enjoyed his discoveries without realizing it. Alvy Smith, one of the original founders of Pixar Studios, developed the HSB color model. Without it, we'd still be picking colors using RGB sliders and you know what a PITA this is in apps that have sub-par palettes. Dr. Smith also invented the digital image alpha channel; it was featured in his product Altamira composer, an image editor that had layers years before Photoshop and Painter. Alvy Smith is largely responsible, also, for the RenderMan photorealistic rendering system, a system that is used in Hollywood for many motion pictures for its results that often cannot be distinguished from real cinematography. In an interview years ago, he said something like this (this is not a verbatim quote), "The surface of an object is the first and most readily identifiable aspect, more so than an object's shape. Take for example a scene of a business office. It can be visually described largely as a bunch of cubes; a book, a shelf, a table. The most detailed geometry in an office is usually the telephone."
<GaryDavidBOUTON> All right, that's about it for my li9ttle show. Before we pass the mic around, I'd like to leave you with a thought...
<GaryDavidBOUTON> ...take a fresh and perhaps a serious look at your collection of textures. What do they describe? And what can you use to further your collection, as quickly and as painlessly as possible?
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Did we lose our MOD?
<DAZ_Rhyno> Thanks Gary! and everyone remember that we'll have the chat logs posted later today. in case you missed anything so far
<DAZ_Rhyno> We have a few questions for you now,
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Okkkkkkay. You're back! We missed you! Let's chat! Any questions?
<DAZ_Rhyno> and if anyone would like to submit a question, click on @QuestionBot in the right column
<Valandar> How do you get proficient enough with these programs to write all these books so soon after the program comes out?
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Oh, Lord! Everyone is a bootstrapper, so time, using my past experience as a traditional illustrator, a lot of reading and a lot of time!
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Also, I'm on everone's beta list, so I have a few months of lead time to get a book written before a product ships.
<turan> How long does it take you to write an art book? I ask as usually arty people are not to good at the writing thing :-)
<DAZ_Biggie> to ask Gary a question, send your question to QuestionBot as a private message by clicking "@QuestionBot" on the right hand side.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> The time varies. I've had as little as 10 weeks and as much as 4 months to get a manuscript to a publisher. As far as "artsy people" go, I'm doubly-blessed (or doubly cursed); I'm an artist, but also a career writer.
<JZArtist3D> Hey Gary, what is your favorite software/program to use out of all that you use for your work?
<GaryDavidBOUTON> ASCII Art Pro. I'm kidding; it depends on what you're trying to simulate, and how patient you are versus the features in a program with which you're being patient. I have no patience for Illustrator, to tick off Adobe systems here :), but I've seen some fantastic stuff done in Illustrator by gifted individuals. I held a pencil in my hand before ever holding a digital stylus, so I've become impatient with programs that seem to afford a "long route" to a goal I have in my head. I've tried most competing products, and I've settled into Xara Xtreme Pro for vector drawing, Photoshop for retouching, InDesign for DTP work, and Cinema 4D for modeling. I think I say truthfully say I use all of these programs daily, they work for me, and the straight answer to your loaded question is I think these are the best programs for what they do in a specific design area.
<mors_d> what do you find most difficult about writing a technically oriented book for people who might not be so inclined?
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Actually, I Think I write books on Art with the technical approach more in the background. I've written "recipe books", a la "click here, go there", but they don't offer as much artistic sustenance as a book that concentrates on concept, approach...you know, the traditional stuff. And if a publisher decides to run with this heretical approach, it's easy to write. you just write from experience.
<rickei> have you ever written about any software you hated? if so how do you keep you opinions out of it
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Oh, yeah; I've written a book or two based on the reality that authoring...like everything else...is a business, and you don't get paid to write a tome on a program you hate...but sometime's it's the only title available, and authors have to eat :). So I try to be as positive as possible with Application X's shortcomings...no one wants to pay for a book that urinates all over the program the reader is trying to learn. You be constructive, and as I heard once, "When life hands you a lemon, you ask for the tequila and the salt."
<DAZ_Rhyno> to ask Gary a question, send your question to QuestionBot as a private message by clicking "@QuestionBot" on the right hand side.
<mike_mull> Hi Gary.Where's a good place to start in digital art, in order to get a solid grounding in it?
<DAZ_Rhyno> Looks like we're having some technical difficulties, hang on one second everyone, I'm sure it's not personal Mike_mull ;)
<GaryDavidBOUTON> I'm back! Either Firefox or DAZ dropped me, eh?
<DAZ_Rhyno> welcome back gary, it is pretty busy in here. Did you get the last question?
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Erm, the last question I received was about authoring a book on an app I detested. No?
<DAZ_Rhyno> Mike_mull asks: Hi Gary, Where's a good place to start in digital art in order to get a solid grounding in it?
<GaryDavidBOUTON> I'd start with Art; Art is Art, digital or traditional. I've been doodling with a pencil since age 6, so this helped me get into digital tools. There's really no shortcut to expressing yourself graphically. The computer is not a talent-generator. I'd begin with an app that you find easy to use. For 2D, I can recommend Xara Xteme Pro, it's inexpensive and highly intuitive to use. For 3D, em, everyone has their own opinions and I'd best zipper thelip on this one :)
<DAZ_Rhyno> to ask Gary a question, send your question to QuestionBot as a private message by clicking "@QuestionBot" on the right hand side.
<Faerie Fanatic> Have you Beta tested Photoshop CS3? If so what are your thoughts on it?
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Shameless Plug
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Photoshop CS3 is due out in the spring I believe and Vanishing Point version 2 is even better and faster than its predecessor. And I've got a new book on CS3 due out, Photoshop CS3: The L Line, published by Joseph Wiley. It's quite a thorough, college level textbook, full color, with a lot of fun workbook examples. CS3 is the most significant rev to Photoshop since version 5, IMFFHO. Check out amazon or your favorite bookstore because no one visits their least favorite bookstore.
<rickei> most of your artwork is very humorous. Are you just always a funny guy, or do you try to add humor as an emotional response
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Ask my wife Barbara. I tell her a killer joke, and she tells me, "It's okay, Gare...I'm laughing on the inside." I guess I'm a closet performer, and humor seems like a natural avenue of outlet. Also, Art has a sense of humor at an intrinsic level. Without lightness, Art suffers from a lack of contrast, just like music does, IMO. Take MegaDeath, and then take the Turtles. The Turtles were a hilarious group; I'dspend my time listening to a group that makes me laugh instead of a group that makes me cringe, you know?
<Kuanbyr> Have you every played around with PD Particals? If so what did you think?
<DAZ_Rhyno> (this will probably be the last question, sorry we've run out of time everyone!)
<GaryDavidBOUTON> I just ordered it online two days ago. I really like the flexiblility of particle generators for scenes, for energy, and smoke, and particle-ularly for animations! I'll play with it in the spare time I don't have. I use particles in C4D at the moment and they're a great and cheap rendering method for scenes that need oodles of stuff that have indistinct shapes...I recommend particle systems as part of your creative tools to every aspiring imagist.
<GaryDavidBOUTON> Okay, the chat has timed out! Thanks to everyone, and please drop by TheBoutons.com. We're a small commercial site, but we have a member gallery and The Pixel Dust forum, where I get into similar chats and discussions on all types of graphics.
<DAZ_Rhyno> Thanks again Gary, it's been great having you here today. Here is a link for everyone to download the texture pack from today's tutorial
<DAZ_The Crow> http://artzone.daz3d.com/chat_images/imageSynth_textures.zip
<DAZ_Rhyno> And you can find some video podcasts of gary's on iTunes now as well
<DAZ_Rhyno> here they are for those of you without iTunes.
<DAZ_The Crow> http://artzone.daz3d.com/chat_images/biplane_fancy.swf
<DAZ_The Crow> http://artzone.daz3d.com/chat_images/Jive_Jacket.swf
<DAZ_Rhyno> in itunes you can find several podcasts by searching for ArtZone BTW :)
<DAZ_Rhyno> Ok, and thanks again Gary, moderation is off an everyone is free to play "last Chatter Standing" :)
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