Texturing tests

Taking reference from the texture photos taken I made a few quick textures to get to grips with how textures can be made and how detailed would need to make the textures themselves without going too overboard with detail.

My first attempt of texture practice

I wanted to follow one of my photos for my first try at making a texture, fairly quickly made; roughly 30 minutes. Just getting to grips with what brushes work well and opacities etc.

I wanted my door to be a smooth sort of stonework so the depth of the textures weren't going to have too many dark details, however I do find this a bit too light for what I was hoping.

Started with filling a background layer with a block colour and had about 3-4 seperate layers of painting with different dry brushes on photoshop. The layers closer to the top being the highlights.

For my first attempt I felt as though I didn't do too bad. It's possibly useable, if i put more time and detail into it; or at the very least better shading. Colour wise I was aiming for more colder tones.

These two turned out too much like marble than stone, more so with the second I think. Ironically I was actually considering marble for my door, and now seeing these I may still consider it; but I'll research into marble textures beforehand. For easiness sake though I will stick with stone.

Same technique as before with the previous texture but using different brushes. I need to get out of a comfort zone with softly doing the shading and lighting, its too soft for stone textures. Again Im sure with more work into these I'll be able to achieve the texture I want, the colour for both of these however is pretty much spot on to what I want.



First hand texture pictures

-Textures-

Since I’ve pretty much chosen what kind of material my door will be made out of I will go out again and taken photos of possible textures that I could use for my door. I want it to have a slightly decayed/ aged appearance, so I’ll be examining the older buildings again. My door will either be stone, marble or brick; the brick work will definitely be used for the frame of the door and possibly the surrounding floor, however I think the result for the door, for easiness sake and that I’ll be able to get more interesting textures it will be made of stone. Marble is a very clean and smooth material so I wouldn’t get much in the way of detail for it; it won’t give me the opportunity to really test my abilities with texturing; even if the idea of a marble door is tempting.

Photos of textures.

These are most part of the texture I took photos of. I think I managed to collect a sufficient variety of textures to work with, most of them being stone to fit with my aim of a carved door.

Door designs

Initial sketches for door ideas

The finalized idea, Snake and woman both reaching for the centre. The pattern will most likely either be, just textured or if I have enough time actually 3 dimensional.
Im not too happy with the front design, I may do some alternative designs but aside from that the overall shape wont be changing; so I'll be able to start making the door without worrying if I change my idea.

First hand research

To start the project I first went out to do some first-hand research by taking photos of different kinds of doors around Norwich, there is quite a variety of buildings with doors from different periods. From the photos taken, a lot of the ones that piqued my interest were from the churches and older buildings; I felt that some of the detail that can go into the more dated doors can have such interesting designs, lavish carvings to stained glass windows.

Most of my designs for these doors will consist of large arched doors, so the main detail for my design will be on the door itself; I’ll aim to focus on the detail on the door, more so with carvings. In terms of games I was looking to take inspiration from were games like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta, These have very detailed architecture, inspired by churches/ cathedrals, most of the doors are carved, some depicting a situation or story of sorts.

Another Style of door I would consider looking into is more realistic, but grungy doors. Like abandoned horror-esque feel to it, decaying slowly round the edges. Images of old hospitals and homes, left uncared for were pretty much the other half of the doors I looked at for first-hand research.

One of my main ideas involves the use of the story of Adam and Eve, the story leave much for interpretation. I would like to stick with the concept of Eve being tempted to take the fruit by the snake.

-Taking inspiration from games-

With the kinds of games that I could look at, I had a very firm grasp what I would draw inspiration from, large detailed doors; possibly depicting a puzzle or story of sorts.

The first game I looked at while playing was ‘Devil May Cry 4’; (Capcom, Xbox360, PS3, 2007)  In the first opening mission, large church, high arches, predominantly made of stone. Images/ patterns carved into the stone – a lot of the ‘carvings’ are flat textures, the detail on them gives the image that they’re more 3 dimensional than what they actually are.

Mostly whites, greys, blues, and for the mission I was on in particular a very soft red shade. Very few of the doors in the church area are stone- tall wooden double doors, rich brown usually with some gold detail.

Giant stone/ metal doors in later missions; arched, fairly simple in the design, almost lattice like indentations – effective as snow has built up in the crevices due to the setting being a snow wasteland; this gives the door much more depth.

I had never really taken much notice as to how big of a difference texture can make on surfaces.

‘Bayonetta’ (SEGA, Platinum games, Xbox360, PS3, 2009)

Similar to ‘Devil May Cry’ the designs for doors in this game usually consist of massive carved stone or lavish wooden doors – however I felt that ‘Bayonetta’ uses much finer, elegant detail than in DMC; the focus for this game is predominantly holy, religiously inspired and the sun and moon. Mostly took sketches of doors that caught my eye from this game.

Quick sketches of some of the doors that particularly caught my interest while taking a look through these games