Oysterworld - Disguising polygons with hand painted textures

Published at Oysterworld blog
When it comes to creating textures for relatively low poly models in game, you have the freedom to fake detail when necessary. The idea is to create an illusion with your paint work and make it seem like the object you are creating a texture for has far more geometry and detail than it actually does in polygons. This is not far from Street Art Illusions where it tricks viewers in seeing a massive hole in the ground where there is just flat road.

Some artists seem to like following the edge of the polygons of their UVs when they paint their textures, this may be because it seems right to follow when you've modeled them purposely to be the edge of a material/object, but a few tricks can improve the shape and look of the object- especially if the surface they are on is relatively flat.

I've created a padlock with an unfinished texture to show you the difference it makes to cut corners (literally and not figuratively).

The freedom of this style is you can paint all the detail you want in spite of the geometry. When painting your texture, try your best to treat it as a painting, and not worry so much about the what geometry you have modeled. It will most likely turn out better than you expect.

Update

It's been a while since I last posted, many apologies if anyone has taken interest up to this point. I have since left XD Studios (friend's own start-up games company) to pursue a company near home, wishing them the best of luck.
RAM has been discontinued, and in the end the competition was called off. We however received some tickets to the BAFTAs as an apology.

I now work with a games company called Oysterworld. It's been the best experience I've had thus far in the games industry, and I can only dream that I will stay with them for a long time.

My spare time has been spent on other things which are not art related, so this blog will probably not receive updates more often than once a few months- I will of course post the projects I work on, when they release/get published. If I do have some personal art projects going I'll make sure to post them!

It has been my recent interest to live life to the fullest and with balance. I hope some time I can come back to this blog full of content to show.

First Windows App: RAM

I proudly present RAM. My first ever windows app released, working with team members of my friend's start-up XD Studios. It's a bit rough and not as polished as we'd hope but it was made in less than 3 months to enter a Microsoft competition.

http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/app/ram/a68b086a-5f11-434c-bb7e-77429c9e5e84