LAYERED TEXTURING IN PHOTOPAINT / PHOTOSHOP
Due to unexpected demand - I've created this tutorial to show how to achieve the texture map I created for my Dark Star fighter project. I will primarily be using Corel Photopaint 7 through this tutorial but you can achieve the same with any high end graphics program - like Photoshop for instance - and a good texture creator. Luckily Photopaint has a superb set of texture creators as part of it's Fill function - if you don't have Photopaint - use another program to achieve the texture you desire - bear in mind I won't get the exact same texture I created - but this tutorial will show you how to achieve the desired results ;-)
Right lets take a look at this texture creator / fill function - first create a new document the same size as your monitor res. - in my case 1024x768

Right - now click on the fill tool and make sure the Tool Settings roll-up is visible - click on texture fill and you'll get this menu opposite Now click on the edit button... You'll get this screen. Photopaint has a few of these texture Libraries - but to save you the time of finding a texture to suit - I opted for Flares 2 from the Library Samples 5

Right a quick guide to adjusting these textures:

if all the little lock icons are unlocked whenever you press the preview button a random set of variables will be made and you'll see whatever the result in the preview screen. First of all lock them all for now, and then go and adjust your colours to match the texture you want to create -- in my case I already knew roughly what the colours should be like - but any discrepancies can be sorted out later.

For now; just aim for an approximation - remember to keep hitting the preview key after you select colours to see what the fill will look like - keep playing around with the colors - you may find it easier to knock the density setting to about 15 - 20 - this makes the texture larger and therefore easier for you to see any changes with all the locks down you'll only affect the colours and not the overall texture shape and size etc...

 

Now - after a while you'll eventually get the colour match - or at least a good approximation of what you're after - now it's time to start playing with the densities of the texture. - remember that the preview screen shows what the fill will be like on whatever you use the tool on - in this case the entire screen. So ensure the size of the texture matches the size you'll be applying the fill and ofcourse the model you'll finally be applying it to.

Remember when you apply the fill if it doesn't come out at the right density - just press undo and edit the texture density and try again - keep doing this until you get it right.

Once you get the density right then start off by unlocking the texture# and pressing preview continuously until you get a texture to your liking in the preview screen

The settings below are what I settled for in the end.
Now apply the fill to your blank document and then save it in your programs native format

! Now you will note that the colours probably don't match what you're really after - especially if you after certain colour blends to begin with - but if you're happy with these colours - then pat yourself on the back - you've created your texture.Save it in the program's natural format - in this case *.cpt - this will preserve everything in detail.

However if you need to adjust the colours then carry on to lesson two - this is advisable anyway as there is more to learn

Below is a scaled down version of the fill applied to the document.

Adjusting the Colours of your Texture

Right - here's one of the features of Photopaint I really do like - and it's the Replace colours feature.

Now I know I wanted to keep the colours of the texture roughly similar to the existing Whitestar scheme so I used the Whitestar texture as a reference initially for the colours. So first I load the Whitestar texture into Photopaint. I'm interested primarily in the base Blue colour and the Purple highlight colour - so using the ink dropper tool - I take a note of these colours with a jotting pad.

Base Blue: RGB 100,43,244
Purple highlight RGB:230,185,255


Remember this is going to only give you an approximation of the colour blending - but it's an excellent place to start your adjustments from. Now its on to the colour adjustment. In Photopaint load up your texture - and then click on Image-Adjust-Replace colours and you'll get this screen

The hand tool when selected and placed over the Original will let you zoom in (Left click) and zoom out (right click). To save you pressing preview all the time you can lock the preview screen down and see adjustments as you make them.

Now using the color picker tool (right of magnifying glass) select the colour you wish to replace from the original image - then click on the new colour button to open it's menu and choose your replacement colour by clicking on Others and specifying the exact colour from the RGB colour selection - then check the preview screen to see the assumed result.

Do this first for the blue and then for the purple - don't worry you won't get it right yet - but start from there

You will have to replace quite a few colours to achieve the result you're after and it will take some time - but it is worth it in the end ;-) Here's an image of the original texture...

....and one of the finished texture after a few colour replacements plus some adjustments made from the Color Hue filter (Image-Adjust-Color Hue) which allows you to add more Red, Green, Blue, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow to the Shadows, Midtones, Highlights or all three. Finally a little bit of gamma adjustment and contrast and you get the bottom image

Purple's less pronounced and the Blues are a bit more subtle - again save this in your editors native format - congratulations - the texture's done! Finally I applied the 2D Effects Ripple filter twice - with different angles to achieve a totally non-uniform organic effect

Part two deals with making the final map for your object - in this case the Dark star's Top Wing and Hull.

PART TWO