Texture artist, a very interesting profession, mainly works on making texture maps for 3D models of various characters, props and environment. In the production of movies, animations and games, they often need to cooperate with modeling artists and lighting artists to the best texture which is consistent with the visual style of the project. The basic process of texture production is to unwrap the correct UVs of 3D models first, and then press the requirements of the project to make texture in Substance Painter, Substance Designer or Mari which is the mainstream software of creating texture in the 3D industry at present. At the end, the texture artists will collaborate with the lighting artist to import the prepared maps into the specified renderer for rendering, such as Arnold, Redshift, Vray, and so on.
Becoming a texture artist requires mastering many different skills. First of all, Texture artists have to learn and have a good grasp of the process of 3D production and the use of software, especially Maya, Substance Painter, Zbrush and various renderers. This is the most basic and important requirement of skills to become an employable texture artist. Texture maps mainly include base color map, metalness map, normal map, roughness map and displacement map which the artist needs to import into the renderer to make models become more vivid.
Nikie Monteleone, an experienced texture artist, creats many different kinds of 3D textures which are worth learning. She often shares the breakdown of her works online.
Furthermore, since the texture artist needs to cooperate with the director and art director to make suitable textures for different lenses, they need to have a solid understanding and use of visual language, such as color, scale, composition, perspective, etc. In addition, nowadays, animation, movies and games increase demands of realistic and stylized production. Creating unique textures for real or imaginary creatures, objects and environments is always based on reality; therefore, the texture artist should constantly find, understand and accumulate the texture or surface of various objects in the real world, such as textiles, skin, metal finishes, fur, scales, rock, etc.
In many movies, in order to integrate the texture of the model with the real world, artists need to take photos or scan real objects, and then use these resources and reference to make texture on the blank model; at the same time, especially in science fiction and magic movies, as there are many objects that do not exist in the real world, artists have to use their imagination and combine the textures of real objects to create new textures that do not exist, but can make the audience feel they are real. As a result, a competent and experienced texture artist needs keen eyes to constantly explore diverse textures and details in the real world as a reference for their works in order to maintain a high level of design and realism.
It can be seen that making texture is a very challenging but interesting work. If movies, animations and games want to present a unique visual style, they cannot be separated from the creation of texture artists. Since this research provides the job requirements for this position, and makes me aware of the skills and professional qualities I lack now, it has a significant impact on my current creation and what I need to learn in the future. My current understanding and accumulation of various textures in reality is still too shallow; as a result, the textures in many works did not achieve the desired visual effect. I have to improve this aspect which is a very fatal weakness for me.
List of figures
Fig.1 The process of creating texture. Available at: https://game-ace.com/blog/3d-modeling-in-unity/
Fig. 2 Substance Painter. Available at: https://substance3d.adobe.com/documentation/spdoc/substance-3d-painter-20316164.html
Fig. 3 Substance Designer. Available at: https://substance3d.adobe.com/documentation/sddoc/customizing-your-workspace-129368159.html
Fig. 4 Mari. Available at: https://www.foundry.com/products/mari/new-releases
Fig.5 Faustino, James, Seamless PBR Rocky Ground Texture. Available at: https://www.renderhub.com/jamesfaustino/seamless-pbr-rocky-ground-texture
Fig. 6 Monteleone, Nikie, The Process of Chameleon (2018) Available at: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2020/01/21/rtx-bakers-substance-painter/
Fig. 7 Monteleone, Nikie, Chameleon in Substance Painter (2018) Available at: https://www.nikiemonteleone.com/#/chameleon/
Fig. 8 Monteleone, Nikie,. Texture Maps of Chameleon (2018) Available at: https://www.nikiemonteleone.com/#/chameleon/
Fig. 9 Romanowski, Jeremy, PBR Textures for architectural rendering. Available at: https://www.arch2o.com/architectural-rendering-free-graphics-3d-models/