Textures

Textures

Textures and colours are really what makes and breaks a area. Good use of either can really change how a area will look and give it a completly different feel. I am going to use as an example a demo I did for the Greenwood in the Gray Isles Server.

 For the Greenwood I am aiming for a overgrown forest that makes you feel you are deep into the woods.

I changed the default grass to dirt_05 and then cover it over with grass_37 at 30% pressure. I then use a large brush and randomly brush over the area at 40% pressure with grass_37 so the whole thing looks patchy. I then select grass_14 and using a medium brush size again set to 30% pressure I repeat the process. Once that is done I go to a medium brush size and up the pressure to 40% and again randomly move over the area leaving patches of grass till I have an effect like this:

I then break out grass_37 again this time setting the pressure to around 60% and randomly move over the area again creating a more patchwork apperance. While all this takes time is does allow you to build a very well broken up set of textures without the repeating patten you get from using just one texture.

Next I move onto blight_06 again starting with a low pressure and building the pressure with each pass. I usually start as low as 20% pressure and finsh around 50% in small patches. Eventually ending up with something like this:

After that I introduce grass_38 at around 40% pressure in a few places to provide a even more broken surface. Sometimes I will go back and use one of the other grass textures over places I think the blight is showning through too much. In reality its all about personal taste in how much time you invest in this part of the area. Having done quite a few Greeenwood areas I can do this pretty quickly now as I am wotking from a standard pallet. If I was doing a "new" type of area like a mountian etc there would be a lot of trial and error in the process.

Well I now have a nice look textured ground, the next step is to vary it a little more with some use of the colour options found under terrain. Its very easy to overdo the part and its default pressure of 50% is too high for the effect I am after. I usually go with 10% and a very light touch of the brush. Sweeping moves over the ground and not lingering in any one spot for too long as the colour will rapidly overwhelm the effect we are looking for.

This is how the area looks after a brush over with a wash of brown and green. Again patchwork is the effect we are looking for.