Creating alpha textures from photos

Looking at how to create alpha textures from photos using free software and some tricks you want to know about using them as brushes.
Uses Materialize which can be downloaded here: boundingboxsoftware.com/mater...

[@MartinJamesLittle]

First we get given a fish, then we get taught how to fish. Brilliant to see, in simple terms, how to make textures.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Glad its helpful. Its quite a tricky thing to explain so I tried to make it as clear as I could.

[@Whiterose-Mask]

Not only i learned how to make alpha textures (didint knew it was same thing as a height map..) i also learned why i have those spikes coming out of my alpha textures, it was because it was missing the "blur" / too contrasted alpha map! 1 years later and still a relevant video.Thanks a lot!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Great to hear its helped 😁 Thanks so much for taking the time to comment and glad you took away so much from it.

[@damidraws_vt]

I wanted to let you know that you are my go to for tutorials, even though there are tons of the same tutorials I finally understand how to do this and many other things in blender. You walk through add ons or other programs/ sites and explain (in this case the blure and grayscale) the important of why things work and why they may not. Thank you AV

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Thanks so much Dami. That's lovely to hear and great to know the explanations are working for you 😁 And cheers for taking the time to comment, it's lovely to hear from people that are enjoying the tutorials 👍🏻👌

[@romain4520]

Excellent your tutorial! posed, calm, clear explanations! What fun to follow! Thanks a lot

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Thanks so much. It was probably one of the trickier videos to do as it has lots of different bits to go into so Im glad it was clear.

[@GingerJesusDJ]

Always love logging in to youtube to see you've posted a new video :) My blender skills have improved so much just from your videos. With regards to todays video, you must be spying on me. I have been looking into alpha textures and displacement maps the past couple of days

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Its great to hear the videos are helping people. It really makes the time I put into them worth it.

[@richardokeeffe8375]

Perfect timing as always!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Hope you put it to good use :D

[@_xir0]

love all the explanations - thank you for this great video!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Cheers 👍🏻😁

[@poliestotico]

Such a small channel for such a good quality content, cheers!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Thanks. It is small but growing. Its gone up by 500 subscribers in the last few days so I think word id slowly getting out :p

[@ignkiran512]

Thank you so much for this amazing tutorial ^^

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Cheers man

[@chaos-design]

very well explained and again learned something. Thanks

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Thanks and glad to hear its helping people 😁

[@joseterran]

awesome tutorial, thanks for sharing!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

No problem at all 😁

[@dannaglia]

Well done. Easy to follow and well explained. Cheers.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Thanks 😁👍🏻

[@XxREALH3R0xX]

Soo good! God Bless You!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Cheers. Depending on the detail you're looking for you might also want to check out the video on VDM brushes: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e3fahKeJhZWpnaM

[@BrailleScale]

I know this is an oldie, but I've finally been able to use it! Printing out some 1/20th scale cinder blocks. I upscaled a design I had originally used for 1/35th scale. The original was totally smooth with just a little bit of beveling on the corners so it didn't look too perfect. I textured it with putty and acrylic pastes and at 1/35th scale they looked great. But doing a 1/20 Ma.K mech and wanted some urban rubble. Figured at that scale I might as well take the blocks and make them even more irregular. The alpha texture I made seemed to work fine but on a block like that, I found the brush to be affecting the whole block across multiple dimensions. I am not sure if I should have done something to isolate the different faces. But played around with the strength and going back and forth, additive and subtractive brushes. Worked out good enough (at least on the render views- but it's got another hour or so on the printer, we'll see how it actually looks). Long winded way of saying thanks, as always, for your great content! 🎉 Your videos are always my first stop when opening blender and running into a question.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

😁 Thanks so much. If you're getting into Alpha textures the recent videos on VDM might be of interest.

[@BrailleScale]

@@ArtisansofVaul excellent! I'll have to get caught up, thanks for the tip!

[@MrJoatan01]

Thanks A LOT!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

No problem. Hope it was useful.

[@Real-Wisdom-Journey]

i love you man thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuu

[@ArtisansofVaul]

😅👍🏻

[@j_shelby_damnwird]

Great tutorial. What if I want to apply the color texture of the same image to the geometry generated by using its B&W alpha? How do I match the color and B&W image perfectly? Also, is there a method to make these "stick out" even more? (I'm working on a series of "bas relief"-type portraits that I intend to 3D print, but since I have a lot to do I don't have the time to go full-blown sculpting on each one, looking for a quick and dirty solution)

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Good questions. So you can make them stick out more by using the scale option in the displacement modifier if you're using that or you can increase the strength of the brush if you're in sculpt mode. Unfortunately I'm not sure about the colour texture, I model for 3d printing so colour textures are largely irrelevant to me so I don't play around with them that much

[@j_shelby_damnwird]

@@ArtisansofVaul Thanks for the reply and tips man, you`re a Godsend.

[@rajendrameena150]

I think you should do sculpting on plane rather to use box because it unnecessary doubles up your poly count but here maybe you show this for front face feature.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Fair point, though I would want something like wood often be on all sides so it depends what you're looking for.

[@elzar8763]

thank you +=)😁

[@ArtisansofVaul]

No worried.

[@MrCrazymmogamer]

Guys any idea whats the difference between Dyntopo, remesh, multires and subdivide? Which one to use when i want to add some details using alpha brushes or just by sculpting, keeping in mind that i would like to resin 3d print my models later on. Are models with like 1-2 mil faces ok for 3d printing?

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Great question. Im more into hard surface modelling but from my dabbles with sculpting here's my answers. So subdivision is only something I would do to begin with or for using alphas (and even then I would probably end up remeshing at some point but its not guaranteed). Dyntopo vs remeshing is the big one here. I would normally only use dyntopo if I wanted one are to be higher resolution than the rest of the model. This can happen often on a face or if you're worried that remeshing the whole object will add in too many faces, other than that I would remesh. There are a few functions/tasks where dyntopo is better, for example creating a tentacle. I haven't played around with the multires modifier that much but it seems most useful if you're going to be reposing the model after but someone might correct me on that. Finally 1-2 million faces is fine I would think. I normally go with whatever my computer is happy dealing with.

[@hawkeyeharsh9878]

My material app. Doesn't open any photo what will I do.. pls. Tell me.....!!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Hmmmm.... Im not sure why that would be. You may have to try to contact the creator as it should.

[@Mile2112]

Have you tried doing alpha textures from stable diffusion --> materialize ---> Blender? Any tips on how to use stable diffusion?

[@ArtisansofVaul]

I haven't. In fact I haven't done much with stable diffusion at all. I'll have to have a look at it. Have you had any successes?

[@Mile2112]

@ArtisansofVaul actually I did and the results from stable diffusion vary a bit depending on which model you use for generating images. Realistic models generate better texture images. In general I found that this method works great with adobe substance sampler but I couldn't get it to work with Materialize well for some reason. The height maps in Adobe substance sampler seem to be generated better than in Materialize. Maybe it's my lack of knowledge in Materialize that's holding me back 🫣...

[@ArtisansofVaul]

@Mile2112 To be fair I think my lack of knowledge on stable diffusion would hold me back more 😅

[@bravodium]

Wouldn't this be a great way to make bases with some cobblestone texture of sorts?

[@ArtisansofVaul]

For sure, especially if you wanted something a bit more organic. Though I would say you can also make great stone flooring using the stone walls option in Blender. You can see a video on that here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iaDQdomPatZ6Zq8

[@bravodium]

@@ArtisansofVaul Yeah, the stone walls are also a great way to do paver bases! By the way, I haven't seen in your vids how you make the hollow bases that are standard in GW games. Either I missed it or when you cut your base out of the larger diorama, you'll get a filled base, not hollow. It may be cool to show a few ways to do just that and / or add a space for a magnet on the base.

[@lauragarnham77]

Having some issues with Materialize. I click on O on Diffuse Map, find the texture and select it, but the program doesn't seem to import anything - at least I don't see anything in the preview box and still have only O and P as clickable options in the Diffuse Map box and cannot click 'Create' in the Height map box. I am using the same rock texture image that you used so I doubt it is an issue with the image file. Would appreciate any advice, thanks in advance.

[@amirulmukmin4965]

same here

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Im so sorry for not having replied to this earlier. Your post got buried in a load of bot made posts on one of my videos and I didn't see it. Unfortunately I have never had the issue you are describing so my only suggestion would be to check if the image you are trying to import is a jpg file (that's what I have always used). I think you have some options when downloading it so maybe it has been downloaded as a different file type? If that isn't it I'm afraid I am at a bit of a loss.

[@amirulmukmin4965]

@@ArtisansofVaul hey no worries. I got it solve already 🫠

[@ArtisansofVaul]

@@amirulmukmin4965 Oh awesome! 👌 What was the issue in the end?

[@lauragarnham77]

@@ArtisansofVaul Hi no worries, if I get round to trying this again I'll keep that in mind

[@Spaceisprettybig]

Question: Would it be possible to simply throw the image into Photoshop, then tweek the levels?

[@ArtisansofVaul]

I'm pretty sure it would be. This just saves a bit of time/hassle. But if you know photoshop I'm sure it could be done.

[@endscreen1shorts478]

Hi, I'd like your help, I'm developing in fusion 360, I haven't worked in blender yet, and I don't know if this is possible, what I'm trying to do, I have a 3D model of a fish that I made in blender, is it possible to transfer the same model as an stl file in blender and extract the fish scale from the picture and put it on that model that I did in fusion? In the same way with the help of which you did it in the video. I would appreciate any response

[@ArtisansofVaul]

I don't really know Fusion 360 so I don't know Im afraid. I would hope that it has a similar displacement function but cant be sure that it does.

[@endscreen1shorts478]

@@ArtisansofVaul you didn't understand me, it doesn't matter, I have to try, only then will I know, in fusion 360 you can't do it even close, fusion is very limited, I was thinking of putting any 3d model in blender as an stl file, and then edit that 3d model further in blender adding texture to it using image . I will watch your tutorials and I believe I will order from them, they are very inspiring, thank you

[@kam1n661]

HI, i tried to follow your tutorial step by step and when i get to adding the texture it only puts squares instead of the texture. could you help me out please

[@ArtisansofVaul]

You mean to the object in Blender? Without being able to see the file I would guess the object needs subdividing more.

[@rajendrameena150]

Can you tell how to project alpha properly on curved surface without distortion 😊?

[@ArtisansofVaul]

You shouldn't have distortion on a curved surface unless the scale is incorrect on one of the axis or you don't have enough geometry (subdivisions) on the surface.

[@rajendrameena150]

@@ArtisansofVaul I mean if they will bend properly on very sharp curves ?

[@ArtisansofVaul]

@@rajendrameena150 What do you mean by "bend properly"? I'm trying to get in my head what you're trying to do. The texture will go around the bend according to the nor.als of the object, but the bend itself will cause the texture to flex.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

@rajendrameena150 They should be as sharp as the curve is. If not try beveling the edge to a wider curve to get the result you want?

[@Robert-ln1cx]

do you know of a good alternative to Materialize for Mac users?

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Not that works this easily. I would suggest using Gimp as its free (its like photoshop) and Im sure it can do all of the functions needed like desaturating to make the image black and white and then using something like a gaussian (which you actually have even more control over). But I don't know the software well enough to say where those things are located in the program.

[@Robert-ln1cx]

@@ArtisansofVaul thanks, I'll check it out, this was such an interesting video and technique! 👍

[@abhaysiddhartha5374]

Just use photoshop. Desaturate it add little bit of blur or you can just use filer in filter menu/ 3D/ height map and it will do it automatically for you.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

@@abhaysiddhartha5374 Is photoshop free for Mac?

[@abhaysiddhartha5374]

No. But you can use any free editing software to desaturate and blurr even with your smart phone. But don't blur to much

[@cjforex2010]

Great tutorial. Like the accent by the way.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Haha. Thanks.

[@coffeediction]

sooo and no copyright issues? xD

[@ArtisansofVaul]

I mean that will depend on the photos being used. There are lots of sites out there that allow their photos to be used for textures or offer them royalty free, or you can take your own photos (which I really enjoy as you can find some great wood textures especially out there).

[@user-lv9ix6vm6c]

Can you make me an alpha brush for this photo?

[@ArtisansofVaul]

What photo?