Don't like them...

[martix]

Hi, I must to say that I dont like firtst 3 of your textures CD's
I have almost never used them in my production, especially now, when I have my own pro digital camera and I can make them much much more better.
Textures have visible seams somewhere on the map, looks like you really rush with them. They really sux for big tilling, cuz start to pattern too much. Color and light correction sux, because if this pattering thing.
Dirtmaps - is so lame thing! You have just used some inverted photos from similar CD, in some cases even from another (from dirt or rust) theme, like wood or bark. It sux!

And stop to promote them too much, cuz it sux too Who want them - will find and buy them...

bye

[ThinkTank]

So your saying that you just bang the textures on to your models with out editing them first???? Pros and such actually mix the textures

[the_solidshadow]

amen!

[Tom-3DT]

Hello Martix,

Thank you for your comments, let me address them one by one.

Textures have visible seams somewhere on the map, looks like you really rush with them

This is not true, we do not rush them, quite the opposite in fact and take a lot of time with each texture, we also double check seams, maybe some parts of a seam on certain ones have slipped through the net but it will be a very small percentage and you word it as if it could apply to the majority, which is not true.

They really sux for big tilling, cuz start to pattern too much

Tiling is always a problem with textures, we do paint out areas that have obvious repeats and rework other areas in order to keep this to a minimum. With our latest collection we have done a first for any texture collection I know that is available and tiled them up 2x2 and 4x4 then reworked them more and painted out yet more repeats for the best possible results for mid and background textured objects.

Color and light correction sux

Again I have to disagree, much time is spent on these issues.

Dirtmaps - is so lame thing! You have just used some inverted photos from similar CD,

This comment I find particulary harsh after we work hard to provide such high quality dirt maps as bonus material for all our cds. Some are made from similar photos but you are wrong, they are not just inverted, they are many extracted colour selections and adjusted levels to mention a few of the techniques used. Here is an image textured with the first 3 cds you refer to, almost every object uses a dirt map too, impressive results we say.



And stop to promote them too much, cuz it sux too

We have few ads on 3DTotal for the CDs, we promote them with tutorials that provide tips and advice from experienced and professional artists, whether you intend to buy our CDs or not these tutorials are a great source of learning material that are free to all. I am sure your final comments of 'we should have less' of these would be in a very small minority if put to the general community.

Here are some more examples of artwork created with just the first 3 CDs you mention, there are approx 50 more images like this in our new gallery we have opened too which can be found here :









I have my own pro digital camera and I can make them much much more better.

Please feel free to post some of your work in this thread too.

Again many thanks for your comments, hope you have found my reply enlightening.

Tom Greenway

[Goj]

I'm one of those guys who doesn't really use any map besides the diffuse/specular/bump, and I'm curious what a dirt map is.

[JHarford]

great post tom . gave some nice pics and some good information

as for the original post . - your opinion doesnt hold up much in contrast to the reviews from rendernode and 3dworldmag

[zuc]

Haha!! Great Tom! Lol, really really nice. I don't have the cds yet, I'm sure I can't find them here in romania and i can't buy over the internet...so...

But I do think they are great! They look really good on these pics! I would like to have textures lol:P

[ben-3DT]

Just a quickie for Goj :-)
Dirt 'Masks' (not really maps) are basically greyscale 'opacity' maps as you are more familiar to them. We create these masks from photographs of dirty or rusty materials and extract the areas of dirt and rust. These masks can then be put over other maps of metals / bricks etc and only the 'clean parts show through, giving the whole texture a 'dirty' feel. Check out
http://www.3dtotal.com/services/cds_new/v5.asp
and scroll to the bottom for a few examples of dirt maps.

Ben

PS. On a more personal note: I think some people are totally unaware of the alternative options of texture collections available in the market place today. We have an incredible collection of texture cd's unmatched by content and value for money anywhere else. We produce these cd's to aid hobbyists, amatuers and professional artists create the fantastic images we see on the site every day, without having to spend loads of money and hours of time creating textures for themselves. We are genuinly sorry to hear from un satisfied customers but we are not out to make a quick buck and have in the past gone far beyond the call of good customer service to make sure that every customer is happy with what they have purchased from us.

If you feel you have been let down by the Total Texture Cd's then please please please feel free to send your questions and comments to:

cdsupport@3dtotal.com

Thanks for all your support.

Ben Barnes
www.3dtotal.com

[martix]

Hello Tom-3DT, thx for the great answer. Sorry for my angry post. Maybe it was a bad day for me, or I was just borred by another one adverstiment of your textures...
I just don't use your textures in my production a lot, maybe thats why I want to make some disbalance in positive reviews. I think it will just sparks additional interest about your CDs
But I must to say, that Marlin, texturama, RansomActive or got3d textures I dont like much more then yours. Marlin and texturama - for price/quality proportion, Ransom - just because they made bad small maps from bad small reference, and got3d - because he often use InfinityTextures soft to make textures for sell, if I ever use this app - I will make them for free.

About seams:
They are not so critical in final render, because Maps filtering will blur them anyway, but seams are still present in your textures. When I'm not rushing with my maps I'm trying to check out ever part of map Just to defend my words:




About patterning:
Yes, I must to agree with you, that it is hard to make texture good for high tilling without removing a big part of "cool" details. So you make right decision in your last CDs to make a couple of variants of the same texture. I often do same thing for my own textures.
But it doesnt change situation about first 3 CDs (which I have "reviewed") Because there are no any tex. variations. BTW as far as I remember I have seen similar note about fair repeating on 2nd or 3rd CD in one review (that was linked on the mainpage of 3dtotal some time ago).

About dirt maps:



Just a couple of examples from 1st CD. I dont bother how you made them, its matter of couple of minutes in time. When I read Bonus - I thought it will be real bonus, nothing else.

About promotion:
Cant understand why you have added those pictures in this thread, I have seen them before and I have some problems with viewing your post with them added in Another adversiment? ...joking, I understand that it is your right to promote whatewhere you want on 3dtotal, and you have done a lot of great things for 3d community.... even dunno why it makes me so angry

About my textures:
Hmm, I dont know why I should show you my textures I'm sure our tecniques of making them are really similar, especially if you are using Photoshop...
But if somebody want - I can make texture from his reference, just give me this reference (in good resolution)

ps: if you can - I'd like to know how you are making bump maps for 'brick' kind of textures. Some of them looks like you have paint b/w 'brick'/'seams' map and mixed it with desaturated original map, other looks like you have just corrected them a bit. Some looks like you have 'corrected' them brick by brick using some method. How you are making them?

[daagom]

Bravo 3dTotal team. I personally love the first 3 cd's. I'm currently in college, and can't quite get a digi cam. I use these cds a base for many of my textures and the dirt masks help greatly in creating complex and realistic textured scenes. Thanks for a great product. I plan on buying others if I get the chance. Not only are they great textures, but they are priced extremely well for their quality. Thanks.

~Jeremiah

[Tom-3DT]

Hello Martix, Lets take them one by one again

About seams:

If you looked at all the seams in all the hundreds of textures that we have made I think the mistakes would be less than 1%, I said already that some parts of a seam may slip through the net even when double checked.

About patterning:

That's right the more 'interesting areas' the textures have the more obvious the repeats/patterning can be, this is why we include the 'dirt maps and masks' with the cds and have many free tutorials on the site showing how to effectively use them. They are very effective at disguising patterns as they can overlayed upon tiled texture without being tiled themselves.

About dirt maps:

Dirt maps and masks are excellent, no two ways about it, even if just used to fix the patterning issue you go on about. An excellent map/mask is still excellent whether it is created in 2 minutes or 2 hours. Hense they are a real bonus, as so many artists will vouch for.

About promotion:

I showed the pictures in this thread to help prove the value of our textures as you claimed that many aspects of them 'sucked' or to be 'lame'. This section of the forum is currently linked from the frontpage of 3DTotal, do you really think that I will let hundreds of people see your comments without defending our hard work in any way i can.

You are right we have several methods for bump maps, hopefully they will all be revealed in a future book we have planned.

On a lighter note, thanks very much daagom for your comments, very good to read

Thanks

Tom Greenway

[TheOne]

Well, dont think that the quality is bad, quite the contrary, they are great. I only got V4 but I think the others are as great!

You may be right that there are some mistakes on some maps, but you may not slap them on a model without editing them anyway. Normaly you should unwrap the models first, and then put the textures on it.

If you know how to use them they are great in my opinion!
I like V4 and I will buy the other ones, too!

Only my opinion tho.

[LittleFish]

Just from reading the descriptions and staring at the maps and all, I have come to the conclusion that the textures improve with time. CDs 4,5,6 are higher quality than 1,2,3 because of experience; however, the textures on 1,2,3 do not overlap and are thus irreplacable.

(sorry, can't afford. when am concerned with texturing more than drawing, will look into them)

[JJ54]

I can't afford to purchase these textures yet but I am a texture freak and will purchase them within the next year I'm sure.
This user that initiated this thread is welcome to his opinion but a professional texture artist should have BodyPaint or DeepPaint 3D and use the textures to paint with. This overcomes ANY repetition problems. I'm sure that they can be used to make brushes within 2D applications as well, cloned feathered, etc. to make viable textures. Texturing is to me (along with good liughting techniques) what makes CG "happen"! It isn't and shouldn't be without work on the part of the texturer or texture artist otherwise everyones textures would start to look alike. I might suggest the thread initiator read a good texturing book like [digital] Texturing and Painting. I'm beginning to understand what goes into a good texture and this looks like an excellent resource to START from - not a one click solution!

After looking at the preview pages, I saw some things I liked and some I wasn't wild about. That just jelped my creative juices flow to start seeing how the previews were great starting points and could be combined into really unique things!! If the tiles don't work quite right and look repetitive, do some cloning and healing brush things in 2D programs if that is what you are using. If I were a young guy and not disabled, I'd enjoy being a texture artist. They are paid well for good work and results - not tiling with instantaneous results.

Sorry - my 2 cents - Just felt that this post wasn't consistent with what the promos are offering and what I know about texturing.

Jim

PS - Keep 'em coming, Tom - When I can afford them, I'll get the whole set - hehe - you may be up to 10 by then

[martix]

Hi guys, I have free time to check out new releases of Total Textures, I thought experience after first CD's will help you to make new stunning collection of the outstanding quality. hehe, I was wrong
Ok, I have seen v5/6 but will talk only about v6.

The most disappoint moment in this CD is whole content structure. Only about 80-90 Mb of this CD are useful maps!!!
Pretiled maps are frustration. They looks like a really dumb cheat, because doesnt realize their mission. They repeat and make 'pattern' effect. Bricks in pretiled modifications are repeating in the same areas of map - this is really ugly, you should spend some time and make them various in the same areas. It is how I imagine pretilling. The main bad thing is that this dumb modifications take up almost all free CD space.

Next, you guys were really hard-working on this CD Just look on quality of images you have done:








I dont like to make stone maps too, but guys there are ways to make it better then dumb cloning with nasty smooth result Yup, they are time-consuming ways - but we aren't lazy, are we?

Ok, I think it is time to stop there, you will always find to answer something in reply but it will not the quality of this maps.
In overall I can't advise this collection to somebody who need 'clean' textures. There are much more professional done textures on the marketplace and for the much cheaper price, for example Texturama 1000 maps collection or Absolute textures(expensive but ultrahigh quality maps).

thx