3004 Character Brief: Soothsayer Pt. 2 - Texturing in Substance Painter

UV Map Layout and Texture Budgeting:

At first I tried give the coat its own 2k texture square, but with how much surface area it has, it was impossible to arrange a UV layout with a passable texel density. So I made the decision to arrange all the clothes (basically everything except for the skin) in one 4k texture square, which did end up equating to the standard 1024 by 1024 pixels/m.

The head and eyes share a 2k texture, as do to the two hands. I prefer not to make the hand UV's symmetrical just in case I choose to add asymmetrical textures. The eyes, however, do have a merged UV island, because that area is less consequential as far as mirrored texturing is concerned.

Coat:

Coat Texture Reference

I began the texturing by first baking the mesh maps of my hi-poly sculpts of the Soothsayer's Hands and Face, and subdivided versions of her clothes.

As a base layer for the coat's felted wool look, I used the Burlap smart material, but removed the pattern layer. I know that there are blankets made of a material I want to mimic here, but I need to research it briefly to find the reference I need.

After asking around and searching online for my desired reference, I've discovered that the material is 'washed wool', which has this great fluffy layer of fibres. I'm going to try to combine the texture of the Hungarian coat reference with this material.

To create that recognisable blanket fibre fluff just with texture, I'm going to used one of the procedural texture images in Substance Painter 'cloth folds', which I've also previously used to create melted flesh/tissue for my Firefighter Captain. I think it resembles the pattern of the blanket bobbles if I implement it correctly.

I first applied the cloth folds image as a mask for a height fill layer, which by itself looks unnaturally uniform. I fixed this by adding a warp filter to the mask (with a very low intensity). To finally make it resemble a more fluffy and diffuse layer of fibres I added a low intensity blur filter.

Now with the layer of 'bobbliness' as seen on washed wool fabrics having been combined with the burlap material underneath, I'm quite satisfied with the result. I think it looks like a mixture of both cloth types and definitely looks like a warm material to make a coat out of.

Tackling the Embroidery and Patterning:

^ Embroidery Ref.    ^ Alpha made with ref.    ^ Applied as hem edging

I'd really like to have some woollen-looking embroidery work, both to echo the 'cold Mongolia' cultural origins for the character and to emphasise how warm the clothing looks. To create a convincing embroidery pattern quickly, I fashioned a custom brush that utilised the default stitch alpha in Substance Painter, added low intensity angle and position jitter with a constant angle offset and moderate spacing, and applied it using a height and base colour fill layer. I then painted the embroidery stitching onto the hem edging and I think it definitely achieves the effect of embroidery sewn with thick woollen thread.

Patterning Experimentation and Iterations:

I tried several ideas for the embroidery pattern and arrangement on the lapels - some from reference, some from imagination, and some repeating or not repeating - but nothing I tried with that line of experimentation jumped out at me as a promising idea. 

Custom Alpha Ideas and Iterations

I know I want to make the icons with the same custom stitch brush I made, but the question is 'what icons?' and 'how to arrange them?'

I took me a while and several iterations to find a fitting and visually appealing patterning for the coat lapels, but after brainstorming icons that would symbolise how she performs truth-seeing (i.e. with embers and ash) I designed a simple icon to symbolise fire and a spark/ember.

Layout Iterations and Roughing Out:

First using the alphas I fashioned as coloured stamps, I roughed out some arrangements on the coat to see would work and what I really didn't think elevated the Steppe-style culture of the clothing.

I decided to mainly alternate the icons of fire with the smaller and less intense spark icon because I thought that having several fire emblems too close together made the pattern too visually busy and noisy.

To add that all-important touch of age and wear to the coat, I added two layers for sun-bleaches areas of the coat (like the sleeves, shoulder)

Boots:

The aesthetic I was aiming for with the boots was a rough suede or unpolished animal hide-type material. I first added the rough leather smart material and customised each layer according to my intended result, particularly removing the roughening height layer and making my own with a less intense pre-set texture as a mask. I then added a layer to mask in dust around the sole (instead of dirt) and finally added stitching around the front and back seams as seen in my original modelling reference. At the end I also decided to add a darker leather sole with a stitched edge to vaguely resemble traditional Siberian boots and footwear, which is often lined with fur. I hope that this similarity with make the boots appear thicker with an implied lining.

Head-wrapping:

For the head-wrapping pattern, I turned to Tibetan fabric patterns, I wanted something that was a repeating pattern that would realistically be seen on long and linear fabric that head-wrappings are typically made from.

Face and Eyes:

To begin the face, I used the 'Skin Face' smart material to customise and use as a canvas to texture on top of. I altered the base colour of the face and subsurface layer so she didn't look too Caucasian. I also added a fill layer with a noise texture as a mask fill to create sun damage and freckle-like skin weathering.

Eyes:

I want to start the eyes earlier in the process than I did previously with my second character so I have a clearer idea of how the whole face is going to look as I develop it. Although my initial concept sketch didn't have eyes, I'm aiming for a wizened look but with a hint of emotional fatigue or melancholy.

Cataracted Eye Reference

I used the fine marble pre-set texture with a blur filter to create a procedural layer of blood vessels in the sclera as I did with my second character, as well as utilising the method I discovered through experimentation for creating the contracting iris fibres. Since she's of vaguely Turco-Mongolian origin, I'm going to make her irises a rich brown, which will also make the cataracts have more contrast once added. 

Once I added the cataract just over the pupil of the eye, I realised it just wasn't conveying the character I described boldly enough, so I've made the choice to completed cloud over the iris as well as seen in the other images of my texture reference.

^ Melanin Pigment ref        ^ Addition with a new fill layer and mask

Among my reference library for sculpting the face, I decided to pull from the above reference as I found the excess melanin pigmentation visually unusual and interesting. I used an default, uneven, speckled alpha as a brush to apply is as additional colour.

I felt that the wrinkles could stand to be bolder, and more skin-like (as they currently look quite harsh). I decided to use the baked curvature map to add some selective redness in all the creases, which I think really helps emphasise each contour and make them look more natural.

Finished Face texture and testing under a variety of lighting conditions in Substance

Hands:

Hands Texture Reference

As with the face, I initially applied a skin smart material to build on. I used the baked curvature map to add redness within each crease as I did for the face. I also hand painted some redness onto each knuckle.

I think feel like the hands looked old or withered enough, so using the curvature map as a mask, I added contours. For the age spots, I used the 'Grunge Pebble Spots' texture on a brown base colour fill layer and adjusting the tiling scale and reset the randomness seed until I was happy with it.

The final touches were adding colour to the already baked vein details, detailing the fingernails and ultimately adding the ember-made scars on her palms.

The fingernails were textured with a base fill layer with low roughness and a skin-tone base colour. I then hand-painted striations with a separate height layer, and thirdly airbrushed the paler edges and the darker nail roots.

Neck Wrapping:

^ Neck Wrapping Reference            ^ Texturing stage by stage

To create the base texture for the neck wrapping's fabric, I used the Burlap smart material with an extra base colour fill layer (with a cloud texture mask) to add some age-ridden discolouration. I then applied the Tartan smart material and stripped it down to just the tartan pattern itself, altered the warp filter to fit the level of weave distortion I wanted and masked in three copies of the pattern at different orientations to achieve the illusion of the wrapping being coiled around her neck.

Final Result:

I'm really happy with the how the eyes visually jump out from a distance, and I think the face texture is reasonably accomplished as a product of the reference I used. I'm still a little concerned about the simplicity of the coat's pattern design, but I do believe that it reflects the Soothsayer's culture and the climate she lives in (that being a Mongolian Steppe with cold winds). 

While most designs of Soothsaying characters are very ornate, jewelled and decorated, I wanted this Soothsayer to be from a community that didn't really value status expressed through fashion or wealth through jewellery, which has already been done. Her functional importance also doesn't warrant fashion accessories in my mind either. Rather than telling the future or spouting prophecies, this Soothsayer is more of a 'Truth-Seer'. People go to her to find out things that they feel they must know, but don't want to know. Her character narrative of feeling burdened by this truths would also be conflicted with by any weighted adornments to her outfit.

Regardless of this aspect, I think that the face and hands are the stars of the texturing, and the detail I've achieved hopefully compensates for the relative simplicity of her clothing.