Texturing help + critique needed

[Cilein]

Hey there, I'm looking to make a jelly texture for part of a piece I'm working on. I'm going to animate it to wibble-wobble once I have a good idea of the texture/lighting I'll be using.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

This is where I am now, does the 'jelly' texture come across? Ideas for how could I improve it? Right now it is only color that really gives any info about the material..

My abilities with making color ramps/palettes are terrible so suggestions on that welcome also.

[Edit]: Updates all shown on this post as well as through comments to help anyone get up to speed

[Batzy]

Suggest you look at Jad's avatar it may be a good example:


Anyway here's kinda bad edit but it should give ya some idea.

[Glak]

My initial reaction was "that guy is going to need really hard to fix that texture, that gravestone looks like it is made out of jelly".  So yeah I dig it.  I like the rippled one on the left.  The one on the right is ok but not as obviously jelly.  I also think that it might be harder to animate well.

[Cilein]

Thanks guys, for the edit and ref also - v. helpful.



In this one I tried to better the lines, making the shape a little less glass like. 2 new colors for highlighting and I redid the static wibbly-ness.

I think I might need to be more extreme on my chubby corners, they look more like bad pixelling atm.

[redballoon]

Yeah, you're edges look far to sharp and defined. Your image doesn't really look like jelly to me, I'm afraid. Just having a look through images of jelly on Google and you'll see what I mean. That's not to say that you don't get sharp edges on jelly, you do, but..well, it's easier to see. I'd even suggest actually buying some jelly from the supermarket (it's not expensive) and making it so you can see first hand.

[Cilein]

Damn, internet connection problems here, accidentally quoted the post I was trying to update, twice.. sorry.

Anyway I did a pre-test for the animation to have a go at sub-pixelling which I haven't done before;

[Cilein]

New update, I animated the version I liked the best, still has some bits to fix like that too-dark line on the right but definitely more than I thought I could achieve with this.
I've learnt a lot about sub-pixelling and animation here so far, as well as translucent materials.



For the next update I make I might give the palette some tweaking too, C&C still wanted, thanks for the help so far , now I need sleep though..

[Mathias]

It seems the gellyish contours on the grave's surface should be shifting around. Make those highlights dance.

[Dusty]

Personally I think the main problem here is the shape. A gravestone-like shape just doesn't read as anything gelatinous to me so it's constantly fighting the textures for readability.

[theorb77]

Personally I think the main problem here is the shape. A gravestone-like shape just doesn't read as anything gelatinous to me so it's constantly fighting the textures for readability.

Agreed.  The cube is easier to identify as gelatinous.  Maybe a bundt-cake (jello mold) shape?

[Cilein]

Sorry, gotta be a gravestone, this is one part of the composition, the rest will hopefully make it more readable if that's a big problem.

Shape shouldn't define textures, or rather we should be able to break the mould (lol) that ties any shape to a material.

Yeah I'll work those highlights and get cracking on the rest of the scene!

[Dusty]

Shape shouldn't define textures, or rather we should be able to break the mould (lol) that ties any shape to a material.

They don't define textures, but pieces have more than "textures do this" and "shapes do this." It all has to come together to fulfill a specific purpose, and the shape is what's fighting this piece the whole way. It's not uncommon for humans to relate shapes to specific purposes.

However if you have to maintain a grave shape then good luck to you. Is it impossible? Probably not, but you're definitely going to have to fight hard against the predisposition.

Aside from that I think the most glaring problem is that your textures are coming off as noisy, or "dithery" even though there isn't any immediate dithering patterns. For example, the line going up the interior of the right side does it. This fights what our minds have come to expect of gelatin because it's such a smooth texture, and dithering causes the opposite effect. Also, something important you need here is some high contrast highlights. Think of a glassy, or wet surface. That's how gelatin reacts to light, so it won't hurt to have some more dramatic highlighting. I can't say I know what's going on with the patterns going on inside(or on the front) of the gelatin. Is it needed? Because it doesn't seem to add much to what you're hoping to accomplish and in my opinion only complicates matters further.

[Cilein]

Good points Dusty, thank you - sorry if I seemed snappy on my comment, wasn't intended if it came across that way! I'll work on smooth-ing it up and pumping the highlights, I'll have them move more to help emphasise that they are highlights too. The rest of the scene should hopefully help enforce the dessert-like feel.

The gravestone I think will end up just as having been a good practice, in the picture there will be multiple and they will have to be smaller so I'll be redrawing them.

Here is a character I've been working on for the scene, the 'Kandyman' from Liquorice Allsorts sweets. I'll be using his size for scaling reference.