Shadows and highlights map

Hi all. I have been trying--to no avail--to get (or find) a map of shadows and highlights that I could use again and again in the making of clothes. I figured that, using such a map as a layer in Photoshop with the appropriate blend mode, opacity, etc., I could shade clothes quite fast and accurately.

I did paint such a map. But the results were not as accurate or nuanced as I would have liked. I tried lighting the SL mannequins in Deep Paint 3D, but then I could see of no way of exporting those shadows and highlights into PS. I tried Print Screen'ing the mannequins from different angles in DP3D and then pasting the results in PS, trimming and stretching them to fit the templates, etc. (don't laugh), but the results were ...eeerrr... laughable--LOL. I tried using more advanced 3D packages such as Lightwave, but I realized that I cannot even navigate their interfaces. Chip Midnight provided some templates--the shaded UV maps--that are close to what I'm looking for--but I would obviously like them without all those UV lines. Nammsor Daguerre also provided some shadows and highlights maps in that makeup kit, but those were primarily for skin making. I'm looking for broader shadows and highlights, not so "rib-specific" ones.

It may be the case that it's not such a big deal and that I'm slightly obsessed with the subject--LOL. In any case, I guess what I'm asking here is does such a map exist out there, how do you make such a map, will such a map be useful, how do people do their shadows and highlights on clothing, i.e., starting from scratch every time?

maby this will help?
http://www.mirimar.org/creating_faux_folds_in__fabric.htm

I don't believe making one set of shadows and highlights to apply to all clothes is ever a good idea. Leather wrinkles differently than cotton. Nylon wrinkles diferently than flannel. There is no universal solution that will look good in all instances. Wrinkles, highlights, shadows, shines, etc. should look radically different from garment to garment, in accordance with the specific material you are trying to emulate. Serious artists spend many years of their lives doing drapery studies for precisely this reason. The discipline dates all the way back to the Rennaissance, but the principle undoubtedly goes back MUCH further, considering the amazing realism of the much of the clothing on Greek and Roman statues.

Photoshop doesn't really change any of that. Even with all these wonderful digital tools we have at our disposal these days, one still needs to know how specific materials behave if one wants to be able draw or paint them convincingly. That having been said, the tools I use the most for this sort of thing are bevel & emboss, displacement, gradients, lighting maps (bumps), burn & dodge, and good old fashioned hand painting.

I'm sorry I don't have a specific step by step tutorial for this, but it's a complex question. As I said, there is no universal solution. What might look great on a leather jacket could look all kinds of wrong on a T-shirt.

What I'd recommend if you really want to develop your technique (short of attending art classes) is to take a really good look at Leonardo Da Vinci's drapery studies. They're amazing. Also look critically at as many photographs as you can find of whatever materials you're trying to paint, and of course at the real thing if you have access. And, as always, practice, practice, practice.

You might also want to look at the wrinkle maps in your SL character folder to get a sense of how LL thinks avatar clothing should wrinkle. They're pretty bad, but they can serve to get you moving in the right direction on some projects. Play around using them as light maps and displacement maps and see what you can come up with. If nothing else, it'll give you little practice with some of the tools I mentioned, even if you're not in love with the results.

Hmmmm...I assumed that everyone did their highlights and shadows first and THEN did their wrinkles, creases, and what not. Now I realize that this may not always be the case.

This is what I meant: Here is a detailed 7-page tutorial on painting cloth in PS (mature link, registration required, I posted the relevant pictures at the bottom in case you cannot access the site). On page 1, he outlines the cloth. On page 2, he paints in the shadows and highlights. THEN, on page 3, he starts to paint the detailed shadows and highlights--the folds, wrinkles, etc. It is basically that second step--page 2--that I was looking for a way to "automate," not the painting of the wrinkles.

Now, you might say what's the big deal. Painting basic shadows and highlights is nothing compared to the task of painting folds and wrinkles. And you might be right. I'm probably obsessing over this as I mentioned before. I was just looking for another little tool to add to my arsenal

PS-Chosen, being an artist, do you think that basic shadows and highlights differ greatly from one material to another? I would think that leather, e.g., would have the same basic lighting as flannel--just sharper and more intense which could probably be achieved through the use of levels, opacity, etc. on the basic shadows and highlights layer.

Shadows don't change greatly between different surface types (with the exception of reflective surfaces where shadows are diminished), but highlights change greatly. The way specular light (light reflected directly from a source as opposed to ambient light) diffuses across a surface has as much to do with creating a convincing material as the color does.

If a surface is smooth, the specular highlights will have a more defined edge. If the surface is rough the specular light will diffuse across the surface so the highlights will have soft edges. Soft fabrics like cotton will scatter light below the surface causing a slight glow around specular areas. A good exercise is to take a bunch of different material samples and shoot pictures of them under identical lighting, then study them to see how they differ.

I see. Ok, thank you everyone for your responses. They were all quite helpful.

I think it depends somewhat on your definition of "basic", but if you want a texture to seem like a real material, then you have to take into account several factors. The first is the finish. A leather jacket has a smooth finish, usually with semi-gloss. A flannel shirt has a rough finish, as it is made of fibers. Consequently, light will reflect off each material in a different way.

See the attached biefcases image for a good example of how the two materials behave when they're completely unwrinkled. The variation from light to dark on the smooth leather briefcase is fairly extreme on individual surfaces, even the ones that are angled away from the lightsorurce. The flannel briefcase, on the other hand, maintains a much more consistent light level across each surface without much variation. Interestingly, judging by the ground shadows, it appears that the primary lightsource on the flannel briefcase is far more intense than the one on the on the leather briefcase, but even so, the light scatters across the flannel fairly plainly and undramatically compared with how it comes off the leather. Take a look at the handles on the flannel briefcase, which are likely some sort of vinyl pleather, and you can see they reflect much in the same way that the leather briefcase does.

The second major factor to take into consideration is the stiffness/thicknes of the material. If you take a look at the second attached image, you'll see a leather jacket and a flannel shirt. Notice how the jacket feels like it's trying to maintiain its shape while the shirt appears to just falls where it may. Leather is a stiff material. It doesn't drape the same way as the thin, flimsy flannel at all. The jacket wants to stay in the shape it was made to take. The wrinkles are deep, directional, and wide. They appear in areas where the jeacket has been forced assume a shape that contradicts the shape it wants to take and they flow like rivers between areas of tension.

The shirt, on the other hand, really doesn't care what shape it takes. If it had its way, it would fall to the floor in a heap. It hangs from the shoulders and pretty much does whatever it's told. Its wrinkles are narrow and scattered, and for the most part they do not appear to flow like those of the jacket.

If you look closely at the shirt, you'll see there is in fact an overall flow pattern, as there is with all draperies, but it's much more subtle on the flannel than it is on the leather. The flow of the flannel is very much in accordance with gravity as the material falls over the body while the flow of the leather is dictated primarily by its struggle to maintain its shape as the material is pushed by the body in directions it doesn't quite want to go.

Now you might say, "Well if the flannel's flow is just more subtle than the leather's flow, can't I just turn down the opacity of my highlights and shadows?" Well, not really. That would only hold up if the two materials had the same shape, like on the flat briefcases, but even then I'd say that's way too simplistic of an approach if you really want it to look real. On the clothing, it's not just the intesity of the wrinkle pattern that's different; it's the pattern itself. The twon materials produce very differently shaped wrinkles, and that gives them each a completely unique set of lighting properties.


EDIT: Edited to combine all pictures into one image for faster viewing.

Wow. Those were great examples Chosen! Thank you. I think I will abandon my quest for a basic highlights and shadows map. As you and Chip mentioned, they do change from material to material. Besides, it seems that it may be a good idea to paint these together with the wrinkles and so on. I did a little research on how people paint cloth in PS and it seems that this is how they primarily do it, i.e., they paint all shadows, highlights, wrinkles, creases, etc. together. I'm posting the links here in case someone wants to check them out. 1, 2, 3. While I was at it, I found some information on folds too (in case all that info that Chosen provided just wasn't enough-lol). Here are the links. 1, 2. Thank you again.