HOW TO: Texturing Chainmail armor

[dragonfx]

well i want to make a chainmail texture that has to be able to stand medium/close shots, yet i have not been able to achieve a good look, or find a tutorial freebie texture that does...
Any idea/texturing tut/(cool)freebie welcome

[mtmckinley]

You could, perhaps, create a section of chain mail in the shape of a flat square, duplicate it as many times as you need, give them a metal texture, light, and render a frame.

Then use that as a starting point for a chain mail texture.

[dragonfx]

...

what i meant is that im not able to make one that looks ok when you look it close... and looking over internet i ve found a pair of attempts that have the same problem... even a tut on making that kind of texture... but i havnt seen a chainmail texture that doesnt looks like crap when you see it close... have you?



i mean i want hi resolution output but im not able to push my machine to the extreme of having the chainmail in geometry:).

This kind of texture lends bad to making a geometry square of links and obtaining bumps/displacements from it... it just doesnt looks right...

[CyberAL]

Just a crazy suggestion..and mind me I'm not very Maya experienced...yet.

Maybe making lots and lots of low poly torus (as example) with metal texture and then combine the top edge to the shirt would work as a raised chainmail effect? A darker texture shirt underneath could make the metal chain stand out more this way..or have a skin layer underneath so it will show through the chain.