Understanding Different Texture Maps

In order to create life-like models, multiple different types of textures must be considered. Here, I'll be talking about three different maps which can control how an engine renders your model.

As shown above, there are five spheres, all with different basic textures assigned to it. The first 'basic' sphere has no texture assigned to it, and has just a simple 'blinn' material attached. Blinn is a better choice than the program's default lambert because you have a lot more choice with assigning different texture maps.

The second sphere, the diffuse sphere, is a sphere with just a diffuse texture assigned to it. The diffuse defines the colours of the model and is probably the most important for basic models.

The third sphere has only a specular texture assigned. The specular controls the intensity and colour of the lighting that is placed upon a model. This is best used to create materials convincingly, such as metals. It is also very useful for models with different materials within it, where you can define how shiny different parts of a model are. For example, with a sword, the metal sword blade will be a lot shinier than the hilt, which means the specular texture will be brighter.

The fourth sphere has a gloss texture assigned. The gloss defines how rough part of a model is. This texture is only greyscale as colour in this texture does not make any difference to the rendering of the model. The roughness is defined as how large the specular highlight - the shiny area - is.

The last sphere shows how the specular and gloss work together. As the gloss is larger here, the specular highlight is very large in areas where the specular texture is also white. Using and experimenting with these methods can create a wide range of materials.

 

In Autodesk Maya, these three textures are under various names. The Diffuse is fairly self explanatory, located under 'Common Material Attributes'. By clicking the checkered square on the side of the diffuse slider you can select the choice to choose a file to load. 

The other two textures are located under 'Specular Shading'. The Specular map can be accessed by using 'Specular Color', whilst the Gloss map can be accessed by using 'Eccentricity'.