1. Photograph 4-10 source reference from real life to get the tile samples and as a reference for the structure and arrangement
2. Use a image-editing program to 'cutout' individual tiles, in this case; the slate. The more samples the better, I tend to gather 8-12 samples so when the image gets tiled it doesn't appear to repeat itself. I used 12 samples in this example. The samples I used are desplayed in the next image. I also need to make sure the tiles are ~150px by 150px to ~250px by 250px.
3. Once I have all the samples I need, I get into the Bricks'n'tiles program and load up all my 12 tiles and configure it accordingly. I don't use any random x/y coords since I don't need any irregularitys like you would see in a stone wall or stone floor. After this is done I generate the flat diffuse map, see the next image for the outcome. (Numbers were added post generation).
no.1: The first render, lacks mortar inbetween tiles and spacing is 3px too far appart. no.2: reduced spacing by 3px, added mortar, still too bright no.3: Altered the lighting to reflect RL references
4. The next step was to combine this diffuse map with a normal map (an accompaning map that gives the texture a 3d appearence, faking depth and height). The example in the top left shows light reflections in a morning setting while the one at the bottom right shows one in the afternoon. The blueish pink texture in the back is the normal map used to create this effect.
All that is needed to use this now is to convert this image into a .tga then a .vtf/.vmt file, a process I will cover in a future blog post. Overall I think this all went well and I will post screenshots of this texture implemented in my project next week maybe when I make more of the dinning room.
