Learning to make good shingle textures

[lgswe]

I get so frustrated with the shingle textures CA has. I want a good looking architectual shingle that doesn't look like a "block" when used on a roof. Is there somewhere where I can learn how to do this? I've looked on 3-d Diva's site. She does have some great ones, but not what I or the owner wants to see for his roof. It would be great if I could just find a good texture, but it's one of those things I should learn how to do so I'm not always relying on someone else.

[moak]

try this one

[lgswe]

Kevin................thanks for the file, but the customer is looking for a charcoal black Architectual shingle (GAF Timberline) and standing seam roof. All the architectual shingle CA has in the library look so "blocky" when used on a roof. I know a lot of this is caused by the small "repeat" pattern CA is using. It would be great if I could get one from someone, but that still doesn't teach me how to do it. I thought by learning how to do this it would save me aggravation "down the road". I would think there is training "out there" on how to go about making a good shingle texture. Either way, thanks again for the file and have a great day.

[rongobong]

If you have software like Photoshop or Gimp (freeware that is similar to Photoshop) then creating your own seamless tilable textures is pretty simple. Using the "offset" filter in Photoshop, you can use the patch or clone tools to get rid of the tile lines and make the texture look better. Try searching google for "tiling a texture" and you will see many online tutorials that will show you how to do it. I have used the images from the manufacturer website as a starting point - some of them are larger than the Chief versions in the library. Good luck!

[lgswe]

Bob.....thanks for the heads up. I don't have either of the software that you mention. If I go to purchase a certain type software for making textures is there one you would recommend over another? Are there different "levels/grades" of the software? Since I'd just be learning I don't want to purchase anymore software than what would be needed to do the job.

[Joe Carrick]

Larry,

Rather than go to all that trouble, look at the Manufacturer's Library. You might find something there that you can use. I don't know about GAF, but Certainteed and Owens Corning are both there.

[moak]

I'm sorry, you asked for a texture and I posted a patter - oops.
Well, it's a good cedar shingle pattern if anyone needs it.

[Levis]

I was frustrated with the ones in the libraries as well, so I made my own. Up here, we use a lot of IKO shingles, so all I did was copy the sample from their website and replaced the texture file in a copied existing shingle texture in Chief. If you look really closely, you can see a bit of a repeat pattern, but I don't even notice it anymore.

What I found to be the most challenging is getting the colors to look right in the 3D views. They must take the sample pictures with a bright flash or something, which reflects on the granular texture, because they seem lighter in color than in real life (especially black shingles). To make up for this, I usually adjust the color slider a bit to make them darker. This part is trial and error. Not perfect, but good enough for me... and I tend to be pretty picky!


I'm also attaching a couple of the texture images I've used. When you copy them from a website, sometimes you have to be trim the edges off a little bit to get the pattern to repeat nicely. And I don't use any fancy software for this... Snipping Tool and good ol' Paint!