difference about color maps. image textures etc

I am learning about textures. I like vibrant textures, they look more like cgi films like the hobit etc. but then I came across color maps. not sure if this is used with image textures or is it just color that can be faded / bright etc then people use grunge maps etc for scratches things like that.

also, ambient occlusion helps details in image textures?

I am trying to find tutorials on this so I can make textures like wood, metal, concrete but maybe learn how to use color picker to make exact textures of something real that you modeled. i know color picker is good but it doesn’t really help with say painted wood brown and white unless I learn Photoshop and layers in which I am looking up layers tutorials in Photoshop.

also it seems ndo2 created better textures… or because I amusing default setting sin crazy bump that is why i am having issues and I haven’t learned baking and ambient occlusion and render layers so maybe that would help my textures?

down below is a photoshop tutorial I found I like the look. i guess this is vibrant colors to textures?

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Hi,

I do not really understand the support you are looking for, and there are many many questions in one post which makes it … challenging … trying to answer them all.

Why not try creating a texture on a cube, or sphere or Suzanne?
Then you can ask for help in improving the texture.
Like the chilli shader that was discussed in this forum

Best of luck

Martin

PS. Just to answer one of your questions, I think what you mean by colour maps are not exactly to do with the texture colour, but are used to include surface properties such as normal mapping, texture mapping, bump mapping etc.,. But maybe I misunderstand what you mean by colour map.

Ambient occlusion doesn’t really improve textures,

Here’s what it does, and ALL it does
it darkens intersections and edges, nothing more.

As for your question

Color maps help DDO seperate your object into a group, DO NOT MAKE THEM A DIM COLOUR, MAKE SURE THEY ARE CONTRASTING

say for example, you want a part of your model to be made of steel, and another to be made of wood,
you’d have to put a purple(or any colour really as long as it’s not the same as the others) as the wood or metal or whatever then another colour as another material

For textures,

Ambient occlusion, it just helps DDO add dirt

For normal, I’m sure you know what this does(but do note that it MUST be a tangent space normal, NOT object space)

the rest are only there if you want to add custom diffuse or something.

thank you. I know what normal, displacement and specular does. but, I would like to learn how to change the texture diffuse to be vibrant or digital painted but it would be a image texture because I can’t paint. figure maybe Photoshop would help with this look.

then with render layers, not sure if this helps the textures or more for demo reel or break downs. that is why I asked this question.

fdfxd, I think when you mention DDO you mean the part of Quixel Suite?

DOM079, I cannot even parse “I would like to learn how to change the texture diffuse to be vibrant or digital painted”
Are you trying to create a material or texture in Blender?
Or talking about creating a texture in another program so maybe you need to ask the question in another forum?

DOMO79, I’ve noticed a common theme in a lot of your threads is you seem to be approaching things backwards. You’re always asking about general concepts and approaching things with “tell me about xyz so I could use it in some future project”. Try instead thinking of something you want to make, then look up information specifically for the steps you don’t know how to do. To use your example above, instead of “render layers, not sure if this helps the textures or more for demo reel or break downs”, approach as (for example) “I want to make a breakdown video, how do I do that?”. (or instead of a breakdown, maybe it’s a hand-painted style scene, or a photorealistic building, or whatever).