Part 8 - Specular Map

To further improve the realisticness of the texture map on my head model, I have also added a specular map..

The specular map is used to highlight areas on the face which pick up the most light and help to pinpoint areas usually shaded, which is lost in the standard form on texturing.

This is created by painting white over the areas which are likely to be highlighted from natural light in the environment. Then a Gaussian blur filter is applied with a setting of about 5.0, which dramatically fades the white painted areas.

The texture map is then added to the model in 3ds max using the specular option in the material editor. The result can be seen below..