Hi! Justen here.
i'm still pretty green around this community so forgive me if I don't quite understand all of the rules yet or if my manners are off. I wanted to hunt down anyone in the CG Cookie community who might know something about vertex painting, which is a term I hear thrown around a lot and i'm sure it's a question that has popped up before. I just would like to know what it is, how it works and how it can help my artwork. What are the benefits of it over texture painting? Any info you have would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Justen
From what I understand, Vertex painting is a way of applying solid colours to your mesh , sort of in a fill style, at least that is how I have used it in the past, although there may be more applications. I use it a lot personally to generate ID maps to then use in substance painter (Maps that dictate which part of a uv is which mesh island by colour identification)
I first learnt about Vertex painting whilst doing Kent's Sci-fi helmet shading course. This video here uses the technique and may help you understand how it works : https://cgcookie.com/lesson/painting-base-colors (texture painting comes first in this video, followed by vertex painting which is in the second half so be sure to watch the whole thing)
Hope this helps :)