It might be good to start with a fairly simple texture - hence the lowly potato. But after you download the large .jpg of this texture and get a better look at the detail, it actually isn’t all that simple.  Anyway, I know people will come up with some interesting ways of  creating this texture.

The submissions and any comments will be posted below.

Note: Due to space considerations, I have had to delete the large jpg files from this page!

Images

Comments

“This is a texture that Ron submitted to the Texture Repository some time ago.  I’d call it a baked potato skin, and it’s beautifully done. It did bring my poor tired machine to its knees, but then Hazrat is ready for retirement anyway. Great controls too Ron!” Leslie

Ron Wolfe

Ron’s .dsts file

“For the explanations... well I started to look at the bump (as usually start with the bump). I tried to reproduce the bump as you may see the original there is some "holes" with in the middle a pick. Well I tried to use pumice once for the hole and one for the pick (one inside the other). It's not exactly perfect but it's not bad. And then adding a bit of rougness and finally some "scales" I saw on the original. This I should said is not coming nice.
Then I switched to the color. The mains component are the same as the bump but I played a bit with them to archive all those subtile colors layers. I'm still not totally convinced by the result but for the moment I will keep it as it is.”  Alain

“This texture looked especially nice on the potato model that Alain had on his website.  Great job! “ Leslie

Alain Bertrand

Alain’s .dsts file

“I’ve noticed that it’s easy to fiddle with DarkTrees endlessly.  I’m reasonably satisfied with  my potato skin, but the little green sprouts don’t look real. They each need to be set into an eye.  The sprout color doesn’t show up well either. Maybe someone would like to improve on this?  I used a subtree from Ron’s DarkTree, then thickened the veins to get the “netted” effect. It needs a bit of dirt on it - too clean.
When I get a little time, I’ll try to model a potato to put these textures on.”
Leslie

Leslie Swanson

Grimalkin’s .dsts file

“Here is my version of good old potatopeel - I'm quite satisfied with it.  I tried to put in a little more variation in the colors and in the contrast than you'll find in the original - but that makes it a little more lively.”
Patrick

“I really like the use of the Gravel component for this texture.  It duplicates the ‘netted’ effect in the lower right area of the original potato image very well.” Leslie

 

Patrick Lichtenecker

Patrick’s .dsts file

Here’s RorrKonn’s potato.  His only comment was the following:
“It's a Rock Monster Potato ;) “
RorrKonn

“RorrKonn’s ‘spud’ has a very complex layer of colors, including a green layer. The final result is quite effective. And he got smart and added some scratches to his potato, which is certainly a standard potato feature.  Nice job, RK!”  Leslie

 

RorrKonn

RorrKonn’s .dsts file

Here’s Adam Trachtenberg’s first draft. 

“Adam may not be completely pleased with his potato skin, but I think it looks pretty authentic. It’s really interesting to me how individual each person’s ideas are and the different choices of components. They all seem to work quite well.”  Leslie

 

Adam Trachtenberg

Adam’s .dsts file

 

“Well here's my entry for the November challenge. I had attempted to make the bumps not appear as often (as well as increase the shine) in the lighter areas of the potato where it was "scuffed", but couldn't get it to look right. so after stripping out those sections I was left with this very simple tree. There are some scratches but they are few and far between ... you might get one scratch on a potato ... if you search hard for it .” Steve

“Even a simple tree makes a nice potato texture - looks good.” Leslie

 

Steve Bradley

Steve’s .dsts file

The potato artists are:

       Steve           Alain           Rorr Kon        Patrick
   Adam                   Grimalkin               Ron

Final Comments?

Well, I think these textures came out great; plus look at the diversity. Everyone’s ideas were a little different, which makes the textures that much more interesting.  It sort of surprises me that none of us added those depressions that all potatoes have. I actually like all of them and learned some from each DarkTree you guys sent.

My Texture -I think my potato would have looked better if I had added some dirt and dipped-in areas  where the little sprouts are.
Steve - your bump was a bit too much for the texture’s size and consequently created some aliasing problems.  The final render (in Cinema 4D) took care of most of that though.
Rorr Kon - I think you could improve your potato texture by leaving off the specular part - great skin color though.

Thanks to everybody who participated.  I hope you will all send me your comments too.
                                       Leslie

I thought all the Shaders (sic) was Killer. It's a Great Potato Family Portrait. I am really proud to apart of it all
                                     Rorr Kon