Material Creation
In this project I am creating materials and textures so that I can build my own material library so that I can use it when creating a 3D model in the future. I am going to create one by hand painting it, the other will be using a photo reference and for the third I will use my preffered method.
The first thing I needed to do as with all other projects was to start researching. so with this project the thing I needed to research was the different types of textures, how to create them, and also the different software that is used to create these textures and materials.
PBR (Physical Based Rendering) “refers to the concept of using realistic shading/lighting models along with measured surface values to accurately represent real-world materials” is what GameTextures.com says about PBR. This means using PBR textures we are able to make games look much more realistic and believable.
“PBR in the most basic sense is a combination of sophisticated shaders that represent the physics of light and matter, along with art content that is calibrated using plausible values to represent real world materials. PBR is essentially a holistic system of content creation and rendering, which can and often does have variances (generally shader models or texture input types) in actual implementation, depending on what tools or engine you use.” Joe Wilson from Marmoset. This means that while PBR gives realistic and beautiful textures it can be a confusing and arduous task to create them, it includes a lot of variables in how it will look when completed and implemented.
Hand Painted textures are easier to create and the software is cheaper to buy, it is also the more traditional method of texturing. The cons of hand painted textures are they will never be as detailed or realistic as PBR. You can use software such as Photoshop and Corel painter which is easier because people are so familiar with this software.
Research
There are predominantly two types of textures used to create materials, these are PBR and traditional hand painted.PBR (Physical Based Rendering) “refers to the concept of using realistic shading/lighting models along with measured surface values to accurately represent real-world materials” is what GameTextures.com says about PBR. This means using PBR textures we are able to make games look much more realistic and believable.
“PBR in the most basic sense is a combination of sophisticated shaders that represent the physics of light and matter, along with art content that is calibrated using plausible values to represent real world materials. PBR is essentially a holistic system of content creation and rendering, which can and often does have variances (generally shader models or texture input types) in actual implementation, depending on what tools or engine you use.” Joe Wilson from Marmoset. This means that while PBR gives realistic and beautiful textures it can be a confusing and arduous task to create them, it includes a lot of variables in how it will look when completed and implemented.
Hand Painted textures are easier to create and the software is cheaper to buy, it is also the more traditional method of texturing. The cons of hand painted textures are they will never be as detailed or realistic as PBR. You can use software such as Photoshop and Corel painter which is easier because people are so familiar with this software.
Photorealistic
takes the best of the two already listed methods, it’s as quick as Hand Painting
because all you need is to take a photo and scan it in and because it is a
photo it has a degree of the realism that PBR does the only downfall is it will
lose how good it looks because of scanning it in. The software mainly used is
Photoshop.
Quixel is
a Photoshop add on that scans materials to create a PBR Texture, they have over
a thousand materials, smart materials, and brushes. You use normal Photoshop
tools and brushes which then creates a normal map that you can apply to your
model. The good thing about Quixel is that it’s easy to learn because it uses Photoshop
as its template which all artists in games industry know how to use. It costs £107.
Poliigon is software that is used to create PBR
textures one of the mopre interesting things about Poliigon is that it sells not
only the texture but also the individual maps that you normally have to create yourself
as well. So instead of having to create the maps you just import them all into
unreal or unity and connect the maps you want to give it the look you want. It
all costs Yearly £131, Monthly £13
Substance Designer
is a software used to create PBR textures, it automatically tiles textures and
it allows you to change any past step in the process while keeping your work.
You can Buy textures in the store to use on your own models. One of the cons about
this software is it seems complicated and harder to navigate than the other two.
It costs £231 for indie studios and £1228 for Triple A studios.
Substance Painter is a 3D painting
software used by artists to hand paint textures onto their models. It has
simple to use tools and a simple UI which will make it easier to use by people
just starting to use it. You can create your own smart masks making it easier
to reuse textures you have already made. Its built in library isn’t as
extensive as previously listed software but still offers a wide range of useful
materials and tools. Costing £114.45 for Indie Studios and £453.18 for Triple A
studios.  This is my texture map research from last year which I feel would be helpful for this project and it would be a good idea to look back on it. It sums up all that I need to to know about all the more standard maps that are commonly used.
Unreal Engine Material Editor is a software feature built into
Unreal Engine to help people texture and developers to change their imported materials
and textures so that they are exactly how they need it to look in their game. It
has a a confusing UI with a lot of different settings and things to tweak and
change, it can be overwhelming to newcomers but is easily adapted to after a
bit of experience with it.
Instance materials are materials that are
copies of the base material that can be edited without having to edit the master material. Instanced materials also don’t have to be recompiled which is helpful
for in game textures because they don’t have to be recompiled and they don’t have
to be pre-loaded.
Parameters are when the person texturing
creates one master material and then creates instances later so that the level
designer can tweak and change the instances rather than changing the base or
master material. These are then overlayed and can be changed without re-compiling
the material, this makes it easier for developers because they can edit easier
and can even be changed in the final game by using the different settings.
 Scene Break Down
First we had twenty minutes to do a breakdown of a scene where we show the three different type of modelling techniques such as modular, duplicate and unique. Also the three texturing techniques tile able, trim and unique. In the twenty minutes we were given I could only outline the modelling and then Chris gave me the criticism that it was confusing and that i painted over too much so when i had to do the next scene breakdown, I took that into consideration.
As you can see I decided to follow what Chris told me so there is now less colour and you can see the picture I'm breaking down, it keeps it less confusing so that I have more of an idea about what I'm modelling or texturing. one important thing is to keep the colour contrasting so that the person modelling can keep track without being confused.
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Texture and Maps
First I had to create a colour map in Photoshop, you have to copy different painted blocks and create a pattern in Photoshop so that the texture is seamless. To do this I selected the bricks and changed around where they are so that it is uniform and can become a repeated pattern without obvious differences within it.
Specular maps control the roughness or shininess of the texture so that your texture doesn't look too shiny or reflective you get this by changing the brightness and saturation of the picture.
Normal map gives the texture its 3D element by noticing where the texture needs to be raised and lowered this makes a flat material seem 3D. To create a normal map in photoshop you got to filters tab - 3D - Generate Normal Map. When you select it this window will open.
You can change the different sliders to see what affects it will have on the Normal map. I then created a Displacement Map which defines the light of the texture so that the texture isn't too bright. You do this by selecting the area you want bright and feathering the selection so there isn't a hard edge, after this you change the brightness of your selected area.
After creating the material in Unreal and applying it to a prop I could see that my base wasn't seamless so with the help of Chris I went into my original image and changed around some of the bricks so it was seamless and works on the template.
Texture Challenge
We had to create a Material from a picture of paving bricks that Chris gave to us, we had to edit the photo and produce maps and then connect it in the Unreal to create our material. I used the clone stamp tool for the first time and it was really helpful in editing the picture but confusing to use at first, I feel like I'm comfortable in using it.
Normal map gives the texture its 3D element by noticing where the texture needs to be raised and lowered this makes a flat material seem 3D. To create a normal map in photoshop you got to filters tab - 3D - Generate Normal Map. When you select it this window will open.
You can change the different sliders to see what affects it will have on the Normal map. I then created a Displacement Map which defines the light of the texture so that the texture isn't too bright. You do this by selecting the area you want bright and feathering the selection so there isn't a hard edge, after this you change the brightness of your selected area.
After creating the material in Unreal and applying it to a prop I could see that my base wasn't seamless so with the help of Chris I went into my original image and changed around some of the bricks so it was seamless and works on the template.
Texture Challenge
We had to create a Material from a picture of paving bricks that Chris gave to us, we had to edit the photo and produce maps and then connect it in the Unreal to create our material. I used the clone stamp tool for the first time and it was really helpful in editing the picture but confusing to use at first, I feel like I'm comfortable in using it.
Metal Texture
Next I created a metal texture I used a photo that I took myself, this meant that I could make sure it was the quality I needed it to be. I generated Normal, Displacement, Specular, and Roughness maps, this gives the material its features and tells it how I want it to look and act like. After that I imported my maps and created a new material from them, I then went into the material editor and link up what I need to so the material has the correct look and the best quality.Colour Map
Normal Map
Specular Map
Roughness Map
Displacement Map
Material Editor
Finished Brick and Metal Materials
Planning
When it came to creating our own materials it was best to clearly plan it out and keep a clear idea of what needs to be done. So I broke down the next 3 weeks into different tasks and when and how long they would take to do. I wanted to make my plan as detailed as possible, this means breaking down each objective into simpler to complete tasks.
I felt that the material was too bright and it would be better if it was darker so I created second Colour and Specular maps and applied those. I decided to use multiply in Unreal to use both Specular maps because one was too bright and the other too dark. I feel that the final look is better than the original because the reference photo was darker than the original material.
Colour Map 2
Specular Map 2
Final Material
High res Concrete Material
Animated Static Material
With this material I had two sets of texture maps animated so that one falls down and one raises up. I drew black lines that would pulse in and out, this gave made the material look like white noise on a TV screen, to complete the more randomised look I had one material pulsing at a 3 second interval and the other at a 4 second interval. With one set panning at 0.7 seconds and the other at -0.3, this made the two sets of lines cross at a more seemingly random pace.
Week 1 – Monday – 9 AM – 12 PM Creating a proposal and plan.
12 PM – 4 PM
Editing My capture videos.
Saturday and Sunday – All Day – Metal and
Concrete reference photos.
Week 2 – Monday – 9 AM – 4 PM creating Concrete Photo-realistic
Material and Editing.
9 AM –
10:30 AM making photo tile able .
10:30 AM – 12 PM
Generating texture maps.
12 PM – 2 PM
Importing to Unreal.
2 PM – 4
PM Editing and uploading to Blog.
Wednesday
- 10 AM – 3 PM Creating Wood Hand Painted Material.
Week 3 – Monday – 9 AM – 4 PM creating Metal Photo-realistic
Material and Editing.
9 AM –
10:30 AM making photo tile-able.
10:30 AM –
12 PM Generating texture maps.
12 PM – 2
PM Importing to Unreal.
2 PM – 4
PM Editing and uploading to Blog.
Week 4 – 9 AM – 4 PM Finishing and cleaning up project.
Evaluation.
Proposal
I had to create a proposal informing my tutors what I would be trying to create, I found it easiest to mix both writing and photos for this so not only would I tell them but show them what I wanted to do so that Chris would get a clear idea of what I am planning to accomplish.
Concrete Material
First I imported the concrete photo into Photoshop and then selected a portion that could be tiled easily, I did this because it would save me a lot of time later on. I then used the clone stamp to cover any glaringly obvious marks that would ruin its tile-able look. I generated Normal and Specular Maps to give my material depth and shininess. After linking everything up in Unreal Editor I applied it to a prop to make sure my textures looked as good as I needed them too.
Colour Map
Colour Map
Normal Map
Specular Map
Material Editor
On Prop
Specular Map
Material Editor
On Prop
I felt that the material was too bright and it would be better if it was darker so I created second Colour and Specular maps and applied those. I decided to use multiply in Unreal to use both Specular maps because one was too bright and the other too dark. I feel that the final look is better than the original because the reference photo was darker than the original material.
Colour Map 2
Specular Map 2
Final Material
High res Concrete Material
Hand Painted Wood Material
This was the most difficult material to create, I unfortunately have no documentation of my first attempts due to multiple crashes of VLC and Photoshop. My next few attempts weren't very successful either, It felt like no matter what I did the material didn't look right. I tried multiple paintings and texture maps, It wasn't until my last attempt that I felt it looked acceptable. I'm still not very happy with it but I feel it looks good enough to be submitted and I don't know how to improve the end result. My problem with most was the lines between the planks were too large or small or weren't even, in the end instead of painting them so the planks were horizontal, I painted to make them vertical, which meant less lines in the painting and made the easily tileable.
Portrait Animated Texture
I decided to use my portrait I created from the induction project into a material. At first it was just a joke which would help me practice but in the end it became the most intricate material I have made yet. I had been wanting to animate a material so I used this material as an experiment to learn, making it slide was easy but then I had the idea of making it fade between me and Paul's portrait, this was much more difficult as changing between two images at once is rather hard and no one in the class had tried it yet. I looked at another material from the starter content called Tech_Hex_Pulse, in this material its lights alternated colours. I saw that it ran a Time node into a Sine expression which connected to a Ceil expression and a Linear Interpolate (lerp). I had to connect my Colour map and Paul's Colour Map into the A and B while the Sine was connected to the Alpha and then connect the Lerp into Base colour. This made the Colour Map alternate but the problem was the remaining maps stayed. So then we ran my maps into a multiply with Paul's corresponding maps. This didn't have the intended affect because when Paul's Colour Map faded in it got progressively darker until mine faded out. Me and Chris discovered this was because even when my Colour Map had supposedly faded it was still present behind Paul's darkening his face. We traced the problem back to the Sine Alpha connection, I googled the Sine and Ceil and discovered that Sine outputs a wave in the range of 0 to 1 repeating. 0 being one colour map and 1 being the other, the resulting problem with this is that when Paul's Colour Map fades in mine is already fading in as well making his Colour Map darker to fix this I replaced the Sine with a Frac this fixed the original problem of being able to see both Colour Maps but instead of the maps fading in it would fade one in and snap back to the other immediately. So instead I ran the Sine into the Cosine, which generates a wave between 1 and -1 this gave the maps a buffer time so that it could alternate without one showing through the other.
Animated Static Material
With this material I had two sets of texture maps animated so that one falls down and one raises up. I drew black lines that would pulse in and out, this gave made the material look like white noise on a TV screen, to complete the more randomised look I had one material pulsing at a 3 second interval and the other at a 4 second interval. With one set panning at 0.7 seconds and the other at -0.3, this made the two sets of lines cross at a more seemingly random pace.
Finished Materials
Evaluation
The brief for this project asked for 3 materials, one hand
painted, one photorealistic and one that I chose the method. I chose to create
a hand painted wood material, a photorealistic metal material, and a
photorealistic concrete material. After creating them three I then had time to
create different materials I animated my portrait from last project, created
blue and pink plastic, and an animated white noise material.
First I created my metal material which wasn’t as difficult
as I had feared it would be. I edited it to make it tileable and made sure
there were no seams, I then created normal, specular, roughness and
displacement texture maps. Making my
picture tileable was something I struggled with last time I tried, I found it
easier this time because of the practice I’d previously had. Creating maps was
easy, as I knew how to generate them now the hardest was roughness and
displacement as I hadn’t attempted them before, they turned out to be easier
than I expected displacement was just changing colour values to black and white
and with roughness I just duplicated my specular map and made the lighter areas
darker, the darker an area the rougher it becomes in unreal.
Next was the wood material I struggled the most with this
material. This was because I am not very confident in my painting skills and I wasn’t
too sure on how exactly I was going to go about it. The major difficulties I
had with this material was because of how I couldn’t make the edges of the planks
of wood line up correctly, this made my material look off. Unfortunately this
creating this material didn’t teach me much, as I knew what I needed to do I just
had trouble implementing it because of my painting skills. This was a
frustrating material to create and the one I am most disappointed with the end
results.
My final material for
the brief was photorealistic concrete. This material had me using the clone
stamp tool, this was a tool I had briefly used before so I knew how to use it
but I hadn’t used it in depth. This was also the first material that I changed
the maps later because I wasn’t happy with the end result originally; I changed
the specular map so it was darker because the material was originally too
bright compared to the reference photo. In the end I am happy with the finished
material, I am happy I decided to change the specular map as I wouldn’t have been
happier with the brighter material. I also feel that I used the clone stamp
well because there aren’t any glaringly obvious blemishes or changes in look on
the colour texture.
I created an additional animated material that was my
portrait from my induction project. I had it so that my portrait was cascading
down and right on a wall and that it would periodically fade out of my portrait
and into Paul’s portrait. This introduced me to animating textures, using tools
such as Panner, Sine, Cosine, and Ceil; I wasn’t sure on how to use these new
nodes as I had only saw them on another material in Unreal. So I researched
them and found out how they function and how to use them. This was helpful as
it allowed me to create more intricate animations to use in my later materials.
This is the material I am most proud of as it was something I researched and
solved, with no outside help or anyone else knowing how to do it.
In conclusion I am happy with the results of this project as
it showed me texturing which I have begun to really enjoy and I have a lot of
really good materials to show for it. I am now more confident in creating
texture maps and materials; I can do them rather quickly, without needing help
and I am comfortable in exploring the different functions of unreal. I am
excited to try more, create different materials and incorporate materials and
textures into my later projects. This will give me a good base and foundation
to create better textures to improve my overall look of later projects.
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