Great info as always. You break down that tricky order of creating the parts->texturing the parts->using the flexibility of the seamless/trim/atlas to your advantage in the later stages of the build to remix the original parts into the finished design. That later stage freedom and flexibility can only take place if the artist has this core understanding of the degree of flexibility in their original UV/model, something which other 3d artists and teachers tend to never touch on and leaves a lot of spinning heads of how to get from A to Z
Hello! I'm relatively early into asset creation and I'm trying to find answers to more intermediate questions. I'm making tonnes of architecture modules for a game and I'm trying to find the most efficient way to add weathering to the modules. Trim sheets are great, but they usually either look oddly pristine or have very uniform looking dirt and grime. I was able to use vertex painting data in UE5 to paint grime using a secondary set of albedo & roughness maps in the material. But that solution had its own problems. A few other specific questions that would help me out tremendously: 1. Am I correct in assuming that using as few unique materials as possible in an environment is a top priority? It would sense, but then you see people use full individual materials for single architectural features or minutia like a fire hydrant. 2. Is there a way to bake things like lightmaps / AO and apply them outside of an assets main material? Almost like a secondary, instance-specific texture that sits on top of the base material. 3. My plan is to hand-paint all my environment textures and generate all my pbr maps from the paintings. (going for an oil painting aesthetic) How much use will I get out of something like substance painter with my current workflow? Sorry for the long winded comment. Any help is really appreciated!!
There are 2 places I would look. The Unreal Engine Matrix Tech Demo. They used layer blending but also houdini for adding decals, among other things. Cyberpunk used multiple layer masks for their assets as well. They are unique masks for each object. The materials are used throughout the world, but the city was put together in small chunks by hand. How these are implemented fully, I'm still not sure. I would have to look into it more. CDPR no doubt had their tech artist crunching things down somehow as some models had like 6 or so masks. Black and white masks or RGB packed masks, or some other custom setup. It is ultimately what you are looking for, mixed with decals on top. They should look sterile until decals and props/details mesh help break up the uniformity. As for AO it can be combined in the shader.
@@pzthree Wow, please excuse my rudeness and late reply, I apparently only sent this a response in my head... Thank you for the quick reply! I'm already changing my plans to incorporate layer masks as a major part of texturing my environments. I've taken a quick look through your channel, and it seems there's tonnes of helpful content there! I'm glad to have found someone who can make content that goes past the utmost basics!
Hey, i am curious if we would make the texture triplanar in the engine, so (let's say) the bricks can look continues in adjacent modular pieces as if it seamless texture, would that be costly in terms of performance?
It will cost more but you can and probably should do it on certain things, usually larger structures. Ideally you can use 2 materials, trim and world space mat (triplanar). Check into material layering.
You wouldn't use triplanar mapping with bricks. It's fine for rocks, gravel, grass, stuff like that, but bricks are gonna be too noticeable. Bricks are usually used on flat surfaces like walls, so triplanar wouldn't make much sense. Do a proper UV unwrapping of that wall/building and you should be fine.
Great info as always. You break down that tricky order of creating the parts->texturing the parts->using the flexibility of the seamless/trim/atlas to your advantage in the later stages of the build to remix the original parts into the finished design. That later stage freedom and flexibility can only take place if the artist has this core understanding of the degree of flexibility in their original UV/model, something which other 3d artists and teachers tend to never touch on and leaves a lot of spinning heads of how to get from A to Z
I love this video, very interesting, Thanks!
wow great tips! tnk's
thank you man for the tutorial.
Hello! I'm relatively early into asset creation and I'm trying to find answers to more intermediate questions.
I'm making tonnes of architecture modules for a game and I'm trying to find the most efficient way to add weathering to the modules. Trim sheets are great, but they usually either look oddly pristine or have very uniform looking dirt and grime.
I was able to use vertex painting data in UE5 to paint grime using a secondary set of albedo & roughness maps in the material. But that solution had its own problems.
A few other specific questions that would help me out tremendously:
1. Am I correct in assuming that using as few unique materials as possible in an environment is a top priority? It would sense, but then you see people use full individual materials for single architectural features or minutia like a fire hydrant.
2. Is there a way to bake things like lightmaps / AO and apply them outside of an assets main material? Almost like a secondary, instance-specific texture that sits on top of the base material.
3. My plan is to hand-paint all my environment textures and generate all my pbr maps from the paintings. (going for an oil painting aesthetic) How much use will I get out of something like substance painter with my current workflow?
Sorry for the long winded comment. Any help is really appreciated!!
There are 2 places I would look. The Unreal Engine Matrix Tech Demo. They used layer blending but also houdini for adding decals, among other things.
Cyberpunk used multiple layer masks for their assets as well. They are unique masks for each object. The materials are used throughout the world, but the city was put together in small chunks by hand.
How these are implemented fully, I'm still not sure. I would have to look into it more. CDPR no doubt had their tech artist crunching things down somehow as some models had like 6 or so masks.
Black and white masks or RGB packed masks, or some other custom setup. It is ultimately what you are looking for, mixed with decals on top. They should look sterile until decals and props/details mesh help break up the uniformity.
As for AO it can be combined in the shader.
@@pzthree Wow, please excuse my rudeness and late reply, I apparently only sent this a response in my head...
Thank you for the quick reply! I'm already changing my plans to incorporate layer masks as a major part of texturing my environments.
I've taken a quick look through your channel, and it seems there's tonnes of helpful content there! I'm glad to have found someone who can make content that goes past the utmost basics!
Hey, i am curious if we would make the texture triplanar in the engine, so (let's say) the bricks can look continues in adjacent modular pieces as if it seamless texture, would that be costly in terms of performance?
It will cost more but you can and probably should do it on certain things, usually larger structures. Ideally you can use 2 materials, trim and world space mat (triplanar). Check into material layering.
You wouldn't use triplanar mapping with bricks. It's fine for rocks, gravel, grass, stuff like that, but bricks are gonna be too noticeable. Bricks are usually used on flat surfaces like walls, so triplanar wouldn't make much sense. Do a proper UV unwrapping of that wall/building and you should be fine.
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what a viewport theme using? I like it.
custom, have to make it. for now.
🙂
🙃