Thank you so much. For a beginner its hard for me to keep tract when they go off and give information that's off topic. With the pictures and short examples, I can finally say I am starting to get it. Just have to keep watching this video tell I fully understand Thank you so much!
This was my roadblock for a while thanks for the explanation. Basically taking AO and shading detail out of the diffuse map and using the old specular maps for metal, or heightmaps I guess.
Very great content. CG Cookie. 4:32 I'm confusing if Blender use metalness workflow and having specular for controlling reflectness. How difference between roughness and specular in this case then?
Please, it is possible that they added subtitles to the videos. Much of the community we want you very grateful. They do not even have to be in other languages, with the addition of English subtitles as enough. Thank you very much.
Great video. However, I'm a little confused by your scenario at 4:22. It sounds like you're trying to determine, hypothetically, how to use a set of texture maps (perhaps some with no labels, or labels that don't match the input names)? Or, are you trying to determine how to use the node, given the inputs that are available? Or, are you just trying to determine if an existing patch (already setup) is metalness based on whether metal color is fed into Base Color? Also, does Blender automatically determine it's a metalness workflow when color is included there? What would happen if a pixel has color both on the Base Color map and the Specular Map?
Yeha thats super weird, i thinnk he was trying to explain since the base is color that means its a metal workflow. But since they also state BLender can do both. How will a specular workflow work. Because I don't think you can use the same method for specular with this principal shader. I find the Specular method vert confusing, much harder to tell when looking at the textures what will happen. Whereas a metal workflow, looking at the maps you can already see how it will be effected. Im also confused about there being color in a specular map in the Specular workflow. If I think about it, this means the reflection also has color which is not correct. At least I think it works like that, I never use these methods. Perhaps its a trick, I remember that in RGB you can story images per channel as well. So probably in Specular workflow it doesn't look at the color actually, only at the BW image. Man this secular workflow is confusing
hi. thanks. for reflection slot we have to use pure black and white bitmap? or we can use gray bitmap for reflection slot in metalic roughness standard too? looking forward to see your answer.
Is it possible to use specular workflow in cycles? Specular bsdf always show up as black when I try to use it in cycles. I can't use principled bsdf because it doesn't accept any color, useless if I have a metallic gold specular texture.
Very helpful. I supposed metalness makes more sense to use, since it uses significantly less memory, and I can hardly tell the difference between specularity and metalness.
so what should i use? does it vary? for instance my wood texture can have a bit of reflection, while in metal map it will be completely black, cuz there's no metal in it, does it mean i lose my reflectivity? I am a bit confused.
I was checking some info about metal vs specular-workflow. Around @1:40 you state that the metal workflow doesn't really have option to set reflectivity. Is did reflectivity in terms of specular? Because that is what the metal map does, the color is the base or the black body or diffuse color. Perhaps its me but this sounded quite confusing.
Doesnt the metallic have more info, i mean specular uses black in a color map, thus no color at all to also control specular. WOnder how specular method uses neutral specular color of the color maps are colored?
Plus side on using Metal workflow is that you don't need to update all maps when you change something. You can work with different roughness and specular maps, where as with specular workflow I don't think this is possible
Didn't really clear it up, no. Tons of stuff online already about Metalness workflow, but very little on specular. Would have been nice if you had shown that one, too. Would it just be as simple, in Blender, as using an albedo that has black where the metals go and a color texture for Specular instead of a greyscale one? Also, was a bit hard to focus with the video game music playing in the background. Thanks for sharing, though.
PS showing that gloss part while talking about roughness / glossyness is kind of confusing. It also showed reflectivity which I believe is the specular. I wish they used standard naming, I'm not English and I find these terms so confusing, still after many years. Seeing them used in a mixed way always makes me doubt what way to go.
A diffuse map has baked Shadow and ambient occlusion information, Whilst a albedo simply contains the color information. In short you want to use the albedo for the most realistic result.
Apologies for that, I didn't realize it would flatten out like that on smaller speakers. Fixed version is here: cgcookie.com/lesson/metalness-specular-workflows/
@@BIenderHD Please take this input as constructive and keep those great videos coming! Dude, you have a very good video that explains this stuff really well, but honestly, the music you chose is super yappy, distracting and doesn't match your tone nor cadence energy flow. Your voice is knowledgeable, clear and calm - these are all excellent qualities for learning and creates a solid foundation for videos that people subscribe. The background music is fast paced having hard attacks and sweeping frequencies that pierce through your mellifluous voice, yanking the viewer to a totally different place - from an education learning environment to a fast paced video game. I appreciate videos that have some background music to fill the spoken pauses, butI feel that the music should complement what and how the speaker is presenting. I'm not suggesting that you put Bach in the background, but something that complements your spoken voiceover (which was recorded very well). More input: IDK how you combined the spoken with music, but think about putting an notch filter on the music in your spoken frequency range - this will give space for the listener to better hear what you are saying and not have clashing frequencies. Think about de-essing if you can find an easy way to do so. Overall the video on cgcookie was much better, but having just heard the yap-track in your youtube video (and having trained ears), the background track still cut through your voice and yanks during pauses. Thank you for the video dude!
great video! Question: does changing the base color in Metalness workflow give the same effect as Specular workflow where you assign a spec color to your map? or, rather, can it compensate with the base color for the lack of specular color ?
hmmm I think you're wrong at 01:50 The metalness does have a direct way to control reflectivity , it's called roughness So specular could be left at a value of 0.5 , and the roughness factor decides the specularity
Reflectivity controls how much light is reflected, while roughness controls the directions in which that light is scattered. In many cases reflectivity can just be constant or interpreted from the metalness like you mentioned, but that's a quick approximation that just happens to look ok.
The problem with the Metalness workflow, the Principled BSDF and the default shader in Unreal Engine... they don't let you have a different specular color in a way that is not stored in the Base color, that doesn't affect the albedo. The specular tint bar doesn't help either, it's just picks color from Base color again. And all of this is made under the assumption that dialectric materials all reflect white, so "why allow you to change it", right? A shame, I really liked the way Principled BSDF handles fresnel and roughness at different angles. But it's a metallness workflow mainly, not specular,, and SSS works weird (or maybe SSS is broken), gotta stick with custom nodes for now
Great point! Metalness can be slightly less accurate and less flexible, but in most cases I find it easier and more intuitive to work with when painting textures from scratch with negligible difference. The trade off depends on what you're making. It also appears the Principled shader is a good bit slower than a custom setup as well, so it's probably better to stick with a custom group node for the time being anyway.
Shouldn't metalness be more accurate because the real world doesn't really have many partly metal things? I don't see how the specular color should ever need to be changed as it wouldn't be physically accurate. To me, it seems like specular workflow is more flexible but the metalness is more accurate
True that not many things are partly metal, but the non-metal parts of a specular map can still have a full range of greyscale values, which are used to show reflectivity. Metallic maps cannot show reflectivity, so there's slightly less information overall.
Isn't reflectivity the same same thing as color? with 0% reflectivity being equal to black and 100% being while and the possibility to have a different reflectivity at different wavelengths given its RGB. I don't see why the base texture would not be sufficient to provide the reflectivity information. The roughness map can then provide the information on how shiny something is
Wo!262 It isn't that big of a deal. Only a few non-metallic materials have tinted reflections. And, for those, like gems, just make it a little metallic. Personally, I prefer specular workflow as well.
This video was not helpful. Would have been ideal of a video to at least show in the final minutes which places you would plug such maps into. As a color specular map has no reference in regards to which input, and if it does. Am I to do something with another node to see it correctly in viewport?
Playing music while you talk is like having a tv show overlay on your screen while you try to show what to do/learn. (or a overlay of you talking) = horrible / or maybe I listen better over the music MIT did a study and found that ....
Hey bet ya didn't know not a single human being on youtube has a tutorial for how to create from scratch the entire PBR line up of textures in like phototshop or really anyone program. They all just talk about how theyre used. WHO CARES! who cares if you cant make one from scratch any way. LOL. Diffuse, metallic, specular, bump, roughness whatever you are all calling them which all call them something different... But seriously, everyone talks. Thats all these are, talk. This is great but to actually achieve it is a near impossibility unless you by the entire texture set from scratch and dont really want to create your own. And be like ya know. different. BUT WAIT!@ ive got something you can buy or send me money on patreon. WEAk
Can't believe I hadn't seen this before. This is how tutorials should be done. Precise, Concise, Informative, and Accurate.
This is very, very helpful.
Killing it with this new courses!
CG cookie is so good. I really admire your work!
Thank you so much. For a beginner its hard for me to keep tract when they go off and give information that's off topic. With the pictures and short examples, I can finally say I am starting to get it. Just have to keep watching this video tell I fully understand Thank you so much!
1:41 reflectivity is controlled by the base color
also some met/rough renders include specular highlight control
this video clear up the confusion i had for many years.
Excellent tutorial. Very informative and straight to the point. Thank you!
Fantastic CG Cookie! Thank you for this lesson!
This was my roadblock for a while thanks for the explanation. Basically taking AO and shading detail out of the diffuse map and using the old specular maps for metal, or heightmaps I guess.
Thanks so much for explaining the difference between gloss and reflectivity.
Glad it was helpful!
@@cg_cookie OMG Senpai noticed me!
god thank you. this was killing me when picking up unity after working with cycles and arnolds workflows.
Wooot, glad it was helpful!
Just practice and you'll understand workflow by heart!!!
I'm having trouble using the specular pbr workflow in Arnold 5. My metals render black since that's what Arnold sees in my albedo map, please help..
Very great content. CG Cookie.
4:32 I'm confusing if Blender use metalness workflow and having specular for controlling reflectness.
How difference between roughness and specular in this case then?
Superb explanation
Very helpful, thank you!
Please, it is possible that they added subtitles to the videos. Much of the community we want you very grateful. They do not even have to be in other languages, with the addition of English subtitles as enough. Thank you very much.
Great video. However, I'm a little confused by your scenario at 4:22. It sounds like you're trying to determine, hypothetically, how to use a set of texture maps (perhaps some with no labels, or labels that don't match the input names)? Or, are you trying to determine how to use the node, given the inputs that are available? Or, are you just trying to determine if an existing patch (already setup) is metalness based on whether metal color is fed into Base Color?
Also, does Blender automatically determine it's a metalness workflow when color is included there? What would happen if a pixel has color both on the Base Color map and the Specular Map?
Yeha thats super weird, i thinnk he was trying to explain since the base is color that means its a metal workflow. But since they also state BLender can do both. How will a specular workflow work. Because I don't think you can use the same method for specular with this principal shader. I find the Specular method vert confusing, much harder to tell when looking at the textures what will happen. Whereas a metal workflow, looking at the maps you can already see how it will be effected. Im also confused about there being color in a specular map in the Specular workflow. If I think about it, this means the reflection also has color which is not correct. At least I think it works like that, I never use these methods. Perhaps its a trick, I remember that in RGB you can story images per channel as well. So probably in Specular workflow it doesn't look at the color actually, only at the BW image. Man this secular workflow is confusing
I was wondering about this lately when I edit the 3D settings in sketchfab. Thanks for clearing things up!
Thank you for explaining this.
hi. thanks. for reflection slot we have to use pure black and white bitmap? or we can use gray bitmap for reflection slot in metalic roughness standard too? looking forward to see your answer.
Thanks! Nice explanation sir
Can anyone tell me what OM mean. making skins for a game and the original files has names like "G_SP_OM" and I have no clue what that really means
Is it possible to use specular workflow in cycles? Specular bsdf always show up as black when I try to use it in cycles. I can't use principled bsdf because it doesn't accept any color, useless if I have a metallic gold specular texture.
Very helpful. I supposed metalness makes more sense to use, since it uses significantly less memory, and I can hardly tell the difference between specularity and metalness.
so what should i use? does it vary? for instance my wood texture can have a bit of reflection, while in metal map it will be completely black, cuz there's no metal in it, does it mean i lose my reflectivity? I am a bit confused.
I was checking some info about metal vs specular-workflow. Around @1:40 you state that the metal workflow doesn't really have option to set reflectivity. Is did reflectivity in terms of specular? Because that is what the metal map does, the color is the base or the black body or diffuse color. Perhaps its me but this sounded quite confusing.
Doesnt the metallic have more info, i mean specular uses black in a color map, thus no color at all to also control specular. WOnder how specular method uses neutral specular color of the color maps are colored?
Plus side on using Metal workflow is that you don't need to update all maps when you change something. You can work with different roughness and specular maps, where as with specular workflow I don't think this is possible
THis was great, thanks!
Very good explanation, many many thanks!!!
How the specular workflow works in blender's cycles , please if someone knows please tell me
super nice, thank you! Very straight and simplifyed usefull description! If you make it without music background all the time would be super cool :)
Thanks a lot for your videos
Hey Cookie, What do you mean by "which input the color of the metals goes into" ?? Confusing the way you said it.
Didn't really clear it up, no. Tons of stuff online already about Metalness workflow, but very little on specular. Would have been nice if you had shown that one, too. Would it just be as simple, in Blender, as using an albedo that has black where the metals go and a color texture for Specular instead of a greyscale one?
Also, was a bit hard to focus with the video game music playing in the background.
Thanks for sharing, though.
awesome video
Thanks man, really helpful
PS showing that gloss part while talking about roughness / glossyness is kind of confusing. It also showed reflectivity which I believe is the specular. I wish they used standard naming, I'm not English and I find these terms so confusing, still after many years. Seeing them used in a mixed way always makes me doubt what way to go.
Can you make video who to make all these types of maps in Photoshop
Very useful video!
Wonderful lesson, thanks, but how to bake Roughness, Metalness cards in Blender?
very specific! Love it! But uhh... confused on what the difference is for diffuse and albedo
Check at 2:03 and 3:32 :)
A diffuse map has baked Shadow and ambient occlusion information, Whilst a albedo simply contains the color information. In short you want to use the albedo for the most realistic result.
So, if I use Blender I'm using metalness?
cool, thanks! the music is kind of unnecessary and distracting though.
Apologies for that, I didn't realize it would flatten out like that on smaller speakers. Fixed version is here: cgcookie.com/lesson/metalness-specular-workflows/
@@BIenderHD Please take this input as constructive and keep those great videos coming!
Dude, you have a very good video that explains this stuff really well, but honestly, the music you chose is super yappy, distracting and doesn't match your tone nor cadence energy flow. Your voice is knowledgeable, clear and calm - these are all excellent qualities for learning and creates a solid foundation for videos that people subscribe. The background music is fast paced having hard attacks and sweeping frequencies that pierce through your mellifluous voice, yanking the viewer to a totally different place - from an education learning environment to a fast paced video game. I appreciate videos that have some background music to fill the spoken pauses, butI feel that the music should complement what and how the speaker is presenting. I'm not suggesting that you put Bach in the background, but something that complements your spoken voiceover (which was recorded very well).
More input: IDK how you combined the spoken with music, but think about putting an notch filter on the music in your spoken frequency range - this will give space for the listener to better hear what you are saying and not have clashing frequencies. Think about de-essing if you can find an easy way to do so.
Overall the video on cgcookie was much better, but having just heard the yap-track in your youtube video (and having trained ears), the background track still cut through your voice and yanks during pauses.
Thank you for the video dude!
what is point of the background music?
wow many thanks, very informative
great video! Question: does changing the base color in Metalness workflow give the same effect as Specular workflow where you assign a spec color to your map? or, rather, can it compensate with the base color for the lack of specular color ?
Thank you
THANK YOU VERY MUCH
hmmm
I think you're wrong at 01:50
The metalness does have a direct way to control reflectivity , it's called roughness
So specular could be left at a value of 0.5 , and the roughness factor decides the specularity
Reflectivity controls how much light is reflected, while roughness controls the directions in which that light is scattered. In many cases reflectivity can just be constant or interpreted from the metalness like you mentioned, but that's a quick approximation that just happens to look ok.
Appreciated.
Yeaaa I wasnt ready for this yet lol
Thank you Sir!
what the purpose of that music man
ty
Thanks!
The problem with the Metalness workflow, the Principled BSDF and the default shader in Unreal Engine... they don't let you have a different specular color in a way that is not stored in the Base color, that doesn't affect the albedo. The specular tint bar doesn't help either, it's just picks color from Base color again. And all of this is made under the assumption that dialectric materials all reflect white, so "why allow you to change it", right?
A shame, I really liked the way Principled BSDF handles fresnel and roughness at different angles. But it's a metallness workflow mainly, not specular,, and SSS works weird (or maybe SSS is broken), gotta stick with custom nodes for now
Great point! Metalness can be slightly less accurate and less flexible, but in most cases I find it easier and more intuitive to work with when painting textures from scratch with negligible difference. The trade off depends on what you're making. It also appears the Principled shader is a good bit slower than a custom setup as well, so it's probably better to stick with a custom group node for the time being anyway.
Shouldn't metalness be more accurate because the real world doesn't really have many partly metal things? I don't see how the specular color should ever need to be changed as it wouldn't be physically accurate. To me, it seems like specular workflow is more flexible but the metalness is more accurate
True that not many things are partly metal, but the non-metal parts of a specular map can still have a full range of greyscale values, which are used to show reflectivity. Metallic maps cannot show reflectivity, so there's slightly less information overall.
Isn't reflectivity the same same thing as color? with 0% reflectivity being equal to black and 100% being while and the possibility to have a different reflectivity at different wavelengths given its RGB. I don't see why the base texture would not be sufficient to provide the reflectivity information. The roughness map can then provide the information on how shiny something is
Wo!262
It isn't that big of a deal. Only a few non-metallic materials have tinted reflections. And, for those, like gems, just make it a little metallic. Personally, I prefer specular workflow as well.
This video was not helpful. Would have been ideal of a video to at least show in the final minutes which places you would plug such maps into. As a color specular map has no reference in regards to which input, and if it does. Am I to do something with another node to see it correctly in viewport?
👍👍👍
Awesome I really needed this. but please cut the music!
Playing music while you talk is like having a tv show overlay on your screen while you try to show what to do/learn. (or a overlay of you talking) = horrible / or maybe I listen better over the music MIT did a study and found that ....
it was really helpful, thank you so much
music should be remove from video
good explanations but wtf the horrible background music is ruining it :(
I'm a minute in and can hardly stand that music in the background. It's sooo distracting!
Hey bet ya didn't know not a single human being on youtube has a tutorial for how to create from scratch the entire PBR line up of textures in like phototshop or really anyone program. They all just talk about how theyre used. WHO CARES! who cares if you cant make one from scratch any way. LOL. Diffuse, metallic, specular, bump, roughness whatever you are all calling them which all call them something different... But seriously, everyone talks. Thats all these are, talk. This is great but to actually achieve it is a near impossibility unless you by the entire texture set from scratch and dont really want to create your own. And be like ya know. different. BUT WAIT!@ ive got something you can buy or send me money on patreon. WEAk
That background music - JUST DELETE IT !
You probably clicked in because it had a thinking emoji in the thumbnail
Not great textures.
thanks a lot! very helpful
ty