Crafting Mosaic Inspired by Greek Mythology with Substance 3D Designer

Introduction

Hi, I’m Alessandra Frizzo, a Brazilian 3D Environment Artist based in Sweden with six years of experience in the game industry. I began my career by creating environments for VR simulators, where I worked from asset creation to level designing, which taught me about world-building. I later joined an indie studio, where I was responsible for developing a stylized tropical environment for a third-person adventure pet simulator. Most recently, I contributed to the development of a mid-stylized MMO platformer, where I helped create foliage kits and modular architecture assets in a similar style to Overwatch and Valorant. Currently, I’m seeking a new opportunity where I can continue to grow as an artist.

I started learning 3D art after I finished my law degree and realized that it wasn’t the right path for me. I’ve always had a passion for animation, games, cartoons, and storytelling, but I couldn’t attend an art or graphic design school where I lived. Instead, I began learning independently through art books, online articles, and watching countless YouTube tutorials from artists in the industry.

I was drawn to environment art from the very first moment I got in touch with it, as I have always enjoyed imagining worlds while reading books, and the idea of building immersive, story-driven spaces captivated me. It also helps that I enjoy traveling and exploring different places, which heavily influences my creative process through taking photographs of environments and nature.

Inspiration & References

The idea for the Atalanta Mosaic project started after watching Vincent Dérozier's course on Mosaic Creation Techniques in Substance 3D Designer, which first sparked my interest in working with mosaic textures. Still, it wasn’t until I came across Furkan Malli's mosaic project that I felt inspired to begin my own exploration of it. 

I knew early on that I wanted the centerpiece to feature a strong central figure inspired by mythology. After some research, I was drawn to the mosaic of Atalanta, a fearless huntress from Greek mythology. Her story and presence felt like a perfect fit for the type of visual narrative I wanted to build.

When gathering references, I focused on both historical accuracy and artistic expression. I gathered as many references as possible, ranging from real-life mosaic patterns, weathered mosaic surfaces, and works from other artists. For the trim sheet ornament, I selected patterns that would enhance the visual harmony of the composition and support the central character. My goal was to ensure historical authenticity while allowing space for creative interpretation, something that could stand on its own while also fitting naturally within an environment.

Shaping

Since I wanted to have full control over the shape and layout of the tiles in both centerpiece and trim sheet ornaments, I used the SVG nodes to create each element while tracing over reference images made in Photoshop. For the centerpiece reference, I repainted the original image and broke it down into color shapes to improve clarity and guide the shape breakdown. 

Once all shapes were combined, I applied a Grayscale Conversion followed by a Histogram Scan to generate the main mask. This served as a base for most of the material’s structure.

For the background of the centerpiece, I wanted to create a sense of motion and fluidity, making the mosaic more dynamic. For that, I used a noise mask to generate line flows. These were connected to a Scatter on Spline Grayscale node, which allowed me to fragment the lines into organically shaped mosaic tiles with natural variation in size and flow.

Around the centerpiece, I created a surrounding silhouette pattern using a mask derived from the SVG input, again connected to the Scatter on Spline node and combined with some randomized tile shapes. In areas that felt overly procedural, I used additional SVG inputs to refine the design, thus achieving a more natural and handcrafted result.

For the trim sheet, I divided it into sections for each ornamental pattern. After ensuring the tiling layout, I used SVG nodes to draw half of each pattern, then distributed them horizontally using a Tile Sampler node for clean, seamless tiling.

Once the patterns were assembled, a Slope Blur Grayscale node was used to introduce subtle edge irregularities, followed by a mix of gradient and damage masks to apply slight surface and height variations across the tiles.

Color 

One of the most essential parts when creating a mosaic is the Color Map. This will allow the material to be visually readable and clear. To achieve this, I used the color data embedded in the SVG shapes for both centerpiece and trim ornaments. When created, they were divided into parts, which allowed adjustments to both grayscale and color values. Further, I applied color variation using HSL nodes and grayscale masks, adding selective hue shifts across different tile regions. To add some stylization to the material, I used brush stroke noise overlays, which added painterly, handcrafted surface detail without disrupting the readability of the forms. The same coloring approach was used when creating the Color Map for the trim ornaments.

To achieve the texture quality I was aiming for, I layered roughness variation on top of a base roughness map derived from the Сolor Ьap. Thus enhancing the visual complexity by creating dynamic light interactions and surface imperfections.

Another important detail for this piece was to add some metallic accents, such as the golden details to the centerpiece and ornamental patterns. For that, I used a Color to Mask node to isolate yellow tones, which I then used as a Metallic Map on the material.

One of the main challenges for this project was maintaining consistency in tile size and detail density, particularly around key visual elements, such as the centerpiece. It was also important to keep a balance of stylization without sacrificing shape clarity.

The centerpiece character, in particular, required careful attention, especially regarding the head, hands, and legs. I reduced the spacing between tiles in those areas to retain some of the original piece's features while minimizing unnecessary noise, ensuring that the final composition was cohesive.

Rendering 

For rendering materials, I use Marmoset Toolbag as my primary tool, which provides me with a quick and easy high-quality setup.

I spent some time experimenting with light intensity and different camera angles, adding supporting lights to highlight specific areas of the material. It’s always helpful to have lighting references for matching the mood you are aiming for. I also used a high-resolution mesh to emphasize displacement and surface details, which allows me to showcase how the material would look in the game with the proper texture maps.

Once the lighting setup was in place, I focused on refining the camera positioning and field of view to best present the material. I also added two cylindrical meshes to create a composite of shadows in the final render. In post-production, I adjusted the shadow settings, added some sharpness, and applied a subtle vignette, all within Marmoset. Occasionally, I enhance the final material further in Photoshop, making minor tweaks to tone and details as needed.

Conclusion

The project took about four days to complete, as I had to draw the individual mosaic tiles for the central figure manually. Although it was the most time-consuming part, it was also the most fun to work with. There’s something relaxing about creating each tile by hand; it felt almost like working on a traditional art piece.

One of the biggest takeaways was the importance of patience. It’s easy to get caught up in the process and overwork, so taking breaks helped me step back and see things more clearly. Sometimes a fresh perspective makes all the difference.

Overall, it was a valuable learning experience that pushed my texturing and material creation skills further, from figuring out how to achieve a cohesive, dynamic background tile in the centerpiece to balancing detail and consistency throughout the piece. Also, to my surprise, working with mosaics in Substance 3D Designer was a lot easier than I thought. It was a fun and interesting project to work on, and I can’t wait to use what I learned here for future projects.

For anyone starting with Substance 3D Designer, I know it can be overwhelming at times. I’ve been through that phase myself. It's a powerful tool with a lot to offer, but progress takes time. Don’t be afraid to dive in and make mistakes; that’s part of the learning process.

I highly recommend starting with the fundamentals. Daniel Thiger’s tutorials are excellent for understanding the basics of shape construction for various types of organic materials and material logic. ArtStation Learning also has great content, especially regarding hard surface materials.

I also recommend creating a personal library node project with explanations and images, it’s a great reference when you revisit nodes you haven’t used in a while. Vincent Derosier’s “Survival Kit” is another excellent resource; it helps you to reinforce the core principles in a simple format. Additionally, I suggest studying SBS files from artists you like. Reverse-engineering those graphs is one of the fastest ways to grow! 

Finally, joining Discord communities such as Experience Points, The Club, Beyond Extent, and Future Material Artists is a great way to get support and feedback. These spaces are full of talented and supportive artists, and participating in their challenges is both fun and a great way to improve!

Thank you for reading this breakdown. I hope you like it and find it helpful! Big thanks to 80 Level for giving me the opportunity to share my work and process. If you’re interested in seeing more of my work, feel free to visit my Artstation profile. Cheers!

Alessandra Frizzo, Environment Artist