Creating Sci-Fi-Inspired Material Using Blender & Substance 3D
Dave Miragliotta talked to us about creating the Sci-Fi Hatch material, discussing the modeling process in Blender and completing the texturing in Substance 3D Painter.
Introduction
Hi, my name is Dave Miragliotta. I've been in the game industry for more than 11 years. I've worked at Respawn Entertainment as a Senior Environment Artist for the past 7 years. I've had the pleasure of working on two Star Wars titles, Jedi Fallen Order and Jedi Survivor.
For my sci-fi hatch material, I wanted to use Blender to model out all the details so I could later bake out the Height Map and other appropriate maps to use in Substance 3D Painter to texture the material. When making materials, I usually will use Substance 3D Designer for the whole thing, but sometimes I enjoy the process of modeling out all the details instead of creating it all in Designer.
Modeling
For this material, I used Blender and Substance 3D Painter. I first started modeling in Blender, putting in all the details that I would need. Having used this method before, it's important to model details in a certain way that will produce a nicer or smoother Height Map with fewer artifacts. Avoiding 90-degree angles for the bigger parts of the material, where artifacts are able to be seen, is key.
After all the details were made, I went in and started to create the color ID materials that I would apply to certain parts of the model for later use in Substance 3D Painter. When making a material in this way, it's useful to have the Color ID Map baked out so you can easily apply materials to specific parts.
Baking & Texturing
After the color ID materials are applied to the high poly. I then export the high-poly and low-poly meshes for Substance 3D Painter. Once in Painter, I start the baking process. I import the high-poly mesh and select the maps that I want created. By default, the Height Map is not selected, so make sure to check that on before baking.
After the baking process, the maps have been created, and I can start selecting the materials that I want to use for the setup. After that, I can start to use the Color ID Map to assign these materials. The process is rather simple. You can add a mask with color selection to the material you want to use, so you can use the Color ID Map that was baked out. Once you have added the mask with color selection, you can select "pick color" and choose what color you want for the material that you have selected.
Once you have all the texture work done in Painter, it's time to export the textures needed for Marmoset. You'll need to export the Mesh Maps, which will give you the AO and Height Map. Then you'll also need to export the PBR textures.
Next, I brought the exported textures into Marmoset Toolbag. I have a template that I use for most of the materials I create. It has multiple shapes that I use in the renders, along with lighting for each shape separately. You simply have to drag and drop the textures onto the texture map inputs. After that, you have to make some adjustments to the lights and camera settings before finally rendering.
Conclusion
This was a fun material to create. I enjoy the process of modeling in Blender and then using Substance 3D Painter to texture. It took me about four hours from start to finish to create this material. As I have created a material with this method before, it made it easier and saved time. The most challenging part about this method of material creation was to model in a way that works best for the Height Map. The first time I tried this approach, I had too many 90-degree angles, which created some weird artifacts.
My advice for creating materials in general is to try to push yourself with what you're creating. I like to make materials I haven't seen before. Also, try different methods. For a while, I was only doing materials in Substance 3D Designer. But now I try to explore different apps that will either be more efficient or a new tool to get the job done. I am always looking for inspiration everywhere. I would hope that whoever sees what I create will find it interesting and inspiring. I know that I see stuff every day that inspires me, so I hope I do the same for someone.
