How to Create an Ice Material Using Substance 3D Designer
Vladislav Kiselev talked about the ice material he created using Substance 3D, explaining how he started by following references, using the Voronoi noise as a foundation, and discussing how he created the snow traces.
Introduction
I had long wanted to create an ice material because it's something I love to look at: winter locations, ice blocks, and so on. So I started gradually learning how to create something like this. The main goal of this project was to convey the feeling of cold and the harsh beauty of ice.
The tool I used is Substance 3D Designer. I started by analyzing references. I needed to convey the characteristic structure of ice with cracks.
Ice
The foundation was Voronoi noise, which I adjusted to fit my needs. I picked up this technique from the artist Johnny Nodes. The resulting cracks formed the base shape that I built upon in the subsequent work.
Adding Details to the Base Shape
At this stage, I needed to refine the cracks: slightly smooth their edges, make them thinner, and lift them a bit. On the references, I noticed the effect of ice that had partially melted and then refrozen. I really wanted to capture that story.
To begin with, I inverted the crack mask and applied blur to the edges. To lift the edges and make them more expressive, I used the Multi-Directional Warp Grayscale node. It allowed me to add subtle deformation, simulating uneven freezing.
Then I added slight waviness using Perlin Noise so that the surface wouldn't look too perfect and flat. Next, I took the original cracks, created a thinner version based on them, blended it with the previous result, and subtracted.
Height Map Detailing
The next step was to show the endless irregularities of ice that occur due to the processes of melting and refreezing under the influence of various weather conditions. To achieve this, we need to create a base noise characteristic of the ice structure. It will become the foundation of the material, add coherence to it, and it will be the element we build upon later.
In my case, this base noise is the layer on top of which all other details will subsequently be applied. Additionally, I use it for deformation in the Directional Warp node along with other noises. This allows me to create the effect of uneven melting and layering of ice. An example of this process can be seen in the screenshot.
The noises you can see in the screenshot I came across in a video by the artist Deniz Giritli Art, where he was creating ice. Overall, this material was created based on his video.
Creating Snow Traces
The next stage is creating snow, as well as large, medium, and small traces. They help add coherence to the material and introduce variety in color. When creating snow traces, it's important to distinguish between those that will affect the Height map and Color, and those that are added only to the Color channel.
For example, this kind of snow noise (see example in the screenshot), I add exclusively to the color channel. This way, I don't disrupt the surface geometry but enrich it visually.
To create the cracks, I used a combination of Slope Blur, Perlin Noise, and Levels nodes. First, I took the base crack mask and passed it through Slope Blur with Perlin Noise connected. Then, using Levels, I adjusted their contrast and intensity, depending on how much I wanted them to stand out on the surface.
I processed the smaller cracks in the same way to create an additional layer of detail. After that, I combined all versions of the cracks and kept refining them until I achieved a look that I liked: adding small distortions, blur, and blending them with some noises again. This was done so that the cracks would look interesting in color.
Here is the final height:
Color Work (Albedo)
To control color variations, I used the BW Color Variation node by Ben Wilson. It makes it much easier to control the range of hues. You can learn more about how this node works from the author himself on ArtStation.
I started creating the base color of the ice by choosing dark and light shades, guided by references. Then I blended them in Overlay mode using a mask created from the base cracks. I passed the resulting output into the Color Variation node.
Next, I used all the previously created snow and crack masks, blended them with white color, and adjusted the intensity to my liking so that the snowy areas would look natural.
Conclusion
In the final stage, I also used the Dust and Edge Wear nodes as masks, along with the HSL node for color variation.
