Painting Snow With Depth & Volume In Unreal Engine 5

3D Artist Alexandre Martin demonstrated a realistic snow effect on a sphere painted in Unreal Engine 5, utilizing Nanite to ensure efficient rendering of the detailed geometry. While vertex painting provided precise artistic control over where and how much snow appeared, the displacement here gave the snow texture actual volume, making it feel more realistic, with subtle variations in depth and form.

The artist explained that he first created a snow texture in Substance 3D Sampler, then developed a material using Vertex Colors to enable painting the snow directly onto the surface. Finally, he integrated a displacement map to add the desired volume to the snow.

See the original post for more details and videos of the process, and check out another Alexandre Martin's realistic snow material with customizable parameters available for purchase:

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