Quixel Guide: Texturing a Realistic Sofa

I go over three steps to create objects for any scene:

1. Props usage in the scene

I think props in any scene should serve the story and the beauty of that scene both individually and with the combination of other objects. In addition, it is important to make sure they are correct compositionally.

2. Reference and concepts

It is crucial to put enough time finding good references. You can create awesome concepts based on the story you have and the references you gather.

3. Execution

I choose my software based on my needs, polygon budget, texture size and all the other technical and artist style of a project. For this project, I used Quixel Suite 2.

Here are some references I used for the sofa.

Based on our story, I needed a worn out, old leather sofa. Thus, I gathered many references that served my purpose. In addition, I looked at many detail references to create my model materials and textures.

• Gathered references for shapes, materials, and textures like Albedo, Roughness.
• Made a blockout mesh to ensure correct proportions.
• Based on my block mesh I sculpted the high poly in Zbrush.
• Made the low-poly in Topogun and unwrapped it in Maya.
• Used Knald for texture baking. It is fast and easy to use.
• For material IDs, I poly paint my mesh in Zbrush and use Knald to bake them into the texture map. For me, it is the best way since I can have many details in my ID maps like the worn leather on the sofa or the small metal parts.

To start your project in Quixel Suite 2 you should have a normal map, and AO. An ID map is also useful but not necessary. You can also import Object Space Normal Map, Curvature map, and Position map or simply bake them In DDO using 3DO Baker.

Some tips on importing your object and textures into DDO

• Make sure your smoothing groups are ok.
• Your normals might be Y up or down depending on the software you have used. Use the Flip Y checkbox if you’re importing a Y- normal map. If it’s Y+, leave it unchecked.
• I use RMA-packed since it is easier to work with and more optimized.
• Always keep your project and layers organize since you might have many layers.
• Make sure you have a few padding pixels in ID map to avoid seams in your textures.
• Depending on the engine you want to use for your prop, you can add the maps you need for it by using the DDO menu → Add New Map.
• You can always make two or more textures for your object. If it’s a hero object and you want high-quality textures. I textured the blanket in a different texture.

Aidin Salsabili 

Make sure to read the full breakdown here.