Making 3D Textures
Introduction
Making materials (or texture maps) can greatly improve the detail level of your model. However, it can be a very time-consuming process when beginning from scratch (e.g. Substance Designer). Using the program like ‘Substance Alchemist’ can speed up the process, as you can easily alter material parameters of existing materials (e.g. self-made or downloaded from ‘Substance Source’).
If you want to make a material from scratch it is recommended to view this YouTube tutorial. The tutorial discusses how you can make a brick texture with an enormous amount of detail. Even if you want to create textures with less detail it is recommended to watch the tutorial, because the program has quite a steep learning curve. It is important to understand the main textures that create the 3D texture, namely: Roughness-, Ambient Occlusion-, Height-, Normal- and Base- map.
Recommended Tutorial links
Texture basics (recommended):
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjGCtnEDDeU
- https://academy.substance3d.com/courses/the-pbr-guide-part-2
Brick tutorial (recommended):
Substance tutorial series:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzKtubDsC9o&list=PLB0wXHrWAmCwLRTzdb-RxadGk_xBBQKar
- https://academy.substance3d.com/courses/Mark-Foreman-s-Substance-Designer-tips-and-tricks
Using Substance materials in Unreal
Creating textures with your smartphone
It is also possible to create materials with the use of your smartphone. This, however, requires some preparation but can result in interesting textures. The process from picture to texture map is described in the following link: https://academy.substance3d.com/courses/your-smartphone-is-a-material-scanner
