Having acquired the basic Albedo and Occlusion texture maps, the next stage was to create the PBR based metal and roughness maps in Substance Painter.
The following gives the explanation as to how these maps were created using Substance Painter in a series of steps.
Step 1: Import the fbx file of each robotic mech part. Since Substance Painter allows you to see real time painting on both the 3D model and the 2D texture map, seeing the effects are a lot easier to see. After importing the model, I immediately saved out a substance painter scene file in order to keep track of my work.
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| Step 1 |
Step 2: The next step was add in a colour ID map. This was quickly made in 3ds max via applying different material colours to the each component of he overall part. This was done in order to separate the different textures that would be painted on. Back in Substance, a fill layer was created for each texture, and a colour mask applied. So when the colour ID map was chosen, each colour could then be allocated to a different material. The material was then applied via the fill layer, and painted on the meatallic and roughness values.
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| Step 2 |
Step 3: After this, the various values were altered in order to get the materials, such as the titanium metal, looking just right. After this step, a colour layer was created, and then had pats rubbed out using various brushes in order to simulate a metal scratched effect.
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| Step 3 |
Step 4: Once happy the last step I followed was to export all of the maps as targa files, that could then be edited in Photoshop where necessary. This whole process was then repeated 7 more times until every part the required textures.
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| Step 4 |
At the same time, all of the parts for the robotic mech where being set up in Marmoset Toolbag 2. This was done in order to get the model ready for the final renders, as well as test out the textures coming in from Substance Painter. One thing I discovered was that the metal scratches looked too a little, which was due to the values of the scratches not showing through very well.
To remedy this, I took the roughness and metallic maps back into Photoshop. Note also at this point that the single colour scratch layer from Substance was over layed onto the albedo, the scratch marks selected, then applied onto the albedo layer. So in order to boost the reflective lighting of the scratch marks, the scratch marks where once again selected, over layed onto the roughness and metallic maps, but instead of deleting marks, were painted directly onto the texture with a white value colour. These values would then be edited until thy were to my liking back in Marmoset.
After this, the only maps left to create where the normal and emissive maps. The emissive maps where very easy to do. All they require is keeping the colours where the lights will be on the map, and then boosting the colour to give off a better glow effect. The normal maps on the other hand took a little experimentation in order to achieve a good effect.
The first test was simply combining the albedo and occlusion maps together, and then using the Nivida plugin to creating a normal map from them. However, when applied to he model, it didn't add that much in terms of detail. To solve this issue, I added a scratched metal texture with an opacity of roughly 32%, then redid the Nivida plugin option. This time it came up with a much better textured look. An example of each texture map created is shown below, using the turret extra parts as the example.
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| Occlusion Map |
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| Albedo Map |
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| Colour ID |
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| Metallic Map |
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| Roughness Map |
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| Emissive Map |
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| Normal Map |
Once the first set of maps were finished, I repeated the process 7 more times until all of the texture maps were complete. Unfortunately 3ds max is unable to use roughness and metallic maps, so I've been unable to apply all the materials within a scene. However, they all work within the marmoset and Unreal programmes, so i'll be showing you how they look in there. Once done, the next stage was to render out the final shots in both Marmoset Toolbag and Unreal Engine 4. I'll be showing work done in these programmes further in the next blog update.
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