3D Texturing & Shading
Add realism and depth to your 3D creations. Master the art of creating believable surfaces, from rough metal to soft skin, using professional texturing and shading techniques. Learn to utilize PBR workflows to make your models look stunning in any engine
Texture like a pro in 4 weeks
Creating high-quality textures for film, TV, or video games is an art form. Simply dropping online assets into a scene isn’t enough in today’s competitive industry; you need fundamental art skills and a portfolio of original work to stand out. This course teaches you to create your own game- or film-ready textures from scratch.
We focus solely on texture creation within Substance Painter, using provided 3D assets to streamline your learning. While this is not a modeling or animation course, we cover essential production workflows, including preparing models in Maya and UV unwrapping for Substance Painter.
By the end of this course, you will have a strong understanding of 3D texturing. This program is designed for intermediate users looking to master Substance Painter for gaming and rendering, or aspiring artists wishing to break into the industry.
Course Outline
Week 1: The Foundation – Baking & Basic Layers
Topic A: Setup & Baking
- The 3D Canvas: Navigating the viewport (Maya style) and importing meshes.
- UV Logic: Why bad UVs = bad textures. Checking UVs in the 2D view.
- Mesh Maps (Baking): The secret sauce. Baking Normal, World Space Normal, ID, Ambient Occlusion, and Curvature maps. Why these are essential for generators.
Topic B: Material Basics
- Layers vs. Channels: Understanding Base Colour, Height, Roughness, and Metallic channels.
- Fill Layers: Why professionals use Fill Layers with masks instead of Paint Layers.
- Brush Settings: Alpha shapes, hardness, and stroke jitter.
Topic C: The Paint Workflow
- Projection Tool: Painting stencils and decals onto the model.
- Symmetry Painting: Speeding up work on symmetrical objects.
Week 2: Smart Materials & Generators
Topic A: Masks & Generators
- Black & White Masks: The concept of “White reveals, Black hides.”
- Generators: Using the “Metal Edge Wear” and “Dirt” generators driven by the baked Curvature and AO maps.
- Smart Masks: Drag-and-dropping complex grime patterns.
Topic B: Smart Materials
- The Library: Using and dissecting pre-made Smart Materials.
- Creating Custom Smart Materials: Building a “Rusted Painted Metal” folder structure and saving it for future use.
Topic C: Anchor Points & Height
- Micro-Detail: Adding bolts and panel lines using only Height/Normal information (Fake Geometry).
- Anchor Points: Making generators react to details you just painted (e.g., making rust appear only where you painted a scratch).
Week 3: Opacity, Emissive & Export
Topic A: Complex Shaders
- Opacity: Setting up the shader to paint glass or transparent plastic.
- Emissive: Painting glowing lights (screens, sci-fi energy).
- Sub-Surface Scattering (SSS): Faking skin or wax depth in the viewport.
Topic B: Export Presets
- The Output Template: Configuring exports for Arnold (AiStandard) vs. Unreal Engine vs. Blender.
- Texture Packing: Understanding “OcclusionRoughnessMetallic” (ORM) packed maps to save memory.
- Resolution: Exporting 2K vs 4K maps.
Topic C: Filters & Finish
- Post-Effects: Using Painter’s built-in render mode (Iray) for quick portfolio screenshots.
- MatFX: Adding oil leaks, water drops, and peeling paint filters.
Week 4: The Hookup (Lookdev) & AI Workflow
Topic A: The Shader Hookup (Maya/Arnold)
- Colour Space: The #1 mistake beginners make. Setting “sRGB” for Colour and “Raw” for Roughness/Normal/Metalness.
- The Hypershade: Connecting the exported PNG/Exr files to an
aiStandardSurface. - Displacement: Connecting height maps for real geometry offset.
- Alpha is Luminance: Handling transparency correctly in the Alpha channel.
Topic B: Innovative AI Workflow (Using Gemini)
- Material Science: Asking Gemini for accurate IOR (Index of Refraction) and RGB values for real-world materials.
- Prompt Example: “What is the correct IOR value for Emerald, and what is the Hex colour code for oxidised copper?”
- Decal Generation: Using Gemini to brainstorm text/logos for decals (e.g., “Generate 5 warning label texts for a futuristic nuclear battery”).
- Style Consistency: Describing a visual style to Gemini to get a list of weathering types to apply.
Topic C: Final Render
- Setting up lights in Maya to showcase the roughness and normal maps effectively.
