Week 4.5: Tiling Texture Creation

THE SEVENTH STEP (NEEDS REFERENCING)

For this week we were tackling tiling textures in a variety of programs.

Tiling textures are textures that are seamless, this means they repeat infinitely along the U & V axis. These are often used to mass cover areas of a game level such as walls or floors.

"If you have an environment such as a cave, artists don't want to paint every single rock by hand. Instead, often as a first pass in games, artists will tile the texture so only one small texture needs to be used for the entire area."[1]

Having such large, frequently used assets be rendered in a single texture call is not only more efficient but also means you do not need enormous texture resolutions. Having a 2K texture on a smaller asset would achieve a great level of detail however the same texture on a HUGE scale would look terrible being massively pixelated.

I will need to create tiling textures for my: Walls, Roof and Street...

SubstanceDesigner Brick Test:

My first experimentation into tiling textures was in SubstanceDesigner, an extremely powerful program I'm currently unfamiliar with. So what better place to start than the LearningSpace following alongside the Mural board utilising all the nodes in the demonstrated order.

As a first test it's mostly successful, having it look mostly like bricks! However the blur mask applied to the colour node is far too strong and at the time couldn't figure out which node was actually causing this. The grout and overall colour pallet using the gradient picker is relatively effective and is a handy tool I will be using again in the future. Unfortunately this doesn't stop the overall texture from having a low resolution hideous feel reminiscent of early Windows95 videogame textures.

ZBrush Tiling Texture: Brick Test

After a relatively challenging experience with Designer I wanted to experiment with another package that has a more hands on less technical process, thus Zbrush was my next test. Again following partially the mural and partially "FlippedNormals"[2][3] Video series on creation of tiling textures in Zbrush. I started with a basic PolyCube, scaling to create a rectangle and dynameshing to create a higher resolution workable geometry. Using a selection of Various "Trim" brushes and HPolish I created a brick with 6 uniquely sculpted sides. (allowing for only one asset to be used multiple times across the whole texture) I repeated this process and created a second. Eventually applying a surface noise to the whole mesh to create further detail and variation.

Once I had my bricks, utilising the displayed methods I created a plane and the deformation toolset to offset the bricks (hopefully ensuring the tiling functionality)

My First test however had an extremely obvious diagonal row of 4 bricks that not only read horrendously obvious once tilled but also isn't how bricks or mortar is laid/ constructed. I addition to this I had a couple bricks where the tiling wasn't perfect, leaving an obvious join, likely due to small alterations when placing and offsetting. Which was later rectified in my next iteration. Moving forward I would create some actual mortar and remove the circular protrusion as again reads as obvious tiling and doesn't really make sense for real life bricks.

Overall whilst a more enjoyable process that feels more hands on it has leant itself to more of a "stylised feel" which, with some alterations may become appropriate for this project, is currently not the look I want for this texture.

Substance-Sampler: Brick Test

For my final experimentation with a new package this week I additionally created a texture in Substance Sampler. Following along with the official Adobe Substance[4] channel video on creating a brick wall texture.

This process started with using a base colour and brick surface cracks Relief layer to create a general first "Brick". A Brickwall modifier is applied overall creating the bulk of the texture. Once this was done utilising my initial materials reference board I added more surface layers like Dust, Erosion creating more variation and interest. Overall creating a grungier look closer to what is found in depictions of Diagonalley opposed to modern brick builds.

This process was easily the fastest of the 3 and creates a look that is closest to my references of Victorian buildings. However I do feel there is the least exploration for uniqueness in this program with the texture having quite a "generic" feel, which works for brick walls which are fairly standardised but should be used sparingly else the overall project could feel boring and uninspired.

Substance Designer 2.0: Roof Slate Test

To finalise this week I wanted to have another attempt at texture creation in SubstanceDesigner. After watching more videos [5] on the program I felt I had gained a partially better understanding of how the overall process works.

So to the MuralBoard for creating roof slates I went. Mostly following the guide step by step but choosing more of my own values and adding a couple extra grunge nodes along the way for further variation in the surface. This was a similar process to my brick creation but I had allowed myself a little more room for exploration, whilst not even closely exploring the vastness of the program, going forward I would like to create a tile that has more character and is unique to my project.

KEY INFORMATION from the week:

SubstanceDesigner: Currently feels very technical and utilising nodes isn't a workflow I'm familiar with. Being a serial pixel pusher not having reactive, visual results I can directly manipulate, this program makes me feel heavily limited. Working with numbers to create mathematical, quantifiable art at present feels quite challenging.

ZBrush: Time consuming but did make me feel the most competent, will need to explore the exportation process from Zbrush into other programs like painter.

SubstanceSampler: Felt the most efficient and a nice balance of Designer to Painter but heralded the least unique results but I'm sure with more experimentation this concern can be alleviated.

[1] www.foundry.com. (n.d.). Evolution of Texturing in Video Games | Foundry. [online] Available at: https://www.foundry.com/insights/film-tv/texturing-video-games#:~:text=If%20you%20have%20an%20environment [Accessed 18 Feb. 2024].

[2] www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Making Tileable Textures in ZBrush - Top ZBrush Trick. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pdh0peG4oys&t=11s&ab_channel=FlippedNormals [Accessed 18 Feb. 2024].

[3] www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Making Tileable Geometry Maps in ZBrush. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTRKo6EgXVs&t=814s&ab_channel=FlippedNormals [Accessed 19 Mar. 2024].

[4] www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Brick Wall Material in Minutes with Substance 3D Sampler | Substance 3D. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAj4jFfMAvk&ab_channel=AdobeSubstance3D [Accessed 20 Feb. 2024].

[5] www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Substance 3D Designer First Steps: 01 - Overview & Basics | Substance 3D. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyFgpitTsYg&ab_channel=AdobeSubstance3D [Accessed 20 Feb. 2024].

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