Character Creation: Navigating the Industry Pipeline – Texturing

Texturing:

With UV mapping complete, the next stage of the pipeline was to texture the model in Substance 3D Painter.

Already having a clear vision from the development stage of the project of the colouration and textures I needed to use to both make my creature emotive and relay its backstory, I quicky realised that using smart materials would be necessary to achieve this. However, as I didn’t want to simply plug another creators assets into my design, and after searching through the free resources on the Adobe Substance 3D Community Assets website, found none of those available could exactly replicate the effects I wanted to achieve, I set about combining, and/or heavily modifying the most pertinent materials by adjusting the material properties until they met my needs.

Skull:

Initial ‘Painted Bone’ Smart Material vs Amended Aged Asset with Blood Spattering

Skin:

Initial ‘Base Skin’ Smart Material vs Amended Mottled Skin Asset

Talons and Spikes:

Initial ‘Organic Bone’ Smart Material vs Amended More Natural/Realistic Asset and Outcome

Tail Appendage (Skin):

Final Scarred Skin Texture Asset achieved by overlaying ‘Tandoori Paneer Grilled Cottage Cheese’ and ‘Abstract Red’ Smart Materials

Tail Appendage (Talons):

Initial ‘Organic Bone’ Smart Material vs Amended Asset with Blood Spattering

Using a black mask, other smart materials (‘Organic Flesh’ and ‘Blood Veins’) were then layered on top of the newly modified mottled skin asset I’d created to produce the darker scorched effect, and blistering was added by drawing directly onto this customised smart material.

Using this same technique but with the ‘Organic Bone’ asset provided in the Substance 3D Painter Library, exposed ribs were also added, and later made more prominent by increasing the height map to its maximum value in Blender.

The texture files containing these customised smart materials, and others relevant to the design were then baked and exported from Substance 3D Painter as .png files, which were then imported and applied to the model in Blender.

However, when the texture files were first applied, feeling that the skull and tail appendage lacked contrast, and that even with the later addition of environmental lighting, these areas would still be difficult to read, both were lightened. As can be seen in the final textured model, this too made the sculpted detail more pronounced, but at the same time, the effects I wanted to achieve are still apparent.

Skull- Before and After

Tail Appendage – Before and After

Finally, roughness values were also amended in Blender to convey the shine of newly burnt skin once lighting effects were applied and once completed, the model was ready for the next stage of the pipeline – rigging and posing.

Final Textured Model: