The Bi-Weekly Substance Challenge (2018 Challenges)

3DKyle · Jan 2018

Hello everyone, welcome to the Bi-Weekly Substance Challenge 2018.

How it works

Every 2 weeks a new reference will be shared to be recreated, you are also encouraged to find your own reference, as long as it still fits the topic for that bi-weekly substance, for example if we share a mud reference, you can gather you own mud reference.

You can be creative with the reference and make it look either realistic, stylized or hand-painted, it is up to you.

Guidelines

Try and give constructive criticism, giving and receiving this should help each of us artist grow.

This is a Substance Challenge, so stick with that software.

You can post Wip's and finished materials here.

Don't share work you've done in the past, if you done a material before, try it again don't try pass old work off as something you did for this.

Final material renders to be rendered in a real-time engine (Marmoset, UE4, Unity, Cryengine, Stingray, IRay is also accepted).

This is a learning experience for all, don't be afraid to ask questions.

Learn all that you can and do share what you also learn.

Please be respectful to each and everyone.

Discord
We have a channel in the Allegorithmic Discord group where you can share WIP's and final images as well as discuss the challenge, Click here to go to it.
If you have any other questions in relations to any of the Allegorithmic's software, use the appropriate channels for those questions.

Resources

Previous Challenges

Challenge 16 - Rail Road || 4th Jan - 18th Jan
Click the images for higher resolutions.

Challenge 17 - Substance Food || 20th of Jan - 3rd Feb
Click the images for higher resolutions.

Here are some tasty substances from other artists to give you that appetite of inspiration.

Alice Gionchetta - Pizza
Stephen Honegger - Fried Egg
Curt Smith - Waffles
Jeff Kleinzweig - Pizza
Thomas Meurisse - Grill and Meat

Challenge 18 - Circuit board || 12th Feb - 26th Feb
Click the images for higher resolutions.

Challenge 19 - Concrete Damaged Floor || 1st March - 15th March
Click the images for higher resolutions.

Challenge 20 - Cassette Tape || 17th March - 31st March
Click the images for higher resolutions.

Challenge 21 - Old Shield || 5th April - 19th April.
Click the images for higher resolutions.

Challenge 22 - Grass || 1st May - 15th May.
Click the images for higher resolutions.

Challenge 23 - Metal Zinc Plates || 27th May - 10th June
Click the images for higher resolutions.

LorasTyrell · Jan 2018

Hi again and happy new year everyone! Thank you so much for doing this once again Kyle, hope all is well with you

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/av/q6bpq0nd0vv2.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/31/7px8p01fgonb.jpg

Artstation

Ra6ga5ka · Jan 2018

So i am done with it ! So my first challange i guess

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/x8/au8ne26m669p.jpg

MarchandVenter · Jan 2018

Hey guys, so happy I found this challenge. I was really inspired by all the backlog of work and decided to join in all the fun. Here is my WIP for the number 16.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/p0/kylw0bn3uglt.png

For now, I am just working on constructing the overall shapes. I plan to then alter them in a stylised way.

MarchandVenter · Jan 2018

Update to the height map

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/5b/4xhdjwycdft5.png

Nyongoros · Jan 2018

Heightmap done,
Now to the colors, which is the hard part for me due to being Colorblind and all

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/ka/cw8tsywcnnxo.png

MarchandVenter · Jan 2018

@Nyongoros
Very cool man, love the version you are going with

JackDCaron · Jan 2018

Nice work so far everyone! @LorasTyrell what do you think about taking some of the metalness off your rust spots to really separate that from the polished top?

@Ra6ga5ka same note. Loving your gravel!

@MarchandVenter you might want to vary up the bolts/missing bolts a bit, but it could just work if you're going stylized.

I've been getting into Designer a lot more the passed couple weeks, so I figured this might be a good spot to jump in. Thanks @3DKyle for doing these!

My start:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/3o/9j514yrauplj.png

MarchandVenter · Jan 2018

@JackDCaron
really nice work, and thanks for the critics. I will take a look at what you mentioned. How did you achieve the rocks?

Chesterland_Hunan · Jan 2018

Hey guys, it has some issues but they should be fixed soon hopefully.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/w0/sf3209mfvo2d.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/tl/9mjcyrhfljsd.jpg

JackDCaron · Jan 2018

@MarchandVenter I used the Flood Fill with a Cells 4 and Edge detect (gives beefier lines than just using Cells 3 IMO). I use three Flood Fill to Gradient nodes and set their rotations differently with variation maxed, then blend with Min. Anyone do it much differently?

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/5a/vcacos70d59p.png

PeterS3D · Jan 2018

PeterS3D · Jan 2018

I should start doing these challenges again...

Nyongoros · Jan 2018

Got some color work done today.

Need to go through and tidy up the graph It doesnt fit on my screen

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/cp/8zhdl9r5o1v4.png

Nyongoros · Jan 2018

GhostDetector · Jan 2018

@Nyongoros
Nice wood grains, your greens seem a little too saturated. What happened to the actual train track?

You can also export your graph:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/2h/9irjydxrlq7i.jpg

Anyways here's what I have so far. Rocks, wood and rails are on different graphs since I used them as a generator. I still need a bit more work with the wood though.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/5x/mn58936lx7f2.jpg

rosen_kazlachev · Jan 2018

Finally had some time for a substance challenge. Tried to make the planks parametric in this one. Number/rotation/size/scale can be changed to some extent. More than 12 planks needs some extra tweaking though.

Iray renders.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/c8/n7y1aln6y9tx.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/f3/3pl4cwr82bpp.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/gy/sh1vnyoaxzmm.gif

Nyongoros · Jan 2018

@GhostDetector only showing the things I've had a chance to work on. Starting with the tracks and details now.
Thanks for the feedback.
Nice start, very efficient graph to.

Keven_B · Jan 2018

I finally finish my material .
My graph is Destroy XD Now is time to Clean up my graph.
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nVagE

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/3g/0dqrjxykjqyu.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/hs/da4p2n6ockpv.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/vg/5jprn4x830vf.jpg

3DKyle · Jan 2018

Nice work guys. I'll get around to posting critiques soon enough. If everyone is interested I was thinking at the end of each challenge doing a blog post highlighting what you guys have done and then talk about what I like and give you feedback also.

Nyongoros · Jan 2018

Sounds good @3DKyle
Think I'm close to finishing mine:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/4s/c2mwli0aljmv.png

Daniel_Swing · Jan 2018

Woah! Cool stuff guys!

Nyongoros · Jan 2018

Finally finished!
Rendered it in UE4 too, More on my Portfolio:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/L65Ek

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/kt/fqtoj8b9ke6c.png

GhostDetector · Jan 2018

Not done with the rails yet, its more of a placeholder for now.

safeer · Jan 2018

Hello guys, my submission for Bi weekly Substance Challenge this is rendered in marmoset. Hope you like it Thanks

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/vh/jgm2hf4lpx81.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/eu/pd42rz670rws.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/a2/yclik7o1myg7.jpg

3DKyle · Jan 2018

Today is the last day to get the submissions in and then tomorrow we will start the new one

GhostDetector · Jan 2018

Here's my submission:

Rendered in Iray : (No tesselation)

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/fo/pw76vba9dids.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/nv/cw19o032h5p0.jpg

Rendered in OpenGL:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/w0/skaqq9lpo8qr.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/q2/e1mk3kqiptzb.jpg

NickWilliams · Jan 2018

Really awesome work, everyone! I could learn a lot from y'all! Really loving how much detail i'm seeing in everyone's work.
Here's what I've come up with. Could definitely use some more work here and there, but I think i need to step away from this for a few days.
Critiques welcomed. I trust yall.

(Rendered in IRay)

Art Station Link for more!

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/ia/388nxld074fa.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/ay/hwg4lcowv3xr.png

3DKyle · Jan 2018

Great stuff guys, I'll be writing up a blog about what you guys did and such with feedback

enjoy the next challenge, looking forward to seeing what comes out of this one.

Nyongoros · Jan 2018

Nice to hear @3DKyle, can't wait to read it!

Btw everyone I've also made my material available for download, free/ pay what you want, if you want to break down my mess of nodes

Link on my post here. Please rate it fairly, would love some feedback!

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/2z/gpjy7y26xa93.jpg

Eggfruit · Jan 2018

Wish I'd had time for the last challenge. So much awesomeness has come out of that, looking through the thread.
Anyway. Here are's a toasty first step for the new one.

LorasTyrell · Jan 2018

What a fun new theme :DD I can already tell that I'm going to make several ones for this just cause there are so many possibilities!! Here's an apple I sketched out quickly

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/7r/06j0m4a9jepl.png

LorasTyrell · Jan 2018

And here's Winnie the Pooh's honey pot because playing with height maps is fun

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/20/23pr19s3s19b.png

capone · Jan 2018

Trying to do M&M's. Mainly just for educational reasons because I'm having another go at something that beats me every single time I attempt to create natural overlapping elements.

This is my general setup (multiplied many times), tile generator (trying both ADD and MAX blends) where I place them in a BLEND with a mask.

Image: http://puu.sh/z5rwI/54517efb9c.png

So here I have everything overlapping but as you can see it's not working at all.

No idea what to do here, I'm going to try and add tilts/height blends but I think I need to rethink this. It's weird, I never see any tutorials on this setup. There is a coin material in substance share but it's doing it via bitmaps so I'm wondering if it's actually just not possible to do a procedural version of this setup and people just do it via something like zbrush and then bake bitmaps?

LorasTyrell · Jan 2018

@capone I would do this with layers and histogram ranges, like this.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/72/i9kkomfp1c41.png

The blends are set to copy, with a histogram scan to mask. It's not perfect, but it kind of works. Here's the blended result

And the result in IRay

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/ne/wcf51fzsgc57.png

It's not perfect, but it's better than what the blend node can give you natively. There are better ways to do this though, I'll tell you if I think of something

DrNoodles · Jan 2018

Hi,
I choose to make Kiwi for little fun

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/6q/pb50k4svxvua.png

capone · Jan 2018

LorasTyrell said:

@capone I would do this with layers and histogram ranges, like this.

The blends are set to copy, with a histogram scan to mask. It's not perfect, but it kind of works. Here's the blended result

And the result in IRay

It's not perfect, but it's better than what the blend node can give you natively. There are better ways to do this though, I'll tell you if I think of something

Still struggling. Tried a few methods but it's not working as expected. Not sure what to do with the jaggy edges in the normal, usually you just add a slight blur but that has really bad results in this situation. In the example above each layer's height range is the same (0.5) and the position goes up 0.05 every blend. (0.05, 0.10, 0.15, 0.20, 0.25 etc)

Bogodar · Jan 2018

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/ss/c1tn6bv0onba.jpg

my kiwi substance https://www.artstation.com/artwork/NPq4z

MohsenDehnavi · Jan 2018

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/k9/r11kzr4ahsmo.jpg

More pictures in https://www.artstation.com/artwork/mQ0Ay

GhostDetector · Jan 2018

WIP Bread

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/mj/naslmeim0k7p.png

capone · Jan 2018

m&m's

GhostDetector · Jan 2018

Final Mushroom:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/db/yd1pt50t4ni2.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/76/rczvvgyjx96z.jpg

Final Bread:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/c7/9a3fdoqychf8.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/ho/ue58olctj7rv.jpg

capone · Jan 2018

Updated my m&m's, there were too many glaring mistakes so I made it cleaner but unfortunately that means spaces between the candy. Before I had screwed up colour giving the illusion of a pile but I couldn't get it right so put them on a surface instead.

Image: https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/009/068/325/large/adam-capone-screenshot004.jpg?1516934245

I sort of prefer this shot, at least on first glance BUT as you can see the closer you zoom in on them the more visible the glitches become.

Image: https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/009/068/387/large/adam-capone-screenshot000.jpg?1516935012

Keven_B · Jan 2018

I will buy Cookie tonight https://www.artstation.com/artwork/xXX1m

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/bf/ljmvr40nn5n8.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/2g/pp5qr2s7jsyy.jpg

shaya · Jan 2018

Here is my attempt at some peppermint ice cream. I don't think I got the ice cream texture down just right but the candy pieces turned out ok.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/up/i5t5bnwz7zyt.png

Priestup · Feb 2018

Hi everyone,
Here's a pineapple substance i've made for this week.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/lx/0omj20y3k16i.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/s8/qohwvqf0rjml.jpg

NickWilliams · Feb 2018

Cool stuff everyone! Great ideas!
I think I may have gotten a lil too ambitious on this one, but whatever, i had fun makin' it.

C&C welcome!

ArtStation Link for more

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/st/u2kddaj8c86l.jpg

rosen_kazlachev · Feb 2018

Nice stuff people!
@NickWilliams Love it! Awesome colours.

Do sunflowers count as food?

Anyways, I went ahead and actually made a spiral generator. Will be writing a more detailed blogpost on Arstation these days. Lots of controls on this node, so you can get a decent number of patterns. For now just some renders: