Quixel SUITE | Advanced User Tips And Tricks

Billy Lundevall

Hi, I decided to create a little thread for more advanced workflow tips and questions. I'll take any questions regarding the Quixel Suite and or Photoshop, and if anything particular comes up I can also create step by step guides as we want to know what people want to see in tutorial form .

This is NOT a thread for general or basic usage questions, keep those in the tutorials and workflow thread Eric created.

The following examples are my work, textured with the Quixel Suite. If any one have any questions on a specific thing, shoot .

Gordon Robb

This great. Speaking as a noobie, I guess the issue is knowing what questions are advanced technique and what are basic

Billy Lundevall

I guess the line is subjective. How the software works and how you create a material or setup a project, I consider basic things. How you create things like the damascus steel pattern in the axe or use hand sculpted damage normals as a roughness in your gloss map I would consider more advanced things.

Devil_Inside

Yeah, that damascus steel pattern is something I'd like to know more about.

Another thing that came to mind is how to do this thermal metal discoloration you usually see on some weapon barrels. Might be a trivial thing to do, as I didn't try it myself yet, but maybe you guys know some smart and easy way to do it.
http://i62.tinypic.com/2f0dnv6.png
https://cdn.artstation.rocks/p/assets/images/images/000/523/933/large/james-tran-thermite.jpg
https://cdn.artstation.rocks/p/assets/images/images/000/523/913/large/james-tran-combogun.jpg

P.S. I'm also interested in how to do directional scratches, like the ones you have on your knife, or ones you'd usually expect to see on a weapon magazine, on the part that comes in contact with the lower receiver.

Eric Ramberg

That´s a neat idea for a smart material Devil! Actually the directional wear might be a good subject for Billy´s next tutorial!

Billy Lundevall

I will discuss the Damascus thing with Mr. Eric, it is also the same method used for the orange bakelite on the AKM bayonet.

Heat discoloration on steel is absolutely possible to do a little guide on. Scratches in specific areas with a specific direction is however hard to do with an automated thing, there you might have to use some custom mask painting. That is how I do it.

It looks like I will do a full breakdown on the UZI texturing process, in there I might go through that in more detail (not too clear in the exploded view as I haven't updated the textures on that yet).

If you mean directional in the sense of damage based on direction it is also doable.

Ladygrace

is there any chance that a New video tutorial can be done for new people from start to finish of creating a low poly asset?

Billy Lundevall

Ladygrace wrote: »

is there any chance that a New video tutorial can be done for new people from start to finish of creating a low poly asset?

We have discussed the possibility of a new video, but it will probably have to wait and probably have to start in text and picture form before recorded. This is nothing suited for this thread though, as it would be basics.

leleuxart

Not to derail the thread, but I did the heat discoloration in my flamethrower just through the custom, empty layers. Even though a majority of the workflow in DDO can be automated, I think some cases just work better manually. I guess it depends on what you're trying to do, but I almost always do some extra painting, whether it's on a custom layer or on automated masks. The button that copies the current mask to all of the other maps is a real time saver.

Devil_Inside

@Billy
Yeah, I thought so about the scratches. Just thought that maybe there's some magic trick to automate the process and make them look natural

@leleuxart
That flamethrower looks really great! So, does that color gradient go into the specular map? Or do you have to adjust other maps as well?

leleuxart

Thanks! I actually only had it in the specular. I'm not 100% sure if it's the most accurate, but it worked properly when I was testing it with various skyboxes in TB2.

Billy Lundevall

leleuxart wrote: »

Thanks! I actually only had it in the specular. I'm not 100% sure if it's the most accurate, but it worked properly when I was testing it with various skyboxes in TB2.

As a former metal worker I actually think this effects the roughness of the surface as well, I will gather real-world reference for this just for the hell of it :P. But yes, this type of thing is probably easiest to just paint in, with the possibility of using a DDO created mask to put some wear on the discolored surface.

Vipera

How can I add to count small normal map details if I create textures from curvature map on high poly model? Lets say I have created textures in dDO and then I painted small normal maps details (bolts, texts, etc). What should I do to add these new normal map details to the curvature map?

Billy Lundevall

Vipera wrote: »

How can I add to count small normal map details if I create textures from curvature map on high poly model? Lets say I have created textures in dDO and then I painted small normal maps details (bolts, texts, etc). What should I do to add these new normal map details to the curvature map?

You can use NDOs map converter and convert the tangent space normal map with your bolts to a curvature map, then place it on top of your other curvature and set the blend mode to "Overlay". That should do the trick.

Vipera

Billy Lundevall wrote: »

You can use NDOs map converter and convert the tangent space normal map with your bolts to a curvature map, then place it on top of your other curvature and set the blend mode to "Overlay". That should do the trick.

Thank you! I thought if I enter curvature map and normal map in dDo it will be processed automatically. But it seems that this is a manual process. :poly141:

Gordon Robb

So can we see a 'how to' on the metal discolouration due to heat?

Billy Lundevall

Gordon Robb wrote: »

So can we see a 'how to' on the metal discolouration due to heat?

Maybe, if I can find a good way to automate it and make it better then simply just painting it in. The Damascus steel is planned though.

Billy Lundevall

Vipera wrote: »

Thank you! I thought if I enter curvature map and normal map in dDo it will be processed automatically. But it seems that this is a manual process. :poly141:

This is because it's not always desirebale. For example, I wouldn't want my tangent space normals from NDO added to my curvature as it would result in edge damage around very shallow details like text and symbols.

hugojackson18

I'm not totally sure this fits here but it's really something that's been bugging me since I've started using DDO. Everytime I create a project, and use smaller maps for speed purpose, when I reimport my maps and put the high res ones, or save a project sample and recreate a project with my high res maps, no matter how I set my Texel Resolution, it always mess up all my mask and interpret the curvature like a big blobby patch, when it was fine the first time. I don't know how you guys are handling working with huge size maps straight up, but that is something I feel is advanced, which I would like some clarification on.

Billy Lundevall

hugojackson18 wrote: »

I'm not totally sure this fits here but it's really something that's been bugging me since I've started using DDO. Everytime I create a project, and use smaller maps for speed purpose, when I reimport my maps and put the high res ones, or save a project sample and recreate a project with my high res maps, no matter how I set my Texel Resolution, it always mess up all my mask and interpret the curvature like a big blobby patch, when it was fine the first time. I don't know how you guys are handling working with huge size maps straight up, but that is something I feel is advanced, which I would like some clarification on.

This is not something suited for this thread as it is troubleshooting. I don't have an answer since I never work with smaller maps then the intended output resolution. If I remeber it correctly there is supposed to be a way to import the full resolution maps but work with them in a lower resolution until export. I will check with Teddy.

And how we cope is a combination of stupid amounts of RAM coupled with a bit of generous overclocking .

Gordon Robb

Billy Lundevall wrote: »

Maybe, if I can find a good way to automate it and make it better then simply just painting it in. The Damascus steel is planned though.

I don't mind it if it's a 'how to' thatns' about painting it.

Can I just check we're talking about the same kind of thing. I mean like the attached image.

Billy Lundevall

Gordon Robb wrote: »

I don't mind it if it's a 'how to' thatns' about painting it.

Can I just check we're talking about the same kind of thing. I mean like the attached image.

I will not make a guide on how to create a new layer and paint on it. That is Photoshop basics and not really suited for this thread.

And yes, that is what we are talking about. Heat discoloring steel. Making hotter parts of the metal blue and colder parts more red.

Gordon Robb

But is it simply colour difference? Is that all this does? It doesn't affect specular or glossy? That was my assumption. Sorry I didn't realise it was such a basic thing. I'll give it a go.

Billy Lundevall

Gordon Robb wrote: »

But is it simply colour difference? Is that all this does? It doesn't affect specular or glossy? That was my assumption. Sorry I didn't realise it was such a basic thing. I'll give it a go.

It might affect glossyness depending on the variables, but you will probably get a convincing enough effect by just painting a color difference in the specular map.

I am however curious about this and will test it in real life since I have the resources to do so. Usually you see the effect on chromed or polished surfaces, the effect might vary on a rougher piece of metal. I suspect it will form a less shiny layer of oxide and debris on the hotter parts which would look pretty cool if you made it look old and a bit scratched up to reveal fresh metal underneath.