The Bi-Weekly Substance Challenge (Challenge 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 & 12)

3DKyle

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

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 pass, 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

• Allegorithmic Youtube Playlists
• Substance Academy
• Rogelio Olguin Substance Designer Gnomon Tutorial
• Joshua Lynch Substance Designer Tutorials 
• 80.lv Substance Designer Articles 

Previous Challenges

• Challenge 1 & 2 (Brick & Marble)
• Challenge 3 & 4 (Rock & Sewer Drain)
• Challenge 5 & 6 (Roof Shingles & Sea Foam)

Challenge 7 - Stuck in the mud! (Muddy ground) || 12th May - 26th May.
Click the pictures for bigger resolutions.
  

Challenge 8 - Copper || 27th May - 10th June.
Click the pictures for bigger resolutions.
        

Challenge 9 - Windows || 13th June - 27th June
Click the images for higher resolutions. 
        

Challenge 10 - Ornate Door || 28th June - 12th July
Click the images for higher resolutions. 
        

Challenge 11 - Moorish Mosaics || July 17th - 31st July
Click the images for higher resolutions. 
        

Challenge 12 - Round Ornaments || August 2nd - 16th August
Click the images for higher resolutions.
         

Daniel_Swing

I'm using a wood material that I made some time ago and my copper material from challenge #8 for the trims - I'll be adjusting the nuance on the wood, the aging and oxidation on the copper before I call this one done. I'm also seeing some overlapping issues with the height map.
Any more pointers?

3DKyle

@Daniel_Swing That looks pretty cool! 

Also new challenge is up! Sorry it's a little late. The next challenge that starts in August will be a bulk challenge (about 4-5 materials as well as catch up, this is due to me moving and I won't have easy access to my computer). 
Enjoy the new challenge. 

kimkir

@daniel_swing That's sweet!!

capone

Looking forward to starting the mosaics soon. Just worked a bit more on that door tonight, as someone mentioned it would be cool to add more decoration bits for now just been concentrating on improving the wood texture, adding a more pronounced division between the doors and making all the metallic elements share the same material.
 


Video too;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXvieQUoPLU&feature=youtu.be

capone

Ok, got it back a bit closer. I really need to step away before I mess this up any further

Daniel_Swing

Couldn't decide what I wanted, so I made 6 variations.

capone

Early WIP of the basic design for the mosaic tiles, that was fun and challenging. 

Daniel_Swing

And AGAIN!

K

So much good stuff .

Heres my entry for the bi-weekly challenge (WIP):

K

Another angle:

capone

Done with height map/normals for now, will start throwing in some colors next.

K

Heres a small update:

@capone Nice pattern!

capone

K said:

Heres a small update:

This continues to look better, looking forward to seeing updates. I like what you've done with the main pattern lines, before they looked too much like stitching but the little added detail in there helps. I think my main crit right now is that the grout lines between the stones have a very consistent depth and size to them, if you could find a way to break that up here and there I think that would really help.

 I also *think* (I may be wrong here) that the 'stones' are too rounded both in shape and height, might just be a case of bringing down any beveling levels and if you're using edge detect then try reducing 'roundness' (if it can't be reduced further, I'm guessing that you may have a blur in there, if that's the case you could also try reducing that)

Oh and one more thing (and you may have been planning to do this anyway), though this is a personal  comment but I would turn those outer circles with the 'default' grey stones into the same red as the middle 'red' stones. I think that would be a better composition? You may think that's overkill though, just wanting to point out this option.

Did a quick paintover;

rosen_kazlachev

My take on this challenge. Will probably add some subtle color variation for each pattern

kimkir

@rosen_kazlachev
Great pattern! Nice job with such a complex pattern!
The wiggle in some of the long rectangular tiles doesn't make a whole lot of sense, and the pattern may just pop even more if the remaining smaller tiles were just a little bigger. 

Obscura

Hello people. I'm a late participant, I just started on the door. I hope its fine. Recently I got some free time so I decided to try myself on these challenges. I also made the rock from challenge 3 a few days ago, but I felt like that is way too late to post there, so here is a link to if if you are interested how did it turn out:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Y2LYP

But lets get to the door, thats more recent... I got the most of the heights done, except the ornament piece in the middle of the framings and a few smaller details.


Some feedback:

@K - I agree with capone, they are very round. Not sure if that was the intention. And varying the height of the stones a little bit would make it look more realistic. I think I would add a row of tiles around the bhombuses too.

@capone - The door is nice, but I think it should have more depth. Especially the twisted cylinder thing.

Obscura

Getting somewhere with the middle ornament piece...

rosen_kazlachev

@Obscura, I really like that pattern for the ornament. Only thing that looks off to me is the bolts - they are floating over some edges or stuck inside them, you could probably reduce the size a little.

@kimkir, thanks for the feedback! Indeed, that warp was a bit strong. Think I'll go with this for now:

Obscura

Yep, they were doing that. Not anymore. I didn't want to scale them down so I adjusted the frames. I finished that ornament, and started working on the handle plus a few other thing. Still a long way to go...
Here is an Iray render without displacement:

capone

Think I've done here, didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. Tried every colour scheme under the sun and nothing clicked at all. 







Somehow I much prefer my first WIP :S

Obscura

Don't be lazy about it  
Personally I also prefer the earlier one. I would just go back to that and recolor with a gradient map - random mask.

K

capone said:

K said:

Heres a small update:

This continues to look better, looking forward to seeing updates. I like what you've done with the main pattern lines, before they looked too much like stitching but the little added detail in there helps. I think my main crit right now is that the grout lines between the stones have a very consistent depth and size to them, if you could find a way to break that up here and there I think that would really help.

 I also *think* (I may be wrong here) that the 'stones' are too rounded both in shape and height, might just be a case of bringing down any beveling levels and if you're using edge detect then try reducing 'roundness' (if it can't be reduced further, I'm guessing that you may have a blur in there, if that's the case you could also try reducing that)

Oh and one more thing (and you may have been planning to do this anyway), though this is a personal  comment but I would turn those outer circles with the 'default' grey stones into the same red as the middle 'red' stones. I think that would be a better composition? You may think that's overkill though, just wanting to point out this option.

Did a quick paintover;

Thanks for the feedback! Much appreciated. Im thinking of making my own detect edges node, now you cant have just a little bit of roundness. I do like the reddish stones in the circles. Good call.

The stones are a bit too smooth, and i might have cranked the height up a bit too much (wanted to have it visible . The stones already have height and slant variation though.

K

Progress:

capone

Ok, went back and spent a couple of hours stripping it back to basics and rebuilding. Just trying to get to a place where I'm happy with the normals/height before I continue.



 It's sort of a mixture of what I originally had but more recessed, if you zoom in you can see it better. A sort of more detailed border to better house the tiles.



Still not finished with the micronormals. 

Freezy Demon

Nice work guys, loving the patterns you guys got going!
Here's what I came up with:


More images here: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Lw8gR

capone

Another attempt at it tonight;

Obscura

@capone - So much better. Glad to see you didn't give up on this one. The dirt is really nice. Looks realistic.

I started experimenting with the wood. Don't mind the funny metals.

capone

Nice base for the wood, reminds me of the challenges I faced with my door with having to create separate horizontal/vertical masks for the grain direction. Good luck. 

LeDjinn

Hello everyone, lots of excellent works here, i'm a long time follower of these challenge and it's time to give it a try myself





Here's what i got so far. I tried to stick quite close to the reference picture.

It was the occasion to play a little with the pixel processor:

Building the UV and using them to spread my tiles along those shape. Fun but not very efficient (lots of issues with UV aliasing and blending ^^ )

kimkir

@LeDjinn
That's really impressive! That pattern is hard to get right! 

kimkir

@Freezy Demon
I LOVE that!!!! 

3DKyle

New Substance Challenge update! Number 12 starts! This is the last one for sure then 13 will lead to a bulk one and something additional will be incoming too. 
The bulk one will be so you guys can do what you want and catch up because I'll be moving so I won't be at a PC, but I'll be on my phone to check in and give feedback around my busy time schedule. 

kimkir

Thank you, @3DKyle !! 

jamesonart

Starting work on the round ornament challenge. Just getting my base shapes down before I start detailing. Lots of work to do!

jamesonart

Calling this done https://www.artstation.com/artwork/l4Y9J

rosen_kazlachev

Decided I'd go with a golden coin for this challenge. Still a WIP. Gotta figure out how to mask some coins for color variation in the tiled version(not using the tile nodes because I couldn't stack them on top of each other).

rosen_kazlachev

Calling it done as it is. Got /some/ colour variation going on, and the height map helps as well.
 https://www.artstation.com/p/qn50y


@jamesonart Awesome texture!

Daniel_Swing

Looking awesome, guys! I'll be joining back in next week when I'm out of job!

Freezy Demon

Nice results guys!
This was a tough one, here's what I came up with.




More images here: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/NmWGg

LeDjinn

I'm a bit late to the show but here it is anyway - once again great work everyone !

@3DKyle, Thanks for spending time keeping up those challenges

@jamesonar:t I went for the same ref, this window is so great i had to do it
@rosen_kazlachev: nice coin, you might want to try multiple TileSampler with different random andmask option to stack them less evenly
@Freezy Demon: Great stained glass ! The "blackness" in your glass make it really evil-looking

Here's mine with iRay

and with OpenGL

capone

Some amazing work as always in the last 2 weeks I've been away on vacation. I've seen some people posting a for a 'roof tile' challenge but it doesn't appear to be mentioned here? I searched for challenge 13 but couldn't find it. Could anyone explain what the current situation is with the the challenges?

3DKyle

It will come soon @capone just bit busy with client work. Next week it will arrive for sure. 

kimkir

@capone Here's the link to the roof tile challenge.    
http://polycount.com/discussion/185421/the-bi-weekly-substance-challenge-challenge-5/p1

Larry

where is the challenge 13? Can't wait for it!!!!!!!

3DKyle

Updating the challenge tomorrow.

3DKyle

New Challenges! (Bulk Version) http://polycount.com/discussion/190803/the-bi-weekly-substance-challenge-challenge-13-14-15

TangDao

Some wet mud.

TangDao

Those,what look like grease stains on the copper where a bit challenging.

TangDao

Windows rendered in Iray.

TangDao

I liked the simple elegance of the design for this door.