[discussion] if you were asked to make a small brick wall what would be your workflow?

oraeles77

I was just wondering, for example if you were asked to make a brick wall, like this...

https://terrafirma.london/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/garden-brickwall-and-stone-pathway.jpg

to whatever standards you usually work to, with the software you usually use, how would you do it? As a game object, but a nice looking 'AAA' sort of one, which doesnt look like a box from a playstation 1 game.

(im not a professional!)

a few years ago I would have made a box in Sketchup and applied a brick texture and then proudly said 'done' but now Im trying to take things more seriously, for myself I would think I would make the wall shape in Blender, then apply a texture to it, to make sure everything is scaled correctly, then export it to Substance Designer, where I would do a proper brick pattern and add all the weathering and dirt etc.

I asked a friend, they said (in blender) they would make several bricks using a Sub surf, array them, like normal bricks, then add something to resemble the mortar, make a low poly and then export/bake etc. Is that a little over the top?

Alex_J

Looks like a rectangle with a material on it to me. Do you know how to Substance Designer? Almost every Substance Designer 101 tutorial starts with making bricks. That's where I'd start, then I'd learn how to make moss/vine materials, and then learn how to do vertex painting and material blending based on different channels in Unreal. That way you can use the height channel to make your  moss grow in the cracks, etc. If I wanted to get real fancy, I'd make  sure the material had a displacement channel so I could use that if possible.


That would be probably a month or more of learning, but once you know how to do those things you can do a whole lot more.

musashidan

oraeles77 said:

I asked a friend, they said (in blender) they would make several bricks using a Sub surf, array them, like normal bricks, then add something to resemble the mortar, make a low poly and then export/bake etc. Is that a little over the top?

This is also a very viable method. Before Substance came along a lot of tiling textures came from the Zbrush factory. A lot of people still prefer to do it this way. It's a case of preferring to sculpt or preferring a more tech artist approach(Substance)

I say if you're interested in this stuff then create your texture using both methods. This will give you a good idea of the workflows and ultimately expand your skillset/knowledge.

Pain

I would make a base mesh then import it to Zbrush to sculpt the surface and details of the brick. Then bake map and do the texture. 

oraeles77

BIGTIMEMASTER said:

Looks like a rectangle with a material on it to me. Do you know how to Substance Designer? Almost every Substance Designer 101 tutorial starts with making bricks. That's where I'd start, then I'd learn how to make moss/vine materials, and then learn how to do vertex painting and material blending based on different channels in Unreal. That way you can use the height channel to make your  moss grow in the cracks, etc. If I wanted to get real fancy, I'd make  sure the material had a displacement channel so I could use that if possible.


That would be probably a month or more of learning, but once you know how to do those things you can do a whole lot more.

yeah i use substance designer all the time, but I've never ventured into the big world of making massive scenery items, so Im stuck between a tiled pattern or large texture map with less detail up close but it has better context (if thats the right word) with dirt and weathering etc.

Alex_J

I might be misunderstanding you, but it sounds like you are not aware of some of the techniques environment artist use to get up close and far away detail on a surface by using multiple UV sets?

If not, search around here for a thread about the recent Shadow of the Colossus reboot. A thread asking about how they did the rocks in that game, which looked right from afar but also had very small detail as the player gets close. That thread should link you to plenty of info about the sort of technique to accomplish that.

musashidan

oraeles77 said:

yeah i use substance designer all the time, but I've never ventured into the big world of making massive scenery items, so Im stuck between a tiled pattern or large texture map with less detail up close but it has better context (if thats the right word) with dirt and weathering etc.

So which is it? A 'small brick wall' - as the thread title ponders - or 'massive scenery items'?

oraeles77

musashidan said:

oraeles77 said:

yeah i use substance designer all the time, but I've never ventured into the big world of making massive scenery items, so Im stuck between a tiled pattern or large texture map with less detail up close but it has better context (if thats the right word) with dirt and weathering etc.

So which is it? A 'small brick wall' - as the thread title ponders - or 'massive scenery items'?

its just a wall, but a detailed one, its not a modular thing.

musashidan

If it's just a single unique asset then creating it as such would be perfectly fine. And in this case would give a lot more opportunity to create a higher quality asset at little or no extra cost.