Learning Substance Designer

JMBraley

I've decided to finally get into Substance Designer after a long time of being too intimidated by it to really learn it. My plan is to implement Designer as much as I can into my workflow for the environment that I'm currently working on. (You can check out that project here: (https://polycount.com/discussion/210238/wip-ue4-sanctuary-tomb#latest)

I've started to learn the basics by watching Daniel Thiger's Substance Fundamental tutorials and I was inspired to create my own Desert Bricks material after watching the Stylized Tiles with Sand tutorial by 3DEX (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW5eeWDPyR8).

More detailed shots can be found on my Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/oOQ3EO

JMBraley

Here's a little material I created over the weekend while trying to learn more about creating stylized materials in Designer.

More shots can be found on my ArtStation: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nQqGlO

JMBraley

Here's a stylized roof material I finished up this week.

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/6a18a0

Ashervisalis

Looking good! For this last material;

Have the paint chipped more along the edges. Right now it follows a smooth curvature with the edge and doesn't look like how paint would wear away.

Increase the roughness of both the paint and the wood.

Keep it up!

JMBraley

Ashervisalis said:

Looking good! For this last material;

Have the paint chipped more along the edges. Right now it follows a smooth curvature with the edge and doesn't look like how paint would wear away.

Increase the roughness of both the paint and the wood.

Keep it up!

Thank you for checking it out. I'm still in the process of learning Designer so I appreciate the feedback! I'll definitely keep that in mind going forward.

JMBraley

Here's a Stylized Treasure Material I've been working on the past few days.

ArtStation: https://artstn.co/p/XBwxkl

JamesBrisnehan

That one of the gold coins is pretty sweet. Well done.

rexo12

stunning!

JMBraley

JamesBrisnehan said:

That one of the gold coins is pretty sweet. Well done.

rexo12 said:

stunning!

Thank you both for checking them out

JMBraley

Decided to do another variant of the treasure material using the Polycount Greentooth and the ArtStation Logo.

Also updated ArtStation with these new variants: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/XBwxkl

JMBraley

I've decided to participate in Nodevember this year so I'll be posting the materials that I create daily here.

Day 1: Bridge

For this material I decided to create a stylized wood material that could be used to create a bridge rather than trying to directly create a bridge in Designer.

Day 2: Space

For this material I wanted to create a stylized solar panel material, similar to one that could be found on a satellite or space station.

JMBraley

Day 3: Waterfall

For today's material I decided to try and create a stylized water material in Designer. I'm not super happy with how it turned out, looking more like ice or crystal but it was my first attempt ever trying to create water in Designer. I'll probably end up giving this one another shot later on.

JMBraley

Day 4: Air

The theme today reminded me of Avatar: The Last Airbender so I tried to create a floor material that could be found in an Air Temple. Today was busy so I wasn't able to finish the material but I used it to test a few nodes I'm working on. I'm hoping to come back to this one and finish it up once I have time since I'm really enjoying how it's coming along.

Toys

Wow, very inspiring! So, there is no geometry here, just materials? Sorry if this is a dumb question, I am very new.

JMBraley

Everything here is is either on just a sphere or a plane. All of the extrusions are done using displacement and tessellation and a height map. When I first started learning about Designer I honestly thought it was black magic. 

JMBraley

Day 5: Symbiose

For today's material I attempted a stylized tree with moss. (That's a symbiotic relationship, right?). I had planned to add a knot to the tree with some mushrooms but it's been another busy day and I just ran out of time. For the time I spent working on it, I'm happy with the result.

JMBraley

Day 6: Screw

I had a lot of fun with this material today. I decided to take today's prompt and recreate the plastic screws and boards that would typically be found in a child's toy tool set.

JMBraley

Day 7: Jewel

Today's prompt made me think of The Legend of Zelda so tried to create a pile of Rupees. Originally I had wanted to have each color Rupee in the pile, with their frequency tied to their worth but I ran into height blending issues. I really need to find a consistent method for creating piles without running into clipping or blending issues. If anyone has any methods they could share that would be great! Anyway, Nodevember week 1 complete!

JMBraley

Day 8: Relic

For today's prompt I decided to dig up a relic from my childhood, VHS tapes. This material was a lot of fun to make and a lot more work than I had anticipated. I'm glad I stuck with it though because I'm very happy with the result.

JMBraley

Day 9: Interlaced

After yesterday's complex material I opted for a simpler material today. I decided to create a fabric material with an interlaced pattern.

JMBraley

Day 10: Damaged

For today's material I wanted to try and take the subway tile from the King's Row map in Overwatch and try to recreate it as a damaged tile. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. 😀

JMBraley

Day 11: Portal

For today's material I was inspired by TIm Kaminski's concept "Gateway Polarity" (https://www.artstation.com/artwork/A6eAy). Unfortunately I ran out of time but this will be one that I definitely come back to later.

JMBraley

Day 12: Dashboard

For today's material I just took a picture of my dashboard and attempted to recreate some of the elements of it in Substance Designer with a little bit of a stylized flair.

Here's the reference image I took in my car this morning:

KatzChimera

Love your work! It would be awesome to see you make some process videos! I would be very interested to see your process. I am learning as well and this is very inspiring!  Looking forward to seeing more. 

JMBraley

KatzChimera said:

Love your work! It would be awesome to see you make some process videos! I would be very interested to see your process. I am learning as well and this is very inspiring!  Looking forward to seeing more. 

Thank you! I'd love to do a tutorial or something someday. Maybe once I'm a little more confident in my abilities. Right now my process is a lot of trial and error and even more luck.

JMBraley

Day 13: Hungry

What's there to say here besides "Mmm Donuts!"

JMBraley

Day 14: Brutalism

Today's material was inspired by me googling Brutalism and learning what it was. These are based on some Brutalist windows that came up in the google image search.

JMBraley

Day 15: Tactile

I've been excited for this prompt since the start of the month. I immediately knew I wanted to try and create a (mechanical) keyboard material and today on a whim I decided to add RGB back-lighting while making it.

JMBraley

Day 16: Swamp

This one is a bit of a stretch but I've been looking for an excuse to recreate the materials from Link's Awakening on Switch. To keep with the prompt I made the floor material from the boss room in the swamp dungeon.

Here's the reference image I was working from:

JMBraley

Day 17 - Fractal

This one was relatively simple. Just lots of splatter circular and height blend nodes to make some interesting patterns.

JMBraley

Day 18 - Treasure

was going to make a box with a string that when pulled would reveal an embarrassing photo of Spongebob at the Christmas Party. Instead I went with a simple coin material similar to my recent treasure material.

JMBraley

Day 19 - Melting

Today's prompt inspired me to make a melting chocolate bar. This made me think of Mary's Mother from Spongebob. "Chocolate, I remember when they first invented chocolate. Sweet, sweet chocolate. I always hated it."

JMBraley

Day 20 - Burnt

Today I attempted a burnt marshmallow material and I honestly didn't expect it to be as challenging as it was. I'm sure it can be improved upon but I'm happy with the results considering the time I had to work on it.

JMBraley

Day 21 - Hidden

Originally I was going to create a material based on Legends of the Hidden Temple but a co-worker suggested a Ghillie Suit and I thought it would be better to step outside my comfort zone and give it a shot. 

JMBraley

Day 22 - RIP

Keeping with the trend of making materials outside of my comfort zone I wanted to try and create a body bag material for today's prompt. Despite some troubles figuring things out I'm pretty happy with the end result.

JMBraley

Day 23 - Empty

I've been enjoying Pokémon: Sword lately so I decided to use today's prompt to make some empty Poké Balls. With there being so many now I just went with the classics: Poké Ball, Great Ball, Ultra Ball and Master Ball.

JMBraley

 Day 24 - Wave

The obvious choice here would be a water material but since I attempted one earlier this month I decided against it. After a bit of research I found a new wave stone pattern that I chose to make for today's prompt.

JMBraley

Day 25 - Angular

For today's prompt I wanted to try and create a stylized crystal material. I was a little shorter on time than usual so I did the best I could.

JMBraley

Day 26 - Stage

When I think of a stage, vibrant red curtains are the first thing that come to mind for me. I wanted to try to capture this in a stylized material. Overall it was easier than I thought but still fun to figure out.

JMBraley

Day 27 - Printed

I had many ideas for today's prompt: crumbled papers, coloring book pages and a bookshelf filled with books. With the help of my daughter I settled on letters and to really make them pop I made them overdue bills.

JMBraley

Day 28 - Quantum

First thing that popped into my head for today's prompt was Nuka Cola Quantum from Fallout so that's what I went with. Figuring out the designs on the bottle cap was a lot of fun!

JMBraley

Day 29 - Weld

For today's prompt I went through a few ideas but ultimately landed on a stylized corrugated metal. I wanted to make it look like it was made from old rusty scrap welded together and I'm happy with how it turned out.

JMBraley

Day 30 - Accumulation

For today's prompt I wanted to create some snow drifts but by the end it evolved into snow scattered over a frozen lake. Never attempted snow before so I'm pretty happy with the results.

JMBraley

Nodevember Material Giveaway!

As a thank you for all of the support I've received, I've released my entire collection of Nodevember materials FREE for personal /educational use: https://gumroad.com/jamesbraley#YLntg

JMBraley

It's been a little while but here's a sneak peak of some new materials I've been developing lately. I'm planning on making a few more and then combining them for something special!

Stylized Herringbone Brick Floor:

Stylized Wood:

Stylized Patterned Tablecloth:

Stylized White Tablecloth:

JMBraley

Here's a stylized plaster/brick walll I've been working on in Substance Designer. It's not quite finished yet, I still have some cracks to add and the bricks need a lot of work but I think it's coming along nicely.

Stylized Plaster Wall:

GIF:

JMBraley

Spent some time this weekend giving the stylized plaster material a bit more love. For this iteration I've added some minor cracking along the broken plaster sections and completely overhauled the bricks!

Stylized Plaster Material:

GIF:

JMBraley

Here's my current progress on the Stylized Brick material I've been working on. This one has been a challenge compared to some of the other materials. I think the grout gave me the most trouble out of anything. I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out though.

Version 2:

Version 1:

GIF:

JMBraley

I managed to get into the Valorant beta this afternoon! Of course the first thing I did was go around taking screenshots of all of the assets and materials. I was inspired so I decided to try and recreate one of the materials in Designer:

Floor Material:

Reference:

JMBraley

Here's another Valorant material that I recreated in Substance Designer over the weekend:

Floor Material:

Reference:

JMBraley

Worked on another Valorant material study today. This time I chose a corrugated metal material from the map Split (B Lobby). As always, I'm always open to feedback!

Corrugated Metal:

Reference: