How can I improve my materials? (UE5 + Substance Painter)

Oliverr

I working on making a forest environment and for the first time I wanted to try to make all my own materials and foliage assets rather than downloading from Quixel Bridge. The only programs I have access to are my old pre-Adobe version of substance painter, blender, and UE5. Obviously in an ideal situation I would have the latest version of substance painter and designer, however I can't currently justify buying that adobe subscription as a hobbyist so I'm making due with what I have. 

The project is definitely still a early WIP but something about my materials feels off. I'm going for a stylized look which I think I achieved for the most part, however whenever I look at other people materials or environments for inspiration I always feel like my materials are falling short in some aspect. I was wondering if anyone has any advice on how I can improve my workflow or technique, or just have any suggestions at all.

In case this matters; almost all the materials have the specular value turned down to "0.05" in UE5. The default "0.5" specular value washes everything out and makes the assets looks white and desaturated. It is especially noticeable on the tree branches, which turn almost completely white if the specular is unchanged.

Landscape and Tiling Materials:

For my landscape and other tiling materials like my tree trunk here, I'm just importing a plane into substance painter and using the included grunge and procedural maps with some filters to create my materials.

Foliage Atlas:

For the foliage texture atlas's, I'm first starting with a high poly model (i.e. branches & leaves) and baking them onto the plane in substance painter. I'm using ID maps to separate different parts and the transparent background.

NOTE: I plan on using the empty space on some of those atlas sheets for future assets, I'm aware there's a lot of wasted UV space currently.

More Screenshots:

ThisisVictoriaZ

Hi! Id like to start off by saying that you absolutely do not need the most up to date version of substance products to get a high quality or good result from those programs. A lot of studios don't use the most current or up to date versions of some software because things like painter aren't backwards compatible, so its easier to have everyone on one older version than to constantly be updating, making sure everyone is up to date, etc. The basics of the programs are there, so if your materials are falling short I think you should think more about how other artists are creating high fidelity martials and models regardless of which version of a product they used. A lot of why their materials and models look good is a working knowledge of art fundamentals and a looooot of practice. There are quite a few different styles with stylized art, so I would probably try to nail one down that you specifically like, and try to find tutorials or articles by artists within that genre, then try to copy the technique shown as closely as you can. 
Here are some articles that have modeling and texturing breakdowns for example:
https://80.lv/articles/making-a-stylized-ancient-temple-scene-in-zbrush-substance-3d-ue5/
https://www.exp-points.com/hippopura-sanctuary-stylized-ancient-ruin-in-ue4
https://80.lv/articles/creating-a-stylized-medieval-town-in-3ds-max-substance-unreal/
https://gamesartist.co.uk/starlight-manor/

In regards to your environment I think it would help you to have a lot more variation on the shapes and kinds of trees you have, they all look the same, as well as more story telling elements. Where is this? Why are you there? What makes this place special? Once you know that you'll know what other smaller elements you'll need to add to make this feel more like a believable place and a fuller environment as a whole. I also think your roughness maps are hurting your final result, as it feels very flat and lifeless.  Hope this helps, forests are tricky, but a lot of fun!

Oliverr

ThisisVictoriaZ said:

Hi! Id like to start off by saying that you absolutely do not need the most up to date version of substance products to get a high quality or good result from those programs. A lot of studios don't use the most current or up to date versions of some software because things like painter aren't backwards compatible, so its easier to have everyone on one older version than to constantly be updating, making sure everyone is up to date, etc. The basics of the programs are there, so if your materials are falling short I think you should think more about how other artists are creating high fidelity martials and models regardless of which version of a product they used. A lot of why their materials and models look good is a working knowledge of art fundamentals and a looooot of practice. There are quite a few different styles with stylized art, so I would probably try to nail one down that you specifically like, and try to find tutorials or articles by artists within that genre, then try to copy the technique shown as closely as you can. 
Here are some articles that have modeling and texturing breakdowns for example:
https://80.lv/articles/making-a-stylized-ancient-temple-scene-in-zbrush-substance-3d-ue5/
https://www.exp-points.com/hippopura-sanctuary-stylized-ancient-ruin-in-ue4
https://80.lv/articles/creating-a-stylized-medieval-town-in-3ds-max-substance-unreal/
https://gamesartist.co.uk/starlight-manor/

In regards to your environment I think it would help you to have a lot more variation on the shapes and kinds of trees you have, they all look the same, as well as more story telling elements. Where is this? Why are you there? What makes this place special? Once you know that you'll know what other smaller elements you'll need to add to make this feel more like a believable place and a fuller environment as a whole. I also think your roughness maps are hurting your final result, as it feels very flat and lifeless.  Hope this helps, forests are tricky, but a lot of fun!

Thanks for all the advice and tutorial links! I definitely feel better about having dated programs now, although any version of designer would be nice since there aren't really tutorials on making tiling materials in painter like I'm doing it lol. 

Regarding the comments on my environment; I definitely agree that the trees are a too similar and I have plans to make different ones. Currently I just have a small, medium, and large pine tree and 2 variations for each size (a lush version and version with more dead branches). I also have some ideas for the story telling elements and overall environment. What I have right now is just a level I made to test out my assets and materials. Huge thanks for pointing out my roughness maps as I didn't really see them as the issue until you mentioned it. After looking at all my roughness maps, I noticed they are all so flat and I'm wondering if that's reason why the default specularity in Unreal is washing out my materials.

ThisisVictoriaZ

I like this tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CLUocduJeQ ! I use painter to make tiling textures sometimes too, if you make a plane with one edge loop horizontal then make uv seams on them you can stack all four square shells and expand them to fill your one to one uv space. Then you can preview how your materials might tile in painter, and use different masks and stuff to create your own texture. Its not as good as designer, but we do what we gotta do lol I look forward to seeing what you make in the future!