Home Featured Artwork

Josh Lynch Substance Designer Sketchbook

123578

Replies

  • Chase
    Offline / Send Message
    Chase polycounter lvl 9
    While the mud is certainly looking good and cracked, the twigs just seem to be floating on top. Granted, I don't know if that's something you can fix in sub des. What reference are you going off of?
  • josh_lynch
    Offline / Send Message
    josh_lynch interpolator
    Chase - Thanks for the feedback. Reference I am using.
  • Quack!
    Offline / Send Message
    Quack! polycounter lvl 17
    Hey Josh, I like the color added.

    I feel in the reference the cracks are happening on different areas then yours. The cracks in the ref seem to be happening on the dry areas mostly, with some lying on the border between wet and dry.  

    One thing that I find cool about your ref is those small bulbous cliff like features.  This will be bad for repetition on a large scale, but could add nice variation on a small scale.
  • Chase
    Offline / Send Message
    Chase polycounter lvl 9
    Ok I see now. Are you able to cover the branch pieces with mud in sub designer? In the ref they're touched up with some mud
  • josh_lynch
    Offline / Send Message
    josh_lynch interpolator
    Quack - I will try to do some updates to the cracks tonight. I have some ideas.

    Chase - Good call, I will try some of that tonight :-).
  • josh_lynch
    Offline / Send Message
    josh_lynch interpolator
    Final pass on drying ground mud material. Updated the cracks to follow more along the shapes of the raised areas and cover a lot of the debris in mud and also had some disappear into the mud so its a lot less like the debris is floating on top.

    Thanks for all the comments and feedback, helped a lot!




  • Quack!
    Offline / Send Message
    Quack! polycounter lvl 17
    Looks great Josh, another well made Substance!
  • luthyn
    Offline / Send Message
    luthyn polycounter lvl 8
    Looks awesome! Really love how you got the cracks to follow the main forms in the mud. Also appreciate how the sticks and what not sink into the mud in places. :) love your work, keep it up!
  • josh_lynch
    Offline / Send Message
    josh_lynch interpolator
    Quack - Thanks! :blush: 

    Luthyn -  Thanks! Those touches came at the end, SD made it really easy.

    More materials and tutorials coming!
  • griffiti
    Offline / Send Message
    griffiti polycounter lvl 4
    It feels like I'm a little late to the Substance party but seeing your work Josh has really inspired me to get stuck in. I find it quite hard to believe that no ZBrush, Photo sourcing, Photoshop or nDO was used but that's the beauty of procedural based systems! Thanks for creating a thread, it's been great to read through from the beginning and to see the work-in-progress images! 

    Keep up the great work! :)
  • josh_lynch
    Offline / Send Message
    josh_lynch interpolator
    Griffiti - Thanks so much for your kind words, they mean a lot! I am glad this thread has inspired you!

    Started some "Industrial Glass Windows". WIP renders below. Open to comments and critiques. Thanks!




  • josh_lynch
    Offline / Send Message
    josh_lynch interpolator
    Updated with more treatment to the glass and definition to the metal frames.




  • josh_lynch
    Offline / Send Message
    josh_lynch interpolator
    Started work on a snow material. Still early, establishing the overall scale and read.




  • josh_lynch
    Offline / Send Message
    josh_lynch interpolator
    Softened forms and reduced detail. First pass on sub surface scattering.




  • ant1fact
    Offline / Send Message
    ant1fact polycounter lvl 9

    Hi Josh,


    amazing quality throughout all your materials. Are those windows actually transparent?

    I'm modelling a phone booth at the moment and I don't know how to do the glass panes in Substance Painter.

    Do you have any tips or suggestions?


    Cheers

  • Quack!
    Offline / Send Message
    Quack! polycounter lvl 17
    Hey Josh,
    The material and the flakes look great, I feel that the harsh medium forms are making this feel like crumpled paper.  Some smoother larger forms and a reduction in the harsh forms might help this. Keep on kicking ace!
  • josh_lynch
    Offline / Send Message
    josh_lynch interpolator
    ANT1FACT - Thanks! The windows are not transparent. A lot of the heavy lifting is coming from the gloss and the HDR. Typically with glass a roughness that is very smooth / near mirror like helps to sell the material quality. Also glass is not metallic, it is a dieletric. For grunge its whatever is desired, add that to your albedo and roughness map and it will do a lot. Color hue is subjective and case by case.

    QUACK! - Thanks for the feedback! I will take a look at the medium forms in my next pass :smile:.

  • ant1fact
    Offline / Send Message
    ant1fact polycounter lvl 9
    thanks for the tips man!!
  • josh_lynch
    Offline / Send Message
    josh_lynch interpolator
    Quack! - Softened up the medium forms per your feedback for a smoother read.

    Also updated the snow crystals to be easier to read and added a ground render and slightly increased displacement amount.






  • philwinkel
    Offline / Send Message
    philwinkel polycounter lvl 4
    kinda curious about the snow - is that metal/rough? Or do you use specular workflow for control over the the specular intensity and color? Have a marmoset viewer anywhere? thanks
  • josh_lynch
    Offline / Send Message
    josh_lynch interpolator
    PHILWINKEL - This snow was created using a Spec/Gloss workflow. I treated the Specular channel much like I do other Dialetric materials by giving it a RGB of around 55 - 60 and completely desaturated. I did toy around with putting some color into the spec but it felt fake and made it feel more like ice than snow so I scrapped it. I will be putting some of my other materials into Marmoset viewer very soon. 
  • BARDLER
    Offline / Send Message
    BARDLER polycounter lvl 12
    You got some awesome stuff going on here man, but I think you are over complicating the snow a bit. I think your small scale details are spot on for the snow, but those large scale details are not reading that well for a tileable texture. Clean snow is a really basic surface, and its large scale details come from the things it falls on, and blows up against. Something like this: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9z83Lnye-Vc/UxyJpXFko8I/AAAAAAAAESI/NteVe9dNgVI/s1600/001.JPG.

    When snow melts and gets all dirty and chunked up like this: http://www.skimountaineer.com/TR/Images2005/ShastinaDillerCanyonLookingUp061105-1200.jpg. Then you start to see those large scale details you put in the texutre. Maybe you could do a couple different snow variants for different stages of melting and dirtiness.


  • josh_lynch
    Offline / Send Message
    josh_lynch interpolator
    Bardler - Thanks a lot for your feedback and the reference you provided! Your right, I think from the beginning I had over complicated the snow by having one variation try to carry too much weight. My intention with this snow was to show a clean snow in that its not dirty while indicating the surface the snow had fallen on via the larger movement in the material. I do agree having more variants would be ideal.

    Tonight I got the urge to try out some different patterns and here they are.






  • ant1fact
    Offline / Send Message
    ant1fact polycounter lvl 9
    oh man that snow it makes me want to put my hands in it and make a snowball!
  • 3DKyle
    Offline / Send Message
    3DKyle interpolator
    Snow is looking really good Josh. The spec shine really adds to it.
    Windows look super good too, the glass is cool. I feel it looks a tad flat with the metal pieces? You using a displacement map or just using normals?
  • xhi
    Offline / Send Message
    xhi polycounter lvl 2
    The progress with the tile project is amazing
  • josh_lynch
    Offline / Send Message
    josh_lynch interpolator
    ANTIFACT - Cool that is awesome! :smile: 

    3DKYLE - Thanks for the kind words! The windows are normals only. Is it flat in terms of depth or material read?

    XHI - Hey thanks really appreciate that!
  • 3DKyle
    Offline / Send Message
    3DKyle interpolator
    The material read is great, what I meant was the depth. Though I guess really it would be down to how close the player gets to it? 
    Other than that, it's really nice, can't wait to see more. 
  • josh_lynch
    Offline / Send Message
    josh_lynch interpolator
    Starting some overlapping wood planks, still very early on. Going for a raw exposed wood that has some movement in the normal from the grains, not a smooth polished wood.

     Comments & critiques welcome as usual!




  • Jakro
    Offline / Send Message
    Jakro greentooth
    Looking good so far. Edges are a little soft and wobbly, almost cartoony? I'd personally reduce the amount the edges are warped and try and sharpen them up a little for more jagged edges. Something to think about when you move on to colour is how it weathers. Here's a pretty good ref of how depending on placement the board will receive different weathering. 
    Well done on the snow you did also. It looks really good! 
  • josh_lynch
    Offline / Send Message
    josh_lynch interpolator
    Jakro - Great feedback and reference thank you. That is close to how the surface will look in the end, something similar to that for sure. Glad you liked the snow!

    Had some time tonight so I did a ground render of the drying mud. Will get back to the wood soon.


  • Jakro
    Offline / Send Message
    Jakro greentooth
    Those little twigs and clutter are great! Loving that 1 muddied leaf too, a little can add a lot! 
  • MeshMagnet
    Offline / Send Message
    MeshMagnet polycounter lvl 9
    Looking good Josh. Mind doing another Gumroad Tutorial sometime? :)
  • josh_lynch
    Offline / Send Message
    josh_lynch interpolator
    Thanks for the comments!

    I am currently working on the next Gumroad right now, it will cover the creation of the snow material, so it will be a broader look at material creation.
  • CreativeHD
    Offline / Send Message
    CreativeHD polycounter lvl 6
    Looking good Josh! I am curious to what your setup is when working on the materials. How do you preview the height while working on it?
  • josh_lynch
    Offline / Send Message
    josh_lynch interpolator
    CreativeHD - Thanks! When working in Substance Designer I am constantly working my height map, and I do preview this with Tesselation mode on and I adjust the "Scale" via the Material Settings. 
  • davidperyman
    Offline / Send Message
    davidperyman polycounter lvl 9
    @josh_lynch You inspired me to get into substance designer, amazing materials I love those wooden panels. Having a lot of fun with it so far and starting to get a handle on the workflow. Hope you chuck out some tutorials I would be willing to support on GumRoad etc. Keep it up!
  • josh_lynch
    Offline / Send Message
    josh_lynch interpolator
    DAVIDPERYMAN - Wow that means a lot to read that, thank you so much! Please keep me posted on what you create :smile: 

    I released a new tutorial, "Creating Snow In Substance Designer", on Gumroad tonight.


  • bleebbloop
    Hello Josh,

    I was checking out your snow tutorial and stumbled upon your Normal conversion technique as seen in image below. What nodes do you use to convert your greyscale to normal? I am using the normal node but am not getting the normal strength you are getting.



    Another question, on page 11 of your snow tutorial I am getting somewhat lost.
    You are using an uniform color. But what are you using this color for? And what color is it specifically?
    These crystals, do you plug them in the Metalic or Roughness slot?

    Also, what do you use as your base color input? The same greyscale you use to generate the normal?

    Thank you in advance, and thank you for inspiring us with your Substance work! :smile: 
  • josh_lynch
    Offline / Send Message
    josh_lynch interpolator
    BLEEBBLOOP - Hey there!

    1. In this particular case I am using a "Height To Normal Blend". The height map plugs into the top and the bottom I plug in a "Normal" node. I do this so I when save out the normal map texture it doesn't export with an alpha baked in. This is just one way to do it.

    What normal map strength are you using? The default is very low, try a higher value of 8-16 and see if that feels better.

    2.  Regarding page 11, this section is where I create the gloss. The uniform color is to establish a baseline value for the gloss read. The color can be eye dropped from Photoshop, though it doesn't have to be exactly what I used. If your working in a Metalness / Roughness workflow you would just invert the values I have presented.

    3. As far as your question for "base color input" do you mean for the albedo?

    Hope this helps explain it further. Feel free to ask more questions and thanks for checking out the tutorial!
  • bleebbloop
    Hi Josh,

    1. Thank you! That's a  nice and quick workaround.

    2. Alright, got it. So you plug the node in the roughness. As for the metalness, do you use a uniform black color?

    3. Yes indeed, I meant albedo :smile: .


    How did you achieve the tesselation on the model above along the edges? 
    Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my question!
  • josh_lynch
    Offline / Send Message
    josh_lynch interpolator
    Bleebbloop - For the snow material in a metalness workflow the metalness would get a black color because snow is not metal, it is a dielectric.

    On the color I just used a small swatch of white.

    I output a height map from Substance Designer and plugged that into Marmoset Toolbag 2's displacement..

    No worries at all!
  • josh_lynch
    Offline / Send Message
    josh_lynch interpolator
    Updated pass on overlapping wood planks. New treatment of warping, grain, and first pass on color.



  • griffiti
    Offline / Send Message
    griffiti polycounter lvl 4
    That grain detail on each plank is insane! Bang on! What sort of nodes did you use to create that effect?
  • ExcessiveZero
    Offline / Send Message
    ExcessiveZero polycounter lvl 6
    Very impressive stuff that snow :open_mouth: 

  • DeathstrokeFTW
    Offline / Send Message
    DeathstrokeFTW polycounter lvl 4
    Hello
    I cant seem to get the exact details of the snow, can you tell me which Output nodes you are using ?
  • josh_lynch
    Offline / Send Message
    josh_lynch interpolator
    Griffiti - Thanks so much! I can provide a breakdown of the material when I am done.

    Excssivezero - Glad you like it! :-)

    Deathstrokeftw - Can you provide more information regarding the trouble spots?

    I have updated the albedo on the wood planks. Comments and critiques welcome!


  • griffiti
    Offline / Send Message
    griffiti polycounter lvl 4
    Ah ma gaad! I love that there seems to be a slight wobble along each plank instead of completely straight. Do you tend to start with the normal generation and then kick out the other maps? How about parameters (eg. number of planks), do you bother exposing these or are you simply working on the texture as an inidivdual piece?
  • josh_lynch
    Offline / Send Message
    josh_lynch interpolator
    Griffiti - Glad you like it. Yeh I didnt want it to feel so completely straight, a little Warp node does the texture good :smile:. All materials I make I start with the height/normal maps. This is the foundation for the material and the albedo spec/gloss or metal/rough will be fed by the height/normal maps. For this I havent exposed anything, I am working as an individual piece.

    I have done another pass. Adjusted color, added some larger splits, and tried to get the splits to follow some semblance of the grain in some spots.


  • 3DKyle
    Offline / Send Message
    3DKyle interpolator
    This is great Josh! I like how the grains are more obvious than the last image. 
123578
Sign In or Register to comment.