Give this a try, I've used it for Rock models to apply dirt at the bottom. Blend node at end is "Subtract". Histogram Scan is optional for more control over gradient. Cloud 2 plus other noises can be whatever you want to break up the linear gradient.
I just noticed - the transition between the dusty floor and the stony bridge is far too abrupt and really gives it away that this is CG. If you get a good blend between the two (with dust settling between the stones via heightmap) then I reckon it will really push the realism. :)
Hi riot i really like your environment dude it looks great. But my opinion is that the blue neon sign draws way to much attention on my eye and it doesn't blend with the rest of the scene. i think an orange or red colour would fit nicely
Pearlescent chameleon type of paint ? It's just a fresnel that blends between two types of colors. Very easy to do if you know some shaders. And that thing on Daniel's site is even easier, that's just colored specular with noise as glossmap, my shader can do that in realtime.
Blender does have referencing. It's done by linking libraries into your work scene, with a "library" being another .blend file(s). Read tip #11: http://www.creativebloq.com/13-blender-tips-pros-7113110 https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/data_system/linked_libraries.html
Generally, if you're blending your maps in a smart way, there is really no reason to re-normalize. If you put a normal from bump image over your baked normals, and just set it to overlay, without tweaking the blue channel you definitely will want to re-normalize.
These could be from low edgepadding issues. Try setting the edgepadding to something like 4 or 5 -- this will bleed the pixels along the UV edges and eliminate artifacts like that. You might want to test the AO and Normals separately to see which map(s) is messing up.
This is like your third or fourth thread about this topic, just saying. You can have a boolean for walk and for jog, and enable disable them when needed. Then in the transition: if speed is low than, or higher than, or however you want it AND run bool is false then blend in.
Done! Gonna leave it at this and start on the Two Face version. Started of with a sphere, made a base and then retopo'd it. So I could add some division levels. Then for the material, I started of with a material from zbro z. Blended that with other materials and edited it until it looked like this.
It looks like a tillable texture and no sculpting on the gate, but I could be wrong. My guess is, Jason created his high polys outside of zbrush and used that baked normal data as a base for another tillable wood texture that get's blended on top. Really nice progress :)