Environment Art in the Game Industry: A Guide to Rich and Realistic Environments Using Substance Designer

Description

This book explains the fundamentals of being a talented games Environment Artist by outlining the key considerations that most Environment Artists tend to forget. Focusing on the use of Substance Designer to create rich, colourful and realistic environments, the book shows how to improve storytelling and how to think outside the box. Following a step-by-step process to create realistic, state-of-the-art materials that help bring game narratives and worlds to life, this book provides a new perspective on Environment Art by covering the latest, most creative industry techniques using Substance Designer. This book should appeal to new and aspiring games Environment Artists, as well as those looking to increase their knowledge of Substance Designer. The final stages of this book give a sneak peek into creating foliage in the game industry. Henry Kelly is the Lead Artist at REWIND, a VR and AR studio with the vision of a better future for VR and AR. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Acknowledgements Author CHAPTER 1 ◾ Introduction 1.1 MY PROFESSIONAL CLIMB 1.2 WHAT IS AN ENVIRONMENT ARTIST? 1.3 WHAT IS SET DRESSING? CHAPTER 2 ◾ What Is PBR? 2.1 WHAT IS PBR (PHYSICALLY-BASED RENDERING)? 2.2 DIFFUSION AND REFLECTION 2.3 TRANSLUCENCY AND TRANSPARENCY 2.4 ENERGY CONSERVATION 2.5 METALS 2.6 FRESNEL 2.7 MICROSURFACE 2.8 ENERGY CONSERVATION (AGAIN) CHAPTER 3 ◾ A Deeper Look into PBR 3.1 A DEEPER LOOK INTO PBR (PHYSICALLY- BASED RENDERING) 3.2 WHAT IS PHYSICALLY-BASED RENDERING? 3.3 WHY DO WE USE PBR? 3.4 MATERIAL AESTHETICS 3.5 WHAT IS sRGB? 3.6 SUBSTANCE DESIGNER: PBR VALIDATE 3.6.1 How It Works 3.7 WHAT IS ROUGHNESS? 3.8 WHAT IS METALLIC? 3.9 NORMAL TEXTURE MAP 3.10 HEIGHT TEXTURE MAP 3.11 ROUGHNESS TEXTURE MAP 3.12 ALBEDO TEXTURE MAP CHAPTER 4 ◾ Substance Designer 4.1 SUBSTANCE DESIGNER 4.2 UNDERSTANDING THE UI 4.3 CREATING A BRICK WALL PATTERN 4.3.1 Instance Parameters 4.4 WHAT ARE TRIM SHEETS? 4.5 WHAT ABOUT FOLIAGE? 4.6 CREATING A ROCK MATERIAL 4.7 CREATING A 3D MATERIAL 4.8 LAVA 4.9 FABRIC CHAPTER 5 ◾ Rendering and Foliage 5.1 RENDERING IN MARMOSET 5.2 A LOOK AT FOLIAGE 5.3 DETAIL BENDING FOLIAGE 5.4 CONCLUSION INDEX