Stylized Environment Texturing Tutorial

Note: This tutorial is also included in the Advanced and Master editions of the 3D Environment Art Tutorial: Spanish Town!

The easy way to make Stylized Materials in Substance Designer!

Do you want to make beautiful stylized tiling textures in Substance Designer fast and efficiently?

Do you want to make those PBR materials with just a few nodes and no complications?

Then this tutorial is for you!

As someone who used Photoshop for texturing for two decades, I struggled to enjoy Substance Designer at first. It was hard to find a tutorial that wouldn't bore me to death or show me how to achieve good results without overcomplicated node networks. Substance was a very intimidating program to learn, and it took quite some adjustments to find a workflow that I enjoyed... and here, I present it to you in an easy-to-digest manner, so you can also take your tiling environment texturing to the next level!

My goal with this tutorial is to show you in 8 hours what took me three years to learn. I condensed the most important aspects into an easy-to-watch 3d art tutorial, comprised of videos about 30-40 minutes long, so you can learn at your own pace and not get bored by overly long videos.

What Are you Going To Learn?

I believe that to be good at Substance Designer (and have fun with it), we must abandon the idea of "formulas". When I started, I was always looking for formulas. How to make wood? How to make concrete? etc... and that, of course, is very limiting. I could only make materials that I could find a formula for somewhere, and it became extremely frustrating to use the program. I felt stuck in a box.

Then after using it for a while, everything clicked for me.

I don't use formulas anymore, but instead, I look at references and deconstruct them, using a few custom nodes that I created to get a Stylized look quickly. And when I find a new way to make things, I just turn it into a tool I can use for other projects.

This tutorial won't teach you how to make complex baroque ornaments, but after watching this, you should be able to make a wide assortment of materials. Anything from concrete/brick walls to sidewalks, plaster walls, rusted metals, etc... Basically anything necessary to texture a stylized environment with tileable textures, be it in Blender, Unreal, or Unity.

Besides that, I will also show you how to work in an organized way. No more spaghetti graphs that will burn your brain if you try to decode them months later. Your graphs will be clean, efficient, and easy to read.

Topics Covered

• Keeping graphs simple and easy to read, with one major lane to avoid spaghetti connections.
• Looking at references, studying the material properties, and making your interpretation of them.
• Blending two different materials using a Height/Mask Blend.
• The right way to work with Height Maps.
• How to create all sorts of stylized surfaces: concrete, plaster, metals, etc...
• What is PBR (Physically Based Rendering)?
• Separating sculpting/shaping from the surfacing, so you can reuse surfaces and keep your graphs simpler.
• Secrets to making more beautiful textures.
• Building your own substance tools to save time and maintain consistency.
• And more!

This is the guide that I wish I had when I started learning Substance Designer!

Who Is This Tutorial For?

• People who want to learn Substance Designer from scratch, to make stylized materials as shown in the pictures.
• Environment artists who want to become more efficient at using Tiling Textures and Substance Designer.
• Advanced users who want to learn tips and tricks about my workflow.

Minimum Skill Level

I assume you are a complete beginner, and the first videos get you up to speed on foundational knowledge.

Moneyback guarantee

I'm confident that if you put in the effort and follow the course, you will achieve the desired results. If, however, for any reason, you decide that this method is not for you or you don't like the content, let me know within 30 days, and I will issue a full refund, no problem! (I only ask you to explain exactly what you didn't like so I can improve the content or the description).

If you have any questions, contact me, and I will gladly answer!

Who Am I?

Hi there. My name is Thiago Klafke, and I'm an environment artist in the games industry with over 20 years of experience. During this time, I've been fortunate to be a part of several world-class games, such as Overwatch, Starcraft II, Heroes of the Storm, Insurgency, and countless Half-Life levels.

Follow me on Twitter, Artstation, Instagram, and Youtube for updates!