This week I focused on texturing in Substance Painter and testing the textures in Maya and Unreal Engine
Base & connections rock texture
For the rock texture, I mixed Substance’s pre-made rock textures, to then scale them down, orientate them vertically and lastly, I added a layer of dirt to give more variation and dimension. For the block of flats in the rock layer, I kept it a bit simpler as there is already a lot of detail in this section and I did not want to overcrowd it. Also, for the connections I added the same rock texture and some asphalt texture for the roads with stencilled road signs on top.
General city buildings, skyscrapers, & main tower textures
For the city buildings, I downloaded a texture from Substance website which already has the windows set up to increase/decrease to amount of lit windows and the intensity and colour of the lights. I could also adjust the size of the frame of the windows so they have the proper dimensions for my model. I also added an emission layer to this texture so when exporting it, I have an emission map to adjust the windows light intensity in Unreal Engine. This was actually a good discovery as I could texture all the buildings at the same time and pretty quick, whereas if I had to do the buildings one by one, it would have been time consuming and a pretty tedious job to do. For the bridges, I used another texture that I found in Substance website which resembles the texture of the circuits of a machine and, by adding an emission layer, I could show some neon lighting in the circuit details so it makes them stand out. As a final touch, I added a flying car landing sign on the top of some buildings using one of Substance pre-made stencils. I also added a purple neon glow to make it more futuristic.
For the skyscrapers, I added a simple glass texture for the windows as I am planning to add an emission effect later on in Unreal Engine. Then for the main body of the skyscrapers I used a metal texture with some scratches and a concrete texture with some dust painted on top manually. The skyscrapers textures are simple as these are not going to be too visible in the night ambient of the scene.
For the main tower, I also used the same circuit texture that I used for the bridges. In the edges, I added a glass texture with a purple colour which will be lit later on in Unreal Engine. Lastly, using a stencil and an opacity layer only, I painted some vents on the top of the tower.
City details textures
I chose a patterned texture for the city wall and metallic edges. Then I painted some dust on the lower parts so it blends in with the rocky base texture.
For the capsules, I used a glass texture for the top part and another circuit texture (different from the main tower and the bridges texture) to simulate the capsules engine.
The lamp posts and the antennas were textured really quick as they are very small and won’t be too visible. Therefore, I added a metallic and a glass texture for the lamp posts (which will have lighting added on later on in Unreal Engine), and metallic and carbon fibre textures for the antennas.
The cranes also have a metallic texture with some rusty details and a rope texture for the cable which I painted in grey so it looks like a metallic cable. The base has a concrete texture.
Lastly, the flying cars have also a basic glass texture for the windows and a basic metallic texture for the main body as these are going to be very small in the scene. The only distinctive attribute these have is the blue stripe in front which will be the car’s front light. I am also planning to add some emission effect in Unreal Engine to this front light.