Procedural Workflows - Mixer & Designer

Christopher Evans has been busy mixing materials and discusses the differences between Substance Designer and Quixel Mixer. In this article he walks us through his approach to creating materials, the pros and cons of both packages and why you should not limit yourself to one tool.

Introduction

Hey guys. My name is Christopher Evans and I’m an Environment artist over at Turtle Rock Studios. Originally from Los Angeles, I’ve been to multiple places over the US and overseas. Currently in the Orange County area, I first learned about 3D when enrolling into school. I graduated at The Los Angeles Film School in 2014. It was actually luck of the draw. I just thought I was going to a regular ‘art’ school. Then was introduced into the world of 3D modeling there and evolved into what I do now. To try and recall the first game I’ve played would have to be Super Mario on the N64 but most of my main gaming era was the PS2 with Spyro and DragonBall Tenkaichi being my favourite.

Quixel Materials

So going into the industry I’ve always done environment/prop work with some material creation. I get to do some at work when needed but its not my primary role. It wasn't until I learned Substance Designer that I truly got into it. Then leading to Mixer as well. I fell in love with making textures and seeing if I could replicate what I see. I think that what attracts me to it is that it’s an unlimited world with millions of surfaces to make, I also like to do the opposite of what I do outside of work.

Substance Designer vs Quixel Mixer

Both are powerful tools with similar and different abilities. Substance Designer is great for generating custom sculpts(height) with endless customization. Creating tools for future materials is amazing. Consolidation is super important when it comes to saving time in game development. The ability to have exposed parameters and being able to utilize that in engine and still customize it after it’s been exported from Designer is what makes this tool powerful. This tool does not stop with the procedural side of things. It’s great for bringing in Zbrush sculpts and pushing them to standard that is just incredible. They have great masks that will utilize both procedural and custom height information. 

Quixel Mixer is a great blending tool that is also entering the world of procedural material creation with the addition of their ever growing library of scanned materials. I believe it has an easier learning curve than designer. A big reason I’ve been using Mixer more is that I can go in, paint stuff in and out, and not be limited to it just being procedural. Bringing in alphas and stamping in even more information. Added a mask and painting away things on the fly. Same as Designer, it has the ability of bringing in custom sculpt data and making a materials to final quality quick and easy. Whether it’s with their scans or using their procedural masking stacks. Quixel also has their bridge tool which makes integrating their scanned materials and also custom made stuff easy to integrate in game quick and efficient. Not to compare it to Substance, but Mixer, to me, is a hybrid of Designer and Painter and it's only in its early phase, so I can't imagine what they’re going to do in the next update. It’s extremely fun to see what I can create in both software packages.

Revamping Materials with Quixel Mixer

With Designer materials in my own experience, I always felt I got them to about 80-85 percent finished. But I would call it done either because I thought ‘eh, good enough’ or I just couldn’t get it to where I wanted it to with my knowledge, so I called it done. When I revamped them in Mixer, I finally felt like it got that extra 10 percent, especially when creating realistic materials. Their scans are great and Mixer is powerful. I feel that people want to be purest and have it be ‘100% procedural’ which is great but when you have a tool box filled with great capabilities, why only use a hammer.

Important Steps for Material Creation

Either if you have a material you want to make in mind or if it’s on a whim, challenge, stylized, etc. Always gather some good reference. Maybe go outside to take a picture of something and try to recreate it. Also, not all pieces are going to be final. Be okay with studies that never see the sun. I have more unfinished studies than finished pieces. Practice is what is going to make your work look great, and at the end choose the tool that you know you can make this material with. Using any tool like Designer, Mixer, Zbrush, or Photoshop.

Getting Inspired

Just by going outside. I love going to beaches, hiking, running and if i see something that screams ‘materials’, I take a bunch of photos and save them to my ref folder. I also invested heavily in photo packs people sell on Gumroad or Artstation. Places that I don’t have access to. I love supporting the people who take the time to do that. It’s priceless for artists.

https://www.artstation.com/fotoref

https://www.artstation.com/nomad-photo-reference

https://www.artstation.com/rinus

https://www.artstation.com/emilisb/albums/664112

Material Focus

I try to focus on the main shape. For most materials, hard-surface or organic, I try to keep it to a simple process. Base shapes to secondary shape to tertiary shapes then onto a detail pass.

When it comes to planning, I try to think what is going to get me a great result in the least amount of time. Maybe trying to decide what software I want to use. Lots of iterations. If I feel like it isn’t working, I wouldn't be afraid to try to start over or make a new file and try a different approach. Sometimes you won’t get it first try and that's alright. It’s all about learning.

The input of art leads and art directors is also crucial. A good amount of back and forth, but when you have great tools like Designer or Mixer, iterating is quick and I think it’s extremely valuable when they can sit next to you and you can tweak and adjust until they like it. Also, you get an insight into how they think and you can take that away and utilize it in your own work.

Uncommon Materials

I would have to say that I have learned a lot from the Art Leads and Art Directors, but also a great amount from Lighting Artists. Lighting Artists will be quick to give feedback on how the material is reacting in the world. Most common problems usually are that the basecolor is too dark or the roughness values might be off. Learning proper PBR values will help you excel in texture and material creation.

Organic vs Hard-Surface Materials

For this it more of how that shapes are going to blend with each other, I think organic is more forgiving and hard-surface, if something looks off it's sort of easy to tell. 

Custom Nodes

Sometimes I will take a shape that I’ve created and consolidate it into its own node. Usually a common thing to do to keep graphs sizes from being an enormous spider web. I’ve played around with creating my own generators (one for grass and a stone carver similar to what Naughty Dog did).

Advice & Tips

I would recommend to try all software packages. Software will always be growing and evolving and by expanding your toolbox it will make you a better artist and a more valuable one. Some will feel daunting, but never get discouraged. Just practice and push through the ‘sucky’ parts, eventually you will get it and when you do, you might end up like me and want to make materials all day.

Outro

Always be curious and stay hungry. Always try new things and software. At the end of the day doesn’t matter what tool you use. It just matters what you enjoy doing and what you can use to make kick ass art with. Can’t wait to see the awesome art you guys make!