Mastering Texturing Techniques in Blender

Aug 22, 2024

Texturing Basics in Blender

Introduction

  • Learn the basics of texturing in Blender used in AAA games and Hollywood movies.
  • Practical example: Customized brick wall.
  • Requirements: Blender 4.2 installation and two free textures.
  • Goal: Level up your skills.

Getting Started

  • Open a brand new scene.
  • Previous knowledge from the donut tutorial recommended.
  • Textures are part of materials found in the material properties panel.
  • Use shading tab to access node layout.
  • Start by replacing the default cube with a plane (rotate it 90° on the x-axis).

Understanding Shaders

  • The shader operates like an operating system for your material.
  • Adjust properties like roughness to alter object appearance (mirror, chalk, metal).
  • Textures modify surface properties at a pixel level.

Types of Textures

  • Image Textures: JPEGs, PNGs.
  • Procedural Textures: Generated by Blender (e.g., noise texture).
  • Caution against getting misled by overly complex node setups in professional work.

Creating a Brick Wall

  • Use seamless PBR textures for realistic appearance.
  • PBR textures are usually a set of images (5-10) for different shader properties.
  • Use Polygon for high-quality textures (free account recommended).

Setting Up the PBR Material

  1. Base Color: Import and connect to base color input.
  2. Roughness Map: Import, set color space to non-color data, connect.
  3. Ambient Occlusion Map: Add to shader using a mix node with multiply blending.
  4. Normal Map: Connect to normal input (with proper normal map node).
  5. Displacement Map: Connect to displacement input (avoid using normal and displacement together).

Using the Shader

  • Switch to rendered view to view changes.
  • Adjust settings for smooth shading and material output.

Texture Manipulation

  • Use additional nodes to manipulate texture properties (color, roughness, etc.).
  • Use the Hue/Saturation node for color adjustments.
  • Use mix and color ramp nodes for blending effects and contrast.

Adding Detail

  • Add black mold and efflorescence effects using masks.
  • Vertex painting allows custom textures directly on the model without needing external images.

Final Adjustments

  • Use color burn and mixing strategies to enhance the overall appearance of the material.
  • Label nodes for easier navigation in complex setups.

Conclusion

  • Tutorial provides comprehensive techniques for texturing in Blender.
  • Encouragement to explore and practice with the techniques learned.