Material Creation
Material Project
The Formal Elements
The formal elements can help us analyse a piece of artwork using these formal elements can create a high grade piece of work.They are Colour,Texture,Line,Shape,Pattern,Form,Tone and Composition.
What is material design
Materials make up anything such as floors,wall,clothes and weapons.Anythings surface can be translated into a material.In the game industry a high grade 3D modeller can make a low poly object look great with a high detail texture.
Good textures/materials can separate a good game from a great game having better textures give your game more class and looks more appealing to the eye.
Good textures/materials can separate a good game from a great game having better textures give your game more class and looks more appealing to the eye.
Initial Task
Spend 10 minutes discussing your favourite
games. List them.
Choose one each from the list and find
evidence of 3 high-quality textures/materials
from that game.
These can be on characters, ships, walls,
floors, skies - literally anything.
If you choose a character for example, isolate
an aspect of their design - say, the silk of their
robe, not the robe in its entirety.
Create an 8 slide (minimum) presentation
which discusses the two games (and their
developers) in detail.
Games List
Bioshock 1/2
Borderlands 1/2
Destiny 1/2
Elder Scrolls Online
Ark Survival Evolved
Assassins Creed
This is a small list of all the games I have played and enjoy.
The game I will choose will be Borderlands 2
With this game each gun has it's own parts such as the same gun can have different scope,grip and stock each of these will have their own material.
Also each gun has their own material especially legendary guns.
The style of their textures is like cell shading but more advance kind,like a comic style.
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| This is a group of texture used for a city called Sanctuary where you spend a lot of your game time |
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| This is another group of textures used to create the terrain around the borderlands game. |
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| This group of textures are used to create the rocks around the game there are different rock types for each map. |
I will now choose another game to compare these textures
The second game I have chose is Elder Scrolls Online I have decided to choose this game because the textures are more realistic so they are very different to the borderlands textures.
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| This is one of swords inside the game which is made of Rubedite.I chose this because it looks very realistic and has a nice pattern/design on it. |
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| This is a stone texture used in the Elder Scrolls Online.This is a realistic texture and has a normal/bump map to create the bumps making it look more realistic. |
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| This is a paved stone texture most likely used for a path again this is a realistic texture using a normal/bump map to add depth making it more realistic. |
The two games have very different texture styles Borderlands aims to be like a comic using cell shading whilst The Elder scrolls online aims to be realistic by using bump maps and opacity maps.
The Elder Scrolls Online texture look better most likely because they are made more recently using newer technology and methods.
Skills Test
Today we had a go at creating a realistic concrete texture by painting it in Photoshop
We had a reference picture to help us
To start we need to make some brushes.
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| Base Colour applied |
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| Using our brushes i made the simple concrete texture |
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| The finished product |
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| The finished product looked to flat so using bevel and emboss which can be use to make it more realistic and 3D |
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| This is the finished texture it looks great and i would like to put it into 3ds max and see how it looks |
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| This is how it looks.Its alright but we can make it better using a bump/normal map and an opacity map |
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| This one has an opacity map and a normal map and it looks way better |
Texture Artists
I am going to research into some texture artists and the type of textures they make.
Etienne Boisvert
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| https://www.artstation.com/artwork/q5mYz This was posted 01/10/17 |
This is a brick texture he made using a piece of software called substance painter. It looks very good the quality is very high also it's highly realistic.The pattern of the bricks is nice because they are not all the same distance apart this makes it more interesting and makes me want to look at each brick to see the differences.Also each brick is its own shape which gives it a nice diversity and makes it looks appealing to the eye because each brick has its own shape. This was created by a free lance artist and most likely created for personal use and benefit mainly to show off what they can do and increase their texture creating knowledge.
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| https://www.artstation.com/artwork/8dxWR This was post on 4/10/17 |
This is another texture he has created using substance painter this time he's created roof tiles.Again the quality is flawless.The shape of these tiles are rectangular but no two are the same they are all different shape which makes it look better because they are not perfect rectangles making them more unique.The artist who created this is a free lance and has created this to show their skills and improve on them.
I would like to create my own textures to the same quality and just as realistic.
James Lucas
I have found this artist from the website https://www.artstation.com/ this is a great website to look for other pieces of work and show off your work even to communicate with other artists.
I have found this artist from the website https://www.artstation.com/ this is a great website to look for other pieces of work and show off your work even to communicate with other artists.
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| https://www.artstation.com/artwork/RdGlE posted 02/10/17 |
This is a lava texture that he created in substance painter.I really like it because it's realistic and I can see it being used in a game.Looking at the lava you can feel how hot it would be just by looking at it.I like the colour he's used different shades/tones of orange to create the lava and it looks real.The pattern is randomised and not repeated this helps it look realistic.
This was created by a free lance artist to show off and improve their texture skills.
I think this is an excellent piece of work and I would like to attempt to creating something similar.
This was created by a free lance artist to show off and improve their texture skills.
I think this is an excellent piece of work and I would like to attempt to creating something similar.
Brian van der vegt
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| https://www.artstation.com/artwork/KVgqR |
This texture is an ice texture made using substance designer and zbrush.It looks really good I like the way the ice looks and it looks real specially for use in a game it would be perfect.The texture of the ice looks exactly like ice.The way the light makes it look even more realistic it looks as if its passing right through it.This texture is not used in a game from my knowledge but it was created for the artist personal use and to benefit their skills in creating textures.
I really like the way the bump map has made the ice all jagged and poking out gives a sharp aspect to the texture.
Sebastian Zapata
This is a cracked asphalt texture he has created I really like it because it's highly realistic and looks great.This would be perfect if used in a realistic styled game.The colours are spot on with real asphalt I cant see any errors in the texture anywhere its perfect.The pattern is flawless the randomised white dots make this interesting and look more realistic.This artist is a free lancer and this one created for their personal use and benefit.
This is a pavement texture made using substance designer. I really like this texture because the moss looks great and really fits the texture.Like most of substance designer textures it's high quality.I like this pattern because it alternates the amount of tiles/slabs in each line.The moss make this interesting because the moss is random and there's large amounts in some place and hardly any in some spots.
Jack McKelvie
This is a wet sand texture made using substance designer.This is really high quality and looks exactly like wet sand.If this was used in a game it would be a high detailed texture and would look highly pleasing.you can tell this is wet sand because its not grainy all the sand grains have merged in the moisture and left some gaps This was created by a free lance artist who made this for personal use and to improve their texture skills.
Travis Davids
Travis Davids
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| https://www.artstation.com/artwork/kxo32 |
These are fabric materials that he has created for people to download the creator of this is a free lance and has created these materials to benefit others and himself.These materials look great and look highly realistic they are at 4k resolution.The texture of the fabric make them look real and if they are actual t-shirts These were created using substance painter and designer.These were created so that others can download them and use them for personal use.This artist is a free lancer who creates work to show off his skills and to improve them.The form of the lines that form the creases look great especially in 4k.
This is a wooden floor texture made using substance designer.This is highly realistic and looks exactly like wood.The texture of this wood is smooth and I can imagine walking over it bare-footed.The floor uses multiple types of wood and some are darker and some are lighter this makes it more appealing to look at instead of them all being the same.The creator of this piece is a freelance and has made this to increase their skill and understanding of material creation.
Task 2
Now I am going to narrow my research down to 4 of the 8 artist choosing the ones I prefer and go more into depth about them and their work.
The 4 I have chosen:
James Lucas
Travis Davids
Jack Mckelvie
The 4 I have chosen:
James Lucas
Travis Davids
Jack Mckelvie
Brian van der vegt
These are the artists that I think have the best most interesting pieces of work and I will do more research on them and other artwork they have created.
These are the artists that I think have the best most interesting pieces of work and I will do more research on them and other artwork they have created.
I like James Lucas' work because all his textures are high quality and never fail to blow my mind.The colour realistically represents the material he has tried to create therefore making them look flawless.
The couch material he's created (bottom left) the red colour makes me imagine that it's an expensive couch and not an everyday couch.This couch would most likely belong to a rich family.The texture of the bump maps make it look like couch cushions without that bump map it would be plain and only a base colour without any detail..The use of a bump map is to create texture and pattern without adding extra polys so with this texture you could make a low poly couch but using this texture it would look high poly.Game engines use bump and normal maps a lot because they can have extra detail whilst keeping their poly count low which is important for a game engine because having a lower poly count means the frames per second will be higher which is highly important for game play.
The couch material he's created (bottom left) the red colour makes me imagine that it's an expensive couch and not an everyday couch.This couch would most likely belong to a rich family.The texture of the bump maps make it look like couch cushions without that bump map it would be plain and only a base colour without any detail..The use of a bump map is to create texture and pattern without adding extra polys so with this texture you could make a low poly couch but using this texture it would look high poly.Game engines use bump and normal maps a lot because they can have extra detail whilst keeping their poly count low which is important for a game engine because having a lower poly count means the frames per second will be higher which is highly important for game play.
Travis Davids
I adore Travis' work because its such high quality his renders look real and like photos.Take his leather jacket for example the colour is dark brown which is the perfect colour for a jacket the logo embossed or stitched onto looks legitimate.The texture of the leather looks new because it still shines instead of being dull.From looking at it the leather appears to be smooth instead of rough.The pattern on leather is random because its skin so there could be scars and imperfections all over it.His leather jacket has 130k polys which he says is far from game ready and I agree because if each item of clothing was 100k+ polys the game wouldn't be able to render all them polys fast enough for gameplay.
Jack Mckelvie
Jack's textures are great they have in depth realism.I like his brick texture because it looks photo-realistic.Also the form of each brick is different no two bricks are the same width,height,length and colour.Each brick would have a different pattern because of erosion and chipping this gives them different shapes.Even the mortar is different in its own ways this adds to the realism.
If this texture was inside a game the game would be realistic.
Brian van der vegt
Brian's work is astounding his ice texture looks fantastic its looks exactly like ice and I can imagine it being slippy and cold to the touch.The colour of it is instantly recognisable that its ice.The texture of it makes it look extremely bumpy and a very hazardous.The pattern of the ice is random because if it look symmetrical it would look to fake but using a randomised pattern it makes it look realistic.The shine on the ice makes it look dangerously slippy adding to the hazardous factor.
Task 3
Pastiche
Pastiche is the art of replication and trying to emulate as close as possible another artists work doing so can increase ones understanding and skill level depending on what they're replicating.
I am going to re-create a brick texture from Jack Mckelvie using his image as reference.mine will most likely be lower quality because I am going to paint it in photoshop because I don't own substance designer or painter and Photoshop is my only way
To create the brick I will use rectangles coloured different colours then use different brushes at higher and lower opacity to add detail like moss and cracks in the brick.
This is my brick texture it came out a lot better than I thought it would. I made 5 bricks and copied then randomised their position and messed around with adjustments so their colours and brightness would change making each one unique.
Looking at my brick texture there's not enough bricks and if I used this in 3Ds max the bricks would be too big.So I am going to resize the current ones and add some more.
This looks better and it should work inside 3Ds max but I don't think I will use it as I can source better ones via taking a picture and editing them a bit.
If I wanted to spend more time on this I could age the mortar by adding moss and cracks to it because at the moment it looks like the bricks are floating off the wall instead on being inside it.
The next pastiche I am going to do is from Travis and I'm going to re-create his leather texture.
But my texture will most likely be black.
I've decided to experiment with creating it in other ways this time I have used filter render clouds/difference clouds and I like this one better.
I have added a pattern overlay to the base colour and I like it.The pattern makes it looks older and more rough which is what I wanted.
Evaluation
The two artist I did my pastiches on were Jack Mckelvie and Travis Davids.I planned by looking at other textures I was trying to create and researching different ways of making them.I used Photoshop and painted most of the textures by hand and used filters to assist when I thought I needed them.Using filters has helped a lot with these textures and saves a bunch of time.My textures are defiantly not professional because using just photoshop to create a texture is hard and other programs can help along the way.
Context and Concept
Mind Map
I am going to create some mood boards on the textures I may create myself.
Digital Experimentation
Using photoshop I am going to make some quick materials to see how I could make them later on without taking too much time and focusing on the quality.
I am going to make a steel texture.
I am very happy with my steel texture because it looks realistic and came out way better than I expected it too.when I was doing the imperfections I thought they looked rubbish but when I turned on bevel and emboss and changed with settings the imperfections jumped out adding in fantastic detail.
Now I am going to make a wood texture.
I am proud of this texture because when I initially thought about making it I had no idea where to start and was just experimenting with filters.I am going to take this texture in to 3ds max and see how it looks, I may even add a bump or normal map to it.
I have made this texture because in future I may use it as a metal for something I create.
I made another Damascus texture but didn't screen shot my process but it was similar to the other one.
This is a more of a wavy pattern I prefer the other texture because it looks more ornamental and fancier.
After creating these textures I was curios to see how they look inside 3ds max.So I created 4 boxes and placed these textures onto.
This is how they look I am pleased with how all these textures look and to make them better I could add a bump maps and specular maps.
Because I adore my Damascus steel texture I am going to add a normal/bump map to make it look more real.
Another texture that I would like to create would be red hot metal.
This is my attempt.
I am pleased with how this came out it looks really good and highly realistic. I used a filter to get the dotty texture and then used brushes with angle jitter and scattering on.
I would like to see how this looks in 3ds max but before I do I am going to create a normal map to go with it to add bumps and imperfections in the metal.
This normal map should work fine.
This is the render and it looks fantastic the only thing is its a bit dull because its metal it should have some glossiness and glowing so it looks hot.
The specular and glossy levels really make it jump out and I prefer it with the levels on.
Experimenting with lights
For my final piece I am going to do a 3ds max render and one in unreal engine.So i'm going to go into 3ds max and experiment with the varying different lights and see which one will suit my texture best
All of these lights have created a different outcome and my favorite is the skylight because it makes it look less bumpy and the light is more evenly spread over the sphere making the texture stand out better.
Looking at these lights maybe adding a normal map wasn't a good idea because damascus steel should be smooth.The skylight has made it look kinda smooth but I will remove the normal map and maybe try just a bump map on low if not I will leave it with no bump or normal map.
Final Piece
My final piece will be a damascus steel texture that I will render in unreal engine and 3ds max and compare the renders.
Why I chose damascus steel.A lot of games use weapons from swords to guns and a lot of swords are made from damascus steel because of how strong it is as well as having a strong appearance.I am interested in weaponry and armour both can and has been made from damascus.
There are many varieties of damascus steel each made in their own way I am going to research all the types and decided which one I want to base my texture of off.
The history of Damascus steel or Damask alternatively dates back centuries around 400 CE to be precise it derives it name from the Syrian capital city,the steel that damascus is crafted from doesn't come from syria or the middle east at all.in fact,it was imported from india or Sri lanka and wasn't even called Damascus.
The steel that was imported was called Wootz steel.It's a crucible steel characterized by a series of bands which resemble topography or waves from water formed by the creation and/or inclusion of ferrite,martensite and/or pearlite in steel.Ferrite is a crystalline form of iron; martensite is a form of crystalline form of steel and pearlite is a combination of ferrite and cementite know as iron carbide.
Basically Wootz steel is an impure form of steel but it has legendary strength and appearance.
Creating Damascus steel
To create my Damascus Steel I will use a lot of filters from photoshop this is how I can get the effects I need by stacking different filters on top of eachother.
I want to create a wavy or watery pattern of damascus steel because they are popular and look great.
This is my finished Damascus Steel texture I am very proud of it because it looks very similar to a
watery pattern.When decided to make Damascus Steel as my main texture I was nervous because I had no idea how to start or what to do next but experimenting with filters and gradients helped me develop a workflow to end up with a high quality texture.
Looking at this texture if it was to be place onto a blade it would stretch and look horrible unless you Unwrapped it and place multiple on to it.
The watery pattern should be running down the length of the blade not the width I think doing this would also make it look a lot more realistic.
How am I going to fix this? I am going to rotate the texture 90 degrees and see how it looks.
I have rotated the texture 90 degrees and it looks like it would work better than the previous one.
To finish up this project I am going to do a render in 3ds max and unreal engine then compare them.
This is a basic diffuse render of my texture and it looks nice but I want to make it look more like a metal than sure a diffuse colour.To do this I am going to make a specular map and use specular levels to adjust it too the setting that looks best.
This is my finished 3ds max render and looks great the specular makes it look more like a metal than just a base colour.
Unreal Engine
Unreal engine is a game engine developed by Epic Games first showcased in the 1998 first person shooter named Unreal.Although primarily developed for first person shooters it has been successfully used in stealth,MMORPGs and RPGs.Its code is written in C++,Unreal engine features a high degree of portability and is a tool used by many game developers today.
Games made in unreal.
2002:Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell.
2007:Bioshock.
2010 Bioshock 2.
2011:Duke Nukem Forever.
2009:Borderlands.
2012:Borderlands 2.
2014:Borderlands The Pre Sequel.
2015 Borderlands:The Handsome Collection
And a lot more.
Unreal engine won an award in the Guinness World Records for most successful game engine.
Unreal's UI
Taking my Damascus into Unreal Engine
Whilst Experimenting with my texture in unreal engine I decided to go back and edit it because It would work better and this one has a light background and a darker foreground like real Damascus Steel has.
I used the exact same process to create this one but changed the values on some of the filters and this should work better in unreal.
Renders
This is my render of my Damascus steel.I am highly proud of myself to be able to create a texture of this quality
Evaluation
When I first knew our project was material creation I wasn't that happy because I'd rather 3D model than create a texture but then I thought how important textures/materials are to games and the world we live in.Everything has a material and each have their own characteristics and uses.
I chose Damascus Steel because I am interested in weaponry and Armour,I would like to have a go at creating some.At first I had absolutely no idea how to create Damascus Steel but as this project went by I learnt how to and now I can make it like its a instinct which I am happy about.
I thought my texture was going to be low quality and look rubbish but using unreal has helped me along the way realising this gave me an insight in to how good unreal is and I will use it a lot more now.
Overall doing this project has given me a lot more confidence and knowledge in material making and will look forward to the next material I create.
Jack Mckelvie
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| https://www.artstation.com/jackm |
Jack's textures are great they have in depth realism.I like his brick texture because it looks photo-realistic.Also the form of each brick is different no two bricks are the same width,height,length and colour.Each brick would have a different pattern because of erosion and chipping this gives them different shapes.Even the mortar is different in its own ways this adds to the realism.
If this texture was inside a game the game would be realistic.
Brian van der vegt
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| https://www.artstation.com/reddington |
Brian's work is astounding his ice texture looks fantastic its looks exactly like ice and I can imagine it being slippy and cold to the touch.The colour of it is instantly recognisable that its ice.The texture of it makes it look extremely bumpy and a very hazardous.The pattern of the ice is random because if it look symmetrical it would look to fake but using a randomised pattern it makes it look realistic.The shine on the ice makes it look dangerously slippy adding to the hazardous factor.
Task 3
Pastiche
Pastiche is the art of replication and trying to emulate as close as possible another artists work doing so can increase ones understanding and skill level depending on what they're replicating.
I am going to re-create a brick texture from Jack Mckelvie using his image as reference.mine will most likely be lower quality because I am going to paint it in photoshop because I don't own substance designer or painter and Photoshop is my only way
To create the brick I will use rectangles coloured different colours then use different brushes at higher and lower opacity to add detail like moss and cracks in the brick.
This is my brick texture it came out a lot better than I thought it would. I made 5 bricks and copied then randomised their position and messed around with adjustments so their colours and brightness would change making each one unique.
Looking at my brick texture there's not enough bricks and if I used this in 3Ds max the bricks would be too big.So I am going to resize the current ones and add some more.
This looks better and it should work inside 3Ds max but I don't think I will use it as I can source better ones via taking a picture and editing them a bit.
If I wanted to spend more time on this I could age the mortar by adding moss and cracks to it because at the moment it looks like the bricks are floating off the wall instead on being inside it.
The next pastiche I am going to do is from Travis and I'm going to re-create his leather texture.
But my texture will most likely be black.
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| This is my base colour |
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| Little bit of detail and patchiness. |
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| Finished texture |
I've decided to experiment with creating it in other ways this time I have used filter render clouds/difference clouds and I like this one better.
I have added a pattern overlay to the base colour and I like it.The pattern makes it looks older and more rough which is what I wanted.
Evaluation
The two artist I did my pastiches on were Jack Mckelvie and Travis Davids.I planned by looking at other textures I was trying to create and researching different ways of making them.I used Photoshop and painted most of the textures by hand and used filters to assist when I thought I needed them.Using filters has helped a lot with these textures and saves a bunch of time.My textures are defiantly not professional because using just photoshop to create a texture is hard and other programs can help along the way.
Context and Concept
Mind Map
I am going to create some mood boards on the textures I may create myself.
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| Damascus steel |
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| Leather |
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| Gold |
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| Bronze |
Digital Experimentation
Using photoshop I am going to make some quick materials to see how I could make them later on without taking too much time and focusing on the quality.
I am going to make a steel texture.
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| Copper graident |
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| add noise at around 12.5 this will make it look more like metal and not just a colour. |
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| motion blur with the noise makes for a good combo to make it look realistic |
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| Change the saturation to colour it like steel. |
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| Using a dotted brush I made I added imperfections in the metal. |
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| Bevel and emboss to make it 3D |
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| Finished steel texture |
I am very happy with my steel texture because it looks realistic and came out way better than I expected it too.when I was doing the imperfections I thought they looked rubbish but when I turned on bevel and emboss and changed with settings the imperfections jumped out adding in fantastic detail.
Now I am going to make a wood texture.
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| To create a texture that looks like wood I chose a foreground and background colour of wood one being darker than the other. |
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| Then I transformed it and rotated it more horizontal to make it look more like wood. |
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| Use the ellipse marquee tool and make oval selections and feather it 30 pixels |
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| Filter-distort-twirl set it too about 200 depends on image size and resolution. |
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| One of the knots was upside down so I rotated it too look like this |
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| Finished texture. |
I am going to create a Damascus steel texture because I am interested in weaponry and this steel is a good steel for a sword.I also like the pattern they can have.
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| Grey and dark grey graident. Filter liquefy and I painted this pattern onto it |
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| To make the colours contrast more I used filter- glowing edges |
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| Went back into liquefy and painted it to my liking |
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| Used the smudge tool to edit it even more to personal preference |
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| Used filter-distort-twirl. |
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| I was looking around at other filters that could make it better and I came across chrome which gave it this look which I like and looks more like the kind of damascus steel I was going for. |
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| Finished texture |
I have made this texture because in future I may use it as a metal for something I create.
I made another Damascus texture but didn't screen shot my process but it was similar to the other one.
This is a more of a wavy pattern I prefer the other texture because it looks more ornamental and fancier.
After creating these textures I was curios to see how they look inside 3ds max.So I created 4 boxes and placed these textures onto.
This is how they look I am pleased with how all these textures look and to make them better I could add a bump maps and specular maps.
Because I adore my Damascus steel texture I am going to add a normal/bump map to make it look more real.
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| This render has no normal map and looks plain and boring |
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| This render has a normal map which has given it more of a texture than just a flat plane. |
Another texture that I would like to create would be red hot metal.
This is my attempt.
I am pleased with how this came out it looks really good and highly realistic. I used a filter to get the dotty texture and then used brushes with angle jitter and scattering on.
I would like to see how this looks in 3ds max but before I do I am going to create a normal map to go with it to add bumps and imperfections in the metal.
This normal map should work fine.
This is the render and it looks fantastic the only thing is its a bit dull because its metal it should have some glossiness and glowing so it looks hot.
The specular and glossy levels really make it jump out and I prefer it with the levels on.
Experimenting with lights
For my final piece I am going to do a 3ds max render and one in unreal engine.So i'm going to go into 3ds max and experiment with the varying different lights and see which one will suit my texture best
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| This one has no light. |
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| Free spot light. |
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| Omni light |
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| Skylight |
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| Target light |
All of these lights have created a different outcome and my favorite is the skylight because it makes it look less bumpy and the light is more evenly spread over the sphere making the texture stand out better.
Looking at these lights maybe adding a normal map wasn't a good idea because damascus steel should be smooth.The skylight has made it look kinda smooth but I will remove the normal map and maybe try just a bump map on low if not I will leave it with no bump or normal map.
Final Piece
My final piece will be a damascus steel texture that I will render in unreal engine and 3ds max and compare the renders.
Why I chose damascus steel.A lot of games use weapons from swords to guns and a lot of swords are made from damascus steel because of how strong it is as well as having a strong appearance.I am interested in weaponry and armour both can and has been made from damascus.
There are many varieties of damascus steel each made in their own way I am going to research all the types and decided which one I want to base my texture of off.
The history of Damascus steel or Damask alternatively dates back centuries around 400 CE to be precise it derives it name from the Syrian capital city,the steel that damascus is crafted from doesn't come from syria or the middle east at all.in fact,it was imported from india or Sri lanka and wasn't even called Damascus.
The steel that was imported was called Wootz steel.It's a crucible steel characterized by a series of bands which resemble topography or waves from water formed by the creation and/or inclusion of ferrite,martensite and/or pearlite in steel.Ferrite is a crystalline form of iron; martensite is a form of crystalline form of steel and pearlite is a combination of ferrite and cementite know as iron carbide.
Basically Wootz steel is an impure form of steel but it has legendary strength and appearance.
There are thought to be two reasons why Wootz steel was
referred to as Damascus here in the western world. First, many of the
world-renowned Wootz steel swords used by Syrian warriors in ancient times were
crafted in the city of Damascus, so it was easy to title them as such. And two,
that it was called Damascus steel for its resemblance to Damask fabrics, which
were named after the Syrian capital.
This blade steel is considered a legendary part of history
even though the original technique of the creation was actually lost sometime
mid-1700s.There are a few theories as to why it went lost such as the breakdown
of trade routes, lack of documentation or cultural suppression by western
imperialism. To this day we still do not know the traditional forging technique
of this legendary steel.
Modern Damascus is made from several types of steel and iron
slices welded together to form a billet, and currently the term Damascus this
is technically incorrect but is widely accepted to describe modern pattern
welded steel blades in the trade. The patterns vary depending on how the smith
works the billet.
Pattern welding is the process of welding together plates of
high, low and sometimes intermediate carbon content steels, drawing them out,
cutting and rewelding repeatedly until
the desired fineness of material distribution is achieved.The number of
layers increases nearly exponentially with the number of welds. However, some
material is lost from the surface due to fire scale and surface cleaning
process.
Creating Damascus steel
To create my Damascus Steel I will use a lot of filters from photoshop this is how I can get the effects I need by stacking different filters on top of eachother.
I want to create a wavy or watery pattern of damascus steel because they are popular and look great.
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| Base colour made using copper graident tool. |
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| Add noise this will assist in making it more like metal. |
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| Motion blur to finish the base colour. |
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| As steel is not the same colour as copper. |
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| Filter-Distort-Wave this will add slight unnoticeable waves but when I use more filters it will make them more noticeable. |
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| Filter Gallery ink outlines to make the waves more distinct. |
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| Filter Gallery Photocopy to make it smooth. |
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| Filter Gallery Charcoal. |
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| Filter Gallery Chrome.This looks a lot more like damascus,now to make it wavy. |
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| Filter Render Fibers.This will make it wavy when using other filters. |
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| Chrome filter again because i looks the best as steel and chrome are similar. |
This is my finished Damascus Steel texture I am very proud of it because it looks very similar to a
watery pattern.When decided to make Damascus Steel as my main texture I was nervous because I had no idea how to start or what to do next but experimenting with filters and gradients helped me develop a workflow to end up with a high quality texture.
Looking at this texture if it was to be place onto a blade it would stretch and look horrible unless you Unwrapped it and place multiple on to it.
The watery pattern should be running down the length of the blade not the width I think doing this would also make it look a lot more realistic.
How am I going to fix this? I am going to rotate the texture 90 degrees and see how it looks.
I have rotated the texture 90 degrees and it looks like it would work better than the previous one.
To finish up this project I am going to do a render in 3ds max and unreal engine then compare them.
This is a basic diffuse render of my texture and it looks nice but I want to make it look more like a metal than sure a diffuse colour.To do this I am going to make a specular map and use specular levels to adjust it too the setting that looks best.
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| This is my specular map. |
This is my finished 3ds max render and looks great the specular makes it look more like a metal than just a base colour.
Unreal Engine
Unreal engine is a game engine developed by Epic Games first showcased in the 1998 first person shooter named Unreal.Although primarily developed for first person shooters it has been successfully used in stealth,MMORPGs and RPGs.Its code is written in C++,Unreal engine features a high degree of portability and is a tool used by many game developers today.
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| Sourced From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_Engine |
Games made in unreal.
2002:Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell.
2007:Bioshock.
2010 Bioshock 2.
2011:Duke Nukem Forever.
2009:Borderlands.
2012:Borderlands 2.
2014:Borderlands The Pre Sequel.
2015 Borderlands:The Handsome Collection
And a lot more.
Unreal engine won an award in the Guinness World Records for most successful game engine.
Unreal's UI
Taking my Damascus into Unreal Engine
Whilst Experimenting with my texture in unreal engine I decided to go back and edit it because It would work better and this one has a light background and a darker foreground like real Damascus Steel has.
I used the exact same process to create this one but changed the values on some of the filters and this should work better in unreal.
Renders
This is my render of my Damascus steel.I am highly proud of myself to be able to create a texture of this quality
Evaluation
When I first knew our project was material creation I wasn't that happy because I'd rather 3D model than create a texture but then I thought how important textures/materials are to games and the world we live in.Everything has a material and each have their own characteristics and uses.
I chose Damascus Steel because I am interested in weaponry and Armour,I would like to have a go at creating some.At first I had absolutely no idea how to create Damascus Steel but as this project went by I learnt how to and now I can make it like its a instinct which I am happy about.
I thought my texture was going to be low quality and look rubbish but using unreal has helped me along the way realising this gave me an insight in to how good unreal is and I will use it a lot more now.
Overall doing this project has given me a lot more confidence and knowledge in material making and will look forward to the next material I create.
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