So, I’d like to have a model in blender, with vertex groups based on where I need a different material. In the past, I’ve created procedural textures, baked them, then used that baked texture on the model. This works, but it’s inflexible.
In any model that has more than 1 material, the sensible way (so far as I know) is to create vertex groups in Blender, part them to a separate object (as Unity, naturally, cannot see vertex groups), and then in Unity, they show up separately and can be given separate materials.
Question then popped into my head…what about animating? For example, I have a character, multiple vertex groups/materials in Blender, I give it an armature and animate it…but then if I want to do the above, how do I do that? I assume if I part the vertex groups into separate objects, it’d make a mess of the armature/model relationship, right?
Unity can understand multiple materials assigned to a single mesh object just fine…no need to split it up into separate objects as far as that goes. If you have multiple materials, there will be separate slots in Unity for that purpose.
I don’t know much reason to split things up into separate objects unless you need it for something specific, like changing visibility on certain parts. That said, for animation, it isn’t that big a deal. You can have multiple objects on the same armature and animate it all together. Its not commonly done, but the most likely reason to do it is with things like clothes on characters that can change.
EDIT*****
About procedural textures…if you intend on using them, there really isn’t any way to use those in Unity from Blender without that whole baking process. The only option would be to switch to something else(like Substance Painter) for the texturing part. Between Painter and Designer you can get plenty of procedural goodness to far outweigh what Blender has, plus software that is flat out better at painting textures(just with a pricetag though).
For animated textures your best bet is working with shaders inside Unity. You can use vertex colors and/or masks to lerp or otherwise affect the final material.