Hello,
I see there are a lot of tutorials on making materials (move image onto material exc) but I was interested it seeing how to actually design materials (literally drawing them exc). Not finding many tutorials on how to make this happen.
Does anyone have any recommendations for tutorials on creating your own materials (textures?)? (how does it all connect to the material exc?, how does specific details on a texture know where on the object it should go…?).
Thanks for your time.
Have you read the manual on materials?
https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/Materials.html
When you say drawing them, you mean creating the individual maps? i.e. Albedo, normal, smoothness/metalness? For creating original materials, there are several ways that I know of off the top of my head:
- There are software packages that you can use to create all of your maps in one. Things like Substance painter, Surforge, etc.
- Using photos. You can use photo (i.e. take a close-up picture of a rock etc.) as your Albedo map. There is such a thing as software that can remove lighting from photos. Also software that can generate normal maps from photos.
- Hand paint everything. Go into Photoshop/Gimp/Krita/whatever and dtaw a picture with your mouse or drawing pad. It’s difficult to a normal map this way, but you can also paint a height-map instead (much easier) and Unity can convert it to a normal-map.
- You can also create normal maps using 3D software like blender. Create geometry in 3D and then render it to a normal map.
- There are a lot of free multi-purpose materials on the asset store. You can cut them up and the alter them for own use. This is useful especially for normal maps, which are difficult to make without expensive software.
I don’t know what you mean by “it” or what “material exc” means
This is actual determined by the 3D model. Each vertex in the model has a set of u,v coordinates, which indicate a location in the texture map. You would need to use a 3D modelling app, such as Blender to create these. The process is called “UV mapping” or “UV unwrapping” and there should be tutorials for whatever 3D modeling app you use.
Ah I see! Thanks so much, just trying to get a stronger grasp on materials and what not. Really appreciate it!