blender
Creating an Anvil – Full series

This was actually posted this series Youtube months ago, but I forgot to post it here 😛

Anyway, this series shows you step-by-step how to create a high quality asset that can be used in a game or rendering.

Modelling

Part 1: Base Modelling

Links mentioned:

  • Reference photo ZIP
  • Beginner Donut Series

Part 2: Boolean Modelling

Keyboard Shortcut PDF

Part 3: Sharpening Edges

Keyboard Shortcut PDF

Part 4: Modelling final touches

Links mentioned:

  • Modelling survey
  • Keyboard Shortcut PDF

Details

Part 5: UV Unwrapping

Links mentioned:

  • Starter blend file
  • Texture

Part 6: Sculpting Details

Links mentioned:

  • Starting blend file
  • Wacom Intuos Tablet
  • Zbrush Blizzard Talk
  • Reference Photo ZIP

Part 7: Baking a Perfect Normal Map

Starter file

Texturing

Part 8

Links mentioned:

  • Blend file
  • Reference Download ZIP
  • Metal Texture
  • HDR Download
  • Principled Shader Tutorial

Part 9

Link to Wacom Intuos Pro mentioned

Part 10

Links mentioned:

  • Purchase the whole tutorial series
  • Download the scratch brush
  • Wacom Intuos Pro, Medium Tablet
blender
How to Use Blender’s new ULTIMATE Shader: Principled

Blender 2.79 comes with some new exciting features, and one of them is the Principled BSDF.

Normally a new shader lets you create one more type of material. But this is different, because this is like every shader rolled into one. Simplifying the complex node setups that were required before, into simple easy to use sliders.

There are 3 reasons why this is big news:

  1. It’s simpler and easier to use
  2. It’s automatically realistic (eg. proper roughness & fresnel)
  3. It gives consistent results between applications (like Substance to Blender)

In fact, it’s likely that 95% of all your future materials will be made using the Principled BSDF, because it’s so powerful!

The Basics

To use it with a set of textures, like this one from Poliigon (or a Substance Painter export), connect it like this:

Advanced Use

blender
How to Make Rope
In this tutorial you’ll discover the easiest way to make realistic rope in blender, using just a curve and microdisplacements.

Finished Result

To play along, you’ll need to download this rope texture.

Hope you find it useful! If you make something cool, be sure to post it in the comments below.

blender
How to Make an Animated Flag
In this tutorial you’ll discover how to:

  1. Create a simple cloth simulation
  2. Use the right settings for realistic cloth
  3. Create a realistic cloth material

You’ll need:

  1. A flag image
  2. Wrinkles material
  3. Canvas material

Finished Result

Quick Summary

1. Use Import Image as Plane, to import your flag image. In edit more, add one loopcut so you get two square faces.

2. Rotate the Plane so it’s vertical. Subdivide the Cloth 20 times (W>Subdivide>(Toolbar) amount: 20)

3. Add a wind object rotated across the flag:

4. Add a Vertex Group and set the left most edge to Weight: 1

5. Set the cloth to these settings:

6. Set up the cloth material like this:

Cloth Setting Variations:

Make something cool with this tutorial? Post it in the comments below!

blender
Dead Easy Tiles

Up until now, the way that I and many artists created tiles was like this:

It always produced poor results, because converting photos into maps (normal, glossy, reflection) is a guess. So getting the grout wrong, or missing important details like tile tilt is very common.

There are tile generators like RailClone for 3dsmax, that will physically model tiles, but they’re far from easy to use. Especially if you want a fast result.

Since no better solution existed, we created one at Poliigon.

New Tile Solution

Instead of photographing tiles then converting them to maps, we used Substance Designer to carefully create each tile material from scratch. Resulting in a collection of maps that are accurate and can be used in any 3d software.

There are 33 new tile materials, and in this tutorial you’ll discover how to use any of them to create gorgeous tiles in Blender, in seconds. (yeah yeah, the actual tutorial is 20 minutes, but that’s because I explain everything :P)

What you’ll need:

  • Blender 2.78 or later (so you have adaptive subsurf and microdisplacements)
  • Tile Material – Black Onyx Opalo
  • The Starter.blend file
  • PBR Node Groups (it’s also included in the above starter file)

Quick Summary

Step 1: This is the node setup:

Step 2: Change the Feature set to Experimental

Step 3: Add an Adaptive Subsurf modifier

Step 4: Set the Material Settings displacement to Both

Hope you found the tutorial helpful! If you make something cool, please post it in the comments below 🙂