This module will further develop students understanding and practice to the core principles of creating surfaces for usage inside of Games Engines. These will adhere to industry practices and implementation methodologies.


Students will research and consider the following skills / areas:

A comprehensive exploration of PBR Materials

Exploring the properties of different surfaces

Creating multiple texture channels for use in modern material configurations

Material and Shader configuration inside of the Unreal Engine

Procedural texture generation skills

Presentation skills

Writing and reflective discussions

Creating materials and decals from Photogrammetry

Photogrammetry and scan data

Assessment Component 1 - (Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3)

Portfolio of PBR Materials weighted at 80% consisting of:

Using games industry material tools, create a portfolio of PBR materials to meet the necessary specifications, artistic direction, and requirements of a provided brief based on industry standards. The final materials should be presented to a professional standard.


Assessment Component 2 - (Learning outcomes 3, 4)

Development logbook weighted at 20% consisting of:

You will communicate your creative and technical processes through a logbook (Via a Digital Academy Forum thread). This will include ongoing logging of your work throughout the semester, along with critical reflection of your outcomes and final presentations of your finished work.

1x 2hr Lecture/Demo


1x 2hr Tutorial


1x 2hr Workshop

1. Demonstrate knowledge of the skills required to create materials and shader configurations for industry standard development pipelines.

2. Create a portfolio of textures and materials in adherence with the project brief.

3. Identify key visual features and investigate solutions for recreating them in games.

4. Communicate and critically reflect on the outcomes of the creative processes used in development via a development logbook and final presentations.

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Substance Designer

Autodesk 3ds Max

Unreal Engine

Digital Academy Forum

Meshroom

Megascans

Quixel Mixer

McDermott, W (2018), The PBR Guide: A Handbook for Physically Based Rendering, Allegorithmic, ISBN-13 ¿ : ¿ 978-2490071005 [available at https://substance3d.adobe.com/tutorials/courses/the-pbr-guide-part-1]

Pharr, M. Jakob, W. Humphreys, G. 3rd Edition (2017). Physically based rendering: from theory to implementation. ISBN:1-281-22730-7; 9786611227302; 0-08-053896-7.

McDermott, W. (2015). Learn how to master PBR textures. ISSN: 14704382.

Sokolov, N (2021) Unreal Engine 5 Ultimate Quixel Megascans Tutorial ( Unreal Engine 5 Ultimate Quixel Megascans Tutorial - Gamedev.gg )

This module will give you the opportunity to produce procedural texture assets to the standards of the Games Industry. You will learn how to create realistic surfaces using industry standard software packages to simulate realism.