Seeking advice on my classic building model in Blender and Substance Painter.I feel the current output has a low-poly video game look; aiming for a more realistic feel. How can I enhance its presentation and improve textures that don’t look good up close in Substance?I feel the current output has a low-poly video game look; aiming for a more realistic feel.
I’m new to Substance and the Blender_Substance workflow, and unfortunately, I’ve struggled to obtain a proper curvature map in Substance. Thanks for your insights
Perhaps a fower pot on a balcony or a bird sitting on the railing would give more realistic look? Some cracks on the bricks are also common with houses this old.
your corners/lines are too perfect to be true (specialy for an old building) and too sharp.
use bevel and give them some wear and tear, imperfections, not a perfectly straight line here and there (normal/bump/true displacement affect geo so you can see it from the side too)
you’re using some scratch dirt maps that doesn’t affect the geometry. so the corner lines are very straight and clean in contrast to that.
that’s why it have an old low poly game style. they used maps details but low poly at max
use some dirt maps cause by rain and and water where it should do that. look at references.
the balcony metal attached to the walls roast and dirt will be there at the wall and water will drip with the dirt there (the metal itself is too clean btw)
those balcony doors frame needs more details too. if you look at the out-of-focus ones they look ok. cause your brain is not expecting too much details and the two on the left they look low poly. look at references and make a design where you see a frame and two doors with separation line in the middle and so on.
the reflection is oddly vivid blue for an overcast environment like that
I will definitely explore ways on creating displacements to achieve less straight lines in my model.
However, I’m facing another challenge. To achieve textures of the quality I desire, I had to split the 3D model of the building into multiple modules, which are then duplicated.
Now, if I wants to add cracks, dirt map caused by rain as you mentionned, or even graffiti’s with avoiding repetition issues, it seems I should merge the entire building into a single model and consolidate the UV maps of each wall into one large texture. The concern is that this might result in an excessively large and heavy texture file. I’m unsure about the best approach to handle this situation.
There might be a solution to avoid all the texture work by using decals, but I’m uncertain if I can implement them in substances. In Blender, it seems a bit complicated (I have no clue how to do it), and I’m concerned about the possibility of having to add too many (grooves, cracks, graffiti, etc.).
You’ll get a better result by using a more accurate camera and position it naturally, like the same height as someone looking from the street…
Because of the camera position, dof (too strong) , and focal length you get a miniature feel , which is even more reinforced by the lowpolyness of the model.
But with a better camera you’ll probably get a much better result without any time consuming operation !
@Theo_Rosa
you don’t have to consolidate the UV into a large texture of the whole front wall or something tho
you worked on the overall look and exported those map of one block. you can work on some variance export those other maps.
now in blender after duplicating the objects they are using the same material, you click on the number of how many object is using that material to clone a new material for the specific object and plug your variation textures in some of the duplicates.
in other words different material for each duplicate in which you include new maps
the straight lines and stuff, doesn’t have to be with map. subdivide your duplicates and manually slightly give variation in the geometry. switch to sculpt mode and smooth a corner a little bit
and again not just the straight lines. the “sharp corners” this is very important, give them bevel modifier so the corners are not one sharp line and they will catch highlights and reflection and they don’t look like machined piece that will cut your hand
When dealing with architectural photography, also remember "orthographic lenses." Blender gives you that option, and here it matters.
Those “old-timey” bellows cameras were – and, still are – used for a reason: because they allow you to keep parallel lines “parallel,” instead of “converging.” You can readily see that the balcony line isn’t straight – it is curving. Even though the building must be “square and straight,” the “vertical” lines from left-to-right are anything but parallel in either dimension.
Also, the depth-of-field in such a shot needs to be “infinity.” The entire shot must be “tack sharp,” and “dead straight.”