3D Creative December 2015

3DCREATIVE MAGAZINE | ISSUE 124
Create a solid color and mask the areas of the decals. Play with the blending options to get a nice wear effect
Making the emissive map: Once I’ve
09 got all the colors, panels, metal and
scratches, the ship’s starting to take shape in
terms of shaders/materials. It looks metallic and
a bit damaged.
Before I continue adding the peeling, dust
and rust, I’ll first create the emissive map. The
emissive map always adds that extra layer of
detail and visual interest to the model, creating
areas that emit light. I always like to add some
lines and dots here and there, and it also looks
good to paint the windows and engines and
make them glow.
To make the emissive map, I create a black solid
color as the base layer, and on top of this one I
add the emissive color layer (in this case, blue).
This blue layer has a mask where I start to paint
all the areas I wanted to glow. (I use the UV
template in Screen mode as a guide to paint.)
Adding peeling to the borders: Finally,
10 the peeling, my favorite part. I need to be
extra careful when making the peeling because I
always add too much and then the model starts
to look super destroyed; I end up deleting a lot
of what I had already painted. (In any case, my
models always look destroyed!) So whatever the
goal you want for your model, whether you want
it to look old and damaged or only have a bit of
peeling damage, this is a very fun step.
Nowadays there are some techniques to obtain
this effect quickly: for example, using curvature
maps or Substance Designer. However, I’m still a
big fan of painting by hand because I like to have
full control of what I want to do and where exactly
I want to do it. Using one technique or another
will alway depends on your time constraints. In
this tutorial I will share how I do this completely
by hand.
For the albedo map, I create a dark-gray solid
color layer and use a dry brush to start masking
the borders of the panels. Remember that the
value of gray determines the reflectance of the
metal in the metalness map. I want the peeling to
look bright, but not much, so I test some different
gray values until I get the result I want.
In the roughness map, I use a very dark-gray
because I want the surface to look smooth, since
it’s the raw metal that’s been revealed underneath
the paint. Finally, for the metalness map, I use a
very light-gray, almost white.
Even if I use PBR and start using real material
values, I change them a bit to fit my own tastes.
Decals: After the hard work of painting
11 all the peeling, let’s take a rest to add
some decals, like the yellow bands on the sides
and some logos. As usual, I create a solid color
layer (yellow this time) and mask in the areas
where I want the bands and logos to be. To give
the worn feeling of the yellow paint, I modify
some blending options in the Layer Style window.
In the roughness map, I use a light-gray to get
a rough result. As I said before, it needs to be
tested several times to get the desired result. The
metalness map remains unaffected.
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