So, you know how it is: we entrepreneurs have to learn 1000+1 things when fighting for our startups. In my case, aside from all the agile, scrum and business-y stuff, I’ve gotten old-school and spent a few nights awake learning some “hardcore” CG software.
Since summer began I threw my claws towards Substance Designer. For those of you who don’t know what it is, it’s an amazing node based software that lets you create procedural textures. Errr… maybe that was still to technical. Ok: it’s a program that lets you create tillable textures (textures than can be repeated without the edges being noticeable) by “mixing” patterns, other textures and different effects.
I knew NOTHING about it. Complete noob. But trust me: it’s a breeze! It’s a wonderful program and I can spend hours upon hours looking for ways of achieving the texture I need.
This one is the second or so texture I made when I was learning:
And this is how the “nodes” that make up the texture look inside Substance: (it’s pretty crazy and awesome at the same time)
It’s amazing how the workflow pushes you into going out there and look at buildings, objects, parks, grass, even the sky! and then try to “deconstruct” reality like everything was made out of layers, then looking for ways of building those layers inside Substance. It’s a whole new level of brain workout!
This is a “planet-wide city” from space. I spent hours looking at NASA’s International Space Station videos of cities from space on the dark side of the earth.
I’ve been using it extensively, even for graphic design. For example, this promotional print for HyperBerry Games’ educational VR prototype experience:
And tonight I wanted to make something more detailed. More figurative. I admit the result is super cartoony, but photorealism isn’t really my jam anyway!
It looks like a simple Photoshop illustration, but it amazes me how you can create these images from scratch using what is basically pure math: patterns, operators …and then some taste 😉 . And, again: without worrying about it not being tillable.
Its only been 3 months since I started learning Substance Designer on my own, but its here to stay in my arsenal. And I’ll sure be posting my best works as I delve deeper into it.
And oh, by the way: you’ll be seeing all these textures in action in HyperBerry Games’ upcoming projects, so stay tuned.
Hope you liked them!
