Functions for material versatility in Substance Designer

[click image to enlarge]
Here is a visual demonstration of my functions study in Substance Designer.
The material is not the focus of this study. Rather, my goal is to resolve any limitation in versatility.
As an example, here you can see that various elements within the graph automatically update to compensate for changes in other elements.   Notice that the leather surface wrinkles, stretches, and compresses in reaction to changes in button size or location.
This was a learning process for me which involved the use of many custom functions written into the graph.

One of the primary issues I encountered involved  the intensity of warps, blurs, and noise (as well as others) not scaling in proportion to the changes in the scale of their input maps.  I'm happy to say that after some perseverance and mathematics, I came up with some functions which alleviate this limitation.

I hope to document this and release some educational resources in the near future.

Self Portrait from photo reference

Technical talk: achieving PBR safe values in Photoshop

I usually use this old blog to dump scribbles from a long time ago (too long ago - yikes) But today I thought I'd add some technical talk about Physically Based Rendering.
Too often texture artists (myself included) make things very dark - and less often, very bright) Especially after staring at a light-emitting screen with eyes and irises that are made to compensate for long periods of brightness.

Here I'm illustrating a method of clamping values into the PBR safe ranges via Photoshop, however, you can use this approach in any system that allows for ordered level adjustments.

Substance Designer includes a PBR Safe Range node now, but it is still important to balance contrast through levels (or a similar approach) before simply clamping ranges.

Finally tossed together a render of the anniversary sculpt

Corgi Hero!

Just a doodle.

Some prop fun and goodbye to my old email!

A little progress on a Darksiders-inspired fantasy sword based on a sketch I did long ago. chunky detailwork, dragons, and materials to come! Just gotta find some time between holiday guests and festivities!

New site at Natetheartist.Carbonmade.Com

Moving a few things around. In the meantime find my current site at
natetheartist.carbonmade.com

Interview with Game Dev Talk

Check out my interview with Game Dev Talk here! And make sure to follow Game Dev Talk for more industry insight!

Game Dev Talk: Interview with Sucker Punch Productions Senior Artist Nathanial Castronovo

Contributions to inFAMOUS: First Light (PS4)

Now available on PSN
(All shots taken in-engine)

Contributions to inFAMOUS: Second Son (PS4)

In 2013, I joined the team at Sucker Punch Productions and had the pleasure of creating props and assets for inFAMOUS: Second Son for the newly launched Playstation 4.

(all shots are taken in-engine)

Contributions to Puppeteer (PS3)

Now available on PSN

cookie house, tree silhouettes, and pumpkin platform by myself, background elements by David Lieu

haunted trees and shrubbery by Nathanial Castronovo, terrain by David Lieu

props by Nathanial Castronovo and Lesley Krakosky
Stage windows and floor by Jason Godbey

STEVE!

I'm having a TON of fun making 3D tribute's to Mark Soraci's doodles.
(Especially when adding little butts.)