Texture Creation in Mega Dimension Ripper 9000

How we create our own textures by using Substance Designer.  

*The texture above is snow that will be used for snow in the North Pole level.

*The texture above will be used as leaves for the trees in the Jungle level.

*The texture above is used in the Mansion level for the floor.

The goal for creating our own textures is to create textures that would match our game’s art direction. The art direction for the game is stylized characters, bright colors, dynamic VFX, and a simple model design. We want our game to have a bit of playful wackiness with a little bit of chaos mixed in. Initially we used Substance Painter, which did the job that we needed it to. The issue that we ran into was that all those textures are generic and didn’t always match the art direction that our team was working towards. With that issue in mind, we decided to create some of our own textures for the more important assets (i.e. walls, floors, and some larger objects). We did this by using Substance Designer to create these textures from scratch.  

Designer is a node-based graph that is used to generate textures. This allowed us to create our textures on a 3D mesh and to see the changes that are made in real-time. Being able to see how the texture changes in real-time is helpful so that we can adjust the texture as we go and even to go back and make smaller adjustments in other areas. As seen in the images above there are many different textures that can be created. What you can create using this program is only limited by your imagination. Once the textures were created, they were then published so that artists would be able to use our textures in Substance Painter. With our time constraints we decided to texture some smaller objects (i.e. bushes crates, busts, etc.) with the textures that Painter provides.  

By using a combination of Designer and Painter we were able to create some of our own unique textures while also saving time by incorporating some textures from Painter. By using Designer, we were able to enhance our art direction while also expanding our experience in new programs and how to balance what we are able to achieve with the given time constraints.  The goal for creating our own textures is to create textures that would match our game’s art direction. The art direction for the game is stylized characters, bright colors, dynamic VFX, and a simple model design. We want our game to have a bit of playful wackiness with a little bit of chaos mixed in. Initially we used Substance Painter, which did the job that we needed it to. The issue that we ran into was that all those textures are generic and didn’t always match the art direction that our team was working towards. With that issue in mind, we decided to create some of our own textures for the more important assets (i.e. walls, floors, and some larger objects). We did this by using Substance Designer to create these textures from scratch.  

Designer is a node-based graph that is used to generate textures. This allowed us to create our textures on a 3D mesh and to see the changes that are made in real-time. Being able to see how the texture changes in real-time is helpful so that we can adjust the texture as we go and even to go back and make smaller adjustments in other areas. As seen in the images above there are many different textures that can be created. What you can create using this program is only limited by your imagination. Once the textures were created, they were then published so that artists would be able to use our textures in Substance Painter. With our time constraints we decided to texture some smaller objects (i.e. bushes crates, busts, etc.) with the textures that Painter provides.  

By using a combination of Designer and Painter we were able to create some of our own unique textures while also saving time by incorporating some textures from Painter. By using Designer, we were able to enhance our art direction while also expanding our experience in new programs and how to balance what we are able to achieve with the given time constraints.  

-Nicole Harsh