Lesson 1Practical recipes for common interior materials: painted walls, hardwood floors, wool/linen upholstery, leather, polished wood, chrome/brushed steel, glazed ceramicsConstruct practical material configurations for everyday interior items. Follow detailed guides for painted walls, hardwood floors, fabrics, leather, polished wood, metals, and ceramics, emphasising realistic reactions under various lighting conditions to suit local design needs.
Painted wall and plaster materialsHardwood floor colour and gloss controlWool and linen fabric roughness setupLeather sheen, wear, and patinaChrome, brushed steel, and ceramicsLesson 2Understanding and selecting base colour, roughness, metalness, specular and IOR values with real-world referencesGrasp the essential PBR parameters and their connection to actual surfaces. Discover how to select base colour, roughness, metalness, specular, and IOR values using empirical data, reference guides, and direct comparisons with real materials commonly found in Botswana environments.
Base colour ranges for common materialsRoughness values and surface glossMetalness vs specular workflowsUsing IOR tables and presetsMatching references through iterationLesson 3Advanced maps: anisotropy, sheen, translucency and when to use them for upholstery, brushed metal, glass and ceramicsUnderstand when and how to apply advanced shading maps to depict intricate surface properties. Examine anisotropy for brushed metals, sheen for fabrics, and translucency for thin items like curtains, frosted glass, and ceramic coatings, relevant to local craftsmanship.
Anisotropy for brushed and machined metalsSheen layers for cloth and upholsteryTranslucency for thin surfacesControlling directionality and flowPerformance impact of advanced lobesLesson 4Photographic reference measurement: sampling real materials for colour, roughness, and specular valuesLearn to capture real materials through photographic references and basic measurement methods. Understand how to accurately sample colour, roughness, and specular values and convert them into dependable PBR inputs for shaders, drawing from Botswana's diverse natural and built surroundings.
Lighting setups for reference photosNeutral colour calibration and grey cardsSampling base colour from photographsEstimating roughness from highlightsDeriving specular and reflectance valuesLesson 5Creating layered materials: diffuse+coating, clearcoat, subsurface scattering for fabrics and skin-like materialsDesign multi-layered materials that integrate various scattering elements. Learn to create diffuse plus coating combinations, clearcoat varnishes, and subsurface scattering for fabrics and skin-resembling materials, ensuring physical accuracy in rendering.
Diffuse base with reflective coatingClearcoat for varnish and automotive paintSubsurface scattering for skin-like mediaFabric fuzz and thin-layer behaviourManaging energy across layered lobesLesson 6Creating believable glass and liquids: IOR, absorption, caustics handling, thickness and refraction tintingProduce realistic glass and liquids using physically accurate parameters. Comprehend IOR, absorption, and thickness effects on refraction, colour, and caustics, plus engine-specific methods to maintain stable and efficient renders for practical applications.
IOR choices for glass and common liquidsAbsorption distance and colour falloffModelling thickness for correct refractionHandling caustics and firefliesFrosted, dirty, and imperfect glassLesson 7Texturing workflows: tileable vs unique UVs, scale management, trim sheets and micro-detailExplore how various texturing approaches influence realism, reusability, and performance. Contrast tileable and unique UV arrangements, maintain consistent scale, and employ trim sheets and micro-detail maps to enhance richness without excessive memory use.
Tileable textures vs unique UV layoutsConsistent texel density and scaleTrim sheet planning for hard-surface assetsMicro-detail maps for added realismAvoiding visible seams and repetitionLesson 8Principles of physically based rendering (energy conservation, Fresnel, microfacet models)Examine the scientific foundations of PBR shading models. Investigate energy conservation, Fresnel reflectance, and microfacet principles, and observe how they inform parameter selection and clarify modern BRDF behaviours in rendering.
Energy conservation in shading modelsFresnel reflectance and viewing angleMicrofacet distribution and roughnessBRDF components and lobe structureCommon PBR model limitationsLesson 9Material optimisation for render engines: balancing fidelity with memory and render time (texture sizes, UDIMs, proxy maps)Optimise materials for production rendering while retaining essential details. Learn to select texture resolutions, apply UDIMs judiciously, and produce proxy or packed maps that lower memory demands and accelerate look development and final renders.
Choosing efficient texture resolutionsUDIM layout and when to use itProxy maps for lookdev and previewsChannel packing to save memoryBalancing quality with render timeLesson 10Using and authoring texture maps: albedo/diffuse, roughness, metallic, normal, height/displacement, ambient occlusion, curvature/ao bakerInvestigate primary texture maps in PBR shading and their interactions. Understand proper application of albedo, roughness, metallic, normal, height, ambient occlusion, and curvature maps, along with baking processes to create supplementary detail maps.
Albedo vs diffuse and colour hygieneRoughness and metallic map authoringNormal vs height and displacement useAmbient occlusion and curvature bakingChannel packing and map compression
