Lesson 1Practical recipes for common interior materials: painted walls, hardwood floors, wool/linen upholstery, leather, polished wood, chrome/brushed steel, glazed ceramicsBuild practical material setups for everyday interior items. Follow step-by-step guides for painted walls, hardwood floors, fabrics, leather, polished wood, metals, and ceramics, ensuring they look believable under different lighting conditions.
Painted wall and plaster materialsHardwood floor color and gloss controlWool and linen fabric roughness setupLeather sheen, wear, and patinaChrome, brushed steel, and ceramicsLesson 2Understanding and selecting base color, roughness, metalness, specular and IOR values with real-world referencesMaster the key PBR parameters and how they match real surfaces. Learn to pick base colour, roughness, metalness, specular, and IOR values using measured data, reference charts, and comparing against actual materials.
Base color 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 ceramicsLearn when and how to apply advanced shading maps for complex surfaces. Explore anisotropy for brushed metals, sheen for fabrics, and translucency for thin items like curtains, frosted glass, and ceramic glazes.
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 color, roughness, and specular valuesUnderstand how to capture real materials with photos and simple tools. Learn to sample colour, roughness, and specular values properly and turn them into solid PBR inputs for your shaders.
Lighting setups for reference photosNeutral color calibration and gray cardsSampling base color from photographsEstimating roughness from highlightsDeriving specular and reflectance valuesLesson 5Creating layered materials: diffuse+coating, clearcoat, subsurface scattering for fabrics and skin-like materialsDesign layered materials combining multiple scattering effects. Learn to create diffuse plus coating stacks, clearcoat varnish, and subsurface scattering for fabrics and skin-like materials while keeping things physically accurate.
Diffuse base with reflective coatingClearcoat for varnish and automotive paintSubsurface scattering for skin-like mediaFabric fuzz and thin-layer behaviorManaging energy across layered lobesLesson 6Creating believable glass and liquids: IOR, absorption, caustics handling, thickness and refraction tintingCreate realistic glass and liquids with solid physical parameters. Understand IOR, absorption, and thickness, and how they impact refraction, colour, and caustics. Pick up engine-specific tips to keep renders stable and fast.
IOR choices for glass and common liquidsAbsorption distance and color falloffModeling thickness for correct refractionHandling caustics and firefliesFrosted, dirty, and imperfect glassLesson 7Texturing workflows: tileable vs unique UVs, scale management, trim sheets and micro-detailLearn how texturing approaches affect realism, reuse, and speed. Compare tileable and unique UV layouts, keep scale consistent, and use trim sheets and micro-detail maps to add depth without using too much memory.
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)Study the science behind PBR shading. Explore energy conservation, Fresnel reflectance, and microfacet theory, and see how they shape parameter choices and explain modern BRDF behaviour.
Energy conservation in shading modelsFresnel reflectance and viewing angleMicrofacet distribution and roughnessBRDF components and lobe structureCommon PBR model limitationsLesson 9Material optimization for render engines: balancing fidelity with memory and render time (texture sizes, UDIMs, proxy maps)Optimise materials for production without losing detail. Learn to select texture sizes, use UDIMs smartly, and make proxy or packed maps that cut memory use and speed up lookdev 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 bakerExplore main PBR texture maps and their interactions. Learn proper use of albedo, roughness, metallic, normal, height, ambient occlusion, and curvature maps, plus baking to create supporting details.
Albedo vs diffuse and color hygieneRoughness and metallic map authoringNormal vs height and displacement useAmbient occlusion and curvature bakingChannel packing and map compression
