Lesson 1Practical recipes for common interior materials: painted walls, hardwood floors, wool/linen upholstery, leather, polished wood, chrome/brushed steel, glazed ceramicsConstruct practical material setups for common interior assets. Follow step-by-step recipes for painted walls, hardwood floors, fabrics, leather, polished wood, metals, and ceramics, emphasising believable responses under varied lighting conditions.
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 referencesMaster the core PBR parameters and their relation to real surfaces. Learn to select base colour, roughness, metalness, specular, and IOR values using measured data, reference charts, and visual comparisons against real-world materials.
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 ceramicsLearn when and how to apply advanced shading maps to capture complex surface behaviour. Explore anisotropy for brushed metals, sheen for fabrics, and translucency for thin materials 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 colour, roughness, and specular valuesUnderstand how to capture real materials using photographic references and simple measurement techniques. Learn to sample colour, roughness, and specular values accurately and translate them into reliable PBR inputs for your shaders.
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 layered materials that combine multiple scattering components. Learn to build diffuse plus coating stacks, clearcoat varnish, and subsurface scattering for fabrics and skin-like materials while maintaining physical plausibility.
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 tintingCreate convincing glass and liquids with physically grounded parameters. Understand IOR, absorption, and thickness, and how they affect refraction, colour, and caustics. Learn engine-specific tricks to keep renders stable and efficient.
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-detailLearn how different texturing workflows impact realism, reuse, and performance. Compare tileable and unique UV layouts, manage scale consistently, and use trim sheets and micro-detail maps to add richness without wasting 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 physical principles behind PBR shading models. Explore energy conservation, Fresnel reflectance, and microfacet theory, and see how these concepts guide parameter choices and explain the behaviour of modern BRDFs.
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 without sacrificing key detail. Learn to choose texture resolutions, use UDIMs wisely, and create proxy or packed maps that reduce memory usage and speed up both 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 the main texture maps used in PBR shading and how they interact. Learn correct usage of albedo, roughness, metallic, normal, height, ambient occlusion, and curvature maps, plus baking workflows to generate supporting 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
