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 to achieve lifelike renders.
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 for precise shading.
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 in realistic interiors.
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 in production workflows.
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 in your renders.
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 influence refraction, colour, and caustics. Learn engine-specific techniques to ensure stable and efficient renders.
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 various texturing workflows impact realism, reuse, and performance. Compare tileable and unique UV layouts, manage scale consistently, and utilise trim sheets and micro-detail maps to enhance richness without excessive memory usage.
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 underpinning PBR shading models. Explore energy conservation, Fresnel reflectance, and microfacet theory, and understand how these concepts inform parameter choices and the behaviour of modern BRDFs 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 without compromising essential detail. Learn to select texture resolutions, use UDIMs effectively, and create proxy or packed maps that minimise memory usage and accelerate 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 primary texture maps used in PBR shading and their interactions. Learn proper 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
