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 everyday interior items. Follow step-by-step guides for painted walls, hardwood floors, fabrics, leather, polished wood, metals, and ceramics, emphasising believable reactions under various lighting conditions common in Zimbabwean homes.
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 essential PBR parameters and their connection to actual surfaces. Learn to select base colour, roughness, metalness, specular, and IOR values using measured data, reference charts, and visual comparisons against real-world materials found in Zimbabwean 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 ceramicsDiscover when and how to apply advanced shading maps to capture intricate surface behaviours. Explore anisotropy for brushed metals, sheen for fabrics, and translucency for thin materials like curtains, frosted glass, and ceramic glazes, relevant to local Zimbabwean 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 valuesGrasp how to capture real materials using photographic references and basic measurement methods. Learn to sample colour, roughness, and specular values accurately and convert them into dependable PBR inputs for your shaders, drawing from Zimbabwean everyday objects.
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 merge multiple scattering elements. Learn to create diffuse plus coating stacks, clearcoat varnish, and subsurface scattering for fabrics and skin-like materials while maintaining physical credibility in Zimbabwean interior designs.
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 convincing glass and liquids with physically sound parameters. Understand IOR, absorption, and thickness, and their effects on refraction, colour, and caustics. Learn engine-specific tips to ensure stable and efficient renders for local 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-detailLearn how various texturing workflows influence realism, reuse, and performance. Compare tileable and unique UV layouts, manage scale uniformly, and employ trim sheets and micro-detail maps to enhance richness without excessive memory use in Zimbabwean projects.
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 physical principles underpinning PBR shading models. Explore energy conservation, Fresnel reflectance, and microfacet theory, and understand how these ideas direct parameter selections and clarify modern BRDF behaviours for accurate renders.
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 losing vital details. Learn to select texture resolutions, use UDIMs judiciously, and develop proxy or packed maps that cut memory usage and accelerate both look development and final renders in local workflows.
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 the primary texture maps in PBR shading and their interactions. Learn proper application of albedo, roughness, metallic, normal, height, ambient occlusion, and curvature maps, along with baking processes to produce supporting detail maps for Zimbabwean assets.
Albedo vs diffuse and colour hygieneRoughness and metallic map authoringNormal vs height and displacement useAmbient occlusion and curvature bakingChannel packing and map compression
