The main challenge in games is the budget (time, vertices and materials). As frustrating as it could look, we called it “freeing constraints” at the Annecy Ubisoft Studio.

You don’t have unlimited time?

Then, make a smart break down of your scene.

You don’t have an infinite number of vertices for your meshes?

Then, just be clean when you work.

You want to be able to project shadows according to the orientation of a high resolution surface project on a lighter one?

Let’s create an amazing texture stratas called the normal map.

Thanks to “freeing constraints”, normal map, blending material shaders and baking techniques were created. That’s what I love so much about the video game industry and especially about texturing. It’s all about ninja secrets you will only figure out when you face annoying constraints.

Using Substance Tools

Depending on your project requirements, you can create parts of a material with Crazybump, Knald, NDO or ZBrush. Tools are only tools, but the way and time you are using each one can make a big difference in a game. The Substance Suite is an amazing and powerful tool.

During the development of Assassin’s Creed Unity, I ended up having to do or retake several materials in a very short time for Arno’s headquarters. Usually, I would have worked with Photoshop, photobashing stratas and creating height maps by hand or sculpts. But time was running out and a close colleague of mine was learning about Substance Designer, a stunning piece of software. Substance Designer is just a tool but it is designed for one goal: creating materials in a fast and iterative way.