After the last post about the Installing and Introduction to Unreal Engine 4. We are going to take a look at the process of Blocking out as well as Materials in Unreal Engine.

Scene Blockout

   In the first video we are going to take a look at the process of blocking out the scene. This is rather helpful when you are starting out a scene and don’t really know how everything will fit together. For this we will be using the basic Geometry, as well as the BSP Brushes. More importantly we will see the difference between both of them, and when to use them. We’ll get to see how to change the viewports, as well as use operations equal to boolean in Max. As an added bonus we will take a look at stacking multiple assets together and moving them around. And at the end we will see touch a bit on basic lighting before finishing the video. So all in all an interesting topic, and if you agree check the video below.

Materials in Unreal Engine 4

   First of all i want to note that materials in UE4 is actually a pretty big topic. There after saying that, what you will see in the following two videos here will be the sheer basics. When creating these videos i had the average 3ds Max user in mind. I tried to make a comparison between Max and UE4, and explain how both of them can be similar. Now the very first thing that you should know is that UE4 uses PBR Material workflow. This means that opposed to the workflow we use in VRay the maps for UE4 will be a bit different. I didn’t want to make a whole video about PBR materials as there already is a solid number of those. So if you have checked out anything in the past you will know the basic differences. So for now back to the videos at hand.

Material Creation

   In the first video about the materials in UE4 we will see how to create a material. After this how we can change the color, monochrome or RGB. We will see what are constants and how to create a simple material. We will see why it’s important to save your material, and what does the save actually do. On top of this we will see how to add textures and how to link them to the material. So if this is something that you are interested in check the video below.

   In the second video we will continue where we ended in the first one. In this one we will take a look at material instancing and what is the advantage of using it. We will see how Converting a node to Parameter will affect the Material Instance.  Also, see why we should convert to parameter, and which nodes to convert. We will go over how to create a interchangeable texture node, and how to control tiling. At the end we will briefly go over the different material modes and blending modes. So if you want to see how this was done check the video below.

Summary

With all of the things mentioned here we have to bare basics covered. My idea here was to do a few videos that will be an intro for things to come. And with this covered i have the door opened for more interesting videos. Anyways that would be all for today, and if you enjoyed the videos leave a comment and a like. And like always i’ll see you all in the next one.