How to create 3D Scan Based Atlas Textures for surface scattering

#atlastextures #substance #photogrammetry #toolbag #baking #tutorial #textureatlas
In this video I present full workflow to create 3D scan based Atlas Textures for surface scattering.
In details I show how I captured 2 earth clumps, turned them into a high quality atlas texture set which I used to generate totally new PBR environment material of plouhged soil.
Key software used in this video:
- Agisoft Metashape Standard - for photogrammetry reconstruction
- Marmoset Toolbag 4 - for Texture Atlas generation
- Substance 3D Designer - for Atlas Scatter
I also used PhotoLab 4 for image photoediting and Blender to create a low poly canvas plane for baking and a few more in short previews.
But please bare in mind that this is just an optional workflow and the idea to build on.
Any tool is purely optional and can be replaced with any other which works better for you.
What is important in here is the general idea behind it. Thats it.
I hope someone found it helpfull or inspiring.
Here is the link to the video with the photogrammetry setup used for prop capture
• Photogrammetry Setup f...
For those who wants to get source files from this video with the Atlas Template I made included, here is the link to my gumroad:
gumroad.com/l/yitWH
If you like it and want to see even more content like this one, please subscribe to my channel and leave the thumbs up.
Big thanks who did it already as it really helps me to move forward.
Stay safe and till the next one
Cheers!
Grzegorz Baran
-------------------
00:00 Intro
00:40 Single Image to PBR preview
01:41 Photometric Stereo preview
02:55 3D Projection preview
04:22 Projection Canvas plane in Blender
05:01 Prop Scanning and 3D Reconstruction
08:14 Setting the Atlas in Marmoset Toolbag for baking
13:13 Texture arrangment in MT4
13:38 Baking the Atlas in MT4
16:25 SBAR Atlas Template explained
20:02 Generating ploughed soil material using Atlas Texture
25:00 Final Setup for ploughed material
26:17 Summary

[@JandreLom]

My mind was absolutely blown when he scalled the Atlas images up and made it look just like soil. I know it's obvious once you see it but the realisation that dirt and soil is just overlapping clumps was eye opening to me. I absolutely love all of your videos!

[@GrzegorzBaranArt]

Thanks

[@PD-Pro-Go]

I just have to say, for only 3,500 views, you put a TON of work into this video. Well done mate, its super helpful to those of us who just don't know how to go about doing this stuff. Thank you :)

[@GrzegorzBaranArt]

Thanks, who knows? Maybe one day the youtube algorithm is going to share my videos to the wider audience ;) .. anyway, glad it helped

[@henrylo463]

Thank you very much for sharing such brilliant work. And you did explained so clearly and patiently!

[@GrzegorzBaranArt]

You are welcome

[@Barnyz]

Excellent video. Very clear and informative. I knew nothing about atlas textures before and now i do! Thanks very much for the insane amount of effort you put into this video!

[@GrzegorzBaranArt]

Thanks Barny, doing my best. Very appreciate you still watch my content

[@lexabesed]

As always, a great video! Thank you very much!

[@GrzegorzBaranArt]

Thanks Aleksey :), happy to know you like it

[@OnnieKoski]

Awesome work!

[@GrzegorzBaranArt]

Thank you

[@boudewyn]

Once again, very cool and helpful!

[@GrzegorzBaranArt]

Thank you, very appreciated

[@mikegentile13]

So cool. Very thorough and informative.

[@GrzegorzBaranArt]

Thanks Mike

[@visenya8]

Thanks for the video. Very cool!

[@GrzegorzBaranArt]

You are welcome :)

[@aliosha123]

Thank you sir for this tutorial!

[@GrzegorzBaranArt]

You are welcome, hope you found it somehow useful :D

[@thesystemera]

Very cool.

[@GrzegorzBaranArt]

Thanks Simon :)

[@linhandcalvin7109]

so cool!! I learned something new today

[@GrzegorzBaranArt]

Thanks, really glad to hear that :). Its a good reason to keep working on my new videos

[@henry-louisguillaume532]

Really nice, now I can define my problem with heightmap generation in Marmoset :) and learn how to paint the roughness directly in this software (no need of switching on PS) :)

[@GrzegorzBaranArt]

Cheers, yeah, that was the main point of this video. So far I found Marmoset Toolbag 4 after the last update as the only piece of software which can do this properly for baking :D. Happy you found the video useful

[@henry-louisguillaume532]

@@GrzegorzBaranArt yup but for the 4th version you need to pay again :p but it's a perfect tool. Need to watch if it's possible to reproduce those steps on Knald too (better for me for texture generation ... less seems when baking).

[@GrzegorzBaranArt]

@@henry-louisguillaume532 Thats correct. So far I have found MT4 is the only software which allows to do this easily and honesty I was waiting for something like this. Toolbag 3 had no painting tools as they were introduced in Toolbag 4. Substance wasnt designed for it at all too. I was trying to develop similar workflow with the 3D apps instead (Zbrush, Blender) but the problem is that you dont have such freedom of re-arrangement and painting tools MT4 has at the same time. Technically you can create a highpoly model using 3D app and bring it would be painful and time consuming workaround. Being a videoRam based baker has a lot of cons but this is the biggest pors of it.. that you can life preview highpoly model and modify it live before baking. I am not a big fan of MT4 after the money grab on MT3 customers and I really hope that MT4 is going to get upgrades and improvements for years now before they repeat it with MT5. I can tell that MT4 is very buggy and it isnt the best and the most stable solution so far.. but it works and so far its the only option for this type of workflow I am aware of. I might try a different solution in a future though as I have some ideas but so far I failed and this is the best available working pipeline/workflow for this approcach I developped.

[@JamesKellyWickerman123]

Excellent video! Quick question though, where did you find a Riko400 ring flash? I've been trying to get one for a while but nowhere seems to have them in stock!

[@GrzegorzBaranArt]

Hey James, I purchased mine on Amazon but I have found that Amazon was really kind of a front page for Essentials Photo (www.essentialphoto.co.uk/) and they had it cheapper directly on their site, so currently I purchase most of my recent stuff on Essentials Photo. I can see that they are still available there. Also cant find any AR400 ring flashes on amazon anymore. There was a lack of AR400 flash lights for a while but as I understand they should be back since last month. Same applies to spare AR400 batteries.. I waited for mine for 5 months but now I can get them in no time. Hope that helps :)

[@JamesKellyWickerman123]

@@GrzegorzBaranArt good to know that essential photo is the better option! However when I check there, they're on pre-order :/ I guess I'll have to check back in a few weeks. Thanks for the guidance!

[@GrzegorzBaranArt]

@@JamesKellyWickerman123 oh crap, indeed. I am sure AR400 was in stock 3 weeks ago as someone I know purchased them there. Same as spare batteries, but looks like they are gone again. I would contact them via their live chat (active in opening hours) when they are plan to resuplly them .. of course if you cant find them elsewhere.

[@MsAtos12]

This is cool man! It would be interesting to learn more about the method of photometric stereometry. As far as I know, you can shoot large surfaces with this method, tiles 2x2 or more. Not just individual objects for the atlas ... You haven't practiced that?

[@GrzegorzBaranArt]

Thanks Constantine :), Appreciated. Do you mean phtogrammetry or photometric stereo as these are two different techniques? Regarding photogrammetry with the photogrammetry you can capture as large areas as you want to and there are no limits.. I covered an example of entire cliff in this video already: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lYitfZ2Fp9-Bqbc . Regarding the Photogmetric Stereo technique, this one has practical limit to about 15-20 square cm. Of course you can capture even 50 by 50 cm if you have right tools and technique and I am planning to cover this technique in details in a future video.

[@MsAtos12]

@@GrzegorzBaranArt Thanks for the answer! Yes, I meant exactly the Photogmetric Stereo technique. I was interested in the ability to scan large areas with this particular technique. I have seen surfaces in the Megascans library (1x1 and 2x2 meters) made with Photogmetric Stereo. Usually, this technique is used to make materials that have foliage, dry leaves and the like ...

[@ultraboy99x]

Ive been wondering how you get roughness data from scans. Turns out you paint the by hand. Is it possible to get roughness or metalness data straight from the scan?

[@GrzegorzBaranArt]

It is possible to get the roughness from the scan but it is not as simple as initial scan. There are two ways to get it, measure and apply the measured value or scan with and without cross polarisation and subtract one from another to get roughess value. It can be also faked using existing initial data if you understand what the roughenss really is. Planning to make a video about this at some point and cover it in my next book.

[@Grumbledookvid]

Is there a visusl quality diffence between using the atlas scatter node vs just building shapes and scattering them with the tile sampler node?

[@GrzegorzBaranArt]

Hey, these are two different tools. The one scatters full PBR objects (with albedo, normal, height, roughness, opacity) while the Tile Sampler just a single grayscaled maps or shapes which we can use as a height map for example. So it shard to compare the result as they are designed to handle different type of data. So, you cant scatter any atlas texture using the Tile Sampler node. Hope that makes sense.

[@Grumbledookvid]

@@GrzegorzBaranArt yes that does make sense, though im aware theyre for different things! Im basically trying to find out if its worth using the atlas workflow, or if the tile sampler using height grabs is better for overall quality. Ive seen some people online complain about aliasing issues on atlas scatter but maybe theyre wrong

[@GrzegorzBaranArt]

@@Grumbledookvid nah, Atlas scatter isnt a perfect tool and has its issues. It usually needs some additional treatment to get the most out of it. The thing is that it is designed to scatter full texture sets (atlas materials) while Tile Sampler just basic shapes. Tile Sampler is also far from being perfect in how it does things :D

[@rendermanpro]

17:43.... ahah.... Designer at glance. What the interface with all those noodles. Someone show them Electronics Nodes for UE, or Nuke, or 20 years old Shake....

[@GrzegorzBaranArt]

:D better then nothing but trying to make working interface (exposing control to the user similar to the one official Substance Source atlases has) with the Substance Designer can be really painful. At least it works fine when used: [26:58]

[@CGFED]

Cyborg

[@GrzegorzBaranArt]

:) Cheers

[@360VRStudios]

all this is shading techniques in 3D space. It's like layers in photoshop. Only more cumbersome.

[@Beauty.and.FashionPhotographer]

Agisoft Metashape costs 3'500 $.... the Standard version 180 $ cannot ad markers , markers which 99% of the time must be added...

[@GrzegorzBaranArt]

Hey, hope you dont mind if I let myself to disagree with you. Especially that everything I did over last 5 years in Agisoft products was done in Standard version which I purchased for $179 ages ago. I never used a single marker :). If what you says would is true, I wouldnt be able to do 99% of what I did already ;P. Cheers!

[@Beauty.and.FashionPhotographer]

@@GrzegorzBaranArt good for you. Am happy for You. I have had no success without these markers. And am not the only one having major issues , even with markers.

[@GrzegorzBaranArt]

@@Beauty.and.FashionPhotographer Sorry to hear that. As said, I use Metashape since over 5 years now and while it has some issues, I never needed Pro version to tackle them, and I am not the only one, as I know many people who use Standard Metashape version on a daily basis since years. I guess markers in Pro version can provide higher level of accuracy which is very important for surveying and aerial mapping but this accuracy level isnt such important to what I do. But since I dont know what issues you have with the reconstruction I can only guess that these are problems with image alignment, which can be solved by introducing reference points (markers) for featureless objects, or just more overlapping and additional aerial supportive images for subjects with enough features. I would also suggest to use RAW data for alignment. To get even more accuracy and mitigate clens distortion you can also calibrate your images using calibration tool for you camera. I hope that helps but as said, its jus tmy guess what kind of issues you might struggle with. Maybe in your case for the job you do you actually need a Pro version and I wont argue with that.