UE4 - Creating Master Materials

[@FireballVFX]

I knew a little about materials in Unreal Engine, now I believe I can improvise. Big thank you, this tutorial is so fluent and straight to the point. Most importantly, it is easy to understand.

[@dannyroman2584]

Wow. This was incredible. I was going all the way around KZbin trying to find solid Material tutorial that I can use for my ArchViz. This was a huge help. You really take the time to explain what you do. Thank you so much, Mister.

[@vinnypassmore5657]

One of best UE4 material guides I've seen, fantastic.

[@borakian]

Ryan. As a new user of UE4 I found this was a master class tutorial. Really well explained. I now feel much more confident in the material editor. Thank you.

[@TheJohn0363]

Masterclass, truly. Simple, concise, yet very informative and full of intellect. I commend you good sir, thank you.

[@nukima11]

Got'Dayum!! 10/10 best tutorial on KZbin. Took me over an hour to get done but, it was beyond worth it. Thank you so much. Please don't stop making tutorials. Would love to see one on chaos destruction when it comes out of Beta.

[@andereastjoe]

The best tutorial of Unreal Material so far. Bravo man

[@ThatRyanManning]

Thanks Andreas

[@FSOL121]

I've learnt more with you than I have in most of my university course! Thank you and keep up the good work.

[@willembuiting]

I did it! Thank you so much! I made my first Mater material and learned a ton of functions to make my next ones! Thanks again

[@TrangPham-py6td]

Thank you so much, I just wish I could find this video sooner! It's such a life saver for me.

[@KANAWA2025]

best master material when i have seen. thank you!

[@CaseFace5]

This tutorial is a life saver, ive been searching everywhere for a decent master material with an easy to use dirt mask feature and this is exactly what I needed thank you man

[@wilbru012]

thank you for this tutorial, there are not so many tutorials about Master materials like yours!

[@TheGulperEel]

Thanks a lot! That was more helpful than what I learned from university.

[@davewood6868]

Hi, I just wanted to say thanks for this video, it really helped me quite a bit. Keep up the good work!

[@Janovich]

Great stuff!

[@chiboreache]

Nice video, thanks! BTW you can press L for Lerp and S for scalar ;-)

[@colby4390]

and 3 for Constant 3, 1 for Constant, and M for Multiply

[@RajarshiBanerjee2508]

Personal Bookmark : Roughness at 27:00 Base Color : 15:00 Specular: 23:00

[@mrthimote8521]

Great video, I'm french, but it was good explained, I wasn't knowing that it was possible, thank you very much.

[@MS3DChannel]

You save me , thank you soo much for this video i was straggling to make my own master before i watch this video and i was soo close but didnt reach my goal until i watch your awesome video thank you soo much

[@jinkwon5762]

Great stuff. It helped me tons. Thank you! I can't wait for another tutorial from you.

[@gary.oneill]

This was seriously a great tutorial, so knowledgeable and easy to understand. Thanks a lot!

[@VarunSingh-tz3jr]

Really helpful, Ryan you are a good teacher.

[@kevinbrunt]

Such a solid Tutorial. Was really helpful understanding the theory of this stuff. Thank you for this.

[@fl260]

My new favorite UE4-related channel!

[@vladimirkhadyko8304]

Amazing job you've done here! Very clean and easy to understand. Thanks a lot!

[@MaNIaC39000k]

Im new to Unreal and this video helped me out a lot!! Thanks!

[@MovingDungeons]

Great video and thank you for the links to the times for each section, what more can a person ask for in life :)

[@моделирования-проектирования]

Спасибо вам за ваши труды.

[@FoxRedTail]

Amazing, thanks so much. That was INCREDIBLY helpful.

[@yoando125]

This is exactly what i was looking for , thanks !

[@pingyao8827]

Very, very helpful. Many thanks!

[@jonathantewnes1224]

Awesome Tutorial. I will be using this!!!!

[@starloose9467]

Thank you very much. Please keep making UE 4 video this is very interresting and helpfull ! :)

[@SewerShark]

Thank you so much for this. It really helped me how to think about master materials.

[@burel5]

Just thank you! You explain everything very well

[@JacobZaguri]

this is Great! well done, thanks for sharing

[@StylizedSchools]

For anyone experiencing problems with the Dirt overlay part, I found if I reversed the inputs in the blend overlay node's it worked correctly.

[@Mukhtar_SH]

Really well explained

[@junhyuk9000]

9:08 may i have a question? i studied orm texture red is roughness from school but why red colour rinked in ambient colour?

[@ThatRyanManning]

With ORM/RAM/MRA/MARA (or whatever combination), each channel in the end is just a greyscale texture. Sorting order or which channels you choose don't particularly matter as long as it fits your pipeline.

[@GameDeveloperUA]

Thanks,Super useful information)

[@TheCobasmira]

Awesome work man!

[@Radicalshikami]

good tutorial, tnx for the lesson.

[@CHRONIC2oo3]

Awesome videos, Ryan. Keep it up!

[@TheKitneys]

I'm gonna have to watch this a couple of times :)

[@leobyrne4671]

Brilliant!. Thanks!

[@preston748159263]

Going to subscribe and come back later. Your content looks great but it comes across as maybe to advanced for me right now. If you have suggestions on beginner level game design, 3d modeling, world design, or anything I will definitely look into it!

[@ThatRyanManning]

Appreciate the support. Just drop a comment on any areas where you're struggling and I'll do what I can to add training videos

[@joshlerio2527]

Amazing stuff!

[@mohamedkj2617]

Great tutorial, thank you so much, can I ask you how to make adjustment for copy material without affect the main one in unreal engine please?

[@stimpy9317]

Honestly... I never knew you could make textures or materials from basic colors

[@jeangab6410]

hello, thx for the video , i have a question , at 7:30 you start with a two value parameters for the texture coordinate, and then switch for a one value parameter. Is there a way to make two?

[@ThatRyanManning]

Yes. Create two separate one vectors and combine them with an "append" node. That will get you separate U & V coordinate controls.

[@davidrivasredondo]

Muy buen video. Muchas gracias.

[@FireballVFX]

How do i save my Master Material for later, to be used on my other projects, as a preset?

[@ThatRyanManning]

It's a .uasset. you can copy/migrate it to other projects.

[@EverydayPancakes]

Love your tutorials. Question how do you make worn edges included on the master material?

[@Artjoms_]

Good stuff!

[@lizavetanavitskaya7262]

hey how to create such a dirt mask with different type of dirt in rgb channels?

[@erikhammarback3178]

Thanks a bunch!

[@V67Snick]

Excellent! To any I recommend watching Zak Parrish's series on basics of working with materials (still applicable today) play with it a bit then then go here. I have gotten to the point where my app is texture heavy and this is just what I needed. In the section for dirt, can you recommend a texture that comes with Unreal to use until I can make my own? The only thing I have found that comes close is 4 channel grunge. Excellent work.

[@bulidingforever4109]

Thanks for the great tutorial, where I can find the yellow texture that generates the spec metallic and roughness with the RGB channels?

[@likskirtspleetscreen]

If I have to switch from ARM to single textures, what placeholder I can use as AO?

[@shanei.7008]

THANK YOU FOR THIS!!! can you give me some advice on how to toggle on multiple switches for one material input(base color/roughness/metallic) with all the switches collapsing into a single output and NOT affecting the other switch inputs? I'm currently building a master material and, for example, my base color 'use texture' switch has the base color showing on the texture map, even when the switch is toggled off. can you give me any tips on what node I'm missing?

[@makadi86]

what is the different between Blend Overlay and Multiply?

[@NabilLOD]

Thanks for wonderful explain .. I'm asked about full course video online downloadable for UE4 for the architectural user .. from beginner to advanced .. do you have one full course? and how much, please?

[@muhamadhaseeb1774]

Do more complex materials have more impact on the system resourses?

[@vikneshtk]

Hard to find such a great tutorial. And its straight to the point. Is there a way to add height map in this master material?? I tried but I couldn't connect both tiling and bump offset to the UV of each texture. Any help would be appreciated.

[@ThatRyanManning]

There's a parameter on the material that you need to set to see displacement; under "Tessellation" you need to enable "D3D11 Tesselation Mode". You'll then want to multiply your height texture by a scalar parameter to give you the extra offset. Plug all that into your "World Position Offset" and/or "World Displacement".

[@louisphildurand]

Hello, I was considering creating a Master Landscape Material which uses blends and also Virtual Runtime Texture on top of it for tri-planar blend projection on assets. Do you have any incentive about this or maybe some passed experience as to create one without exploding in fonctions and instructions?

[@umeshmarappa3991]

Hello guys, its really wonder-full master shader I need to add UV 1 and UV2 channels. How to add in this node can please give the idea on this.

[@someonewithsomename]

Why do you use specular adjustments in PBR workflow?

[@ThatRyanManning]

In my experience your specular values aren't always correct when importing textures/materials, thus having a parameter to control spec is invaluable.

[@ThatRyanManning]

Also, subtle variations in your spec channel can really enhance realism. Hence why using the red channel of your diffuse is advisible.

[@someonewithsomename]

oh, ok, so you are using Specular in your workflow than? got it, thanks for the reply.

[@ThatRyanManning]

@@someonewithsomename yes. While spec may not have as big of an impact on visuals as say your roughness channel, the subtleness of a spec channel still makes a difference.

[@someonewithsomename]

@@ThatRyanManning thanks again for the video and detailed replies. Will look at what can specular add to my materials!

[@gianfelicelungarella2650]

Why I should add the hue shift parameter when I can change the color with my 3 vector parameter? Aren't they doing the same thing?

[@ThatRyanManning]

Most likely your 3 vector parameter is adding color whereas a hue shift is shifting underlying values.

[@Dreadleft]

thank you!

[@kellykryspin]

What node is the mask node for the normal intensity?

[@khoadonguyendang4066]

Component Mask

[@KiwiHawk-downunder-nz]

Thanks heaps for checking these so long after too BTW, given we using 4.26 and it's 2021 awesome Sir Is there a way to add world alined as swtich maybe so it can be turned on or off. I notice to, most do tiling as one scale that does both, not many allow X Y tiling and separte options

[@Jeyelll]

When I plug in the normal strength material function into the result node of the material, I get an error message that says, "[SM5] Function NormalStrength: (Node Multiply) Arthmetic between types float2 and float are undefined" Help :(

[@ThatRyanManning]

Make sure that your input preview node inside the Material function is set to Scalar Vector 3.

[@Prez3D]

I get an error when creating your Normal Intensity Material function. When I add it to the normal map in the material editor n the leather I am working on it says: Function NormalStrength (Node Multiply) Arithmetic between types float2 and float are undefined. Any ideas why?

[@ThatRyanManning]

Most likely your using a 1-vector Scalar parameter somewhere where you should be using a 2-vector.

[@Prez3D]

@@ThatRyanManning Got it figured out. Made a wrong connection. Awesome tutorial thank you so much!!!!!!

[@colby4390]

Any wisdom on displacements?

[@baorichard4345]

This is damn good!!!!!!!!!!

[@SeanLake3D]

In your initial setup, basic material, what are the three, I believe three, texture samples? I see a normal map, but I wasn't sure what the other two were. Did you supply that?

[@ThatRyanManning]

The setup should be: 1) BaseColor, 2) ARM (ambient occlusion, roughness, metallic), and 3) Normal Map. And yes, those textures were converted to Texture Input Parameters so they are exposed to material instances.

[@SeanLake3D]

@@ThatRyanManning Got it. Thanks! I finally grabbed some of the basic textures in UE, and tinkered with it. Awesome video, btw!

[@AceAlmighty13]

Great video! For whatever reason my Normal Strength function is giving me the "SM5 error Function NormalStrength:(Node Multiply) Arithmetic between types float2 and float are undefined..." when I want to use "Use Detail Normals" and check the box. Unchecked, it's fine. I've gone through the function section a couple of times and information matches up, math is set up correctly. BaseNormal is a Vector3 and NormalStrength is a Scalar. Any ideas?

[@ThatRyanManning]

Check 8:52 of this video that you have the same setup. Explain what you mean by "and check the box"?....

[@AceAlmighty13]

Under the instance for the material, the parameters created include the true/false statement for "use detail normals". When marked as true and the parameters make themselves visible is when the error pops up in the Instance Preview window.

[@ThatRyanManning]

@@AceAlmighty13 Make sure your False input is a 3 vector (0,0,1)

[@AceAlmighty13]

Talking on Discord, in UE4.20, I need to have the scalar node attached to a makefloat2 node(both x and y) and then into the Multiply. Mine wouldn't work otherwise.

[@Chucklgeist]

@@AceAlmighty13 Propably 2 late but use a flattennormal node instead of the function he made, works the same as far as i can see

[@ardenstonestreamer]

I'm curious as to the overall performance of this particular master material. When using dense masters on entire scenes the loss of fps is generally quite noticeable. The whole time I watched this I was waiting for that last line where you said "be nice to your art directors". I definitely got a laugh out of that. As a developer who pays close attention to performance and optimization I always like to tell people to be very careful with materials.

[@ThatRyanManning]

This material is pretty performant and optimized. Shader counts from 100-300 are usually pretty performance. 300-600 are alright, 600+ starts getting pretty heavy.

[@yapanwolf]

how to create ARM texture?

[@ThatRyanManning]

Try these: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n3OXoqpoe99sZpY kzbin.info/www/bejne/e6mce3t6rNt_d5o

[@willembuiting]

Any chance you demonstratie adding a texture rotatie option in this mater Material Ryan? Hahahaha! Never mind! Done it myself. I am getting good at this stuff :-)

[@matthewrittenhouse1387]

Where can I find information on making a combined texture map?

[@ThatRyanManning]

Thanks for the question. Just uploaded a Quick Tip video on the process of creating a combined texture map. kzbin.info/www/bejne/n3OXoqpoe99sZpY

[@LocNgVIZ]

How can I have the ORM texture ?

[@ThatRyanManning]

Here you go! kzbin.info/www/bejne/n3OXoqpoe99sZpY

[@danielweinlein]

🙏👌

[@turalmemmedov3648]

Brilliant tutorial. WOW. Thank you a lot. One thing... This is not correct to use specular like this. Colored specular is only appear on metal materials which, ue4 uses base color as specular when you set the metallnes value 1. But with non metal materials, specular cant be higher than 0.4. And it only changes (lower than 0.4) when you create skin, milk, and such materials. Other than that, it must stay at 0.4. Other than that if you change specular it is not PBR material anymore .

[@ThatRyanManning]

There are several reasons why using the red channel is better than a solid color. While in theory you are correct when it comes to pure, scientific-based PBR values and not wanting to push them over a certain amount, there are situations where you want/need the additional control. Clamping your specular values at 0.4 is fine, but with the method I outlined in this video, you have the additional controls to lower/boost your specular values as needed. In the end, no matter what method you choose, it's always advisable to run your specular buffer visualization to check for proper PBR values.

[@AF-bc8vr]

fckin brilliant

[@darodism]

wtf? NormalStrength isnt working even redoing it multiple times. rip me

[@50shadesofskittles9]

bro, isn't UE4 a real pain when it comes to trying to fit so much on the same screen.

[@someonewithsomename]

Great tutorial that is absolutely unwatchable because of the audio recording quality and no de-essing afterwards =(