Unreal Engine 5.2 - Crystal, Ice, Gemstone Materials Tutorial

Topic: Shading In Unreal Engine 5.2+ / 5+
In this video we look at how to create materials of Crystal, Ice and Gemstones in Unreal Engine. The approach in this video can be used in Unreal Engine 5.2 Substrate, as well as older versions of Unreal (Unreal 4 & Unreal 5) in the Default Shading System.
Patreon:
/ renderbucket
Discord:
/ discord
Tags:
Computer Graphics, Strata Shading, Substrate, Ice, Gemstones, Gems, Crystals, Lava, Magma, Shading & Materials In Unreal

[@renderbucket]

If your not familiar with POM (Parallax Occlusion Mapping) in Unreal, Check Out This Tutorial: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oKOtgZKVf7ede7s

[@prabhnoorvirdi6170]

hi where is substrate content

[@peter486]

how does material blend work in Substrate i would like to have a snow layer :) or whatever realy i would be super happy. if you did a tutorial on that. im super novis, but i rely enjoy your videos.

[@tsurello9479]

One of the best tutorials I've seen. Great pacing, descriptions, everything. Thanks so much!

[@Diegobch96]

This is a fantastic video man! I love the way you explain and make it look so simple! and also easy to create following your steps, not evading any explanation or skipping shortcuts or anything, you take your time to explain every single thing without it being redundant or unnecesary, its really usefull and fun to watch as well! thank you!

[@carlosrivadulla8903]

You've been doing an amazing job lately! I'm so excited to see what you'll be able to do when SideFX relaunches COPs and expands the MaterialX nodes, allowing you to layer them further in Substrata.

[@davinsaputraartandgamedev9453]

is materialX and subtrate connected in any way?

[@carlosrivadulla8903]

​@@davinsaputraartandgamedev9453 mtlx is the USD equivalent for materials. Mtlx is not PBR but BSDF, while UE legacy materials are PBR. Substrate is a new real-time BSDF solution that can represent shading networks described by mtlx files. According to the UE5.4 roadmap, mtlx will be (closely but not exactly) converted to Substrate on import.

[@OliverEnde]

You are doing great turorials! I really learn much stuff out of them, keep going on! Thank you so much!!!

[@galvaro3090]

Thank you so much for this amazing guide, really appreciated

[@danielbalzer3524]

Great tutorial - and material 🙂 Thanks for putting this together

[@VeeIsDead]

this is really COOL thank you man

[@mae2309]

Amazing video. thank you!

[@FireballVFX]

It was super useful and well explained. Thank you!

[@doc.skillz7166]

Amazing tutorial friend. I used a panner and a texture sample to add some movement to the glow, then used a time and sine node with some other math so give a smooth pulse to the glow, which make it (in my opinion) a fully fledged material. its still relatively simple in terms of shader complexity. I also hadn't seen tutorials mentioning switches or grouping before. That will actually enable me to make a master material and turn features on and off as needed

[@smfknj6010]

This is awesome, thanks!

[@user-ps6ds5ov2l]

Its very nice tutorial man!

[@gattwinkelfatima-zahra8278]

dude this is amazing thank youuu

[@no_damage]

FOr some reason I dont have substrate available in my project settings. like its not there.

[@usmanwahab7716]

wooooo this is amazing ! .... instant sub

[@rhinoreign1324]

Great & feature rich overview on Substrate. Thanks for sharing!

[@OX_Tools]

Awesome materials! It's so hard to get crystals to look good in real time materials.

[@tb9k_]

Super helpful. Total noob to UE here. Also looks great.

[@user-il9zw2pk3e]

This is really EPIC!

[@JWascis]

Thank you very much for your efforts on this video! You've provided a great service.

[@snookofficial7211]

Awesome, thank you for making this, this was exactly what I needed

[@abhinav3081]

I'm glad to have found your channel!

[@user-be2bc4hm5s]

Thank you for this tutorial! Very helpful

[@ericlagel]

This was brilliant, thanks a lot for this video, I felt I learned so much in 40 min

[@user-ec5ex2vm8c]

A very good lesson. Thank you!

[@busesart]

you are great!!!!!

[@abilalp9104]

Great

[@Efe-jk2fg]

thanks

[@user-yl6fd4py7n]

nice

[@Serega-Pupkin]

👍👍👍

[@LightWorkerBass]

Awesome bro! I’m finally diving into materials now and this tutorial was fun! Thanks. I would like to see how to make a fine haired shaggy carpet like material without using groom. If that is possible or would you need geometry to do it?🤔

[@renderbucket]

Totally possible with the same approach. POM or Bump Offset works really well for shag/long carpet and short fur/strands.

[@samuelenslin1850]

I would just use nanite for that. It would only be needed for pretty close up views and for that nanite works pretty well now (if you just used foliage/scattered strands for that).

[@RAM_industrial_death_metal]

Great video and thank you for it. Any chance you would make a similar video but without substrate?

[@renderbucket]

Nothing in this video requires substrate, you can follow the same steps without using substrate.

[@user-no6oj2ft8y]

Pretty O _ O

[@yashpanwar555]

Can I use these materials in 5.1 If I'll export them from 5.2?

[@ayaakiosawa0]

How did you make the textures, in UE?

[@AberrationTheory]

Really like these shaders, specifically the white one. Are they purchasable or available to download somewhere?

[@guygolan7781]

Is there any way to get the maps you're using here? The result is seriously impressive!

[@renderbucket]

You can make much better maps very easily. But the PDF Tutorial and the maps used here are available on the Patreon.

[@peter486]

im a littlebit confused what maps you are using, are you plugging in a Ambiend occolution map in the Albido? @ 9.47? because your map´s just says "gem surface"

[@renderbucket]

They are just black and white noise randomized cloud patterns/textures which I'm just using as an example.

[@peter486]

@@renderbucket thank you.

[@Slowness794]

Setting the texture of the POM heightmap to parameter, changes the POM behavior , making it seem like there's no depth Look at the material preview at 23:40

[@renderbucket]

Because when you turn a TextureSampler to a Paramater it loses its Texture and defaults to the default texture, you would have to reselect your POM Height Texture. Which you would usually do in the Instance unless you want something by default in there that's specific.

[@jimluckhardt1060]

Heya thanks for the tutorial! Could you please explain how you do it without the substrate? You said nothing is substrate specific but I have no clue what to use instead of the substrate materials that u you are using. I dont know that much about all the unreal 5.1 nodes and which ones to use instead for i.e albedo diffuse etc.. Would love some help on that! Cheers :)

[@renderbucket]

Instead of Diffuse Albedo you plug it into Base Color without Substrate. Everything else is mostly the same. The F0 is a bit different you could use Specular for non substrate (allows you to artificially brighten or darken the reflections/highlights). But for the most part, everything is the same. This video should get you started and from there you can always experiment and see what works best.

[@jimluckhardt1060]

Awesome@@renderbucket! Thank you so much for your reply and the mini tutorial!

[@buluyuazir5796]

This is really helpful for me

[@emperorscotty]

where can i download these materials

[@popthiccle1158]

R u an instructor at tttc? U sound exactly like one of my teachers haha

[@edoardostefani9269]

I don't understand, I activated the substrate but when I create the material instead of the substrate slub node I have a smaller node called unreal 4 substrate, it also has fewer inputs in the node and the entries are totally different... can you explain to me the reason?

[@evanlane1690]

I had the same. Delete it and add a slab node. When placed it is the slab BSDF.

[@JustForNowStudios]

At 2x speed you kind of sound like Sam Altman!

[@no_damage]

Mine only works in 5.3.1 otherwise substrate doesn't show up

[@renderbucket]

Substrate is not required to make these types of materials. So this can even fully be done without substrate for the majority of the stuff covered in this video. However Substrate should be available in Unreal 5.2 in the project settings, try searching for it or browsing through the Rendering Section and you should be able to find it. I see it available in Unreal 5.2.1 and 5.3.1.

[@no_damage]

@@renderbucket I stopped at the part where u used substrate cuz I did t have it but I’ll get it going on my next project.

[@renderbucket]

@@no_damage Sounds good, Substrate is a bit heavy I've noticed. So id still be a bit cautious in using it. But it sure does provide some nice advancements in shading. If you have any tutorial suggestions feel free to let me know and thanks for watching!

[@user-fi2ye4rk9g]

Where can I find Substrate BSDFs?

[@Aoredon]

You need to enable Substrate in your UE5.2 project

[@50shadesofskittles9]

It's this the new substrate?

[@renderbucket]

Yes, but this video has nothing substrate specific. Everything in the video can be done without substrate. For a Intro To Substrate Check Out This: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qHrOpYqQYtGjjdk

[@mihaiciocan2169]

just lost 8 minutes to find out maps are on patreon thx

[@BadPracticeAutomation]

You must have missed the part where he says how quick and easy it is to make. 🤭

[@DGlesterHadunkichud]

Great stuff but please treat yourself to a good mic. It sounds like you’re talking through a traffic cone.

[@DGlesterHadunkichud]

Never mind. I think the quality gets slightly better about 20 minutes in for some reason

[@FishMan1nsk]

Heya... This materials are not that you've really need substare for... I mean you haven't showed here anything new like how to merge different layers with different properties. If you put them to the old system they will look the same.

[@renderbucket]

That is correct, as I mention in the video & description this approach can be used to create these types of Materials in any version of Unreal (Previous Version) nothing in this tutorial is specific to Substrate.

[@NoTengoIdeaGuey]

One other thing that could help sell the crystal effect re: normal maps is to use a clearcoat normal map. Clearcoat normal is for materials like carbon fiber covered in resin where the outer surface is very smooth, but just beneath it is a secondary surface e.g. carbon fiber weave, that has its own variation that can scatter light. So youd use the POM normal for the primary normal and then use the regular UV normals for the clearcoat normal, get the best of both worlds 🤌. Idk how it works w/substrate, my job right now still uses 4.27 so im not as practiced with the new 5.0 stuff.

[@ruslandad365]

No Coloramp No Color Curves No Vector Curves No Color Correction Nodes Modern Unreal Engine 5!!!