32 Lessons I Learned from Creating 32 Modular Pipe Assets Tutorial with Maya LT/Maya & UE4

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

32 Lessons I Learned from Creating 32 Modular Pipe Assets: 1. Pipes Need to be Modular 2. You Will Need 3 Different Pipe Sizes (Large, Medium, Small) 3. Determine Pipe Sizes and Dimensions Early 4. Word on Specific Styles and Creating Highly Reusable Pipes 5. Use Bridge Tool for 90 and 45 Degree Angled Pipes 6. Use Booleans (Yes Booleans) for 3 and 4-Way Pipes 7. Model Pipe Caps and Pipe Bolts Separately 8. Create Pipe Supports 9. Modeling the Valve Medium Pipe and Small Pipe 10. Use Shift+D (Duplicate with Transform) to Create Repeated Patterns 11. Soft vs Hard: Control Your Edges 12. Add More Variation to Pipe Caps for Realism 13. Bake Normal Maps Right Inside Maya LT/Maya for Great Results 14. UV Then Duplicate 15. Maintain Correct Texel Density Between All Pipe Sizes 16. Quick Way to UV Any Modular Pipes 17. Combine All Pipes into One Object for Texturing in Quixel 18. Don't Export as FBX for Quixel 19. Quickly Texture in Quixel DDO 20. Setup 3DO for High Quality Preview 21. Creating Color ID Map 22. Have All Your Pipes Share the Same Texture 23. Disable sRGB Option for Metallic and Roughness Maps in UE4 24. Create Lightmap Channel to Use Pipes with Static Baked Lighting 25. FIX: Why Your Re-Imported Lightmaps Don't Work 26. Using Material Instances for Color and Roughness Changes 27. Reuse Existing Textures as Masks 28. Pack Mask Textures into RGB Channels 29. Create Collisions in UE4 to Save Time 30. Create Custom Collision in Maya LT/Maya 31. Do Tests and Construct Scenes with Your Assets 32. Setup Your Project Folders from the Start to Maintain High Level of Organization Download Full Tutorial Series here "UE4 Modular Pipes Project": www.worldofleveldesign.com/store/ue4-modular-pipes.php

[@obi-wankenobi9871]

**laughs in solidworks**

[@zackakai5173]

Man I'm glad I'm not the only weirdo who played Mirror's Edge and got fucking obsessed with creating a set of pipes.

[@ChrisCohen]

I love how this is so clearly explained, there's a full 10 seconds dedicated to explaining the difference between a large pipe, a medium pipe, and a small pipe. 😄 I think this is so valuable because you go through all the things that could go wrong, and it's one of those topics that seems simple but could easily go wrong!

[@IllyasArt]

Finally someone else who obsessives over small details in level design :D

[@tiaan_va]

"Obsessives"? Think you are looking for the word "obsesses". Obsessive is an adjective not a verb, someone can't DO an adjective.

[@edwingunterbenz119]

Man, You answered a lot of questions i had and lot of videos either just skip them or make them awfully long. Thanks a lot .

[@Frank_G_Finster]

As a pro level artist, this was really refreshing to watch. Very useful and on point. A tutorial well done. If i would need it, i would buy your full course, but you can be sure, that i will recommend it.

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

Thank you Frank. I appreciate that.

[@PrimordialStrange]

I took the Fundamentals Course and it's the best purchase I made! Next, onto the corridor project! thank you!

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

Thank you. I appreciate that. Glad to hear you enjoyed it!

[@AnimGraphLab]

Can't appreciate it enough! Thank you so much!

[@ReedHeisleyShellaby]

The tutorial I didn't know I needed! Thank you. I imagine the lessons from this can be applied to many other modular kits, too.

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

Thanks Reed. Yes, many of these principles can be applied to other modular kits.

[@slimeball3209]

Thanks youtube and you for this beautiful motivating, very relative, and in time, video

[@djformalin]

Wow....pipe dream - thx for this mate 🎼

[@christopher1791]

Very helpful, thanks

[@SwatPooky95]

Hey just wanted to tell you that i have been following you for a while and thank you for everything you did.

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

Thank you KryTek!

[@Dzingzing]

This channel is so amazing holy shit

[@MegaKosan]

Oh god, why haven't I used the Bridge Tool before, that's amazing!

[@Mr-rk4gw]

Very Nice!!

[@harveynash7846]

Another top video man. Super helpful

[@tone2616]

Thank you for sharing your findings. In this industry where such a stigma *I need to be better than you* exists It's refreshing to see you and other content creators share.

[@tompycz2225]

This should be an episode of my strange addiction lol "I'm Timmy and I like pipes." no but seriously, this Is a good vid. Pipes help people like me when there is some space that looks ugly when it's empty. Just put some pipes there.

[@mayurhedau5930]

Thanks Dude

[@harrysanders818]

I LOVE YOU

[@pyro5518]

I'm addicted to pipe but not this kind

[@SuDzD]

pyro if you are addicted to small pipes maybe i can be of help

[@xhaiil]

Please bring the lesson back on your website as it’s been discontinued 😢

[@TheKenttt]

quick question because I'm new to quixel: how did you get separate texture maps if you combined all of the objects into one piece?

[@steelprophecy5951]

Cudos for Nolf2.

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

Classic!

[@justfaysou738]

Search out for houdini, it’s a powerfull tool for modular assets

[@tiaan_va]

It's the exact same process in any 3D software package. Houdini is definitely not better for that. Houdini is the shit for particles and simulations, for this kind of modelling it's the same. Technically speaking 3ds max should be the easiest for modular designs.

[@adamplechaty]

I am breaking my head to figure out how you import a joined UV for separate meshes... Can anyone help me out please? Great video though, I am just finishing my own scene with my own set of pipes, so great timing.

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

So you have multiple meshes that are all share the same UV layout? Import all the meshes and apply the same material with the same texture. That should work. Just double check that all meshes you have share the same UV channel 0 for texturing and the UVs are all laid out on this channel across all selected meshes. And make sure all meshes have their own unique UVs in channel 1 for lightmaps.

[@adamplechaty]

@@WorldofLevelDesign but if I join my meshes so that they share the UV layout then they won't be separate objects in the engine...

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

You don't have to join them. In Maya and Maya LT if I just select all the objects I can see and edit all of the selected objects' UVs at the same time. I lay out the UVs for all selected objects this way, then I export one at a time.

[@adamplechaty]

@@WorldofLevelDesign ah, gotcha... I am using Blender and I don't think it supports it. Thank you!

[@tiaan_va]

@@adamplechaty dude do it in the following way. UV unwrap all of the different meshes by themselves, but arrange their UV shells in the UV square as if they were part of the same larger mesh. Then combine them afterwards. For example one pipe with bolts attached. UV unwrap the pipe but don't let the pipe take up the entire UV space, leave some room for the bolts. Then UV unwrap one of the bolts and scale and position the UV shell in the area of the UV square that you left open for the bolt, like just pretend the pipe's UV's are in there as well so you don't overlap them. Then after you are done combine the pipe and bolts, now their shells are together in the same UV space. Then you just texture each of the shells and both textures would be in the same bitmap, then easily apply that to your combined mesh in UE. Then you don't have to apply the same texture to multiple smaller components but treat is a a whole.

[@SuperMontana2008]

Looks cool, are these pipes meant to be positioned by hand inside unreal?

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

Yes. Although you could set up Blueprint Splines. What I did was placed them manually by hand and then for many of them I used grouping to combine them as one set of objects then tweaked within each group to add/remove as needed.

[@Calixj23]

Alex, I clicked on the link for the "Pipes Project" tutorial and your website states the tutorial has been "Discontinued" ... why? Will there be a new versions in UE5?

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

Calix, I discontinued because part of the tutorial uses Quixel Suite for texturing which is no longer available.

[@Calixj23]

@@WorldofLevelDesign Thank you Alex. Too bad, it was a cool tutorial. Thank you for the update.

[@GhostBingo]

I would avoid packing masks into alpha slot, it is expensive as all three channels combined.

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

I agree. I avoid packing the Alpha channel unless I absolutely have to.

[@cromartie3292]

Waiting for new lessons on source engine)

[@TheTimeProphet]

Is this just a pipedream?

[@jacobside2656]

As a person that deals with pipe everyday for his day job. 1) Flanged pipes & fittings are hardly ever used. 2) 4 way (crosses) are hardly ever used.

[@ChrisfromLeedsinUK]

Yeah, I used to work as pipe fitter and now as services engineer (design HVAC systems). You only really get flanges on larger valves or pumps and other system components. I think crosses are only really used on sprinkler systems? I don't really mod these days but once played around using Revit MEP which I use at work to create accurate piped systems and exporting to 3DS, didn't work too well.

[@MrRomanHumphrey]

Flanged pipes are used all the time, agree with 4 ways tho.

[@DuckTheFinn]

Marios favorite video

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

lol

[@tombombadild5957]

I purchased pro and can't import these to my UE4 project... or blender?? help please

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

Hey Tom, Make sure to watch the very first video UE4Pipes-00.00-Introduction inside the "Get Started Intro" folder. It explains how to make the Project Files work in UE4. Make sure you are using UE4 version 4.19 or later. You have to copy/paste WoLDModularPipes folder found in ProjectFiles\UE4\ModularPipes\Content into the Content folder of your project. For Blender, try importing the .FBX files found in ProjectFiles\MayaLT\ModularPipes\ExportedMeshes since the Maya LT files won't open in Blender.

[@tombombadild5957]

​@@WorldofLevelDesign I realized this package really wasn't I was looking for... How do I initiate refund? I tried to PM you but it did not work. Thanks!

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

@@tombombadild5957 Contact me here www.worldofleveldesign.com/contact.php and send me an email with the EMAIL you used to order with and Last Name on the purchase.

[@tombombadild5957]

@@WorldofLevelDesign I contacted you and still have not received any cancellation or refund

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

The email went to spam folder. I found it thanks for letting me know. I have issued the refund. Refunds take 5-10 days to appear on your statement. Thanks

[@TheWeepingCorpse]

I wish I had the skills for this. For now its just a pipe dream. ba dum tush hahahahahaha

[@faseri_]

Listened at 1.25x speed

[@eathansx]

if you cant stop thinking about that pipe then just smoke it and be free.

[@liquidglo2678]

No pipes in minecraft LOL

[@jonathanxdoe]

You don't have to model 3 types of pipes based on size. With blueprint you can easily use few parameters and components to have as many varieties, lengths, and details as you need. You can research the subject more

[@DeltaNovum]

He models 3 different sizes with different polygon counts and different sized UV's to keep a consistent look. Also don't forget the lightmaps.

[@tiaan_va]

Yeah but no. You don't know what you are talking about. You can't do that with any old asset you find. There is a reason game studios make their pipes exactly like he does in here.

[@yourgudbudnel]

pipe/10 - too many pipes -- IGN

[@arsenymun2028]

I have a big pipe

[@bestboy007]

u should seriously change to blender.

[@Spyro_2076]

You should use whatever you're most comfortable with.

[@southpaw9041]

Nope. I started with Blender then moved to Maya and never looked back. Plus majority of studios where I live use Maya and there's plenty of good scripts for it.

[@tiaan_va]

blender is a clusterfuck compared to maya and I started out in Blender before you jump on your high horse.

[@bestboy007]

@@tiaan_va maya is a clusterfuck. not blender. maya has a very bad UI and bad UX. why else do people switch to blender. ^^

[@cabreram.4734]

I'm getting tired of these fanboys. Geez.