Beginner looking for some advice on workflow and creating materials from scratch

[WhoDatWeDat]

Hi, so I'm an engineering student, but I've quickly developed an interest and hobby in Keyshot. I guess because it combines two loves of mine, engineering/cad and video games in terms of understanding lighting, texturing etc.

Obviously I'm not trying to be a industry product designer or artist, what I want from Keyshot is just to be able to give life to any CAD models I make in Catia, and get a further understanding of computer graphics along the way.

My first and main question is, how do I go about making materials from scratch? What are the best ways people go about sourcing bump and normal maps in order to create the textures/materials they require? I have a very basic understanding of how the material graph works in Keyshot, so it would be nice to get some decent source material for my kind of use case. I have a subscription to Substance, would people advise me to simply download materials from say Source that I like, and then import whatever bump maps, normal maps etc that are used for that material, into my Keyshot 9 Resources so I now have access to high quality sources for me to play with and learn to make my own materials and textures?

I am mainly focused with the automotive side of things and I like to make single components or very basic assemblies in Catia. For example, a rear wing, a turbocharger or supercharger or a full wheel assembly consisting of the wheel, hub, brake disc and caliper. So naturally, the materials and finishes I'm mainly looking for are things like machined aluminium from billet and cast material, as well as non-machined cast surfaces, silicon carbide for brake disc material and appropriate radial scratched textures if I wanted to present the part already being used as well as carbon fiber for bodywork stuff.

Since I am also a big fps gamer, something I've always wanted to do was try model some of my favourite weapons in Catia and make realistic renders from them. Although I'm still not sure if that would be too difficult or time consuming, as I'm probably assuming what game developers do for small details like rivets, retaining pins and stamped serial numbers etc is bake them into the displacement map rather than physically model them in Blender or whatever CAD software game designers use. But with regards to making realistic wear and tear, such as worn paint on the edges, or chunks of wood missing from an AK47 butt stock or something, what is the best approach for that? Can that be done in Keyshot, or would I have to set that up in something like Substance Designer, and then export the maps from there into Keyshot?

I guess then this kind of leads me on to my next question, based on what I would like to do in Keyshot, and the models/materials I'm after, what would be the recommended workflow? Should I make my materials externally in something like Substance, and then export to Keyshot, or should I just download preset materials from Substance Source, and then import whatever maps it used into Keyshot, and then refine my material inside Keyshot?

Finally, because I don't want to flood the forum and annoy people around here making posts for every question I may have to ask how to do a certain effect or scenario, is there any materials you could recommend for someone who is learning? Whether it be Youtube vids, webinars, articles or resources for materials, textures, lighting environments etc, ideally focused around automotive if possible?

[sloanelliot]

There are so many ways to answer this it's dizzying, most of which would be correct (that is to say, there really aren't what I'd call "wrong" or "right" workflows or methodologies, it just boils down to personal preference ... and budget, ha).

For KeyShot, YouTube is your friend. Check out as many tutorials as you can; I know Esben Oxholm, Will Gibbons, and Liam Martin have some really great stuff that's also somewhat beginner-friendly (if you're motivated). I believe Shaun Wellens is going to be releasing some paid learning here soon as well, from what I understand, and almost strictly focused on material development. Honestly, even KeyShot's manual is a good resource, as are these forums of course. And, naturally, staying up to speed on what some of the top creatives in the industry are doing to continue to raise the bar is always a great way to stay humble and keep pushing forward (Instagram is a great place for that; check out #renderweekly, Yanko Design, RenderShot, etc. for some ongoing inspiration).

For material/texture source, there's Poliigon and countless other online libraries (a simple Google search will get you there), and assuming you're running KeyShot 9, there's a plugin now available for direct import from Substance that saves you a ton of work. But honestly, you're going to be better off at first just getting acquainted with HOW your various node/map types work together to create convincing materials, and learning the material graph in and out. Or, if you're not really after anything crazy, KeyShot's default materail library already has just about everything you'd need...just not really production-quality out of the box per se.

As far as workflow, if you're using Catia, your simplest workflow would be to just download the Catia plugin from KeyShot's site which will allow you direct linking between the two, and just use stock KeyShot materials to start. One step up from what would be to use the Substance plugin if you've got materials you're liking better from that pipeline.

Haha as far as video games (I worked in the industry for ~10 years, Activision + Ubi Soft, before going into ID and product visualization), that's a WHOLE different world. CAD use is pretty rare in games, short of Fusion 360 for hard-surface modeling (which is quickly becoming the new standard). Modeling weapons, etc. in Catia is going to be GREAT practice for learning Catia, but 10X more time-consuming than you'd spend in 360/Maya/3DS/ZBrush. It all just depends on your end goals, and where you're trying to take your career (which you may not quite know yet). Blender is great, too, but IF you're trying to get into games down the line, knowing the industry standards soffware-wise is paramount to get in the door..

Hope this helps!