PBR from absolute scratch

[bobmaker]

I was just watching a few PBR tutorials and I'm finding myself, as ever, out of the picture...

In the first few minutes of the tuts, I come up against words that mean nothing to me.

So as ever I appreciate everyone's patients as I leave the real world and try to comprehend the world of CGI.

 

I have so many questions I don't know where to start...

 

Is creating a new smart material the (simplest) way of getting an image file( ie: jpeg,png etc) onto a model?

 

What is the meaning of ambient occlusion and what is it used for?

What is the meaning of curvature map and what is that used for?

 

I'll leave it at that for now!

 

Please remember I have not used a 3d modeling software before I am a newbie newbie, but enthusiastic to learn.

Thanks!

[Gary Dave]

Think of smart materials as like a "material preset" that can contain a bunch of texture information. So rather than slapping a tiling diffuse(colour) texture over your model, you can include things like its normal map, the spec/gloss values (referred to as roughness/metallness in the PBR workflow, but it's a very similar system) and also a lot of cool stuff that's based on things like ambient occlusion and curvature/cavity maps. It basically just saves you a lot of time compared to a more traditional workflow.

 

You might be better off googling the individual stuff, like "what's an AO?" and "what's a curvature map?", not to be rude but  as you say, you're a beginner in all things 3d, not just 3d coat. If the question was software specific then it would warrant a lengthy answer, but a lot of what you want to know applies to all PBR capable software.

 

That said, without going into specifics, maps like AO and curvature/cavity can be used with PBR materials as a sort of mask that lets other textures know where to appear. Curvature/cavity maps for example would highlight edges of a model, meaning you could use that highlight as a mask for some wear/tear texture, conversely you could work with its inverse, and slap some texture across the surface of the model, but not on the edges. It's mostly used for weathering effects. This is the whole "more on concave" "more on convex" options that you may have noticed if you're watching the 3dc PBR tutorials.

[bobmaker]

Hi Gary,

Again thanks for your answer. I've been away a few days but am just getting back to this now.

As you suggest, I will google a few of those phrases. I wasn't aware they would be common to different 3d programs.

 

Thanks for your help. Now deeper into the soup of the CG world...