Log into your account to keep track of your progress. You can work through the lessons without logging in but your progress will be lost when you refresh the page.

TOTAL DURATION: 3h 1m 29s

Learn how to build a PDG network that converts a basic input mesh into a detailed high poly model using a procedural workflow. Learn how to set up the network to run multiple input meshes through the network to automate the generation of multiple variations.

PDG is a procedural architecture designed to distribute tasks and manage dependencies. PDG is designed to describe these dependencies visually using nodes that generate sets of actionable tasks then distribute them to multiple cores on the same machine, the compute farm, or even the cloud.

DOWNLOAD PROJECT FILES [14.3 MB]
Overview [2:21]
A quick overview of each lesson and what you’ll be learning along the way.
1 | Base Mesh Setup [6:35]
Learn how to prepare a base mesh with attributes to define the different mesh parts.
2 | Procedural Stone [34:15]
Learn how to take the base mesh prepared in the previous video and create procedural stone detail.
3 | Procedural Metal [6:41]
Learn how to take the base mesh prepared in the previous video and create procedural metal detail.
4 | Polyreduce and UVs [11:10]
Learn how to optimise the geometry using Polyreduce and a quick method of generating UVs on a high poly geometry.
5 | Baking Maps with COPs [17:14]
Learn how to set up a COPs network to import a color attribute and bake it to a texture map. You’ll learn how to bake two maps: an ID map that can blend different materials together and a detail mask map to add additional detail to the material.
6 | Preparing Base Meshes [18:54]
Now that the network is set up, learn how to adapt it so it can be set up with a TOPs network. You’ll start by preparing the rest of the base meshes for importing into TOPs.
7 | Setting Up TOPs Network [25:49]
With the base meshes setup, learn how to build the TOPs network to import each base mesh, generate the procedural high-poly meshes, and export the models and two mask textures.
8 | Unreal Import and Material [58:30]
Learn how to import the models into Unreal as Nanite virtualized geometry and create the material using the two mask maps.

CREATED BY

iansmithartist
IAN SMITH

Ian Smith has 10+ years of working on pre-rendered and real-time projects and is currently working with SideFX on Project Pegasus, a showcase of Houdini procedural workflows with UE5. Ian is also CG Supervisor at NSC Creative, an award-winning studio specialising in immersive experiences, including VR, theme parks and fulldome.

More from Ian Smith

COMMENTS

  • draftndrop 1 year, 2 months ago  | 

    Strange, my materials get all stretched up when I use the world align texture node in unreal engine

    • draftndrop 1 year, 2 months ago  | 

      Nevermind, I found out that I mistakenly used tangent worldspace instead of notmal world space

      Please log in to leave a comment.