Trimsheet Techniques for Game Environment Artists

Join Ryan Lopez as we explore Trimsheets, a crucial environment art technique. He will take us through the planning stage, to how to create on yourself in Substance Designer and finally implementing it into Unreal Engine.

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SESSION TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - Introduction
9:10 - Planning and preparation
17:10 - Shape Creation in Designer
36:35 - Pro and Cons of different programs
41:17 - Bottom Greeble Section
53:32 - Color Map
56:18 - Edge wear creation
1:04:20 - Roughness Map
1:10:22 - Emissive Map
1:11:11 - Opacity/Mask Map
1:13:35 - Modelling for Trimsheets
1:15:40 - UV Unwrapping
1:28:30 - Checking your engine
1:41:20 - Unreal Engine Material Setup

SESSION RESOURCES
Tie Fighter | Substance Designer Tutorial

Fundamentals Part 1: Pattern Creation and Natural Scattering (Affiliate)

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[Ben_Ghost]

Thank you for making this video. It is full of incredibly useful information that I took a lot of notes on, and I make project planning google presentations similar to yours! I learned a lot and I'll be trying out trim sheets in my workflow.
It makes me beyond irritated that people would focus on superficial and irrelevant things like voice and speech patterns in an educational video. I did not notice anything out of the ordinary about the way you talked, I hope you don't think that there's anything wrong with it.

If any other commenters read this; Please think about the human on the other side before you comment something. He uploaded a 2 hour long video for free, to help teach you something that he does not have to. Why you would react with anything but gratitude and kindness is beyond me.

[Dpolygon]

Been searching trim sheets for a long time for environments. I just came across this and it is an amazing tutorial.

This is like the holy grail of trim sheets for substance designer. It looks so confusing! I am still learning designer and this is a great help.

Thank you for sharing. I also subbed

[barrykelly]

This tutorial is incredible. Really good work!

[yashmalhotra]

Thank you soo much for this..Very Nicely explained.

[screwdriver]

Very useful tutorial! Can also recommend tutorial on trims from Polygon Academy. They are a bit more beginner friendly and are also applied to a different style which is always great to explore.

[qp_fa]

Thanks alot. It's really helpfull. Now I'm a fan.

[DWithLairdWT]

This is a great front to back overview of trims! Love your use of floaters, and the final piece is great quality too. Looking forward to any more vids you make

[SirEpifire]

I've used Designer a bit, enough to get a moderate understanding of it. I always end up modeling my trim sheets out. Namely because I'm way too impatient with the Substance Designer workflow. The same mindset still applies to modeled details though.

[DawnStudiosInt]

Nice video! Just wanted to ask about what to do with seams? When i use trim sheets (or if i don't use them) i get seams between modular mesh pieces like a wall and a wall with a door cutout. They're not that obvious but if you're nitpicking you can make them out. Is there a trick for those seams?

[stefana.jansson]

A tip for everyone watching this. it Helps to speed it up to 1.25 -1.50. YW

[macronomicus]

Nice useful array of info on topic thanks for sharing, I love trim sheets, its only been somewhat recently ive learned about them & started to tinker when I have time. Personally ive only used blender for all parts of the process, sculpting & modeling & baking & all there is easy, that said, as you were showing the substance bit I couldn't help but be inspired to try using blenders geometry nodes to make a trim sheet, seems like it would give that modular aspect you showcased although in a different way.

[johns]

Thanks for all these useful informations. I am always happy to get some information about mid-poly workflows :)
I have just a question about the mirroring you use from time to time, as it will inverse your normal map. It is not too a big deal ? I would have thought it would be rejected by many studios.

[NightVisionOfficial]

My favorite addon for doing UVs in Blender is Zen UV, then there's also UVP, i cannot work without them, they have great features really. :)
I searched for UV Toolkit 2.0, but apparently it's gone.

[octaviordz]

what about the meshes that are crashing? I mean when you make a complex model and there is pieces that have to be attached to the other one how do I have to create the mid-lowpoly?

[SketchyScribe]

All these people with the "bad voice" comments are salty af. This is great info thanks for the video!

[justanothernobody]

One of the other cons you missed is that if you are creating for something that needs baked lighting, like a mobile or VR title for instance, they are not going to work. At least not unless you're using them in areas where the baked lighiting is repeated.

[aerodylluk]

Why do you make shapes in Substance as opposed to modelling them and baking normals? I used to be in games years ago and that's how we would have done it then. It seems you spend a long time creating imitations of 3D shapes using basic shapes and gradients when in the past we could model theme xactly how we want then just bake them in.

What is the benefit of this newer method?

[estamostacticos]

que vocecita no ? 17 minutos y me dormi me acabo de despertar recien, ....continuo a ver cuanto DIOS, no lo puedo del Designer, se pone MUY INTERESANTE la verdad

[TheTimeProphet]

My problem with Trim sheets is that I make one, and then I realise there is something I need that I forgot to put in the Trim sheet LOL.

[hazchickgames]

For whatever reason, Alex Dev has taken UV Toolkit 2.0 off sale. Wasn't on their Gumroad, so I copied the URL from your video and it has "This product is not currently for sale". :(