How to texture REALISTIC buildings in Blender #b3d

Summary

This tutorial offers an in-depth guide to a realistic texturing workflow in Blender for creating detailed urban environments. The presenter shares a step-by-step process, starting from finding references to applying decals for added realism. Techniques include setting up materials, texture painting for damage, and using edgewear and dirt occlusion for enhanced detail. The course referenced provides further instruction on modeling and texturing various urban elements to construct a comprehensive cityscape.

Takeaways

• 🎨 The tutorial provides an in-depth guide on texturing realistic buildings in Blender, aiming to establish a versatile texturing workflow.
• 🏢 The subject of the tutorial is an urban building created in the instructor's 'Urban Environments' course, which participants can recreate or download for free.
• 🔍 Finding a reference image for the building is emphasized as a crucial step to understand material interactions and develop realistic textures.
• 🗂 Gathering materials and textures is a recommended step, with free resources provided for the tutorial, and a checklist is suggested for personal material collection.
• 🛠 The texturing process involves setting up materials, editing them, and blending them to create unique materials, starting with a base material like 'rugged orange plaster'.
• 🖌️ Hand-painting damage using texture painting is a key step that allows for creativity and adds character to the building.
• 🎭 The final step involves layering decals such as graffiti, stickers, and drips to enhance realism and contribute to a more believable building appearance.
• 🔧 A bonus step introduces the use of edgewear and ambient occlusion to add detailed secondary elements for increased realism.
• 📐 The tutorial assumes basic knowledge of Blender, particularly the shader editor, and provides an overview rather than in-depth explanations of every function.
• 🔄 The process of creating materials is reiterated to be the same for different parts of the building, such as the 'Mashrabiya' architectural feature, with variations in textures and masks.
• 🌐 The instructor promotes a course for further learning on creating urban environments, which includes modeling, texturing, and adding networks of pipes, wires, and props for enhanced realism.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the tutorial video?

The tutorial focuses on demonstrating a comprehensive texturing workflow in Blender for creating realistic textures on a building.

What does the presenter aim to achieve with the texturing workflow?

The presenter aims to create a flexible pipeline that allows for texturing various objects like buildings, houses, props, etc., with the ability to add layers of realism such as edgewear, dirt occlusion, grunge, and graffiti.

What is the first step in the texturing workflow presented in the video?

The first step is finding a reference image for the building, which is crucial for developing realistic-looking materials.

How does the presenter suggest gathering materials and textures for the project?

The presenter recommends creating a checklist of needed materials by analyzing the reference images and suggests that all materials used in the video are available for free download.

What is the significance of setting up box mapping for textures in the tutorial?

Box mapping is used to procedurally project textures onto the object, which can speed up the workflow by skipping the UV process.

How does the presenter handle the issue of displacement in the texturing process?

The presenter opts for using a bump map instead of real displacement to avoid heavy scene load and maintain performance, as real displacement requires a high poly count for good results.

What is the purpose of creating a base material in the shader editor?

Creating a base material serves as the starting point for the building's texture, which can then be built upon with additional materials and effects for added realism.

How does the presenter add character to the materials?

The presenter adds character by introducing color variations to the materials, which helps break up any tiling in the textures and adds visual interest.

What is the role of texture painting in the texturing workflow?

Texture painting is used to add hand-painted damage and painted walls, allowing for creativity and a more personalized touch to the building's appearance.

How does the presenter enhance the realism of the building with decals?

The presenter uses decals such as dripping grunge, graffiti, dirt, and stickers to add an extra layer of detail and character to the building, contributing to its overall believability.

What is the bonus step introduced by the presenter for adding more realism to the building?

The bonus step involves utilizing edgewear and ambient occlusion to create a more detailed secondary element, enhancing the realism of the building's worn areas and corners.

What additional resources does the presenter offer for those interested in learning more about creating urban environments?

The presenter offers a course called 'Master Urban Environments' for those who wish to learn more about creating buildings and urban scenes, and mentions cgboost.com/urban as a resource.

Outlines

00:00

🎨 Introduction to Texturing Realistic Buildings in Blender

The video script introduces a comprehensive tutorial on texturing realistic buildings in Blender. The speaker discusses their desire for a streamlined texturing workflow that can be applied to various urban elements. The tutorial showcases a specific building used as a canvas to demonstrate this workflow. Viewers are given the option to create the building themselves through a course or download it for free. The texturing process is broken down into clear steps: finding references for realistic materials, gathering necessary materials and textures, setting up materials, hand-painting damage, and adding decals for extra realism. The script emphasizes the importance of foundational Blender knowledge for following along with the tutorial.

05:00

🛠 Setting Up Materials and Box Mapping in Blender

This paragraph delves into the technical aspects of setting up materials in Blender, starting with creating a base material for a rugged orange plaster using textures from Polyhaven. The process includes adding diffuse, roughness, and displacement maps and setting up box mapping to project textures without the need for UV unwrapping. The speaker also explains the use of hue and saturation nodes for color adjustment and the application of bump maps for a realistic effect. The paragraph concludes with the creation of a group in the node tree for better organization as the materials become more complex.

10:02

🎨 Creating Color Variations and Blending Materials

The speaker discusses the importance of adding color variation to materials to avoid flat and unrealistic textures. They demonstrate how to create color variations by duplicating materials and adjusting their hues and saturations. The process involves blending these variations with grunge textures to introduce a sense of wear and tear. The paragraph outlines a method for stacking color variations and using mix shaders and nodes to blend materials together, resulting in a unique and complex material appearance.

15:02

🖌️ Texture Painting for Damage and Imperfections

This section introduces the concept of texture painting to add damage and imperfections to the building's materials. The process requires UV mapping to determine where paint strokes will be applied on the mesh. The speaker guides viewers through unwrapping the building and setting up the UVs for texture painting. They then create a new image texture for blue paint, using a mix shader to blend it with the base material. The painting process is detailed, including the use of custom brushes and adding grunge to the paint mask for a more realistic, worn appearance.

20:03

🏷️ Applying Decals to Enhance Realism and Character

The paragraph explains the final step of adding decals to the building for an extra layer of realism. This involves setting up a new image texture for decals and using a mix shader to blend them with the base material. The speaker provides a detailed guide on texture painting with decals, including importing stencils, adjusting settings for optimal painting, and adding elements like dripping grunge, dirt, and graffiti. The use of overlays and subtlety in applying decals is emphasized to maintain realism.

🔨 Advanced Techniques: Edgewear and Dirt Occlusion

The final paragraph covers advanced texturing techniques such as edgewear and dirt occlusion to further enhance the realism of the building. The speaker describes the process of setting up edgewear using a bevel node, geometry node, and vector math node to create a mask that reveals underlying materials. They also explain how to set up dirt occlusion using an ambient occlusion node and a color ramp to create a mask for a dirt material. The paragraph concludes with an overview of the complete node tree, showcasing the integration of base materials, edgewear, and dirt for a highly realistic finish.

Keywords

💡Texturing

Texturing in the context of 3D modeling and animation refers to the process of adding color, texture, and patterns to a 3D model to make it look more realistic. In the video, texturing is the primary focus, with the presenter aiming to demonstrate a comprehensive workflow for creating realistic textures on a building in Blender, a popular 3D creation suite.

💡Blender

Blender is an open-source 3D computer graphics software toolset used for creating animated films, visual effects, art, 3D printed models, motion graphics, and computer games. The video script mentions Blender as the software where the texturing workflow is being demonstrated, highlighting its capabilities in creating realistic materials and textures for 3D models.

💡Material

In 3D graphics, a material defines the appearance of a surface, including how it interacts with light, its color, and texture. The script discusses creating and editing materials to fit the needs of the building's texturing, such as the 'rugged orange plaster' and 'orange paint', which are essential for achieving the desired realistic look.

💡Texture Painting

Texture painting is a technique used in 3D graphics to add fine details and variations to textures by painting directly onto a model's surface. The script describes using texture painting to add damage and hand-painted details to the building, which allows for a high level of creativity and realism.

💡Decals

Decals are graphic elements applied onto a 3D model to simulate objects such as stickers, graffiti, or other surface markings. The video script mentions decals as the final step in enhancing the building's realism, adding elements like dripping grunge, dirt, and graffiti to the model.

💡Edgewear

Edgewear refers to the wear and tear that occurs on the edges of objects, often visible as chipping or flaking of material. In the script, the presenter discusses using an edgewear setup to simulate the natural wear on the building's edges, contributing to a more realistic and detailed appearance.

💡Ambient Occlusion

Ambient occlusion is a shading and rendering technique used to simulate the soft shadows that occur in the corners and crevices of objects due to ambient light. The script describes using ambient occlusion to add depth and realism to the building's texture, particularly in areas like the Mashrabiya feature.

💡Shader Editor

The Shader Editor in Blender is a node-based interface used to create and edit materials and shaders. The script refers to the Shader Editor multiple times, as it is the primary tool used by the presenter to combine different textures, adjust material properties, and create complex texturing effects for the building.

💡UV Mapping

UV mapping is the 3D modeling process of projecting a 2D texture onto a 3D model. In the script, the presenter mentions setting up UVs for the building to prepare it for texture painting, which is essential for defining where the painted strokes will be located on the model.

💡Box Mapping

Box mapping is a method of projecting textures onto a 3D object in a way that simulates the object being enclosed in a box with the texture on its sides. The script describes the presenter choosing box mapping to avoid the UV process, which can speed up the workflow and is used to set up the projection of textures onto the building.

💡Displacement

Displacement in 3D graphics refers to the process of physically deforming a mesh's surface to create details such as bumps or dents. The script discusses using displacement to add realism to the building's textures, with the presenter opting for a bump map to simulate displacement without the need for high-poly models.

Highlights

Overview of an all-in-one texturing workflow in Blender for creating realistic textures on various objects.

Mastering a texturing pipeline that allows for adding layers of realism such as edgewear, dirt occlusion, and graffiti.

Using an Urban Environments course building as a canvas to demonstrate the texturing process.

Importance of finding reference images for developing realistic-looking materials.

Gathering free materials and textures for the texturing process.

Setting up materials in Blender, including editing and blending them to create new materials.

Painting damage by hand using texture painting for added creativity.

Layering decals like graffiti and drips to enhance the building's realism.

Utilizing edgewear and ambient occlusion for detailed secondary elements.

Creating a base material using box mapping to speed up the workflow.

Adjusting textures with hue, saturation, and displacement nodes for better visual results.

Organizing the shader editor with groups for a cleaner node tree.

Developing a second material with basic orange paint for added depth.

Blending materials together using mix shaders and nodes for a unique material.

Adding color variation to materials to break up tiling and enhance realism.

Techniques for creating damage effects on the building using texture painting and custom brushes.

Finalizing the building's texturing with decals for an authentic, weathered look.

Bonus step involving edgewear and dirt occlusion for an extra layer of realism.

Using a Mashrabiya architectural feature as an example of advanced texturing techniques.

Combining the texturing workflow with networks of pipes, wires, and props for a complete urban environment.

Transcripts

Hey guys, in this tutorial, I'm going to show you an overview of how to texture

this realistic building.

An all -in -one texturing workflow in

Blender is something that I wanted for years.

I just needed a pipeline that allowed me

to texture anything, whether it's buildings, houses, props, pipes, streets, whatever.

A system where I could create materials from scratch and then add on layers of

realism like edgeware, dirt occlusion, grunge, graffiti, or any other features I wanted.

And after this video, you're going to master that workflow.

The object that we are going to be working on, essentially the canvas to

present this texturing pipeline, is this awesome building created in my Urban

Environments course.

If you'd like to create the building

yourself and the entire scene, you can check out the Master Urban Environments

course here, or you can download my building for free from the link in the

description and follow along.

Okay, so we have our building loaded up

in Blender, but before we jump in, let's break down the texturing workflow so that

you have a clear, step -by -step idea of the process.

First up, finding a reference.

This stage is easy to overlook, but it's

crucial to developing realistic -looking materials.

I found these images of an old building

that gives me pretty great information.

Looking at this reference, I can see what

kind of materials I need and how they interact with each other.

Second step, we need to gather the materials and textures.

Everything used in this video will be free for you to download and use yourself.

If you plan on gathering materials on your own, I recommend creating a

checklist of things you'll need by analyzing your reference.

Third step, we'll set up the materials, edit them to fit our needs, and blend

them together to essentially create our own new material.

Fourth step, we'll paint on damage by hand using texture painting.

This stage is the most exciting to me personally because it allows for so much creativity.

Fifth and final step, we'll layer on decals like graffiti, stickers, drips,

mold, and additional damage that will finish everything up and contribute to a

much more believable building.

And bonus step, we'll utilize edgewear

and ambient occlusion to create a more detailed secondary element.

Okay, back in the blender, let's get our hands dirty.

Just a quick disclaimer before we get started, this video is leaning slightly

on the overview side of things, which means I won't always go in depth on every

slider and button.

And I recommend having fundamental

blender knowledge, especially in the shader editor, so that things are easier

to follow along with.

Alright, let's jump in.

Select on the building, head down to material properties, hit new, and name it building.

Now in the upper left hand corner, I'll click and drag out to create a new

window, and then here, let's select shader editor.

Okay, now I'll start by building the first material, and my objective is a

rugged orange plaster.

This material called Red Plaster

Weathered from Polyhaven will work perfectly.

I'll drop in the diffuse, roughness, and

displacement, and plug them into the principled BSDF.

As you can see, the textures aren't working correctly yet, and that's because

we haven't set up box mapping.

Box mapping is a way to procedurally

project your textures onto the object.

The reason I'm choosing to use box

mapping is because it skips the UV process, which can speed up your workflow

a lot.

To set it up, let's add in a mapping

node, texture coordinate, and a value.

Plug the texture coordinates object

output into the mapping nodes vector input, and plug the value into the scale

of the mapping node.

Now highlight each of your image

textures, and while holding alt, change the projection method from flat to box.

I'd recommend turning the blend level up to 0 .3 as well, so that if there are any

sharp corners or seams in the textures, it will smoothen that out.

Now I'll adjust the scale via the value node until it's the size I like.

Now currently the texture is too dark and red to my taste, so I'll drop a hue

saturation node into the diffuse line and edit it to look more like this.

Also currently the displacement isn't functioning, so let's plug it into a

displacement node and then into the displacement socket of the material output.

The displacement texture will drive bump information and displacement information.

Bump is essentially a way to fake real displacement, similar to a normal map,

while real displacement is when Blender literally physically deforms the mesh.

Real displacement is dependent on your object having enough polys, typically a

lot of them, in order to look good, which can get really heavy in the scene.

So instead, we'll just use a bump map, which will look good enough.

To make sure bump is working, go to material, then settings, and find

surface, then make sure the displacement mode is set to bump.

Now back in the shader editor, let's lower the scale of the displacement node

until it looks right.

With everything except the material

output node selected, let's hit Ctrl G to create a group.

This will greatly assist in organizing our node tree, especially as things get

more complicated down the line.

Alright, congratulations, you just

created the first material that will serve as the base for our building.

This workflow is generally how I'll go about setting up all the other materials

as well, so once you have this down, it can get pretty quick.

Okay, now I'd like to develop the second material.

This material is going to be a more basic

orange paint to help push everything in the right direction.

Super simple, I'll just download the beige wall material from Polyhaven, drop

in my textures, add in the box mapping setup, and plug everything in.

Now currently, the material is pretty boring, so let's boost its colors and

character with a hue and saturation node.

That's much better.

Ctrl G to group it all up, and we're ready for the next step, which is

blending materials together.

This blend is going to be very basic, and

it'll follow the same setup in which we'll blend all future materials together.

All we need is a mix shader and a mix node.

Make sure the mix node is set to color.

The mix shader is how we'll blend the BSDF together, and the mix node is how we

blend the displacements together.

First things first, we're going to plug

the BSDF socket of the orange plaster weathered, the first material we created,

into the first socket of the mix shader node, and the BSDF socket of the beige

wall material into the second socket.

Now we need to blend the displacements

together, so plug the displacement output of the orange plaster material into the A

socket of the mix node, and the displacement output of the beige wall

material into the B socket.

Now we have successfully mixed all the

materials attributes, and as a result, we've developed our own new unique material.

While this material is looking great, it's missing character.

Just take a look at the difference between this, the original, and now with

color variation.

Huge difference, right?

Color variation is a great way to add more interest to your otherwise flat materials.

It also helps break up any tiling in the textures, which is always a realism killer.

Adding color variation is a relatively simple process, and here is how to do it.

Firstly, you can do it by duplicating a previously made material.

For example, I'll just copy the orange plaster material that I created earlier,

mix it in by adding another mix shader and mix node, then hitting the little to

button on the group to make sure it's not going to change the material we

duplicated it from, and then inside the material, I'll change the colors up a bit

with a hue and saturation node.

Let's just turn the saturation down to

make it more washed out than the original.

Now, for this to actually show up and to

give it a realistic character, I'll plug a grunge texture into the mix factor of

both the mix shader node and the mix node.

All the grunge textures I'm using are

available for you to download in the description below.

Let's drag in concrete1 -grunge, set it up with box mapping, and then plug it

into the mix factor.

I'll also plug a color ramp in between to

allow for finer control.

After adjusting the scale of the grunge

texture and the color ramp, I found this nice variation in color here.

My advice is to make color variation additions subtle and stack a lot on top

of each other to build something more complex.

Let's do exactly that, adding a new

variation using the second technique, which is just a regular BSDF node instead

of a duplicated material.

This BSDF will be a dark brown, and I'll

plug it into the mix shader like normal.

Then, I'll add another grunge texture

using concrete1 again and dial it in using the color ramp.

Now, we have these nice patches of dirt that really enhance the realism.

I'll repeat this process a few more times, using different colors and

different combinations of grunge textures, until eventually I have this

final base material.

Okay, here is an overview and breakdown

of the node tree so far, representing the base material with color variations.

Here we have the red plaster and beige wall materials.

They are mixing together very simply via the mix shader and mix node.

Then we introduced the first color variation, the material being a

duplicated version of red plaster and edited to be less saturated, and it is

being mixed together with this grunge texture setup.

Then we move on to the next color variation using the same grunge mixing technique.

And finally, the last color variation, this time just using a BSDF instead of a material.

Okay, so this looks pretty awesome, and it completes my workflow for building

base materials for buildings.

For this building, we are obviously going

to do a lot more work, but it is really important that we nailed the basic

materials first.

So, jumping into the next addition to

this building, I would like to make certain walls a different color than others.

Here is the before and after.

The painted walls really help make this

building unique, and that is ultimately what we are going for.

So, how do you set this up?

It is really quite simple, and it will be

our first look into texture painting.

Now, first and foremost, texture painting

requires UVs.

When we texture paint, we are essentially

creating new data on an image texture.

Blender has to know where our paint

strokes are going to be located on the mesh, and UVs is the only way to do this.

So, let us quickly unwrap our building.

I will just go into Edit mode by hitting

Tab, then hit A to select everything, then U and Cube projection.

Now, I will change the left -hand window from Shader Editor to UV Editor.

Here, I will select all the UVs by hitting A, then go up to UV and hit Pack Islands.

Now, our UVs are ready for use.

If you downloaded the building from the

description, the UVs are actually already set up, so you do not need to worry about

this process.

Let us change it back to the Shader

Editor and get painting.

In order to texture paint, you need to

first add in a new empty image texture.

So, I will just hit Shift A, Search, and

then Image Texture.

I would like my walls to be blue, so I

can name the image texture BluePaint.

Next up, I will actually create the blue paint.

I will do this by duplicating the original orange plaster material, adding

a Hue and Saturation node to the base color, and pushing it until it turns blue.

That is it.

Now, let us add in a mix shader and plug

the main materials into the top socket and the new blue paint material into the

bottom sockets.

Now, I will take the blue paint image

texture that I created and plug it into the factor of the mix shader.

Essentially, we are mixing two materials together and the blank image texture will

act as a mask.

To put it simply, a mask is black and

white data that can inform the separation between two materials.

With the blue paint image texture selected, I will head over to the Object

Mode button and change it to Texture Paint.

You can see up top here that the blue

paint image texture is selected.

That is very important.

Now, if I just start painting, you can see it adds in the blue paint.

I will change this to Solid View, which is the texture -less preview mode, so you

can visualize the fact that this is just black and white data.

So, I would like these bottom walls to be blue, so I can just paint all of them

quickly and boom, this building just became much more interesting.

Now, currently, the paint is very clean and consistent.

There are zero imperfections here.

The general rule of 3D is you want to add

imperfections to nearly everything.

It is a key to realism.

So, let us add in a bit of grunge to the mask.

Head back over to the Shader Editor, drop

in a Mix node, and set the mode to Subtract.

Now, you can duplicate one of the grunge

texture setups we created earlier and plug it into the bottom socket of the Mix

node and plug the blue paint mask into the top socket.

Turn the factor up to 1 and adjust the color ramp on the grunge texture until it

starts to chip away at the paint.

This is an area you can get really

creative with, and here you can see I found a subtle wear and tear of the

paint, much more realistic.

Alright, here is an overview of the node

tree so far, featuring the new Painted Wall Edition.

Here we have the base material with the color variations, and now with the new

painted wall setup here.

This is the painted wall mask, and then

here is the grunge texture which gives it imperfections.

It is all plugged into the factor of the

Mix Shader, which is mixing together the base material and the blue paint material

we just created.

Alright, now we have made it to the

second to last step in general material creation, and that is and painted damage.

Here is the building before the damage, and here is after.

Obviously, the biggest boost to character and realism, and also the process for

adding this is incredibly flexible and fun.

Here is how to set it up.

First, add in a blank image texture and name it damage.

This will be the mask.

Now, let us create the material that will

sit underneath the plaster where the holes of damage will be, and I would like

it to be a brownish, dirty plaster.

Plaster Gray 04 from Polyhaven will work perfectly.

I will drag in the diffuse, roughness, and height, and add it to the box mapping

setup like before.

Here is what the material looks like.

Now, I will add in a Mix Shader in a Mix node, plug the attributes of the gray

plaster into the bottom sockets, and the rest of the shader into the top sockets.

Now, plug the new damage mask image texture into the factor sockets of both

Mix nodes.

Make sure the damage mask is selected,

and let us go into texture painting.

This time, instead of painting on with

default settings, we are going to use a custom brush.

You can download the brush for free from the description.

To add the brush, let us head over to the tool button, and you can find texture

mask, hit new, and import your brush image.

Change the mask from mapping to view

plane, and then check rake.

Then, scroll down to falloff and change

it to constant.

To change the size of the brush, hit F,

and to change the intensity, hit shift F.

Okay, that is all the annoying stuff out

of the way, it is time to get painting.

I generally like to wear away corners and

sharp edges, or really anywhere that I would imagine the building would have

faced some friction, like perhaps where people have walked by and scraped the

bottoms with their feet.

I cannot understate how much I love this

process, I will for sure spend a few hours honing it all in and making my

building unique.

Unless you are going for something

abandoned, I would recommend not going overboard here, as with everything,

subtlety is key.

Alright, I finished painting my damage,

and here is my result.

Okay, this is what the node tree is

looking like so far, here we have the base material, plus the painted wall

addition, and now here is the new damage setup.

Here we have the damage mask, which is

plugged into the mix factors, and here is the gray plaster material.

Now it is time for the final step, which is truly the stamp of realism on this

building, and it is decals.

It took me forever to find the right

decal workflow, it was always either restricted by functionality, or took too

long, but now I have the perfect technique, and I am excited to share it

with you.

Here is the building before the decals,

and here is after.

You can see I have added dripping grunge,

graffiti, dirt, etc, and honestly, it enhances the character so much.

Alright, so the setup for this is actually quite simple, but it is really

important to get the settings right.

First, hit shift A, search, and image texture.

Hit new, name it decals, set the resolution to 4096 by 4096, which is 4K,

or 2048 by 2048, which is 2K, if the 4K resolution is too heavy on your computer,

and then under color, make sure the alpha is set to 0, that part is really important.

Now add a new principled BSDF, and plug the decals image texture into the base color.

Add a mix shader node, mix it into the rest of the shader, plug the principled

BSDF into the bottom socket, and the alpha of the decals image texture into

the factor, and that is the setup done.

Now with the decals image texture

selected, let us head into texture painting mode.

Hit on tools, and scroll down to texture, and hit new.

Now you can import any of these decals that I provided for you to download in

the description, make sure the mapping node is set to stencil, and hit image aspect.

You can move your stencil around with right click, rotate with control right

click, and scale with shift right click.

I would recommend going up to cursor and

checking override overlay under texture opacity, this way you can paint on the

stencil without obscuring your view.

Okay, that is all the technicals out of

the way, and now we can start painting on our decals.

First things first, I like to add in drips from edges and ledges.

For example here, I'll go to the ledge of the window and paint in drips coming down.

Now I'll add on some dirt at the bottom, this time using a different stencil, and

this added a lot of realism too.

Have fun with this process, and again,

subtlety is key.

Now we're ready for the graffiti, which

follows the same process as the grunge decals.

Add a new stencil, this time I'll

navigate to the graffiti folder, and let's bring in this guy.

I'll head to the bottom of the wall and paint this in.

I find it fun to imagine myself as the graffiti artist and where I'd

realistically want to tag.

If there was graffiti on some wall that

wasn't accessible to humans, for example, it might look unrealistic, so I try to

keep that kind of stuff in mind.

Alrighty, here is an overview of the

complete node tree setup.

Here you can see we have the base

material with color variations.

Here is the painted wall, here is the

damage, and finally, the decals.

Getting a closer look at the decals, we

have the image texture that we created to paint on the decals plugged into the

principled BSDF, and the alpha of the decals image texture plugged into the

factor of the mix shader.

Alright guys, I am really happy with how

this building turned out.

The materials feel super detailed, the

damage is crisp, the decals help bring everything together.

That is the main part of the building done, but I really want to show you the

bonus step for layering on a whole new level of realism, and that is edgeware

and dirt occlusion.

In the course, we modeled this awesome

Middle Eastern architectural feature called a Mashrabiya, and it sits

prominently here on the front of the building.

Taking a closer look, you can see some

really intricate chipping paint effects and dirt layers underneath.

Here is the Mashrabiya before and after these extra elements.

Now, just to catch you up to speed, the base material creation for the Mashrabiya

is identical to the building.

First, I developed wood materials, and

then mixed them together with other paint materials.

Here you can see I have used a chipping

paint grunge texture as the mask to replicate chipping paint.

Once this process was finished, I started with the edgeware.

I will show you how to get this set up now.

But quickly, before we get into that, I

will give you a node tree overview of the Mashrabiya material.

Here we have the brown planks material as well as the paint material, which is

mixed together with a peeling paint grunge texture.

Alright, all caught up.

First, add a bevel node and a geometry node.

Then add in a vector math node and set it to dot product.

Plug the bevel into the first socket and the geometry node's normal output into

the second socket.

Now, connect the dot product to a color

ramp and the color ramp into a math node, which is set to multiply.

Now, just use the color ramp and the multiply to dial in the edgeware.

It is so satisfying to me for some reason.

Here, I found a really nice set up.

Now, for extra detail, plug a map range into the radius of the bevel and take one

of your grunge texture setups from earlier and plug it into the map range.

Now, by controlling the map range, you can make your edgeware grungy and realistic.

Now, let us use this edgeware setup as the mask between two materials.

For the Masturbia, I used an older brown wood underneath the paint and revealed it

by using edgeware.

And here is the result.

Okay, let us have a closer look at the node tree as well so you can properly

visualize how the edgeware system works.

Here is the base material I showed

earlier and here is the new edgeware setup.

I am using a rough planks material to

represent the edgeware and here is the actual edgeware system that is mixing it

all in.

Feel free to pause the video and copy the

nodes if you need to.

Okay, so now let us set up the dirt which

is also really important for realism.

Here is before adding the dirt and here

is after.

First, add in an ambient occlusion node

and plug its color output into a color ramp.

By controlling the distance attribute of

the AO and the color ramp, you can dial in something nice.

And then, of course, for extra realism, add a math node and set it to less than.

Duplicate the grunge texture setup we used for the edgeware and plug it into

the bottom socket.

Now, edit the map range until the dirt

has grunge.

Now you can use this dirt setup as the

mask between the rest of the shader and a dirt material by plugging it into the

factor of the mix shader.

Okay, final node tree overview with the

new dirt additions.

Here we have the base material, the

edgeware setup, and now the new dirt setup.

Taking a closer look, you can see we have

the ambient occlusion node which is given a more realistic look with a grunge texture.

And then backing out a bit, this dirt system is plugged into the factor which

is mixing in this dirt material.

The dirt material, by the way, is just a

principled BSDF set to a brown color with the roughness turned up.

Okay, here is our complete building and I think it looks absolutely amazing.

I really hope you guys enjoyed this video and got something out of it.

Like I've said countless times now, this workflow is how I go about texturing any

building or object in Blender.

And once you have it dialed in, you can

achieve crazy levels of realism.

Speaking of realism, it gets even better

once we add in the networks of pipes, wires, and props.

If you'd like to learn how to create this as well, which is arguably just as

important as the texturing stages, make sure to check out the course at cgboost

.com slash urban.

In my course, we don't only model and

texture the building featured in this video, but a ton of others too, each

unique in their own way, which eventually complete a massive city environment.

There's truly so much packed into this course and you'll get a ton out of it no

matter your skill level.

Thanks so much for watching guys and good

luck creating your buildings.