5 Essential PBR Texture Creation Techniques Every Artist Should Know

•10 min read

Creating high-quality PBR (Physically Based Rendering) textures requires both artistic vision and technical knowledge. Whether you're working on AAA games, architectural visualization, or product design, these five essential techniques will help you create professional-grade materials that look stunning and perform well in real-time engines.

1. Understanding Material Properties

Before touching any texturing software, develop an eye for how real-world materials behave. Study references under different lighting conditions and focus on:

  • Surface Roughness: How light scatters across the surface (polished vs. matte)
  • Reflectivity: The difference between metals (colored reflections) and dielectrics (neutral reflections)
  • Subsurface Scattering: Light penetration in materials like skin, wax, or marble
  • Microsurface Details: Tiny imperfections that catch light in unique ways
  • Wear Patterns: How different materials age and show damage

Pro Tip:

Build a reference library with photos of various materials under different lighting conditions. Pay special attention to how edges catch light and how dirt accumulates in crevices.

2. Layering for Realism

Professional textures are built in layers, each adding depth and realism. Here's how to approach it:

Base Material

  • Start with a clean, undamaged version of your material
  • Focus on accurate color, roughness, and reflectivity
  • Use high-quality photo sources or procedural generation

Secondary Details

  • Add subtle color variations across the surface
  • Incorporate microsurface details (scratches, pores, fabric weaves)
  • Use curvature and ambient occlusion to enhance depth

Wear & Tear

  • Add edge wear using curvature maps or generators
  • Include surface scratches and dents where appropriate
  • Consider material hardness when adding damage

Environmental Effects

  • Add dust accumulation in recessed areas
  • Include water stains, rust, or oxidation
  • Consider seasonal effects (moss, snow, etc.)

3. Proper UV Unwrapping

Even the best textures will suffer from poor UV mapping. Follow these guidelines:

UV Layout Best Practices

  • Maintain consistent texel density across your model
  • Minimize wasted UV space (aim for 80-90% utilization)
  • Keep UV islands proportional to their visibility in-game
  • Use straight cuts along natural seams

UDIM Workflow

For high-detail assets, consider using UDIMs:

  • Divide your model into logical UV tiles (e.g., head, torso, limbs)
  • Use consistent texel density across all UDIM tiles
  • Name textures properly (e.g., Character_1001_BaseColor.png)

Common UV Mistakes to Avoid:

  • Overlapping UVs (unless intentionally mirrored)
  • Excessive stretching or compression
  • Inconsistent texel density between related assets
  • UV seams in highly visible areas

4. Smart Material Creation in Substance

Substance Painter and Designer offer powerful tools for creating reusable, high-quality materials:

Substance Painter Workflow

  • Use smart materials for common surface types
  • Leverage generators for procedural details
  • Create custom alphas and brushes for unique effects
  • Use anchor points for non-destructive editing

Substance Designer Techniques

  • Build parametric materials that can be easily modified
  • Use height blending for complex surface details
  • Create tileable materials with variation and randomness
  • Optimize graphs for performance

Material Libraries

Build and maintain organized libraries of:

  • Common materials (metals, woods, fabrics)
  • Wear and damage presets
  • Edge generators and masks
  • Utility nodes and functions

5. Optimization for Real-Time Rendering

Creating beautiful textures isn't enough—they need to perform well in-game:

Texture Resolution Guidelines

  • Hero Characters: 4K (4096×4096) for close-ups
  • Main Characters: 2K (2048×2048)
  • Environment Assets: 1K-2K depending on size and visibility
  • Small Props: 512×512 or 1K, consider atlasing

Texture Compression

  • BC7 (DX11): Best quality for color textures
  • BC5: Ideal for normal maps
  • ASTC (Mobile): Use 4×4 for most cases, 6×6 for simpler textures
  • ETC2 (GLES 3.0): Fallback for older Android devices

Performance Considerations

  • Use mipmaps for all textures
  • Consider texture streaming for large worlds
  • Use texture atlases for small, repeated assets
  • Test on target hardware throughout development

Optimization Tip:

For mobile games, consider using 2K textures with 4×4 ASTC compression instead of 4K textures. The visual difference is minimal, but the memory savings are significant.

Conclusion

Mastering PBR texturing requires balancing artistic skill with technical knowledge. By understanding material properties, building textures in layers, creating clean UVs, leveraging Substance tools effectively, and optimizing for real-time performance, you can create materials that look stunning and perform well in any engine.

Remember that texturing is an iterative process. Start with strong references, build up your materials systematically, and always test in your target engine early and often. With practice and attention to detail, you'll develop the skills to create professional-quality PBR materials for any project.