SCI-FI Capsule Material

A Sci-Fi material study developed entirely with a node-based approach in Substance Designer.

I adopted the Primary → Secondary → Tertiary priority method throughout the work. This approach allowed me to establish the core forms solidly from the start, minimising unnecessary iterations.

During the blocking out stage, I prioritised Curvature Smooth and Ambient Occlusion nodes. I first defined the primary forms, then the secondary forms, and finally added colour variations across the micro details.

To accelerate the roughness blocking out process, I applied a Grayscale Conversion on top of the node coming from Base Colour. I then masked different physical surfaces and built additional nodes fed from Height nodes to define roughness parameters based on each surface’s physical properties.

For metal areas, I assigned metallic values within the 0–1 range, keeping them close to their respective endpoints depending on the surface.

My priority was to turn the material into a storytelling tool within Unreal Engine. The materials seen in the render reflect the condition of the remnants left behind from a capsule. The atmosphere is cold and heavy — no one has entered that place for a long time. For the final material render, I used Marmoset Toolbag.

I would like to point out that I built every node from scratch without the use of any AI tools.