Tatami Floor - Substance Designer
Decided to try for something new and make a tatami floor in Substance, which is a traditional Japanese flooring formed from wooden panels wrapped in thatch.
I've included some graph snippets for those wanting a breakdown, as always - it's not perfect but I'm willing to leave it here.
Edit - I've improved the project's look slightly as I was unhappy with the finished material - I've updated the graph breakdowns as well to reflect these changes.
How it would appear at floor level.
The updated tatami cube.
Flat floor.
The updated graph.
The base heightmap was created by first making a heightmap for a single board with the fabric ties on the end, then used in Tile Generators to get the different board configurations to be masked into each other. This sequence is replicated later.
Gradient height is a dupe of the first part of the graph but with a gradient for board distortion, and the second is the same but for the waviness on interior tatami.
The new thatch pattern was created using pattern generators put side by side and interlocking to simulate the strands, then tiled and masked appropriately, with added dark overlays to accentuate the rows.
The diffuse colour is straightforward - gradient maps based on the base heightmap, with variants masked by the Tile Generator for different boards.
Dirt and water stains were added to give a sense of age and break up the relatively simple look of the material.
Smoothness is simply the base height, but stripped of the cavity colour of the thatch with the stains overlayed. Heightmap is similar, but includes the thatch to bulge it in spots.