Create Seamless PBR Textures from Photos (and When to Use AI)

1) What You’ll Need

• Camera/phone with manual exposure (RAW preferred)
• Even lighting (overcast daylight or soft indoor light)
• Photo editor: Photoshop / Affinity Photo / GIMP
• Map generator: Substance 3D Sampler/Designer, Materialize, etc.
• DCC: Blender for shader setup and validation
• Optional: tripod, gray card for white balance

2) Capture: Get a “Flat” Photo That Bakes Well

Do:

• Shoot straight-on; keep the camera parallel to the surface.
• Avoid harsh shadows/speculars; use overcast light or a diffuser.
• Fill the frame with uniform area; avoid seams/logos near edges.
• Keep scale references (coin/tape) for later; remove them before the final crop.
• Expose to the right (ETTR) without clipping; shoot RAW if possible.

Don’t: Use flash, aggressive angles, or mixed color lighting.

3) Pre-Process the Image (Color, Distortion, Crop)

1. Lens/perspective correction: make the surface look orthographic.
2. White balance & neutral tone: remove color cast.
3. De-light for Albedo: frequency separation or gentle dodge/burn to remove baked shadows/highlights.
4. Crop square: 1024/2048/4096 px; keep a little padding for later tiling.
5. Heal defects: remove nails, leaves, stains, etc.

Goal: an Albedo/BaseColor with intrinsic color only — no lighting baked in.

4) Make It Seamless (Offset & Fix Seams)

1. Offset by 50% in X and Y (Filter → Other → Offset).
2. Use Clone/Heal to blend patterns across the visible seam lines.
3. Toggle offset until seams are invisible.
4. Validate with a quick 2×2 or 3×3 tile preview on a larger canvas.

Pitfall: long “drift” lines (wood grain, grout) that break at the seam. Match direction and thickness before healing.

5) Generate PBR Maps

• Albedo/BaseColor: start from your de-lit image.
• Normal map: set intensity for readable micro-detail without noise.
• Roughness: bright = matte, dark = glossy. Avoid pure black/white.
• Height/Displacement: derive from grayscale; denoise and clamp extremes.
• AO (optional): subtle only; not a lighting replacement.

Channel packing (optional): R=AO, G=Roughness, B=Metallic, A=Height; Normal in a separate texture.

6) Final Albedo Clean-Up

• Remove any residual lighting with local dodge/burn.
• Match perceived real-world scale (e.g., brick ≈ 200 mm long).
• Slightly reduce chroma noise on high-frequency materials (asphalt, sand).

Export 2K and 4K masters (PNG/TIF). For distribution, PNG/WebP.

7) Validate in Blender (Shader & Scale)

Node setup (Principled BSDF):

• Albedo → Base Color
• Roughness (Non-Color) → Roughness
• Normal (Non-Color) → Normal Map → Normal
• Height → Displacement (via Displacement node) → Material Output

Coordinate & tiling: Texture Coordinate + Mapping (UV). Set Scale to match real size; test 4×4 / 8×8 tiling.

Displacement vs Bump: close-ups → true displacement (Cycles, adaptive subdiv). Mid/far or real-time → bump or parallax.

8) Break Up Repetition

• Add a macro detail layer (very low-frequency noise) over Albedo/Roughness.
• Randomize UVs per instance (Object Info → Random → drive Mapping offset).
• Use decals (leaks, cracks, stains) in hero areas.
• Blend two similar materials with a mask to add variation.
• Use triplanar mapping on irregular meshes to avoid stretching.

9) Exporting to Unity & Unreal

Unity

• Albedo (sRGB on), Normal (mark as Normal), Roughness may need inversion if pipeline expects Smoothness.
• Wrap: Repeat; Filter: Trilinear; Aniso: 8–16.
• Start with 2K; profile memory, then adjust.

Unreal Engine

• Albedo (sRGB on), Normal (sRGB off), packed masks (sRGB off).
• Use Virtual Textures for huge worlds; ensure MikkTSpace consistency.
• Standard metal/rough: plug Roughness directly (no inversion).

10) Quality Checklist

• Shot straight-on under soft, even lighting
• Perspective corrected; color balanced; de-lit Albedo
• Seamless via Offset + Clone/Heal; 3×3 tile test passed
• PBR maps physically plausible (no pure 0/1 extremes)
• Scale matches real measurements in scene
• Displacement strength realistic; no ballooning/z-fighting
• Repetition masked (macro detail / decals / blends)
• Engine import flags correct (sRGB/Normal/packing)
• 2K/4K variants exported; memory budget profiled

11) Common Mistakes & Quick Fixes

• Harsh shadows in Albedo → Re-shoot or stronger de-light (frequency separation).
• Plastic look → Roughness too low/compressed; widen value range.
• Noisy Normals → Height-to-normal too strong; denoise and lower intensity.
• Seams visible after tiling → Re-offset and blend; check long continuous lines.
• Wrong scale → Use a 1 m cube + checker UV to calibrate.
• Engine mismatch → In Unity (Standard), convert Roughness ⇄ Smoothness properly.

12) When to Use AI-Generated Seamless Textures

• Speed/coverage: dozens of variations quickly (brick, bark, fabric, metals).
• Inspiration & look-dev: block mood/palette before photogrammetry.
• Rare or idealized surfaces: perfectly clean tiles, sci-fi patterns, stylized looks.

Explore AI-generated seamless, PBR-ready textures — categories like Brick, Bark, Parquet, Patterns, Roofing, Sand/Soil, Snow/Ice, Fabric/Leather, Glass, Rubber, Ceramic Tile and more. Drop into Blender, set real-world scale, and you’re production-ready in minutes.

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