Chapter 7: Setting Up Materials in UE 5

In the previous chapter, you learned the basics of Unreal Engine 5's (UE5's) UI, basic navigation, and shortcuts.

In this chapter, you will learn the process of importing models and textures and creating materials for 3D assets.

The materials that you will create will use the textures that you exported in Chapter 5, Texturing Your Models inside Quixel Mixer.

In this chapter, we're going to cover the following main topics:

• Importing models into UE5
• Learning the basic UI of the Material, Texture, and Static Mesh Editors
• Importing textures into UE5
• Creating materials in UE5
• Previewing your models with basic lighting

By the end of this chapter, you will have completed both the Robot Drone and Alien Plant's UE materials setup, making them ready to be animated and placed into your virtual 3D movie set.

In the next section, we will take you through the model import process in UE5.

Technical requirements

The following are the technical skills and software you will need to complete this chapter:

• A computer that can run basic 3D animation software.
• You need to have installed UE 5.0.1. You can download it from https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/download.
• Have a basic understanding of how to navigate in UE5. If you skipped ahead, this was covered in Chapter 6, Exploring Unreal Engine 5.

The files related to this chapter are placed at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Unreal-Engine-5-Character-Creation-Animation-and-Cinematics/tree/main/Chapter07

Importing your 3D assets

Let's start by importing the Robot Drone and Alien Plant models into UE5.

If you prefer to use the provided models instead of your own models for this tutorial, download the RobotDrone.fbx and AlienPlant.fbx model files from the online repository here:

https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Unreal-Engine-5-Character-Creation-Animation-and-Cinematics/tree/main/Chapter07

These are Static Mesh versions of the models. We will only use these models for the material creation process:

1. Create a new folder in the Content Browser panel by right-clicking on the sources view area and in the menu that pops up, selecting New folder. Name this folder RobotDrone and then open this newly created folder.
2. Create another new folder inside the RobotDrone folder and name it Model. Open the Model folder.
3. Drag and drop the RobotDrone.fbx model from the file's location on your computer into the asset view area of the Content Browser panel. The asset...

Importing textures

Importing textures into UE 5 is a really simple process. Let's start with the Robot Drone's textures first:

1. Create two new folders inside the RobotDrone folder in the sources view area of the Content Browser panel. Name the first folder Textures and the second folder Materials. Open the Textures folder.
2. Select all the Robot Drone's exported textures in their location on your hard drive. These are the textures that you exported from Quixel Mixer at the end of Chapter 5, Texturing Your Models inside Quixel Mixer. These textures are the following: RobotDrone_Albedo.png, RobotDrone_AO.png, RobotDrone_Metalness.png, RobotDrone_Roughness.png, and RobotDrone_Normal.png.

   Note

   If you prefer to use the provided textures instead of using your own exported textures, you can download all of these textures (for the Robot Drone and Alien Plant) from the online repository here: https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Unreal-Engine-5-Character-Creation-Animation...

Creating materials

Let's now use the textures that you prepared in the previous section to create materials for your Robot Drone and Alien Plant.

Note

For those of you who wish to skip the materials setup part of this tutorial, you can download the completed materials from the online repository at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Unreal-Engine-5-Character-Creation-Animation-and-Cinematics/tree/main/Chapter07/AlienPlant/Materials

and from here: https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Unreal-Engine-5-Character-Creation-Animation-and-Cinematics/tree/main/Chapter07/RobotDrone/Materials.

Let's create your first material in Content Browser by following these simple steps:

1. Open RobotDrone's Materials folder in the sources view area of the Content Browser panel.
2. Right-click in the asset view area of the Content Browser panel. This will open a menu. In the CREATE BASIC ASSET section of this menu, select Material, as shown in Figure 7.7:

...

Previewing your models with lighting

The purpose of this section is to show you some very basic lighting methods to use for previewing your 3D assets. In Chapter 10, Adding Lighting and Atmospheric Visual Effects in UE5, you will have an in-depth exploration of the subject of lighting.

To get started, let's add RobotDrone and AlienPlant Static Mesh models to the scene (World) to see how they look with the materials you've made. Then, we will adjust the lighting to achieve a more pleasing look:

Note

This part of the process will not be used in your final 3D movie set, since we are using this step to preview what the materials look like on your models.

1. Left-click and drag the RobotDrone model (Static Mesh) from the asset view area of Content Browser into the Viewport. Let go of the left mouse button when you are happy with the position of the model in the World.
2. With the Robot Drone still selected, look inside the Details panel. Under the Transform heading...

Summary

You have successfully completed the practical tutorials in this chapter to import your assets, create materials, connect textures to materials, and apply these materials to a 3D asset.

Finally, you've learned how to place your models in the World and how to do some basic adjustments to the lighting for previewing purposes.

In the next chapter, we will explore MetaHuman Creator, which is used to create photo-realistic human characters for use in UE 5. We will go through the step-by-step process to create a sci-fi-style female character.

See you in the next chapter!

The rest of the chapter is locked

Importing textures

Importing textures into UE 5 is a really simple process. Let's start with the Robot Drone's textures first:

1. Create two new folders inside the RobotDrone folder in the sources view area of the Content Browser panel. Name the first folder Textures and the second folder Materials. Open the Textures folder.
2. Select all the Robot Drone's exported textures in their location on your hard drive. These are the textures that you exported from Quixel Mixer at the end of Chapter 5, Texturing Your Models inside Quixel Mixer. These textures are the following: RobotDrone_Albedo.png, RobotDrone_AO.png, RobotDrone_Metalness.png, RobotDrone_Roughness.png, and RobotDrone_Normal.png.

   Note

   If you prefer to use the provided textures instead of using your own exported textures, you can download all of these textures (for the Robot Drone and Alien Plant) from the online repository here: https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Unreal-Engine-5-Character-Creation-Animation...

Creating materials

Let's now use the textures that you prepared in the previous section to create materials for your Robot Drone and Alien Plant.

Note

For those of you who wish to skip the materials setup part of this tutorial, you can download the completed materials from the online repository at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Unreal-Engine-5-Character-Creation-Animation-and-Cinematics/tree/main/Chapter07/AlienPlant/Materials

and from here: https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Unreal-Engine-5-Character-Creation-Animation-and-Cinematics/tree/main/Chapter07/RobotDrone/Materials.

Let's create your first material in Content Browser by following these simple steps:

1. Open RobotDrone's Materials folder in the sources view area of the Content Browser panel.
2. Right-click in the asset view area of the Content Browser panel. This will open a menu. In the CREATE BASIC ASSET section of this menu, select Material, as shown in Figure 7.7:

...

Previewing your models with lighting

The purpose of this section is to show you some very basic lighting methods to use for previewing your 3D assets. In Chapter 10, Adding Lighting and Atmospheric Visual Effects in UE5, you will have an in-depth exploration of the subject of lighting.

To get started, let's add RobotDrone and AlienPlant Static Mesh models to the scene (World) to see how they look with the materials you've made. Then, we will adjust the lighting to achieve a more pleasing look:

Note

This part of the process will not be used in your final 3D movie set, since we are using this step to preview what the materials look like on your models.

1. Left-click and drag the RobotDrone model (Static Mesh) from the asset view area of Content Browser into the Viewport. Let go of the left mouse button when you are happy with the position of the model in the World.
2. With the Robot Drone still selected, look inside the Details panel. Under the Transform heading...

Summary

You have successfully completed the practical tutorials in this chapter to import your assets, create materials, connect textures to materials, and apply these materials to a 3D asset.

Finally, you've learned how to place your models in the World and how to do some basic adjustments to the lighting for previewing purposes.

In the next chapter, we will explore MetaHuman Creator, which is used to create photo-realistic human characters for use in UE 5. We will go through the step-by-step process to create a sci-fi-style female character.

See you in the next chapter!