Ben Cloward
@bencloward.bsky.social
Technical Artist at Unity on the Shader Graph team. Watch my tutorial videos youtube.com/bencloward I'm a husband, father, and member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In this tutorial, I show how to use the Second Roughness inputs on a Substrate Slab in Unreal to gain more control over the shape and appearance of specular highlights and reflections on your material. youtu.be/Z281PRQInRA
Substrate Second Roughness - Unreal Substrate - Episode 7
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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In this tutorial, I show how to use the Fuzz input parameters on the Unreal's Substrate Slab to create the edge effects on surfaces like cloth, skin, peaches, etc. youtu.be/Q3ZNWiQ4lZE
Substrate Fuzz - Unreal Substrate - Episode 6
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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In this tutorial, I show how to create subsurface scattering - for materials like wax, snow, fruit, or skin - using Unreal's Substrate. I also explain related topics like SSS MFP and SSS MFP Scale. youtu.be/wvzBD5u1GeE
Substrate Subsurface Scattering - Unreal Substrate - Episode 5
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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In this tutorial, I show how to create transparent materials - like glass - using Unreal's Substrate. I also explain related topics like Index of Refraction and Mean Free Path (MFP). youtu.be/sf-K257zWh8
Substrate Translucency - Unreal Substrate - Episode 4
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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In this tutorial, I explain why Epic added Substrate to Unreal Engine. As we saw last week, it makes creating basic materials more complex, so what benefits does it bring? youtu.be/VrY_SSvWdQ4
Why Substrate? - Unreal Substrate - Episode 3
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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In this tutorial, I explain Diffuse Albedo, F0, and F90 in Unreal's Substrate. I also show how to translate Base Color, Metallic, and Specular parameters from the previous system into Substrate, and I explain core principles like reflectance and the Fresnel Effect. youtu.be/a94Lpu1_4dg
Substrate Light Reflectance - Unreal Substrate - Episode 2
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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Today, we start a new series of videos on using Unreal Engine's Substrate material system. In the videos that follow, we'll go in depth and cover the full material system - but today we just cover the basics. youtu.be/P5I38f2O6W8
Introduction to Substrate - Episode 1
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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In this Unreal Engine tutorial, I show how to remove objects that are overlapping or too close to each other - both in the same PCG graph and also in different graphs. youtu.be/ikhRzWHisEw
Filtering Overlapping Objects - Procedural Content Generation (PCG) - Episode 11
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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I've wanted to make this effect for a long time and I finally figured it out! In this Unreal tutorial, I show how to add 3D moss cards to the rocks in our forest using PCG. I'm calling it Magic Moss. Take a look! youtu.be/QyCzfsuakuY
Creating Magic Moss With PCG - Procedural Content Generation (PCG) - Episode 10
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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In this Unreal Engine tutorial, I show how to use PCG's Hierarchical Generation System to spawn objects only close to the player. youtu.be/u2hsoBgYUR0
Adding Rocks With Hierarchical Generation - Procedural Content Generation (PCG) - Episode 9
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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In this tutorial, I show how to spawn objects along a spline. We start out really basic with a row of traffic cones and then get more advanced with a line of fence segments that connect with each other. youtu.be/WQc0imxsGdI
Spawn Objects Along Splines - Procedural Content Generation (PCG) - Episode 8
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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In this tutorial, I show how to use splines to define where PCG can place objects. PCG can be limited to only place objects inside a set of closed-loop splines, or you can use those sample splines to remove objects. youtu.be/AWJ7H4C6ObI
Using Splines For Boundaries - Procedural Content Generation (PCG) - Episode 7
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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In this tutorial, I show how to automatically add a dirt and roots material to the landscape under PCG trees. I also show how to make the trees deform the landscape just slightly so they feel more connected to the ground. youtu.be/VtvM-OkZYDk
Automatic Landscape Tree Blending - Procedural Content Generation (PCG) - Episode 6
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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In this tutorial, I show a simple method and a more advanced method to grow a forest using Unreal Engine's Procedural Content Generation system. youtu.be/DoZRYtvb8OU
How To Grow A Forest in Unreal With PCG - Procedural Content Generation (PCG) - Episode 5
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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In this tutorial, I show how to add multiple different detail meshes and mask them using various grass masks generated in the landscape's material. youtu.be/ceP88Hvopao
Adding Multiple Detail Meshes to Landscapes - Procedural Content Generation (PCG) - Episode 4
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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In this tutorial, I show how to use grass masks from a landscape material to control where PCG grass is placed. Using this technique you can use any of the features of a material to control PCG placement. youtu.be/PNXIGplTsgU
Using Landscape Grass Masks With PCG - Procedural Content Generation (PCG) - Episode 3
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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In this tutorial, I show how to use Unreal's PCG to render grass efficiently. This method uses a compute shader on the GPU to place grass instances and I show several ways to control the density and distance that the grass renders. youtu.be/jL8-C2VvpxY
Efficient Grass With PCG - Procedural Content Generation (PCG) - Episode 2
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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Today, we start a new series of videos on using Unreal Engine's PCG to create environments. In this video, we talk about what PCG is and why you should use it. Then we use the system to place some simple assets in the environment. youtu.be/NZLtrWLNTes
Introduction to Procedural Content Generation (PCG) - Episode 1
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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Last week, I showed how to add rain effects to terrain in Unity - so this week I'm showing how to add puddles to landscapes in Unreal. youtu.be/hV8GEZrDe8U
Landscape Puddles - Terrain Shaders - Episode 19
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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In this tutorial, I show how to add rain effects to a terrain shader including puddles with rain ripples and animated rain drops. youtu.be/aU3tr7KvjW0
Rain Effects On Terrain - Terrain Shaders - Episode 18
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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In this tutorial, I show how to add the ability to manually paint layer materials on an existing terrain auto material. This allows you to make changes and corrections to the materials that have already been applied by the procedural system. youtu.be/DCIv0grJ2AU
Overridable Auto Material - Terrain Shaders - Episode 17
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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In this tutorial, I show how to create an advanced terrain auto material for Unreal and Unity. It uses angle blend, height blending, and altitude blending together to blend between grass, dirt, rock and snow. youtu.be/4q6EekzAUI0
Terrain Advanced Auto Material - Terrain Shaders - Episode 16
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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In this tutorial, I show how to blend between two terrain layers based on the altitude of the terrain. youtu.be/MC95bu9VTJQ
Terrain Altitude Blending - Terrain Shaders - Episode 15
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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In this tutorial, I show how to create a simple auto material that applies material layers based on the slope angle of the terrain in Unreal and Unity. youtu.be/CGTPW2mWeGQ
Simple Terrain Auto Material - Terrain Shaders - Episode 14
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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In this tutorial, I show how to use the Terrain Texture Node in Unity's Shader Graph to bring in parameters from the terrain system for adjusting material layer settings. This is a new feature in Unity 6.3, so I hope this is helpful in learning how to use it! youtu.be/DKG-qnJ8GDg
Terrain Texture Node Parameters - Terrain Shaders - Episode 13
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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In this tutorial, I show how to use the tools built into Unreal and Unity to quickly add foliage and other detail meshes to terrain and landscapes. youtu.be/cDs0vgtGjeA
Adding Terrain Detail Meshes - Terrain Shaders - Episode 12
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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In this tutorial, I go over creating terrain in Unity and Landscapes in Unreal. I show how to sculpt the shape of the landscape and how to apply and paint material layers. youtu.be/r_tiyXdFlSE
Terrain & Landscape Basics - Terrain Shaders - Episode 11
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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Happy New Year! Several people asked me how to paint holes in terrain, so that's what today's video is about - updating the terrain shader to enable terrain hole painting in Unreal and Unity. youtu.be/--gVJq8_aEA
Painting Holes in Terrain - Terrain Shaders - Episode 10
YouTube video by Ben Cloward
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