Chris Albeluhn - UDK Advanced_Vertex_Painting

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Vertex painting can be a po werful thing, but a large piece o f what makes it po werful is the material yo u create.

A vertex blend between two different textures is co mmo n kno wledge, but if yo u’re un-sure abo ut ho w to set this up, here is
a very quick tuto rial o n the basics. This is essential kno wledge fo r making this material. I will start at the mo st basic and
wo rk my way up explaining what every no de do es to make the final versio n o f this material wo rk.

First we will need a shader. This image is a VERY basic representatio n o f what a vertex shader may lo o k like.

What this do es is the ‘vertex co lo r’ (red) co ntro ls which texture is visible based o n the Lerp.

A Lerp no de has 3 inputs and o ne o utput. The inputs are channel A, channel B and Alpha. The alpha is where yo u will plug
in black and white variable (either a red, green, blue o r fully desaturated texture). The black value o f this texture represents
channel A, and the white value represents channel B. What this means is whatever vertex has a red vertex value o f 100%
(fully white) yo u will get a texture plugged into channel B, but the mo re yo u paint this value so the red vertex is clo ser to a
value o f 0% (fully black) the mo re o f the texture plugged into channel A will appear.

Every single o bject yo u impo rt into the scene will have a default value o f 100% white fo r all the red, green and blue vertex
co lo rs, so by default, if yo u want a certain texture to sho w up first, make sure that is plugged into channel B o f the lerp.

No w, yo u will need 3 lerps, and the images plugged into them sho uld match. Usually, yo u have a diffuse, specular and
no rmal map texture, so in the image abo ve, i have a lerp fo r each o ne o f these. There is a wall texture plugged into channel
B; Likewise, there sho uld be a Lerp with the spec o f the wall texture plugged into channel B and the same go es fo r the
no rmal map. The brick will be painted in, so that sho uld be plugged into channel A o f the lerp alo ng with the matching specs
and no rmal maps. Make sure yo u have the red vertex co lo r plugged into the alpha o f each o f these lerps. And there yo u go ,
a functio ning vertex shader. No w, lets see it o n a mo del.
First, the mo del needs a bit o f extra geo metry than usual. Typically, anything in unreal that is less than 500 po lys isn’t much
o f a perfo rmance hit the lo wer yo u go , so adding a bit o f geo metry to suppo rt this shader isn’t usually a big issue. Lets take
this geo metry fo r example.

With this mo del there are 28 po lys o n o ne side

This screen sho t is here to sho w the mo del in

This is the same geo metry with the same vertex painted values with the shader we just made.

As yo u can see, it’s no t the best result, no where near what I want it to be. What this needs is variatio n. To get this variatio n,
i will be adding a ‘vertex variatio n’ shader setup i co vered in ano ther tuto rial. I will go o ver it again since it has been
changed slightly fro m my last tuto rial which co vered it.

This is where it gets a little mo re ‘advanced’. Regardless, if yo u fo llo w the instructio ns clo sely, yo u sho uld achieve the
same results. First we need a ‘clo ud’ texture which is as easy as pressing a butto n in pho to sho p. Under the filter menu,
select ‘Render’ and ‘Clo uds’. This will create a repeating texture based o n the two co lo rs yo u have available fo r painting o n
the left handed menu. Make sure yo u have 100% black and 100% white so there will be no co nfusio n.

Only o ne o f these textures needs to be used. This is what the final versio n o f the shader lo o ks like.

The main additio n to this shader is o n the bo tto m right side. Here is a clo se up o f just that sectio n.

First, we need to bring in the texture lo cated o n the to p right and multiply this by the vertex co lo r. If i sho w this ‘multiply’
plugged into the diffuse, this is the result we go t. This will help better understand what this shader is actually do ing.
Where the vertex is 100% red, the ‘clo ud’ texture remains the same, ho wever where it is painted clo ser to 100% black, it
gets darker.

Next we need to multiply this by a co nstant variable o f 4 so the white areas are much whiter than befo re. If yo u paint the
black areas clo ser to black, since we are multiplying, the black areas will remain black.

This is what that change will lo o k like.

Since we are using the ‘multiply’ variables, we will need to invert the values co ming o ut o f the ‘vertex co lo r’ no de fo r this
next part. With the o riginal ‘vertex co lo r’ no de, yo u need to plug that into a ‘OneMinus’ variable. This will flip the black and
white values. To add a different variatio n to this, we need to ‘ro tate’ the texture; Because o f this we will need to duplicate the
o riginal clo ud texture, create a ‘ro tato r’ no de and add a ‘co nstant’ variable with a setting o f 2 plugged into the ‘time’ variable.

This is what that change will lo o k like.

Again, ugly, but there’s mo re. We then need to ‘add’ the o riginal vertex co lo r to this. This is what that change will lo o k like.

We then need to insert this into a ‘po wer’ no de with an expo nent o f 20. This is then ‘clamped’ so yo u are o nly left with
100% white and 100% black.

This is what that change will lo o k like.

We then need to duplicate the ‘co nstant clamp’ ‘po wer’ and ‘co nstant’. Have them set up in the same way, but change the
‘co nstant’ to 75. Yo u then need to create a ‘multiply’ no de and plug in the ‘wall’ texture the recently duplicated ‘co nstant
clamp’ no de into either o f the A o r B channel o f the multiply. This multiply will then plug into channel B o f the diffuse lerp
no de.

I kno w in wo rd fo rmat this can be co nfusing, but if yo u refer back to the o riginal shader screen sho t, it will help.

This is what that change will lo o k like.

THERE ya go . The shader’s co mplete. Yo u can do mo re by painting in burned marks, grime, whatever else. Use different
vertex co lo rs co nnected into different lerps either placed befo re o r after the existing lerps to co ntro l dirt, grimes o r
scratches.