Introducing Indoor Plant Models

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In November 2018 I visited The Boundary, a leading archviz studio in London, to ask them what assets they needed most and they answered “High quality plants”.

“There’s lots of plant models out there, but very few are high quality” they explained.

Later the artists at Poliigon set out with the ambitious goal to create a physically accurate collection of plants that just work. No matter the lighting or environment, the plants should look realistic.

After nearly a year we believe we’ve achieved that. Here’s how we created our collection of 40 PLANTS, now available for every major software and rendering package.

PlantPalm001.jpg
 

The Problem

We investigated the existing market for plants and found that it typically uses just one photographed leaf texture, mapped to a mesh:

A typical plant model - found on BlendSwap.

A typical plant model - found on BlendSwap.

The problem with this is that it’s missing vital information that can only be guessed from it’s single photo texture.

By comparison, real plants are extensively detailed. Micro-changes to it’s shape, color, reflectivity and translucency play a huge role in how it looks.

Reference photos of a real plant

Reference photos of a real plant

 

How we did it

To match the real world as close as possible, we created a custom photoscanning setup using a rotational light source to capture clean albedo and accurate displacement + a lightpad to capture the raw translucency.

FoliageScanning_angles_optimized.gif

We also added something we’ll call “nature gunk” - dust, dirt, droppings etc. - which was the final piece of the material puzzle.

We then used extensive reference of the real plant to capture the exact shape and leaf distribution, which we then recreated digitally - ensuring optimized, clean meshes.

 

The Result

By combining everything, we were able to create a physically accurate collection of 40 Plants, ready to drop into your next interior.

These are ready to download now. Enjoy!

PlantAloeBrevifolia001_preview4.jpg

New Wood Generators

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Watch the video below to see what makes this our most advanced texture generator ever:

Archviz artists frequently need to alter textures to match the needs of clients, but a static texture can only be bent so far.

Procedural textures on the other hand can become virtually anything you want them to.

Most people would agree that proceduralism is the way. But the problem with off the shelf tools like Substance Designer is that it’s a highly specialized skill to learn, and can take days to make one material.

That’s why we’ve been hard at work to build artist friendly procedural generators with simple controls for changing anything.

Last month we announced our first ever generators (Brick) and this month we’re proudly launching wood flooring generators.

They’re a standard Substance file (.sbsar) that work in all the free substance plugins and the standalone free Substance Player software.

It’s available as a whole floor generator, which creates a tileable square texture set:

And as a single plank generator for use in plugins like FloorGenerator (3dsmax) and Archipack (Blender):

Plus as a bonus, there’s an engineered wood generator for creating those trendy manufactured wood like OSB, MDF, Hardwood, Plywood, Corkboard and Chipboard.

Download the Generators:

There’s plenty more generators on the way. Join Poliigon to get access to all of them.

Introducing Procedural Brick Generators

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Procedural. You’ve probably heard the term before. But what is it, and why should you care?

In this video we explain why we think Procedural textures are the future of texturing for artists:

A combined total of nearly 1,000 man hours to create, and allow you to generate over 1,500 unique brick.

As well as the 4 generators, we’ve also added 52 ready to use brick materials to our brick section:

Combined with the generators above, these allow you to achieve almost any brick look for archviz.

For inspiration, see what our art team created using the new brick:

New Chairs on Poliigon

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If there’s one model that almost every interior needs, it’s chairs.

So we created a collection of 41 curated chairs to raise the bar of any room.

All models are exquisitely detailed, front-to-back, with custom textures to push them over the edge.

You can change the colors in your software of choice, to create a contrasting design.

Or use them as-is for a chair that’s guaranteed to look good out of the gate.

In total there are 42 chairs, all ready to download in 14 native software and rendering formats.

New Rugs on Poliigon

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A big part of your job as a 3D artist is solving problems.

“How can we make the trees look good?”
”How can we get the rendertimes down?”

At Poliigon we see our job as helping you solve some of those problems.

This month we’re solving rugs.

Every hard floor interior needs one, but they’re surprisingly hard to find online. And good ones even more so.

After a lot of internal R&D we create a set of rugs that are based on today’s interior design trends, look great but don’t cost you in render times.

In essence, a render optimized, great looking rug:

Here’s what our internal art department achieved with them:

We hope you like them!

Got a suggestion for a future release? Let us know in the comments below.

New Carpet on Poliigon

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A good carpet is hard to find.

That's not the usual expression, but it's true when it comes to visualizing interior design. You've got your wood, you've got your stone, and now you've got a brand new set of Carpets.

The trouble with most carpet textures online is that they’re photographed. Which is fine for some materials, but not fabric. Photographing fabric isn’t ideal for two reasons…

Problem #1: Tileability

OutOfLineRows2.gif

When you photograph fabric, you need to make each line of thread meet the other end. And at the microscopic scale of fabric, this is often impossible, leading to obvious signs of tiling.


Problem #2: Blurriness

The size of each thread is so small that traditional cameras simply can’t capture it with clarity. And we tried every conceivable method!

BlurryThreads2.jpg

The Poliigon Solution

To solve both of these problems, we created this new carpet collection digitally. This ensures they’re fully seamless and hyper sharp.

That means you can focus on making art, knowing that the carpet will make the rest of your scene beautiful.

 

There are 64 new carpet materials, all based off 2019 interior design trends.

New Wood on Poliigon

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If you pay attention to interior design trends, you might have noticed natural materials popping up more and more.

While it used to only be the ultra rich that could afford marble and stone, it’s now becoming affordable to everyone.

Even McDonalds is getting in on the action.

So we recently added stone, marble, ceramic, bamboo to help you visualize this.

But when material category that desperately needed some love was Wood.

After consulting with an interior design studio, we created over 100 new wood materials based on the popular wood treatments available today.

Walnut, pine, oak, hickory, burl, flooring, flat, and more.

If you can’t find the wood from this new collection, let us know in the comments, but we think we’ve got it covered.

Our existing collection of 60 wood materials has also been remastered with more accurate maps and a 1:1 aspect ratio.

Gallery

Here’s some examples of what you can do with the new wood:

Models: The new addition to Poliigon

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Big news: Models are now permanent addition to the Poliigon library.

Watch the announcement then read on…

Two Big Reasons to Use Poliigon Models

#1 The First Multi-Compatible Library

Typically when you buy a model it only works with one software and one renderer. This means wasting 10-20 minutes configuring shaders to work with your software and renderer. Nobody wants that.

So we’re pleased to say that our models work in all 15 of the major software and renderers.

Just select it from the dropdown to download a model in that native format.

cake2.png

#2 Consistent High Quality

Sometimes purchasing a model feels like playing Russian roulette. You load it into your software, praying that it looks good. But overly dense meshes, poor texture maps, and other shader hackery is rampant.

So we created the library using an industry standard asset pipeline:

  1. Mesh Detail: Not too little, not too much. Each mesh has just enough detail to create the proper silhouette, and everything else is baked.

  2. Baked Maps: All the finer mesh details are baked into the normal map. Gloss, Reflection and Albedo maps are also inclusive, ensuring you won’t have to touch your shader. It just works.

Headphones 001 - 3D model by Poliigon.com (@poliigon)

At the time of launch, there are three model collections available now…

1: Interior Scene Fillers

This is the stuff that you don’t want to model, but are necessary for an interior to feel lived in.

Stuff like a TV remote, newspaper, coffee, water bottle, soda can, headphones, notepad, glasses and much, much more.

 

Because you always need more models for a kitchen than anyone ever has time to model, we’ve done the heavy lifting for you.

Utensils, knives, pots & pans, dishes, bowls, appliances and more.

 

3: Food

Photoscanning is the only way to capture the detailed shape and texture of food, so that’s what we used.

Fruits, bread, cakes, cheese. Available individually, or as a platter ready for dropping onto a counter.

Demo Renders

We went all out in our testing, so please enjoy this image gallery made using the new models:

This is just the start….

We’re adding more models in the future. What would you like to see next? Let us know in this short survey.

New Stone & Marble on Poliigon

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39 Stone Walls

New stone materials in a range of different hues, wear and rock species. Especially good for European and Middle-Eastern styled exteriors.

29 Marble & Granite

Perfect for your next kitchen and dining table renders.

CobaltBlueCountertop.jpg

12 Tile Laminate & Vinyl

Not every client can afford tiles, which is when these laminate and vinyl materials come in handy.

BathroomTiles.jpg

Split-stone is the perfect material for adding visual contrast to a bland space. Very popular for exterior entertainment areas walls.

Hope you like the new selection! As always, if you make something cool, post it to ArtStation with the words “Textures from Poliigon.com” somewhere in the description and if we like it we’ll feature it here :)

New HDRs

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It was the 2009 short, The Third and the Seventh that made me sit up and pay attention to photorealism. While I'd always known it was a "thing", I never knew it could be used so artistically.

So in an attempt to learn Alex Roman's wizardry, I purchased his book From Bits to Lens, which had a tip that I've never forgotten: "90% of the work of photorealism is the materials and lighting." (paraphrasing).

This put it into terms I could understand. If you forget all the rest of the complexity of 3D, and just focus on the materials and lighting, you're almost there.

While materials are hard to get right, lighting is easy in comparison. You just need to use HDRs.

HDRs are a godsend for rendering as they're a full 360 degree capture of real lighting and reflections, instantly transported to your scene.

Very little setup and perfect results. What's not to love?

While Poliigon has had HDRs for a while, we've just expanded it to include 32 skies and 18 environments (50 new in total).

32 New Sky HDRs

Forget ever needing to download a cloud image for a backdrop, fiddle with sky settings or and sun lamps. Just drop one of these HDRs into your scene and you've got accurate lighting and reflections in an instant.

Not only that, but when you've got a library of HDRs they become a fast way to test out different lighting setups.

Here's an example of how 9 different HDRs affect the mood and lighting of your scene:

18 New Environment HDRs

Environment HDRs are a new sub-category for Poliigon.

While Sky HDRs are useful for scene rendering, Environment HDRs are great for standalone model renders. It gives you photorealistic lighting, backgrounds and reflections with almost zero effort.

Environment HDRs are also great for testing out materials. Because part of creating good materials is accurate lighting and reflections, which usually requires you to put it in a scene. But with an environment HDR, you just load it in and it's done.

No added rendertime, but perfect lighting and reflections:

Hope you use them to create some rad renders!

Merry Christmas from the team at Poliigon! Can't wait to show what's in store for the new year ;)

New Industrial Materials Collection

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Whether you realize it or not, your architectural renders are telling a story. A story about the people who live in the building, what they use it for and the history of the space. 

Experienced architects know that an effective way to tell their story is through the choice of materials. As a concrete facade sends a totally different message than wood or steel.

This is why we've worked diligently to create a new set of 67 industrial material. Brick, metal panels, steel, quartz, concrete, rust and more.

We look forward to seeing what you make with them!

Be sure to tag #Poliigon when you post it to ArtStation so we can find it! :)

New Interior Pattern Collection

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Ask anyone who makes interior renders and they'll tell you how vital patterns are. They can mean the difference between a bland, boring interior and something with visual interest.

I remember making my first interior architectural render, and wanting to create a striped pattern cushion.

But when I searched for patterns on my favourite texture sites I was surprised to find that there were none! I then realized that while many pattern libraries existed for website designers, there were none for 3D interiors.

So even before we Poliigon had a name, I knew that we had to offer patterns.

While Poliigon has had patterns since launch, we've recently released a collection of 44 new design patterns based on the most common designs available today:

Our team looks forward to seeing what you make with them!

Be sure to tag Poliigon when you post it to ArtStation so we can find it! :)

New Street Collection

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A few years ago I was putting the finishing touches on a bridge scene. The only thing missing was the road texture. It was then that I realized how badly the 3D community needed a proper one. 

Most road textures are simply far too clean and perfect. Like this one:

Yet real roads look like this:

So it's no wonder your CG roads look fake! They're missing all those glorious cracks, asphalt patches, holes, leaves and rubbish - stuff that makes it look real!

So this month at Poliigon we made Streets our focus... with the aim to solve the problem of CG roads once and for all!

 

The better alternative to photos: Digital

Normally textures are photographed, but in the case of roads, not only were the surfaces too large to capture, but there's also a lot of detail that you miss when you restrict yourself to a camera (like roughness).

So instead we created each element digitally, using Substance Designer. Which while it took us a LOT longer, it also gave us a lot more control over the final result, and the amount of detail.

 

The Roads

All roads start out clean, but gather imperfections like cracks and patches the more they age.

So we created a perfectly clean road material, then a medium aged and heavily aged version, with 3 variations for each:

Then, to give you the freedom to use them across more scenes, we created a 4-lane, 2-lane and no-lane versions:

All available in super high-resolution, with all the necessary normal, displacement and roughness maps included!

 

Plus, separate road elements

If you're trying to build a city, carpark or back alley, you often need a custom road. So we've included each individual element, already alpha masked and ready to craft into something new:

Which means you can craft your perfect road texture by combining the elements in Photoshop...

Or even directly inside your 3D software...

 

Bonus: Sidewalks

Did you think we'd just hand you some road textures without thinking about sidewalks? Of course not!

Since no road is complete without a sidewalk, we also photoscanned 16 common sidewalks...

And digitally created 6 different tactile pavements:

We probably went overboard with this release, since all tallied up we realized we clocked over 450 man hours creating it :O. But either way, we hope the community finds it useful! :)

New Metal Materials

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Most materials in the world are dielectric, which means they have both diffuse and gloss.

But metal is different, because it doesn't refract any light. Meaning there's no diffuse, metal is actually 100% gloss!

Yet when you look online for "metal textures" you'll find mostly diffuse textures!

So what gives!?

Well since there's no diffuse in metal, photographing it is almost impossible.

So instead of photographing them, we created them from scratch using Substance Designer. This allowed us to create interesting roughness & displacement maps that you see the effects of in real metal, but can't capture with a camera.

This has created a collection of some ultra realistic metal that truly looks the way it does in real life.

From raw metal like copper, brushed metal and steel:

To hybrid materials like rusted chipped paint:

The library is always growing, so join us to get this release and future releases like it!

New Imperfection Textures

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Clean surfaces are the bane of 3D art.

Because while the real world is full of randomness in every material, 3D software creates clean straight surfaces by default. As a result, we're often left wondering why our render doesn't look like a photo. Hint: It's because it's too perfect!

Since all existing "grunge" textures we could find online weren't suitable for 3d rendering, we decided to create something that was made for 3D artists: a surface imperfection library.

We've had this library since launch, but for our April release we added 51 new textures to the surface imperfection section.

There's new textures like tabletop stains, weaponry scratches and dirt wipes. 

As well as new variations to existing maps, like making the fingerprints and footprints zoomed out in scale so you can use them on larger objects.

Oh and this is our 6th Month of texture releases! Woo! Time flies.

Can't wait to show you what we've got in store for the future :)

Join Poliigon to get more texture releases like this.

New Fabric Materials

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Fabric is everywhere. We walk on it, we clothe ourselves in it, and dry ourselves off with it.

Yet making realistic fabric in 3d, has always been challenging. Even with dedicated cloth simulators like Marvelous Designer, getting the materials right is difficult.

At Poliigon, we were tired of the existing fabric textures online, and wanted to create something better.

So we started by inspecting fabric samples under a microscope, paying close attention to their weave patterns and thread counts.

Then instead of photographing them, we recreated them in Substance Designer.

Much like Tiles, Wood and Marble, Fabric benefits from being created digitally, as the detail is simply too tiny to photograph correctly!

This enabled us to tweak the fabric to perfection, right down to the thread count.

There are 25 new fabric materials:

Which are perfect for clothing:

...furniture:

...and even packaging materials :)

As per usual, they work in any 3D software. Just download the maps and use like you normally would.