The Ground - Photogrammetry based Environment Texture
This time I succeeded with two quite big things in my workflow. Finally I managed to bake the height map without any weird gradients across it and I found a better way to remove ao shadows from albedo then using 'ao cancellation' node.
Still need to process a few more tests but looks like I made a big step forward :).
The secret ingredient to get nice and clean heightmap for flat surfaces is simply to decimate existing highpoly model into a lowpoly one.
I used RIZOMUV to uvmap it later with one click :)
Also I improved the way to remove ao shadows simply by using AO as a mask for 'color equalized' albedo :) and the result looks great so far. The level of details can be modified by 'Equalise' node same as amount of blending in 'blend' node.
Hope this is going to help anyone to make even better materials :)
If anyone is interested can record another boring tutorial to cover this process in details :), just let me know.
his is my photogrammetry workflow - still experimenting with 'Artomatix' and replaced Photoscan with Metashape (more details regarding to my workflow at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/K0PYG)
Due to super strong wind it wasn't safe to use the light reflector. I was just a few steps away from the cliff edge.
This is area I captured, I took this picture when the sun came out and forced me to stop capture. I was planning about 30 cm more but fortunately I captured enough :) for reconstruction
Surface details with my shoe and ruler used as scale reference
The reference image with the Color Checker included - used to calibrate color and tweak white balance in PhotoLab2. Adding this shot here as might be useful for those who build materials in substance and need physically correct color values to pick :D
Metashape - reconstruction based on 176 images. Thanks to the ruler included in a capture as scale reference I was able to define proper area to create a low poly model for baking in the next step
Metashape - a low poly model made by cropping 180x180 area and using Metashape's decimating tool to decimate it to 10.000 polys only.
This way I got perfect alignment and avoided getting any heightmap gradient across the surface.
Lowpoly UV mapping in RizomUV.
Baking PBR maps in Substance Designer. Here you can see the the heightmap preview.
Seam removal and surface rearrangements done in Artomatix
AO shadow removal using the new technique I decided to play with. I used baked AO map as opacity mask for the blend node and used it to replace the dark areas with the result I got from the 'color equalizer' node. So far this is the best result I received