Blender texturing using robots as an example

There are generally two methods available for editing a texture:

1. Manual painting on the UV map: The UV map is used as an image template and painted directly. The painted areas are then displayed on the corresponding surfaces of the 3D model.
2. Using node tools: These are mathematical systems that generate textures procedurally, essentially taking over the drawing process to some extent.

Both methods can be combined freely – depending on your needs, you can switch between manual painting and node tools at any time.

Since I initially had little experience with node tools, I started by painting everything by hand.

During my first attempt, I made a mistake in arranging the UV maps. So I started a second attempt — this time incorporating the node system.

I frequently used the following tools:

• Noise Texture
• Voronoi Texture
• ColorRamp

The Voronoi texture generates a pattern by randomly selecting points on a surface and creating outward-growing cells around them. You can read more about it here: Blender Voronoi Texture Documentation →

Tip: Combining Voronoi textures with noise textures creates a highly convincing metal scratch effect. For even more realism, connect the Voronoi texture to the Normal input. This input uses a normal map to simulate light reflections and shading, giving flat textures the illusion of depth.

With noise maps, each pixel has a random value. This value is represented by colours or in black and white, and values such as the aforementioned colours can also be converted into any other colours using colour ramps. 

Shaders have different inputs which are aimed at different attributes of the texture, for example emission, which reflects the luminosity of the object, or height, etc. Sometimes it is useful to mix two shaders together, such as in the scratched metal shown above.

The last step I had to carry out in Blender was baking. During baking, the texture is captured as it is at the moment and saved. This is necessary to transfer it to Unity. This is also divided into different maps for different attributes.

My last task was to export the whole thing to Blender and assign the various baking maps correctly.

I hope that this article has brought some understanding. Of course I have not been able to explain everything as this would have taken considerably more time. Instead, I have limited myself to the details that are important to me and explained them reasonably accurately. Blender and other 3D design websites are becoming increasingly important in this day and age, so it never hurts to read up on them. Other tools