[Blender] How to create materials with the free Easy PBR add-on

This article will show you the basic usage of Easy PBR and how to create materials.

Easy PBR is an add-on that allows you to use over 1200 different materials.

It also includes a bake function, so you can use the created textures in Unity and STYLY.

Use Blender version 3.1.

What is Easy PBR?

Easy PBR is a Blender add-on that allows you to use over 1200 materials provided by embientCG.

By using those materials as a node group, you can combine multiple materials.

It also includes a baking function and the ability to set the resolution of the material.

How to Install the Easy PBR Add-on

How to Install the Add-on

First, visit Gumroad’s Easy PBR download page.

Easy PBR

Easy PBR

Easy PBR

Once you have accessed the site, type 0 in the Fair Price box and click the button below it (if you wish to make a donation to the producer, type an amount in this box).

金額を入力します

Enter the amount

Please enter your e-mail address and press the button below.

メールアドレスを入力します

Enter your email address

After completing the purchase, press the View Contents.

「コンテンツを表示」をクリック

Click on Show Content

You will see two Zip files; download both.

両方ともダウンロードします

Download both

EasyPBR__0.9.1__Beta is the add-on. Please do not unzip it and save it in any location (the __0.9.1__Beta part of the file name varies depending on the version).

EPBR_Library should be unzipped and saved in an arbitrary location. It is better to save it in the same location as the add-on itself.

Install Add-ons in Blender

Next, install the Easy PBR add-on in Blender.

Start Blender, click on Edit in the upper right corner, and select the Preference order.

Edit→Preference

Edit→Preference

Click Install in the upper right corner and select the Zip file of the Easy PBR add-on that you have just saved.

There is a checkbox to the left of the add-on’s name, check it to activate the add-on.

アドオンを有効化します

Activate the add-on

Click on the triangle to the left of the checkbox to view the add-on details.

At the bottom, you will see an item called PBR Library Path, click on the file symbol on the right and select the EPBR_Library folder that you have just saved.

 

EPBR_Libraryフォルダを選択します

Select the EPBR_Library folder

Do not check Relative Path at this time.

Relative Pathにはチェックをしないでください

Do not check Relative Path

Select the library path, and when Valid Library is displayed, the add-on installation is complete.

Valid Library

Valid Library

At this point, click Save Preferences to save the add-on settings.

アドオンの設定を保存します

Save add-on settings

How to Use Easy PBR

Set Easy PBR

Render uses Cycles.

Cycles

Cycles

Go to the Shading window and press the [N] key to display the Tools tab and select EPBR.

EPBRを選択します

Select EPBR

By default, you can select a material category by clicking where it says AcousticFoam.

Click on the thumbnail to select another material in the same category.

マテリアルのカテゴリーを選択します

Select a material category

For this example, we will use Painted Plaster008 in the Painted Plaster category.

Painted Plaster008

Painted Plaster008

First, download the material to the PBR Library.

Click the Download button on the EPBR tab to specify the resolution, in this case 4K-JPG.

Click OK to start the download and save the material in the PBR Library.

マテリアルをPBR Libraryにダウンロードします

Download the material to the PBR Library

After the download is complete, delete the existing material and press the Add button.

There is a choice between Material and Node Group.

Material adds the complete material as a node group, while Node Group adds only the main group of nodes (the function of Node Group will be explained later).

Below that, you can specify the resolution of the material: use the 4K-JPG you downloaded earlier.

Press OK to add the node group and apply the material.

マテリアルを追加します

Add material

Add to Asset Browser

Easy PBR materials can be added to the Asset Browser to simplify material adaptation (available in Blender 3.0 and above).

Select the Easy PBR add-on from Preferences→Add-ons, check the details, click on the Add All available assets to the Library at the bottom, and press OK (this may take a little time).

Add All available assets to the Library

Add All available assets to the Library

Then select Assets Library in Editor Type, click Current File, and select Easy PBR to add the Easy PBR material that has already been downloaded.

ダウンロード済のEasy PBRマテリアルが追加されます

Downloaded Easy PBR material will be added

Materials can be applied by dragging and dropping materials from the Asset Library onto objects.

ドラッグ&ドロップでマテリアルを適応することができます

Materials can be applied by drag & drop

Composite Multiple Materials

Easy PBR allows you to add multiple materials to an object simultaneously.

Add a new material to the object and add a Node Group from Easy PBR’s Add Material.

In this case, we will use Painted Plaster008 from the Painted Plaster category.

Node Groupを追加します

Add a Node Group

Open Node Utilities and you will see an item called Connect to Principled nodes.

Select both the group node you just added and the Principled BSDF and click Connect to Principled nodes to connect the nodes (you can select multiple nodes by holding down the [Shift] key and clicking on them).

Connect to Principled nodes

Connect to Principled nodes

Next, select the material you wish to composite and add a Node Group from Easy PBR’s Add Material menu.

In this case, we will use Painted Metal013 from the Metal category.

Painted Metal013

Painted Metal013

With the two group nodes selected, click Mix two EPBR nodes in Node Utilities.

Mix two EPBR nodes

Mix two EPBR nodes

Then a new group node is added. Select the group node and the Principled BSDF and click on “Connect to Principled nodes” to connect the nodes.

Connect to Principled nodes

Connect to Principled nodes

Since only one material is displayed at this point, add a Musgrave Texture and Color Ramp node by pressing Shift+[A].

Musgrave Texture とColor Rampノードを追加します

Add Musgrave Texture and Color Ramp nodes

Connect the Musgrave Texture and Color Ramp nodes to the Factor of the Mix Shader.

Musgrave Texture+Color Ramp→Mix

Musgrave Texture+Color Ramp→Mix

By moving the slider of the Color Ramp, you can change the display percentage of the material.

Color Rampのスライダーで表示割合を変更することができます

The Color Ramp slider can be used to change the display percentage

The texture can be fine-tuned by adding Mapping and Texture Coordinate nodes to each of the group nodes added earlier and changing the scale values.

In this case, the scale values are all set to 10.

Mapping=10

Mapping=10

Bake Textures

Click on the Bake PBR Maps file symbol in the toolbar and select a location to save the texture.

クスチャを保存する場所を選択します

Select a location to save the texture

Once you have made your selections, select all of the textures you wish to export and set the Height and Width to the same resolution you set when you added the material.

In this case, I selected a 4K-JPG, so I set the Height and Width to 4096.

テクスチャ種類と解像度を設定します

Sets texture type and resolution

Here is an important setting.

In the Render Properties, set the Max Samples value of the Render to 1 and remove the check mark from Denoise.

Max Samplesの数値を1にして、Denoiseのチェックマークを外します

Set the Max Samples value to 1 and remove the check mark from Denoise

When ready, with the object you want to bake the texture onto, select the Principled BSDF node, and click Bake to bake.

ベイクします

Bake it

After baking is complete, check that the texture map is saved in the destination folder you specified earlier and you are finished.

We duplicated the object to check the quality of the baking..

The left side of the screen below shows the object to which the EasyPBR material is applied, and the baked texture is assigned to the object on the right.

We were able to bake to a similar texture.

テクスチャベイクの完了です

Texture baking is complete.

Export Objects

Select the object and choose File→Export→FBX.

File→Export→FBX

File→Export→FBX

See image below for export settings.

エクスポート設定

Export settings

Apply Textures in Unity

To upload Prefab to STYLY, you need to install the STYLY plugin.

You can read more about how to upload assets from Unity to STYLY in this article.

Start Unity, drag and drop textures and FBXs into the Assets folder, then drag and drop the FBXs into the scene.

テクスチャとFBXをドラッグ&ドロップ

Drag and drop textures and FBXs

Right-click in the Assets folder and click Create→Material to create a material.

マテリアルを作成します

Create materials

Apply each texture to the material.

テクスチャを適応します

Apply texture

This is how we set up the material.

Drag and drop a material onto an object to assign the material.

マテリアルを割り当てます

Assign material

You can also increase the quality of the texture by changing the Max Size value in the inspector of the texture image you are using.

Max Sizeの数値を変更

Change the value of Max Size

Once this is done, upload the file to STYLY.

How to Upload to STYLY

Create a STYLY account.

How to create an account:

How to upload to STYLY:

How to upload from Unity to STYLY:

You are now ready to upload to STYLY.

Please take advantage of Easy PBR’s wide variety of materials available for free.

STYLY上で質感が再現できています

Texture can be reproduced STYLY.

If you have any questions about STYLY, bug reports, or requests for improvements, please contact the STYLY FORUM.

https://en.forum.styly.cc/support/discussions