Masters of all things relating to material and texture design in CGI, Allegorithmic, has added an intriguing update to its substance source library of accurate materials and textures.
This update brings together a group of ultra-realistic 3d printing and additive manufacturing materials for use in your visualisation workflows.
This isn’t just a cobbled together set of textures, we’re talking materials built with “a specific set of modifiable parameters that vary the visual attributes.
The possible variations range from color and roughness to slice shape and regularity, as well as random printer nozzle micro-spills of material amount and distribution.”
There’s a good number to start experimenting with, from your common or garden FDM builds (with a variety of filaments), through a range of resin-based methods (SLA, Clip, etc) and then into the realms of advanced plastics with MJM, SLS, metals with EBM, SLS, DMLS and DMD.
You can inspect the materials with a quick filter of the library – available here.
Why is this useful? That’s a question that I might imagine many might ask – after all, many of these processes are used to build prototypes, rather than final product.
The reality is that there are many instances where this type of material use and manufacturing process will be the final product. Being able to visualise that makes a huge amount of sense – and having accurate materials in your visualisation workflow feeds into that.
