Tri-Planar Layered Materials (UE5)

Developed tri-planar layered materials in Unreal Engine 5, primarily designed for large-scale mechs but adaptable to any hard-surface assets. These materials eliminated the need for UV mapping (except for decal placements), resulting in significant production time savings, particularly on high-poly models with millions of vertices. All effects were procedurally driven by baking cavity, ambient occlusion, and position data into the vertex color channels of each mesh.

Each material included the following layers and features:

- Procedural wear and tear
- Dust accumulation on upward-facing surfaces
- Grime and dirt buildup in recessed areas
- Large-scale color variation
- Blood splatter layer, using positional data to control coverage from the bottom upward, allowing for partial or full asset coverage
- Decals
- Tinting

Modelling: John Mesplay, Carlos Fuentes, Calvin Lo
Concept Art: Kai Lim, Branford Williams