Before the year comes to a close, Allegorithmic has one more treat for its users.
CLERMONT-FERRAND, France – December 13, 2018 – Before the year comes to a close, Allegorithmic has one more treat for its users. Today, the team behind the Substance Suite hands over the reins to CD Projekt Red Senior Environment Artist, Mark Foreman, the creator of a new collection of materials designed exclusively for Substance Source. Each of the 15 original materials comes with a medieval flair, designed to give users everything they need to create anything from a high-res sprawling castle to a weather worn hovel and more.
Foreman’s resume includes more than a decade of experience as a gaming artist, including work on the award-winning The Witcher 3 and its equally lauded DLCs, as well as time spent texturing as part of the Black Mesa team. To create this collection, he sought inspiration from medieval structures located around the United Kingdom. He then called upon his skill with Substance tools to design a set of materials that mimic the real-world elements used in medieval construction. Each material can be downloaded and applied directly into a project, or modified using a series of simple sliders to create something completely new.
“I found myself really digging deeper into Substance Designer than ever before,” said Foreman. “I’m usually more than happy to go and edit the graphs themselves or create parallel branches to get the various appearances I might need, but for this collection I really wanted to make sure that the end users could create the exact look they wanted by using the customizable parameters alone.”
The Foreman Collection is split into three categories each meant to depict life at different levels of the medieval social stratum. The first grouping, “Peasant Hovel,” contains historically accurate representation of the types of real-world structural materials available to the lower echelons of society. Thatch and old stone assets join wattle and daub, while environmental effects like damage, density and even moss can be added.
The second category, “Vassal Townhouse,” offers a more middle class look at medieval life, both residential and commercial, including materials created to build taverns, churches, and manors. Tudor bricks replace the less expensive earthen composites, and windows – a sign of prosperity in the Middle Ages – can be added and customized to fit frames.
Finally, the “Crown Castle” section offers everything you’d need to create a home fit for a king – literally. From fairy tale castles to Dark Age fortresses, stone walls can offer a look of opulence or intimidation based on the artist’s needs. A polished wooden palisade could highlight the regality of the inhabitants, or be worn and splintered to suggest a wealthy family in decline. Artists can also include additional touches like tiled columns that would be the envy of visitors, or outposts that can either convey charm or strength based on the each material’s customizable parameters.
When combined with the vast Substance Source library, the new materials can help to create every aspect of medieval life, down to the most specific details. Artists can also experiment with each material directly within Substance Source without having to commit to a download, thanks to a new in-browser preview.
“The Signature Series releases were meant to connect artists with Substance users, and it has succeeded in ways we never imagined,” Sebastien Deguy, founder and CEO of Allegorithmic. “Each collection seeks to strengthen the Substance Source library by offering a new style of materials, but they also inspire the community by demonstrating what professionals like Mark Foreman can do.”
The Foreman Collection marks the third Signature Series release of 2018, joining the icy, arid and jungle-themed environments created by Bungie’s Daniel Thiger, and the sci-inspired collection from game developer Chris Hodgson. Foreman’s materials also help to expand the ever-growing Substance Source library, which now features over 1,700 ready-to-use, tweakable materials. Additional Signature Series releases are planned throughout 2019.
Substance Source users can examine the collection right now, and subscribers will have the option to download the “medieval tudor brick” material for free.
Pricing/Availability
Access to Substance Source is available through a monthly subscription. Subscribers receive 30 Substance Source material downloads per month, along with Substance Designer, Substance Painter and Substance B2M for $19.90 (Indie) or $99.90 (Pro). Professional users and teams can also buy the entire Substance Source library, along with one year of updates, for $4990. Enterprise and education pricing is available upon request. Students and teachers can request a license at no cost.
About Allegorithmic
Allegorithmic is the industry leader in 3D texture and material creation technologies. More than 150,000 users in the domains of games and entertainment, film and VFX, architecture, and design rely on Allegorithmic’s award-winning Substance texture and material authoring software for developing the next generation of digital content. Clients include: Naughty Dog, Activision, Sony Computer Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Double Negative, MPC, Foster + Partners, Gensler, Louis Vuitton, Mercedes-Benz and IKEA. Founded in 2003, Allegorithmic is based in France with offices in Clermont-Ferrand, Lyon and Paris, and has global offices in Los Angeles, Cleveland, Montreal, Singapore and Seoul.