Get This Free UE5 Material To Match Your References

Arthur Tasquin has released an intuitive post-process material that overlays your reference's outlines onto your viewport in Unreal Engine 5. You can easily adjust the outlines and reference opacity and color, work with texture at the right ratio and squared textures, with tiling support and automatic tiling based on the ratio when using squared textures.

According to the artist, the workflow for this material is quite straightforward. First, in Photoshop or a similar tool, draw the main guidelines based on your reference image. Once you have the mask, input it into the post-process material. Then, apply the material to your current camera view. Use the guidelines to block out your environment, estimating the depth as you go and adapting the blockout accordingly. Finally, tweak the focal length and camera distance until everything aligns perfectly with the reference.

Arthur also mentions that he personally always uses a dedicated camera for this process and duplicates it once he's satisfied with the result. To estimate the depth, he suggests finding a common object, like a chair, door, or desk, and using it as a reference to measure how many times it fits between two structural elements. Additionally, your camera should match the aspect ratio of the reference to ensure accurate alignment.

Grab the material by clicking this link and take a look at the Alan Wake 2-inspired project Arthur used it for:

We also highly recommend you to check out Arthur's fantastic detailed article on the science of lighting for digital artists, focusing on its use in Unreal Engine:

Join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Reddit, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.