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1/15 After all the nice comments on this little scene, I had to do a breakdown ! I will try to explain my thought process and some technical details. I hope you enjoy it !!
how i achieved this look with Unity + Clayxels
THREAD
#madewithunity #clayxels #gameart #gamedev
how i achieved this look with Unity + ClayxelsTHREAD
#madewithunity #clayxels #gameart #gamedev
2/15 a quick intro : @clayxels is a Unity asset, that allows for volumetric modeling. It sounds complex but its a very easy way to model ! Looks at Dreams from @mediamolecule, it is build on the same principle, check also Mudbun from @TheAllenChou https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/systems/clayxels-165312
3/15 i started using clayxels exactly 2 month ago, my first experiments where relatively simple, but i got hooked !
I love how liberating it is compared to traditional modeling... it comes with constraints of course, but that part of the fun https://twitter.com/AlexStrook/status/1278118006539812870
I love how liberating it is compared to traditional modeling... it comes with constraints of course, but that part of the fun https://twitter.com/AlexStrook/status/1278118006539812870
4/15 after i got the basics, i challenged myself to do characters (which I never do), but claxyels was such a revelation, i had actual FUN doing characters !! i cant recommend it enough https://twitter.com/i/events/1283053127353143297
5/15 clayxels basics : no polygons, everything is volumetric, meaning you can blend everything (shapes and colors), and control how much stuff blends
and video is worth a thousand words : (tons of info on the asset store page !)
and video is worth a thousand words : (tons of info on the asset store page !)
6/15 i wanted to create a scene in this style with clayxels, and i had an idea for a shader ! I gathered a bunch of Impressionist painting references,its the most important part of this process for me...do your research 
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7/15 a Clayxels "mesh" is actually composed of a lot of floating triangles (displayed as circles, but they are actually triangles)
lowering the resolution gives big fat circles, i thought of using this as a base with a brush texture to get a Painted look
lowering the resolution gives big fat circles, i thought of using this as a base with a brush texture to get a Painted look
8/15 the first step was to use @AmplifyCreates Flipbook node to randomly pick a brush stroke from an atlas, and then have the biggest clayxels triangles as possible ! (scaling the containers + increasing size in shader + lowest resolution possible)
9/15 an important part of paintings is how rich colors can be ! For this, i added 3 controls : Hue, Hue range, Hue intensity
every splat gets a slight hue variation on top (lerp) of its original color...its a subtle effect but helps a lot
*i need to fix the noise pattern
every splat gets a slight hue variation on top (lerp) of its original color...its a subtle effect but helps a lot
*i need to fix the noise pattern
10/15 another subtle effect was adding a normal map (triplanar) on the shader, its applied very lightly ! there is also a diffuse (triplanar, blended in multiply very lightly)
11/15 the other HUGE part of this look is the lighting :
-light A : warm bright light
-light B : reddish light with lower normal bias
-post process : color grading is super important and i spent quite some time tuning it
the dual light setup is to get the red shadows banding
-light A : warm bright light
-light B : reddish light with lower normal bias
-post process : color grading is super important and i spent quite some time tuning it
the dual light setup is to get the red shadows banding
12/15 also shown in the video above : I used some clayxels volume in paint mode, to fake some area of light and shadow ! this helps a lot with making everything look even more painterly
im still experimenting on how much light should be hand painted vs. physical lights
im still experimenting on how much light should be hand painted vs. physical lights
13/15 some particles to add some life. every splat in the shader picks a random brush texture with a random timing and speed PER splat
i really wanted this painting effect to look alive, in-between foliage and brushstrokes, i really like how this turned out in the end
i really wanted this painting effect to look alive, in-between foliage and brushstrokes, i really like how this turned out in the end
14/15 https://twitter.com/AlexStrook/status/1298450411456692224
and there you have it ! im currently building a bigger scene. the plan of this project is to make 3 scenes with this style (the tree was the first one),
just for fun and as an art exploration
and there you have it ! im currently building a bigger scene. the plan of this project is to make 3 scenes with this style (the tree was the first one),
just for fun and as an art exploration
15/15 I hope it was helpful, dont hesitate to ask questions I would be happy to help if i can !
if you liked it, please follow @SpiritAndMouse the game me and @LucieLescuyer are working on, its really important to us...
if you liked it, please follow @SpiritAndMouse the game me and @LucieLescuyer are working on, its really important to us...
ill be posting the new one ill make here also :) https://twitter.com/AlexStrook/status/1299784323386740739
updating this thread with a final tweet, i would heavily suggest getting comfortable with Claxyels before even attempting to do a custom shader ! thankfully i did a video for that 
https://twitter.com/AlexStrook/status/1312049796400713729
https://twitter.com/AlexStrook/status/1312049796400713729
