Making Realistic PBR Materials - Part 1

Believability is a big part of making a great looking render. And just as we discussed in Photorealism Explained, materials are a huge part of whether or not the final render looks realistic or not!

This goes beyond just photorealism too. It applies equally to stylized cartoony stuff.

Disney actually developed a Physically Based Shading workflow for Wreck it Ralph, to make the world feel more believable:

For Wreck it Ralph, a physically based shading workflow was developed to make the materials feel more real — For Wreck it Ralph, a physically based shading workflow was developed to make the materials feel more real

So physically based materials are important for every artist.

The best part though? You only need to do this tutorial once. Then you can just save it into your default blender file, and have beautiful materials forever :)

Final Result

This tutorial is mostly material theory. But I also demonstrate how to assemble your own node group can be used to make realistic materials like this: