32 Lessons I Learned from Creating 32 Modular Pipe Assets: 1. Pipes Need to be Modular 2. You Will Need 3 Different Pipe Sizes (Large, Medium, Small) 3. Determine Pipe Sizes and Dimensions Early 4. Word on Specific Styles and Creating Highly Reusable Pipes 5. Use Bridge Tool for 90 and 45 Degree Angled Pipes 6. Use Booleans (Yes Booleans) for 3 and 4-Way Pipes 7. Model Pipe Caps and Pipe Bolts Separately 8. Create Pipe Supports 9. Modeling the Valve Medium Pipe and Small Pipe 10. Use Shift+D (Duplicate with Transform) to Create Repeated Patterns 11. Soft vs Hard: Control Your Edges 12. Add More Variation to Pipe Caps for Realism 13. Bake Normal Maps Right Inside Maya LT/Maya for Great Results 14. UV Then Duplicate 15. Maintain Correct Texel Density Between All Pipe Sizes 16. Quick Way to UV Any Modular Pipes 17. Combine All Pipes into One Object for Texturing in Quixel 18. Don't Export as FBX for Quixel 19. Quickly Texture in Quixel DDO 20. Setup 3DO for High Quality Preview 21. Creating Color ID Map 22. Have All Your Pipes Share the Same Texture 23. Disable sRGB Option for Metallic and Roughness Maps in UE4 24. Create Lightmap Channel to Use Pipes with Static Baked Lighting 25. FIX: Why Your Re-Imported Lightmaps Don't Work 26. Using Material Instances for Color and Roughness Changes 27. Reuse Existing Textures as Masks 28. Pack Mask Textures into RGB Channels 29. Create Collisions in UE4 to Save Time 30. Create Custom Collision in Maya LT/Maya 31. Do Tests and Construct Scenes with Your Assets 32. Setup Your Project Folders from the Start to Maintain High Level of Organization Download Full Tutorial Series here "UE4 Modular Pipes Project": www.worldofleveldesign.com/store/ue4-modular-pipes.php
I love how this is so clearly explained, there's a full 10 seconds dedicated to explaining the difference between a large pipe, a medium pipe, and a small pipe. 😄 I think this is so valuable because you go through all the things that could go wrong, and it's one of those topics that seems simple but could easily go wrong!
As a pro level artist, this was really refreshing to watch. Very useful and on point. A tutorial well done. If i would need it, i would buy your full course, but you can be sure, that i will recommend it.
Thank you for sharing your findings. In this industry where such a stigma *I need to be better than you* exists It's refreshing to see you and other content creators share.
This should be an episode of my strange addiction lol "I'm Timmy and I like pipes." no but seriously, this Is a good vid. Pipes help people like me when there is some space that looks ugly when it's empty. Just put some pipes there.
Yes. Although you could set up Blueprint Splines. What I did was placed them manually by hand and then for many of them I used grouping to combine them as one set of objects then tweaked within each group to add/remove as needed.
It's the exact same process in any 3D software package. Houdini is definitely not better for that. Houdini is the shit for particles and simulations, for this kind of modelling it's the same. Technically speaking 3ds max should be the easiest for modular designs.
Alex, I clicked on the link for the "Pipes Project" tutorial and your website states the tutorial has been "Discontinued" ... why? Will there be a new versions in UE5?
I am breaking my head to figure out how you import a joined UV for separate meshes... Can anyone help me out please? Great video though, I am just finishing my own scene with my own set of pipes, so great timing.
So you have multiple meshes that are all share the same UV layout? Import all the meshes and apply the same material with the same texture. That should work. Just double check that all meshes you have share the same UV channel 0 for texturing and the UVs are all laid out on this channel across all selected meshes. And make sure all meshes have their own unique UVs in channel 1 for lightmaps.
You don't have to join them. In Maya and Maya LT if I just select all the objects I can see and edit all of the selected objects' UVs at the same time. I lay out the UVs for all selected objects this way, then I export one at a time.
@@adamplechaty dude do it in the following way. UV unwrap all of the different meshes by themselves, but arrange their UV shells in the UV square as if they were part of the same larger mesh. Then combine them afterwards. For example one pipe with bolts attached. UV unwrap the pipe but don't let the pipe take up the entire UV space, leave some room for the bolts. Then UV unwrap one of the bolts and scale and position the UV shell in the area of the UV square that you left open for the bolt, like just pretend the pipe's UV's are in there as well so you don't overlap them. Then after you are done combine the pipe and bolts, now their shells are together in the same UV space. Then you just texture each of the shells and both textures would be in the same bitmap, then easily apply that to your combined mesh in UE. Then you don't have to apply the same texture to multiple smaller components but treat is a a whole.
Yeah, I used to work as pipe fitter and now as services engineer (design HVAC systems). You only really get flanges on larger valves or pumps and other system components. I think crosses are only really used on sprinkler systems? I don't really mod these days but once played around using Revit MEP which I use at work to create accurate piped systems and exporting to 3DS, didn't work too well.
Hey Tom, Make sure to watch the very first video UE4Pipes-00.00-Introduction inside the "Get Started Intro" folder. It explains how to make the Project Files work in UE4. Make sure you are using UE4 version 4.19 or later. You have to copy/paste WoLDModularPipes folder found in ProjectFiles\UE4\ModularPipes\Content into the Content folder of your project. For Blender, try importing the .FBX files found in ProjectFiles\MayaLT\ModularPipes\ExportedMeshes since the Maya LT files won't open in Blender.
@@WorldofLevelDesign I realized this package really wasn't I was looking for... How do I initiate refund? I tried to PM you but it did not work. Thanks!
@@tombombadild5957 Contact me here www.worldofleveldesign.com/contact.php and send me an email with the EMAIL you used to order with and Last Name on the purchase.
The email went to spam folder. I found it thanks for letting me know. I have issued the refund. Refunds take 5-10 days to appear on your statement. Thanks
You don't have to model 3 types of pipes based on size. With blueprint you can easily use few parameters and components to have as many varieties, lengths, and details as you need. You can research the subject more
Yeah but no. You don't know what you are talking about. You can't do that with any old asset you find. There is a reason game studios make their pipes exactly like he does in here.
Nope. I started with Blender then moved to Maya and never looked back. Plus majority of studios where I live use Maya and there's plenty of good scripts for it.
