AI Material Designer
AI Material Designer video tutorial
The AI Material Designer is a tool that allows you to create tileable materials for your assets based on text prompts much like you would images with DALL-E and Stable Diffusion.
Currently the database in use is based on Stable Diffusion, and you will need a Github account to sign in to generate images using an API Key. Each user will get free credits when they sign up, but a subscription will need to be used for continual use. For more information, go to : https://replicate.com/pricing
You can access the AI Material Designer using the Mona Library button at the top of Unity and select the Mona Tools button.
Once done, select 'Download' in the AI Material Designer box.
Finding the Mona Tools Asset
After selecting the AI Material Designer under the Mona Tools button in the Mona Library the Designer will appear.
There are 4 steps to the process :
- Tool Setup - This is used to setup your account to use the AI generation.
- Imagine Albedo - This will generate the Albedo, or color, texture.
- Generate Maps - This will allow you to generate other maps like Normal, Smoothness, height and Ambient Occlusion.
- Create Material - This will take your selected textures and put them together into a Material.
The Tool Setup is used to connect you to the AI Generation network, Replicate.
When you click on the 'Get API Key button' (shown as #1 below), the Replicate website will be loaded in your default browser. Sign up to get an API key.
Setting up the AI Material Generator
Go to your Account and grab the Key under the API token section.
Creating the API Key in Replicate
Copy the API Key into the Replicate API Key field (shown as #2 above).
Then select the Save API Key button (shown as #3 above) to save the key in order to generate assets.
All textures are based on the diffuse, or color, texture. So that image needs to be created first. This is done by adding your text prompt and selecting 'Imagine Texture'. Note that every time you press 'Imagine Texture' it is using your credits (free or otherwise), so make sure to use the most accurate prompt as possible. Some examples are included below to help you define a good prompt. Each time is only 1-2 cents, but they add up quick if your prompt doesn't get the results you would like.
Imagining a Diffuse texture
Prompt | Image |
|---|---|
Muddy ground with autumn leaves seamless texture, trending on artstation, base color, albedo, 4k |  |
Lunar surface seamless texture, trending on artstation, base color, albedo, 4k |  |
Ancient carvings trim sheet texture, trending on artstation, sandstone, base color, albedo, 4k |  |
Tree bark seamless photoscan texture, trending on artstation, base color, albedo, 4k |  |
After you have created the diffuse texture, it is possible to generate other textures such as Normal, Ambient Occlusion, Height, and Smoothness.
By selecting 'Include Normal' (or other map types), you can generate the map based on the Diffuse map. The 'Include <map>' button will include that map into the Material, so it is possible to not include the map if you like.
Note that generally most materials will only use a normal map for the 'bump' effect, however height is also included if you want to use that for any reason.
Adding other textures based on the Diffuse
These textures will sometimes have some artifacts, but these results will be improved over time.
Once again, each texture you generate will cost time, therefore credits. So, make sure to only generate the textures you need (such as Normal and Smoothness). These maps are cheaper than the diffuse map at about 1 cent as they take less time.
After you have created all your textures you can add them all to a material to use on your assets.
Creating the Material
You can preview your material on a Sphere, Cube or cylinder with the respective buttons at the top.
You can adjust the level of metallic as needed. This will not be shown so well in the Preview as there is no environment to reflect but will be the base setting once the material is made.
You can choose what kind of shader you create when creating the Material, standard is the usual. There are other options to choose from such as Procedural Sampling, Triplanar, and Triplanar Procedural Sampling.
After that you can choose the Material name to be created and then use the 'Create MaterialName.mat' in order to create the Material.
The material will be created in the Assets/_MonaLibrary/_AI_Materials/ folder.
Last modified 5mo ago