Surface Essentials v3
Surface Essentials is a vision to build an extensive library of high quality procedural materials, for Blender Cycles. Our main focus is to achieve extreme flexibility while preserving photo-realism.
**skip to 2:42 minutes for patterns exploration.
- 100% PROCEDURAL SHADERS
- INFINITE RESOLUTION
- UNLIMITED VARIATIONS (SEED)
- PHYSICALLY BASED (PBR)
- FREE FUTURE UPDATES
- BLENDER CYCLES & EEVEE
Update v3: Wooden Parquet Floors
Added new parquet generators: Basketweave, Chantilly/Versailles, Checkerboard, Herringbone, Square Basket, Chevron, Hexagon and Plank patterns.
The wood texture is also 100% procedural. Here's a closeup of the raw albedo map.
Some beauty shots for the parquet patterns:
Updated all previous shaders to work in Blender 4.2 LTS, with memory optimizations.
Update v2.1: Realtime Roads
The Asphalt Road, Bitumen Road, Tarmac Road shaders are not only extremely photo-realistic, they are optimized fully to be realtime. You can switch between Eevee and Cycles Render Engine and the shaders switch to the real-time or ray-traced version automatically.
See all the realtime roads in action in this demo video:
Some ray-traced examples in cycles:
Smart Displacement
Get photo-realistic and sharp displacements out of box. The shaders use a combination of micro-displacements, bump-mapping and vector-displacements where applicable.
More Realtime EEVEE support
In addition to the roads, most shaders in the pack have real-time versions. You can use them directly in Eevee or, for preview purposes before the final Cycles render.
Parametric shaders for granular control
All shaders are completely procedurally generated, which unlock new levels of flexibility and control. Procedural shaders have no limit on the resolution. Render time and memory is NOT affected by how large the texture size gets.
Overlays
The moss shader applied on a 3d-scanned model, with no retopology or UV-unwrapping.
The snow overlay shaders with increasing levels of detail.
License
These can be used commercially and royalty-free. Cannot be resold or redistributed in any shape.
Bulk licenses are available for teams of different sizes.
| LICENSE | SEATS | PRICE |
|---|---|---|
| Individual | 1 seat | $ 40 ⟶ |
| Studio | 2-9 seats | $ 286 ⟶ |
| Studio | 10-19 seats | $ 573 ⟶ |
| Studio | 20-50 seats | $ 1147 ⟶ |
| Enterprise | 50 + | Talk ⟶ |
Installation & Usage | Demo v3
Initial Launch Trailer v1 | June 2020
The shader pack was initially released as "Smart Shaders: Grounds & Roads". With v3 I'm rebranding it to Surface Essentials to make way for more categories of shaders in future updates.
Check out the full catalog:
You get a total of 31 assets in this pack. Most are generators, which means you can create unique variations of each to infinity. The download contains a blend file with a cats.txt for easy loading into your asset library.
- Sand: Beach, Wet, Desert 01, Desert 02
- Soil: Puddles, Rocky, Sandstone
- Roads: Asphalt, Bitumen, Damaged, Tarmac, Concrete, Dirt and Snow Tracks
- Pavements: Herringbone Old/New, Concerete, Cobblestone, Vegetation, Worn
- Overlays: Snow (detialed, plain, rough), Glacier, Moss
- Wooden Floors: Herringbone (var. double, square basket, chevron), Chantilly/Versailles, Basket Weave, Checkers, Hexagon, Checkerboard
Plus more shaders and features as they get added in subsequent updates.
Documentation
Documentation has been moved online here.
All subsequent shaders will be documented online. For now, previous shaders have a pdf documentation included with the download. Working to get those uploaded too.
Changelog →
Release Notes v3
- Updated all shaders to Blender 4.2 LTS.
- 6 new parquet wooden floor generators.
- Future updates are provided free of cost once purchased.
- Updated base price to 40 USD for an individual license.
Release Notes v2.1
- Added NEW shader "Tarmac Road", "Concrete Road"
- All shaders made fully compatible with Blender 2.93 LTS
- Improved road markings to interact with road grains. Added line wear and line detail feature for markings.
- Optimized shader graphs for faster renders and lower memory consumption.
- Documentation for road shaders built into the shader group node. Find it in shader editor.
- Urban road shaders have similar parameters for consistency.
- New pricing structure: 35 USD for individual, 49 USD for studios.
Release Notes v2.0
- Added NEW shader "Damaged Road"
- Added NEW road markings "Subdivisions"
- License Updated to Standard Royalty Free
- Puddle texture controls - scale, aspect ratio, amount, edge gradient, etc.
- Optimized road shader graphs for faster renders and lower memory consumption.