Quixel Suite 2
T$99 (indie) or $409 (commercial) he groundbreaking PBR texturing software from Quixel has reached its second iteration. Its suite of tools (NDO, DDO and 3DO) provide everything you need to move a 3D model through the texturing, lighting and rendering phases.
Quixel has made every attempt to make the adoption of this suite of tools as straightforward as possible. Despite the confusingly named tools (confusing to me at least!) it has succeeded in creating an easy to navigate website, and 3D artist Wiktor Öhman has created a gorgeous set of workflow tutorials that make viewers want to delve into the software.
Once inside of Quixel (inside of Photoshop) we find a suite of tools that integrate seamlessly into Photoshop. A great example of this is that many of the Photoshop tools such as the brushes, lines and shapes can be used to add details to your normal maps. This means that you don’t have to get
Quixel used to different ways of painting. All other features like moving, scaling and adjusting textures/ selections are also the same as in the standard Photoshop interface. Choosing to utilise these tools was a clever step by Quixel as it enables artists to adopt the software more easily and quickly.
If you’re already familiar with Quixel then you’ll find that this version has greatly streamlined the process of setting up a project with DDO. The Base Creator is vastly more logical and straightforward than previously, making it quicker and easier to get to the important part of texturing your models. To aid the texturing workflow, Quixel has introduced a new feature that is accessible with ‘C- Click Assign’.
www.quixel.se According to the documentation, “It essentially allows you to assign the currently selected layer or group to a Colour ID by holding [C] while clicking the Colour ID you want it assigned to.” This is a massive time-saver.
This new version greatly streamlines the process of setting up a project with DDO, and the completely non-destructive Flatten feature boosts performance
A brilliant second iteration Quixel has produced an incredible piece of software. This suite of tools (NDO, DDO and 3DO) work seamlessly inside Photoshop, giving you easy-to-use tools that enable you to not only texture your objects but
also add extra detail to them with customisable normal maps.