Phillips Radio

Project Goal

I started this project with the goal of improving my texturing skills. Texturing was one of the areas I used to struggle with, so rather than choosing a complex asset, I decided to work on a radio. Its relatively simple form allowed me to focus more deeply on the texturing part.

This project was a personal challenge to push myself out of my comfort zone, experiment with different texturing techniques, and strengthen an area I wanted to improve.

Software

• Maya, ZBrush – Modelling & UV Unwrapping, Sculpting
• Substance 3D Painter, Photoshop – Texturing, Creating Alphas/Stencils
• Unreal Engine – Look Development, Material Creation & Rendering
• Photoshop – Render Composition & Post-Processing
• DaVinci Resolve – Video Editing & Composition

Reference & Inspiration

References are an important part of creating a realistic asset. I spent time gathering high-quality references to understand the radio’s materials, construction, functionality, and finer details.

Along with the references, I also chose a quality benchmark asset to set a clear target for the project. It helped inspire the overall direction and gave me a better idea of the level of quality I wanted to achieve.

For the radio itself, I used the Philips RL384/94 as my primary reference. While researching its ageing and surface condition, I came across a radio repair video that really inspired me to take the project to the next level.

The radio’s dirt, grime, scratches, and signs of repair gave it a strong sense of history, and I wanted to bring that same story and character into my own asset while maintaining a photorealistic look.

Blockout & Modelling

I started with a poly-modelling workflow in Maya, using my primary references to establish the initial blockout.

I focused on getting the proportions and overall shapes accurate before moving into finer details.

Once the blockout was established, I gradually refined the model while keeping the topology clean and controlled. Maintaining good edge flow was especially important for the high-poly stage, as it helped prevent pinching and unwanted surface issues when using subdivision.

High-poly

For the high-poly, I used the mid-poly asset as a starting point and subdivided it until I reached the desired level of smoothness and quality.

I then moved the model into ZBrush for additional sculpting and refinement. While keeping the surfaces clean, I noticed some pinching in a few complex areas, which I corrected using the HPolish brush to achieve a smoother finish.

Hard-Surface Techniques

While modelling the prop, I used a few hard-surface techniques that helped me keep the geometry simple while still achieving the level of detail I wanted, saving both time and unnecessary geometry.

For the horizontal ridges, I used separate floating geometry instead of adding extra complexity to the main mesh. Their shape and depth were then captured in the normal map during baking.

I used a similar approach for the interior screw bosses and mounting posts, adding bevels at their bases so they blended naturally into the surrounding surfaces and felt properly integrated.

Low-poly

After finishing the high-poly, I used the original mid-poly mesh as the foundation for the low-poly version. I optimised the model for a game-ready setup while keeping the silhouette and overall quality intact.

I added geometry only where it was necessary to maintain smooth curves and reduced the polygon count on simpler, flatter surfaces. This helped achieve an efficient mesh without compromising the visual quality.

Final Cleanup & Organisation

Before moving on, I did a final cleanup pass to make sure the asset was clean, organised and ready for the next stage. I checked the following:

• Organise the Outliner and scene hierarchy
• Perform Cleanup to remove N-Gons, lamina faces, etc.
• Unlock vertex normals
• Freeze and Reset Transformations
• Use consistent material names
• Delete namespaces
• Remove construction history
• Delete unnecessary nodes, objects, and unused elements

UV Unwrapping & Baking

I used Maya for the UV layout and created six UV sheets to provide enough texture space and maintain good detail across the asset. For the larger back section, I used UDIMs to give it additional texture resolution.

Tip: In UV Statistics, enable “Percentage of Used UV Space” to check how efficiently the UV space is being utilised. I generally aim for around 70–80% usage where possible.

A few things I keep in mind:

• For a 4K map size, leave around 16–32 pixels of padding between UV shells to avoid texture bleeding.
• Keep the UV orientation consistent across similar parts/materials.
• Place seams on the backside or less visible areas so they are less noticeable in the final texture.
• Check for UV stretching, overlapping, unmapped, and back-facing UVs.
• Keep UV set names consistent and remove unnecessary or duplicate sets.

Once the UVs were ready, I moved to Substance 3D Painter for baking. I baked the required mesh maps and checked the AO and Normal maps for artefacts.

After fixing the artefacts, I exported the corrected maps and reimported them into the project before starting the texturing process.

Materials

I used Substance 3D Painter along with Photoshop for the texturing stage. Before starting, I configured the Painter project with the appropriate viewport and baking settings:

• Environment: Studio Tomoco
• Base Surface: Ultra (256 SPP) for cleaner reflections
• Environment Alignment: Camera
• Normal Map Format: DirectX, based on the target engine
• Compute Tangent Space Per Fragment: Enabled for accurate normal-map evaluation

Once the setup was ready, I started building the surface details. I kept the high-poly model relatively clean and added most of the surface-level height information during texturing.

This gave me more flexibility to adjust and refine the details directly in Substance 3D Painter.

Tips: Manufactured objects have subtle imperfections from the production process, such as seam lines, punch marks, uneven depth, and small machine impressions. Similarly, handmade objects also have more organic and irregular marks.

Adding these imperfections helps break up the perfect CG look and makes the asset feel more natural and believable. Go through this website for more information.

Texturing

This is the basic texturing workflow I follow for most of my projects. Breaking the process into multiple passes allows me to focus on each stage individually and gradually build up the textures to achieve the desired quality.

• Base Colour

I started with the base colour to establish the asset’s overall look and create a clear direction for the following texturing passes.

• Base Material Pass

For the Base Material pass, I defined the material for each part based on its real-world properties. This is an important step because it sets the foundation for the rest of the texturing process.

• Colour Variation

I added subtle colour variations to break up the uniform surface and make the materials feel more natural. I kept these variations minimal to add realism without making the surface look noisy.

• Gradient & AO

I used gradients and AO to create separation, depth, and subtle sunlight-induced fading.

• Wear & Tear

For the wear and tear pass, I added damage based on how the object would be used and handled. I focused more on areas that would receive frequent contact and varied the amount of wear to make it feel natural and realistic.

• Dirt & Grime

For the dirt pass, I added grime around the areas that would be touched frequently to show regular use. I also added dust inside the radio where it would naturally build up over time.

Small changes in roughness and colour helped create subtle fingerprints and made the radio feel more used and realistic.

• Final Adjustments

This stage is optional and can be used if the overall texture needs adjustments to areas such as hue, roughness, or metallic values. We can use a Passthrough Layer to fine-tune the texture and make any necessary adjustments.

Below is the Radio Layer Breakdown:

Below is the Sticker Layer Breakdown:

After completing the texturing, I moved the asset into Unreal Engine for further material creation and look dev.

Material & Shaders

I created a Master Material in Unreal Engine to make the look-development process more flexible.

Substance Painter textures don’t always look exactly the same once they are brought into Unreal or another rendering environment, so having a dedicated material setup allows me to tweak and fine-tune the textures directly in Unreal until I achieve the desired result.

Below is the Master Material Instance:

Enhancing glossiness by adding a subtle colour tint to the roughness channel.

Lighting & Rendering

Lighting plays a major role in presenting the final asset. I experimented with different lighting setups to make sure the materials and surface details were clearly visible and the overall look matched the quality I was aiming for.

I used Unreal Engine’s lighting system and created separate levels with customised lighting and camera setups for different shots. I also adjusted the camera settings to improve the composition and presentation.

Tip: Focus and aperture can help create a more realistic and cinematic image. Subtle Panini or lens distortion can also add natural optical imperfections to the final render.

Below is the Unreal Lighting Breakdown:

Post-Processing

For the images, I finalised the composition in Photoshop, while for the videos, I used DaVinci Resolve. I added the final colour grading and finishing touches to both the renders and videos.

Below are videos of the Final Image Post-Processing & Post-Processing in DaVinci Resolve:

Conclusion

Creating a convincing prop starts with good references, careful observation, a solid blockout, and a strong understanding of materials.

Beyond the technical aspects, I believe storytelling is what gives a prop its character. Small details that show how an object was used, aged, or maintained can make it feel more believable, meaningful, and lived-in.

Finally, presentation is just as important as the creation process. Good lighting and look development can bring out the details and significantly improve how the final asset is perceived, so it’s worth spending enough time on the final presentation.

Thank you for taking the time to read my article. I hope you found some useful ideas that you can apply to your own workflow.

I’d also like to thank Games Artist for the opportunity to share my project breakdown.