Bartosz Buszman made our Tile Category One of the Best Around.
With a nice spread of Mosaics and unique, artistic tile with a Trim Sheet that lets you build your own Mosaic tiles it is no wonder that these are some of our most popular Substances this year.
Interview by Michael Haggerty
Working with Bart on this material drop was enlightening to say the least. There were so many aspects of these Tiles, especially the Mosaic and Trims that had some very steep technical needs that I was not entirely sure we would be able to overcome. Putting all of that into context, our latest materials for 2021 have been built on a relatively strict set of guidelines aimed at keeping our materials set to a uniform template with an eye towards performance and usability in any pipeline.
These mosaics presented some unique challenges that Bartosz ended up overcoming with flying colors, creating these awesome materials with parameters that never break, allowing our community to adjust these to match literally any style or setting they may need.
We were aiming for as many major styles with this sprint as we could and working with Bart here was also pretty awesome. Having created materials like this before while also being an old hand in working with art direction, he had a ton of insight into how the materials should look, where they should be sourced from and some glaring potential faux pas in some of the original references that we were thankfully able to clear up to create the eight materials on the site today! With his help we have tiles from Rome, Greece, India all featured here with the tools to really shift them to whatever style you can hope for.
All around, a truly awesome experience to bring these materials to life and I am definitely looking forward to working with Bart on more projects in the future, I had a chance to throw some interview questions his way and you can see some of his motivations and philosophies below.
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Michael Haggerty: Where are you from, what where your motivations for jumping into 3D art?
Bartosz Buszman: I’m from Poland, currently living in Warsaw. I started to be interested in 3d graphics during my studies. I studied archeology, I was always interested in photography, and the 3D graphics of that time allowed me to reconstruct the remains of archaeological cultures. During my studies, I also learned to scan objects, first for the needs of local museums, then — computer games. From that I jumped to some mobile games — Boombit Company at Gdańsk. It was a perfect job to start with, I had the opportunity to take on a number of different tasks to finally choose what I like best. Next I spend couple years at Techland Warsaw, developing Dying Light 2 and also some expansions for Dying Light 1. Currently I’m working as a material artist for Shapefarm Tokyo, and I’m loving it.
MH: You have done a ton of scan based textures! What is your general workflow and where do you see scanned textures going in the future? Any a giant library of scans?
BB: There aren’t many specials in my pipeline, I have learned a lot from Grzegorz Baran who runs his YT channel where he describes his approach to scans. I stick to the substance when it comes to make the scans tileable. I usually use substance painter for that. It just gives me the best result. Objects and scanned materials are a very good basis for further work on the direction of production, they are also an ideal reference when it comes to colors and details. You can learn a lot just by looking at information on a normal map or albedo. However, I don’t think they should be used as a ready-made piece of the environment. Of course, it all depends on the result we want to achieve, but it is always worth adding your twist to the object. At least, I like to work like this :)
MH: What inspired you to pick up Substance Designer? Did you start there or where you working with older texture development workflows before?
BB: I am no exception here, I’m inspired (and also look up ito their work!) by Daniel Thiger, Joshua Lynch, Ben Wilson, Javier Perez because they made so many awesome tutorials that are easy to follow and develop your skills. Pierre Fleau, Vincent Dérozier because of the amazing work on Assassins’ Creed Odyssey (My archeological spirit enjoyed that x2 ;D ). I started learning Substance Designer just because I sucked at making textures. I still have a lot to learn, and that is awesome :)
MH: You have recently dove into creating some really beautiful material full time. How has taking the plunge into full freelancer been? What were some of the more surprising hurdles on this route?
BB: Couple months ago I started my own company here in Poland, the whole thing was quite smooth, but it’s all thanks to my accountant! The hardest part is dividing “labor” so as not to take on too much. we only have one life, overwork is not good for relationships or health. Spending time with family or friends is important. It is worth learning to prioritize and focus on the goal. Taking 2 jobs at a time will definitely not get you there in the long run.
Absolutely agree on a new look on Work Life Balance, the post pandemic world has helped change the dynamic when it comes to that and has brought some intense scrutiny to the way we manage our time and what place work has in it. It was a fantastic sprint and I feel pretty lucky to have been able to foster such a cool working relationship with an amazing artist like this. Check out the materials below!
