This tutorial will show you how to create a grid texture in Affinity Photo. You will learn how to create a grid texture in Affinity Photo and use it in Blender and Unreal Engine. The final render was done in Unreal Engine 5.5.
Grid Texture
I begin with a 2×2 document in Affinity Photo – you can use whatever Photo editing software you have access to
In my case, I will use a 2000px x 2000px document just to help avoid blurriness
I drag out Guidelines to determine the four quadrants of the document
I make a new Layer
I make a 1000px x 1000px square and fill it with white
I duplicate this layer, move it to the right, and fill it with black
I duplicate both layers, rotate them 180-degrees and move them into place
I group the layers and make sure the Blending Mode is set to Normal
I export this as a PNG
This will be my texture
Texture for Blender
To use this grid texture in Blender, import the texture into the Shader Editor and connect it to the Base Color of the Principled Shader
Change the 2D projection to Box
I also add the Texture Coordinates and Mapping nodes and set the Texture Coordinate to Object
I rescale the Texture to 0.9
Texture for UE5
In Unreal Engine, I import the texture into Unreal Engine
I right-click and make a new material and open it up
I add a Texture Object node and open the texture in the Detail Panel
I then add a World Align Textures node which will help the texture properly wrap around the objects
I connect the Texture Object to the Texture Object input
I add a Constant by holding down my 1-key and left-clicking – this will tell Unreal what the size of the Texture should be
I change the Value to 100 in the Details Panel – this will align it to the grid in Unreal
I connect this node to the Texture Size of the World Aligned Texture
I add a World Position node and connect it to the World Position input
If I plug the XYZ Texture into the Base Color, I can now see my Texture
I hold down the M-key and left-click to add a Multiply node – this will help me to change the color later
I connect the XYZ Texture to the A input of the Multiply node
I add a Vector Parameter node and rename it to Color – this is what will allow me to change the color for Material Instances
I connect the Vector Parameter to the B input
I connect the Multiply node to the Base Color
To see the Texture, I change the Default Value of the Material in the Details Panel to a midtone gray
To control the Roughness, I hold down my 1-key and left-click
I connect this Constant node to the Roughness input
In order to have access to the Roughness in the Material Instance, I right-click and choose Convert to Parameter – naming it to Roughness
I save the Material
Back on the Level, I right-click on the Material and make a Material Instance which I drag onto the Cube
I open the Material Instance and activate the Roughness and Color Parameters
I can now change the Roughness – a value of 1 is completely rough and a value of zero is completely glossy
I can now change the Color which will add a tint to the white part of the Material