Prop Texturing in Substance Designer – Lee Borrer by Levelup.Digital

This course is a straight-up, no-fluff walkthrough on creating a realistic, smashed-up phone box entirely in Substance Designer. Lee Borrer, a pro with years of studio experience, shows you his exact workflow for building complex props procedurally. You’ll move past basic material creation and learn how to construct an entire hero asset, complete with damage, graffiti, and weathering, all inside a node-based environment.

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Build complex, multi-element props procedurally in Substance Designer.
• Create realistic aging effects, including chipped paint, rust, and mildew.
• Design shattered glass and opacity masks for damaged surfaces.
• Expose parameters to create multiple variations of your prop.
• Integrate Substance Designer outputs with Marmoset Toolbag for final presentation.

✅ Requirements

• Skills: Basic knowledge of the software used (Substance Designer, 3ds Max).
• Tools: A 3-button mouse is recommended for navigation.
• Hardware: A computer capable of running Substance Designer and 3ds Max smoothly.

📝 Description

This isn’t a beginner’s guide to nodes. It’s a deep dive into a professional’s actual production pipeline. Lee starts with gathering reference and a simple blockout, then systematically builds up the phone box’s components. You’ll see how he constructs the metal frame, the glass panels, and the internal elements, all procedurally.

The real value is in the details. Lee shares his personal tricks for creating convincing graffiti, realistic shattered glass, and layered weathering effects. He shows you how to use history layers to non-destructively iterate on your design. By the end, you’ll know how to expose key parameters—like the amount of glass breakage or mildew growth—to create a whole family of variations from a single graph. The final step covers exporting your work into Marmoset Toolbag for a polished portfolio render.

🧑‍🎓 Who this course is for

• Artists who know the basics of Substance Designer and want to tackle a complex, hero prop project.
• Game environment artists looking to add procedural prop creation to their skillset.
• Anyone interested in a professional, step-by-step workflow for creating realistic damage and weathering.

🧑‍🏫 About the Author

Lee Borrer is a 3D Artist based in Brighton, England, with over 5 years of industry experience. He has worked on a diverse range of projects, from military mixed reality simulators to casual mobile racing games. His client list includes major names like Channel 4, Hasbro, and Atari. Lee specializes in material creation using Substance Designer and is passionate about the artistic and technical challenges of creating immersive, believable 3D art.

🏁 Final Result

• A fully procedural, portfolio-ready phone box asset with multiple exposed parameters for variation.
• A deep understanding of how to approach complex prop texturing in Substance Designer.