Embroidery effect

[joanna_kulpa]

Hi,
I'm trying to acheive embroidery effect on fabric. I need to do it in the most effective and simple way. For now the only thing I came up with and tried is I used a photo of embroidered pattern, turned it into bump map and applied to texture (which was a pink texture of the letters with transparent background; 0,5 mm from the fabric). I'm not happy with the effect, doesn't look good... Anyone has ever done it? Any settings suggestions? I wish to do it without the need to have photo of the embroidered letters...
My try:


What I want:

[Pixelcon]

It presumably requires quite a high reflectivity but more importantly an anisotropic effect (which would stretch the reflections in the opposite direction of the stitches). Like hair.

[konstantin_chaos]

Hi,

Your approach is sound.
However, generating accurate textures for the embroidery is the main challenge here.
The better the textures, the better the end result would be.
One great tool for that is Adobe Substance Sampler. You can check out the following video for more information - https://youtu.be/rt41h6GTbHg?si=evpDYGyezw0a7Ils

I also thought that you could use a couple of simple gradient guide texture that represent the orientation of the stitches.
However when I tried it I realised that Illustrator can not export high enough quality gradients for this to work.

The idea was that I can use the following two maps to produce the stitches pattern, and the bump.
The left one I use for reflection anisotropy and also to remap a simple stitches gradient along the length of the lines.
The right one is for the overall bump curvature. Again I applied a curve to it and combined it with the stitches...



Unfortunately lack of color range and small defects in the gradient are causing big issues in my procedural shader.


In theory, if you can generate high quality gradient textures (big resolution and high dynamic range, preferably 32bit) this technique could work but I don't see a good way to do it.

Your best bet is to include the stitches in the bump/normal map texture and work from there.
As for the materials - you should blend two. The base fabric material would be more diffuse while the one for the stitches must be more reflective - you could even make it metallic.

I hope that makes sense,
Konstantin

[joanna_kulpa]

konstantin_chaos Thank you so much for this reply, it is incedibly helpful, you have no idea!! I am not skilled in creating complex vray textures from scratch and I will definitely study and try all that you wrote. You pointed some imperfections in your attempt but homestly that would be good enough for me, this would never be rendered from very close.
I also recently discovered that embroidery effect is possible to create in photoshop, and I'm waiting for my company to purchase a license for me to try it hahah we'll see how it goes