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Mesh Painting Material

A flexible Unreal Engine material that supports both vertex and texture painting, designed for advanced surface blending on both Nanite and non-Nanite static meshes.

This material is designed to give artists more freedom when painting surfaces in UE5. It solves the limitations of traditional vertex painting by supporting both vertex color and texture color workflows — including mesh painting directly on Nanite meshes.

texture painting on nanite mesh instances

Features

  • Has the option to use either vertex painting or texture painting.

switch between vertex painting and texture painting

  • Fully set up for nanite tessellation and displacement.

before & after displacement

  • Supports up to 4 materials, or 3 materials and puddle.
puddle option

we can turn the puddle on & off

parameter groups

4 materials or 3 materials + puddle

  • The different materials can be blended using mesh painting and height data.

materials are blending with height lerp

height parameters

height blending parameters

  • The Puddle
    • uses height data to blend with the other materials realistically,
    • There are parameters to control how it looks and add dynamic ripples to it.

painting height based puddles

puddle parameters

puddle lookdev and ripple parameters

  • Custom masks can be used to add detail exactly where we want.
custom masks

using custom masks

  • Parameters to control how each material looks and feels.
lookdev parameters

material lookdev parameters

  • The weathering and custom height texture options can help break tiling repetitions.
weathering toggle

weathering toggle

custom height texture toggle

no weathering with weathering

before & after weathering

default height texture custom height texture

before & after custom height texture

  • Supports both ORDp and ORM textures.
ORDp & ORM

switch between ORM & ORDp textures

  • Parameters to adjust scaling and offset for each material separately.
uv parameters

UV parameters

  • Tri-planar support with:
    • Switchable world/local space.
    • Switchable cheap/expensive mode.
per-material tri-planar control

toggle tri-planar projection per material

global tri-planar parameters

global tri-planar projection controls

world space vs. local space triplanar

cheap triplanar expensive triplanar

cheap (1 texture lookup per texture) & expensive (3 texture lookups per texture)

Development Notes

  • Optimized for flexibility across projects and all UE5 versions.
  • Organized material graph and commented section to avoid confusion.
  • Reusable custom made material functions to avoid cluttering the material graph.
  • Cleanly grouped parameters for quick iteration and lookdev.
  • Developed with modularity and clarity for teams in mind.

the material graph

material functions

the material functions used in this master material

parameters

organized parameters for ease of use

My Tutorials on This Subject

Seeking a Full-Time Studio Position

I am actively seeking a full-time role as a “Technical Artist”, where I can contribute my skills in Unreal Engine material design and procedural tooling to a dedicated team.

If my work aligns with your studio’s needs, I would welcome the opportunity to discuss how I can add value to your projects.

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