Chapter 3 – LOD and texel density considerations

Chapter 3: LOD & Texel Density Considerations

Created by Sarah Choi (prompt writer using ChatGPT)

LOD, Texel Density, and PBR Textiles for Costume Concept Artists

Whether you live mostly in early blue-sky exploration or deep in production concepting, your costume designs are ultimately headed toward one place: a real-time 3D asset that has to survive different camera distances, lighting conditions, and platforms. That means Level of Detail (LOD), texel density, and PBR material behavior are not just 3D problems—they’re design problems too.

This article is written equally for concept artists on the ideation side and those on the production side. We’ll unpack how LOD and texel density affect costume design, then dive into Material IDs and PBR for textiles, with a special focus on roughness, sheen, and anisotropy.

1. Why Costume Concept Artists Should Care About LOD & Texel Density

It’s easy to think:

“LOD and texel density are for modelers and tech artists. I just paint cool outfits.”

In practice, if your design ignores how the asset will be seen and shaded in-engine, two problems show up later:

Detail that never reads – Intricate embroidery, micro-pleating, or subtle print patterns collapse into mush at game distance.
Inconsistent material read – The same jacket looks like denim in one shot, vinyl in another, just because the roughness/sheens weren’t thought through.

When you understand LOD and texel density, you can:

Place detail where it counts for the camera distances the character actually appears at.
Plan your material hierarchy so that cotton, leather, silk, and metal all read correctly under PBR.
Communicate clearly to 3D artists via callouts and Material ID notes, so they know which textile should be treated how.

You’re not trying to think like a rendering engineer—you’re just bringing enough tech awareness into your design choices and paint decisions that what you paint can be built faithfully.

2. LOD in Practice: How Distance Eats Detail

LOD (Level of Detail) means the asset exists in multiple versions that swap based on distance or importance. A hero costume might have:

LOD0 – Full silhouette, folds, trims, embroidery, and lush material breakup.
LOD1–2 – Simplified folds, merged accessories, reduced geometry.
LOD3+ – Just the big shapes and simple material blocks.

As a costume concept artist, imagine three viewing modes:

Poster view – Close-up, hero key art, or dialogue scenes.
Gameplay view – Medium distance third-person or isometric camera.
Crowd / far view – Background NPC, distant party members, or RTS scale.

Ask yourself for each design:

At poster view, what micro-details define the textile (weave, embroidery, tiny scuffs)?
At gameplay view, what still reads (broad highlight behavior, main color blocking, major seams)?
At crowd view, what’s left (pure silhouette and big material groups: cloth vs metal vs leather)?

A healthy LOD-aware design makes sure that each distance has a clear read, and that you’re not relying on thread-count detail that will never survive beyond a close-up.

LOD and fabric choices

Some textiles are naturally suited for certain LOD expectations:

Hero garments (LOD0 focus) – Satin, velvet, sequined panels, embroidered trims, patterned brocades, complex layering.
Background garments (higher LODs only) – Simpler cotton shirts, broad wool coats, cleaner silhouettes, minimal micro-detail.

As you design, tag mentally (or in writing) which parts of the costume are:

High-importance, close-up dependent (ornate bodice embroidery, custom trim on cuffs).
Medium-importance (overall fabric type—denim vs wool, leather paneling).
Low-importance (fine stitching, tiny logos, micro-print on a sock).

This mental tagging will guide what information must be preserved in your concept, and what can be treated as “bonus” that might not make it beyond LOD0.

3. Texel Density: How Much Texture Space Your Fabric Gets

Texel density is the amount of texture resolution (pixels/texels) applied to a given area of the 3D model. In simpler artist terms:

It’s how sharp or blurry your fabric detail will look on the character.

If one sleeve has twice the texel density of the torso, the same embroidery will look razor sharp on the sleeve and muddy on the torso. That inconsistency instantly breaks believability.

Why texel density matters to you as a concept artist

You don’t determine exact texel density numbers, but your design choices affect where resolution needs to be spent.

Ask yourself:

Where is the player’s eye supposed to go? Those areas should support sharper material detail.
Are you relying on micro-detail like tiny print or super-fine lace? That requires generous texel budget or baked-in detail.
Are different pieces of the same material at wildly different scales? A 2k brocade pattern on the chest and a zoomed-out version on the skirt will look mismatched.

You can help production by:

Keeping pattern scales consistent across garments that share material.
Using clear reference to indicate the size of motifs (e.g., “floral motif ≈ 3–4 cm across in real life”).
Avoiding reliance on details that would need absurd texel density to read in gameplay.

Texel density and fabric detail strategy

Think about fabric detail in three levels:

Macro – Big panels, color blocks, large patterns, major seam directions.
Meso – Folds, wear zones, stitch lines, lace edges, pleats.
Micro – Weave grain, tiny embroidery threads, micro noise, pores.

Macro and meso details are safe at most reasonable texel densities. Micro-detail is where things get dangerous. If your whole design identity hangs on a microscopic jacquard pattern, it may disappear at the first LOD switch.

In your concept, make sure:

Macro detail drives character identity.
Meso detail supports realism and richness.
Micro detail is treated as enhancement, not the foundation of the design.

4. Material IDs: Speaking a Clear Language to 3D & Lookdev

Material IDs are basically masks: each color in an ID map corresponds to a different material slot in texturing software. For costume work, think of them as clean, unambiguous zones of textile identity:

Red = Base cotton undershirt
Blue = Leather harness
Green = Satin sash
Yellow = Brass hardware

Even if you never paint an actual ID map, the same thinking is powerful in concept.

How concept artists can leverage Material IDs

Clean material separation in your painting – Avoid ambiguous edges where it’s unclear if a section is leather or cloth. Sharpen those borders.
Color-coded callout sheets – Include a small Material ID diagram next to your costume, using flat colors to show which zones are which material.
Per-ID notes for PBR properties – For each ID color, you can attach notes like “Rough matte cotton, low sheen” or “Polished leather, medium gloss.”

This tells 3D/lookdev exactly how many materials they’re dealing with, and how each should behave under PBR. It also naturally dovetails into talking about roughness, sheen, and anisotropy.

5. PBR for Textiles: The Core Maps You Should Think About

PBR (Physically Based Rendering) aims to model how light interacts with real materials in a consistent, energy-conserving way.

As a costume concept artist, you don’t need all the math. You mainly need to understand what the important maps represent, so your painting and notes align with how the engine will shade the textile.

Common PBR maps relevant to textiles:

Base Color / Albedo – The “diffuse” color of the textile without baked lighting.
Normal Map – Surface bumps and folds (from weave grain to stitched seams) that affect how light hits.
Roughness Map – How blurry or sharp the reflections are (micro-surface detail).
Metalness Map – Almost always 0 for textiles; only hardware like buckles or metallic threads go toward 1.
Ambient Occlusion (AO) – Where light is blocked in creases and overlaps.
Additional channels in some shaders – Sheen, sheen tint, anisotropy, subsurface, etc.

For most cloth:

Treat it as non-metal (dielectric).
Focus your design thinking on roughness, sheen, and anisotropy as the key levers for textile believability.

6. Roughness: The Personality of Your Fabric’s Highlights

If you remember one PBR map for cloth, make it roughness.

In simple terms:

Roughness controls how sharp or blurred reflections and highlights are.

Low roughness (smooth surface) – Tight, bright, crisp highlights (think polished leather or vinyl).
High roughness (rough surface) – Broad, soft, diffuse highlights (think fleece hoodie or brushed cotton).

Roughness across common costume textiles

Think in a simple spectrum:

Fleece / Brushed Wool / Heavy Knit – High roughness, almost no sharp spec.
Plain Cotton / Linen – Mid–high roughness, soft but readable sheen in strong light.
Tightly Woven Dress Shirt Cotton – Mid roughness, slightly clearer highlight along folds.
Silk / Satin / Taffeta – Lower roughness, sharper highlight ridges along folds.
Oiled Leather / Polished Boots – Low roughness, distinctive crisp specular.
Vinyl / Latex / PVC – Very low roughness, mirror-like, eye-catching reflections.

Painting roughness behavior in concepts

You don’t paint a roughness map explicitly in your concept art, but you do paint the effect of roughness:

On a matte wool cloak, highlights are broad and subtle. Folds are defined mostly by value changes and ambient light, not tiny sharp white streaks.
On a satin ribbon, highlights form bright, narrow bands along the fold curves and shift dramatically with angle.
On leather boots, you see small, sharp hits on the toe and heel where the polish has built up.

To communicate roughness clearly:

Use consistent highlight sharpness within the same material ID.
Avoid mixing ultra-sharp highlight strokes on parts meant to be rough, or vice versa.
Show roughness variation where the fabric has wear: elbows slightly smoother on a jacket, seat of pants more polished, etc.

Roughness, LOD, and texel density together

At a distance, micro surface detail blurs together. Instead of painting microscopic weave, design with macro roughness zones:

“Upper sleeves: slightly smoother due to friction with armor.”
“Lower cloak edge: more frayed, more rough, catching light in a diffuse band.”

In callouts, you can note this as:

Roughness: Higher at hem, lower on shoulders.

This gives 3D/texturing a clear directive regardless of how much texel density they actually get.

7. Sheen: The Soft Halo of Cloth

Sheen is a subtle additional reflection that many cloth shaders use to mimic the way fibers catch grazing light. It’s separate from the main specular and often softer and more directional.

You’ve seen cloth sheen when:

Velvet or velour glows softly at the edges when backlit.
Satin creates a colored fringe along folds.
A wool coat has a faint halo under strong rim light.

Sheen vs roughness in your mental model

Roughness – Primary control of specular highlight sharpness on the surface.
Sheen – A secondary, fiber-based highlight that kicks in mostly at grazing angles.

Some engines expose sheen as:

Sheen intensity – How strong the effect is.
Sheen tint – Color of the sheen (often related to fabric color).

Painting sheen in costume concepts

To suggest sheen:

Emphasize rim-lit edges on fabric, especially on shoulders, outer cloak edges, and contour lines where light grazes.
Use a slightly tinted light band that picks up the fabric’s base hue—e.g., a burgundy velvet cloak showing a warm red halo.
Keep the sheen soft and broad, not as sharp as a leather specular.

This tells the 3D team: “Use a cloth shader with some sheen here, not just plain diffuse with a specular highlight.”

Sheen is particularly important for:

Velvet, velour, microfibers – Deep core shadows but glowing edges.
High-end suits and dresses – Subtle premium feel via gentle cloth sheen.
Fantasy / ceremonial garments – Sheen can signal magical or royal importance.

By consistently painting this effect on specific materials, you define a visual vocabulary for cloth sheen that production can replicate.

8. Anisotropy: Directional Highlights from Weave & Fiber

Anisotropy describes how highlights stretch and flow in a particular direction due to the underlying fiber or microstructure.

Think of:

Hair highlights following the strand direction.
Brushed metal with streaked reflections.
Satin or silk where the highlight seems to smear along the weave.

For textiles, anisotropy is often tied to the warp and weft of the fabric or the direction of brushed fibers.

Anisotropy in fabrics you design

You’ll most commonly see anisotropic effects in:

Satin ribbons and gowns – Highlights form elongated streaks along the length of the fabric.
Silk ties – Highlight twists as the knot turns.
Brushed cotton or wool – Softer, but still oriented along the grain.
Technical fabrics – Sportswear with directional weave, ripstop patterns, or carbon fiber elements.

Painting anisotropy cues in concepts

You don’t paint an anisotropy map, but you can shape your highlights to feel directional:

Instead of a round specular blob, paint a stretched, oval highlight aligned with the cloth’s grain.
On a skirt or cloak, ensure highlights flow along the fabric’s fall, not randomly.
Use subtle streaking within the highlight to suggest fine parallel fibers.

In callouts, you can write notes like:

Anisotropic cloth highlight along warp direction. See arrows.

and literally draw small arrows indicating the intended highlight direction.

Anisotropy, LOD, and texel density

At lower LODs or lower texel densities:

Strong anisotropy may alias or look noisy.
Very fine directional weave might not be resolvable.

So, for costumes that spend most of their life at mid/far distances, it’s better to:

Suggest anisotropy mainly on hero regions (collars, chest panels seen in close-up).
Keep directional patterns large enough to be resolved at the planned texel density.

9. Bridging Concept and Production: Two Lenses on the Same Problem

You might lean more toward early ideation or toward production concepting, but both benefit from the same understanding.

If you’re on the concepting / exploration side

Your primary job is to find the visual identity of the costume, but you can make smarter choices by:

Choosing fabric types whose roughness and sheen support the character’s role and mood.
Ensuring detail placement respects camera distance and doesn’t rely on invisible micro-elements.
Using lighting in your paintings to demonstrate how the textiles react—not just what color they are.

You don’t have to annotate every tiny thing at this stage, but you can already:

Keep material separation clear.
Think in Macro/Meso/Micro detail levels.
Avoid designs that are impossible to build within realistic texel budgets.

If you’re on the production / implementation side

Your role is to translate the design into something buildable, which means:

Creating material callouts with:
- Material IDs and flat-color diagrams.
- Roughness notes (“matte”, “semi-gloss”, “glossy”) and examples.
- Sheen and anisotropy directions where needed.
Being explicit about pattern scale and how it should look at different view distances.
Providing reference sheets of real fabrics under light, so the 3D/texturing team can match PBR behavior.

You’re the bridge. You make sure that the dreamy concept painting becomes a practical specification.

10. Practical Ways to Train Your Eye

You don’t need a PBR lab to get better at this. You can start training your eye with simple studies and exercises.

Exercise 1: Roughness strip studies

Take photos or do paint studies of:

A fleece hoodie
A cotton T-shirt
A satin dress
A leather boot
A vinyl raincoat

Put them in one row. For each, paint a small grayscale “roughness strip” underneath, from dark (low roughness) to light (high roughness), and mark where you think that fabric sits. This builds a mental scale you can reuse in callouts.

Exercise 2: Sheen edge studies

Do a series of quick value or color sketches of a cloak or jacket under strong backlight.

One version with no sheen (matte wool).
One with subtle sheen (high-end wool or microfiber).
One with strong sheen (velvet or satin).

Compare how the silhouettes change and how the emotional feel of the garment shifts.

Exercise 3: Anisotropic highlight flows

Paint a simple sleeve or ribbon and experiment with:

Circular specular highlights (no anisotropy).
Elongated highlights aligned with the length.
Highlights that twist along the length.

Feel how instantly the material starts to feel like silk or satin instead of flat cloth.

11. How to Communicate All This in Your Deliverables

You don’t have to turn every costume concept into a tech spec document. But a few small habits go a long way:

Material ID mini-map – A small flat-color diagram showing cloth types, leather, metal, etc.
Short PBR notes per material – 1–2 lines each: roughness, sheen, anisotropy, pattern scale, and any special behavior.
Light-aware painting – Use consistent highlight behavior to express roughness and sheen rather than just “white for shiny.”
LOD-aware design comments – Notes like “Embroidery only visible in close-up,” or “Pattern scale chosen to read at gameplay distance.”

These touches tell your team: you understand how your costume will live as a real-time asset, not just as a pretty image.

12. Bringing It All Together

For costume concept artists, LOD, texel density, Material IDs, and PBR aren’t separate technical silos. They’re interconnected lenses that all point to the same question:

“How does this fabric behave under light and distance, and how do I design so that behavior survives into the engine?”

LOD reminds you to design for multiple viewing distances.
Texel density reminds you to be realistic about which details can survive.
Material IDs force you to be crisp and organized about textile separation.
Roughness, sheen, and anisotropy give you the vocabulary to describe and paint how fabrics really respond to light.

As you internalize these ideas, you’ll notice your costume concepts feel more grounded and easier for 3D teams to execute. You won’t just be designing outfits—you’ll be designing materials that live, breathe, and perform inside the game or film.