Creating An fbx Emission Layer For Unity Using Photoshop & Blender

Let’s look at adding an emissive layer to an fbx object. Here’s a nice 3D object we’re using as part of our walls (before emission layer):

(after emission layer):

Here’s the texture we’re using on this fbx object:

We will need to create a new png file that Unity will use as a mask for emission. The black section will be non-emissive, and the white section will emit what ever color we like. It will look like this:

We’ll use Photoshop to create this new png using the texture as a guide. To find the correct section for our mask, we’ll open our fbx model in Blender and add our texture map then locate the correct area. Then we will take the existing texture map into Photoshop and create the new emissive layers. After that we will add the new emissive texture map to Blender.

First import the fxb to Blender and switch to UV Editing mode:

Drag and drop the texture into the UV Map side:

Switch to Edit Mode on the model side:

Toggle Face Select:

Now on the model, select the face to become emissive and locate the selection on the UV Map:

In Photoshop, load the texture and create two new layers, one for non-emissive (black) and one for emissive (white):

Use the wand to select the area that will be emissive and fill it white on the first layer. On the second layer, invert the selection and fill with black:

Save our new png in the same folder as our texture and now it appears in Unity. Select the asset, turn on Emission and drop the new map into the Emission Map slot:

Adjust the color to your liking and it updates all instances of the asset: