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Substance Painter Help Sheet

This document provides an introduction and overview of key concepts and tools in Substance Painter. It discusses layers, the shelf, brush tools, projection, polygon fill, clone tool, particles, generators, smart materials, quick masking, working with opacity, anchors, and exporting maps. The document also provides a step-by-step process for painting a fan model in Substance Painter, including preparing the model, baking maps, building up materials, reusing assets, and updating/exporting the model.

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dachi tavartkiladze
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562 views5 pages

Substance Painter Help Sheet

This document provides an introduction and overview of key concepts and tools in Substance Painter. It discusses layers, the shelf, brush tools, projection, polygon fill, clone tool, particles, generators, smart materials, quick masking, working with opacity, anchors, and exporting maps. The document also provides a step-by-step process for painting a fan model in Substance Painter, including preparing the model, baking maps, building up materials, reusing assets, and updating/exporting the model.

Uploaded by

dachi tavartkiladze
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Introduction to Substance Painter

- FlippedNormals

Introduction
01 - Introduction and UI
Concepts
- Substance PBR Guide​ - Must-read
- Painter is entirely procedural
- We don't paint maps - we paint materials

Hotkeys
- Select texture sets - ​Ctrl Alt RMB
- Isolate Texture Set - ​Alt Q
- Next Channels - ​C
- Previous Channel - ​Shift C
- Next baked channel - ​B
- Previous Baked Channel ​- Shift B
- Material - ​M
- Precision with sliders - Hold down ​Shift w
​ hile sliding

02 - Layers
- A ​Fill-Layer ​is a material
- You will base most of your work on fill layers
- Disable the channels you don’t need for ​Fill-Layers​, to keep it clean.

03 - The Shelf
- Import a resource by dragging it from the explorer/finder into the shelf
- Change it from ​undefined ​to what you’re importing (​texture​ for textures,
environment ​for hdris, etc)

04 - Brush tool
- Brush tool -​ 1
- Resize - ​Ctrl RMB left/right
- Hardness - ​RMB up/down
- Rotate - ​Ctrl LMB up/down
- Flow - ​Ctrl LMB left
- Straight line - ​Shift LMB
- Lazy Mouse - ​D
- Symmetry - ​L
- Flip Colors - ​X
- Color picker - ​P

05 - Projection
- Projection Tool - ​3
- Import images into the shelf
- Drag the images into the slot of the layer you want (color, height, etc)

Navigation
- Rotate - ​S + LMB
- Scale - ​S + RMB
- Move - ​S + MMB
- Snap -​ S +Shift + LMB

06 - Polygon Fill
- Hotkey ​4

07 - Clone Tool
- Hotkey ​6
- V ​to sample
- Non Destructive: New ​Layer - Blending Mode: Passthrough

08 - Particles
- Works with Brush, Eraser, Projection
- Try out different presets under the ​Shelf

09 - Generators, Filters & Mask Editor


- Make a new layer on top, set to ​Multiply ​(blending mode) and use as an eraser
- Remember to check the mask map - not material
- Alt Click​ on the mask to see the mask
- Useful generators:
- Light
- 3d Linear
- Mask Editor
- Metal Edges

10 - Smart Materials, Smart Masks & Instances


- A ​Smart Materials ​is a collection of layers with specific settings saved into a
material.
- Making a ​Smart Material​: Group everything - ​RMB ​- ​Smart Material
- In the Layer stack, ​RMB ​- ​Instantiate Across Texture Sets
11 - Quick Masking
- Y ​to switch to quick mask edit mode - this will allow you to paint a temporary
mask.
- U ​to switch back to your previous tool and paint across that mask.
- Y ​to disable the mask.
- I ​to invert the mask while in quick mask edit mode.

12 - Working with Opacity


- Shader Settings ​- ​prb_rough_with_alpha_blending
- Texture Set Settings ​- add ​Opacity
- Make a new fill layer an en
- Enable ​‘Op’

13 - Using Anchors
- Make a new layer where you paint normal maps
- Fx Stack​ -​ Add anchor point
- Add a ​Mask Editor
- Scroll to the very bottom​: ​Micro Normal - Anchor Point​ - Select your anchor
point
- Reference Channel: Normal
- Scroll up ​- ​Micro Normal: ‘On’

Painting the Fan


01 - Preparing our model in Maya
- Give each part you want as a ​Texture Set ​a different material and color. Names are
important. Materials have two functions:
- ID Masks
- Texture Sets
- Make sure you also smooth the normals
- Export out two models:
- Mesh names end with ‘_low’
- Mesh names end with ‘_high’

02 - Baking
We bake to get mesh information into texture maps.
Elaborate video on what each map does:
- Texture Maps Explained - Essential for All Texture Artists
- Change ​‘Match’ ​to ​‘By Mesh Name’ ​- Under ​Common
Change ​Color Source ​- under ​ID

03 - Painted Metal
- Methodically build up materials with fill layers.
- Every material should be grouped and every layer named.
- Look at real-world reference as much as you can.
- Think about how materials layer in the real world. Does the metal come
before or after the paint? Where is the rust?

04 - Cables
- Keep some materials simpler. If you have visual complexity everywhere, the
viewer’s eyes get tired.

05 - Stealing Materials
- Be a lazy texture artist!
- Reuse as much as you can.

06 - Brass
- The roughness map is really one of the most important maps!
- Keep the color clean and put variation in the roughness map.

07- Copper
- Keep a time budget in mind. If you have a simple piece which isn’t seen a lot, make a
simple material and move on. Spend your time on the important parts.

08 - Logo
- Make a ​black Fill Layer
- Make a black mask for the ​Fill Layer
- Mask out the ​Fill Layer​ with the provided stencil
(_materials\images\Marelli_Logo.png)
- Adjust the ​Height ​of the ​Fill Layer​ to make it go in or out of the material.
09 - Updating the Model
- You will often need to update the model: UVs changed, normals edited, model
subdivided, etc.
- SAVE YOUR PAINTER PROJECT BEFORE UPDATING.
- Edit ​- ​Project Configuration
- Select a new model
- Enable ​‘Preserve Strokes Position on Mesh’
- Hit ​OK​.
- Go to ​Texture Set Settings​ - ​Bake Mesh Maps​ and rebake all the maps using the
same settings as before.

10 - Iray
- GPU renderer which ships with Painter.
- Very easy and fast!
- Hit F10 to use Iray. F9 to go back to painting.
- Change which HDRi used to drastically change the look.
- Use DOF to add realism. You control it with the aperture slider.
- Set focus point with ​Ctrl MMB

11 - Exporting Maps
- File - Export Maps ​or C
​ trl Shift E
- Change ​Config ​based on where you’re using the maps
- You can change the texture resolution per texture set.
- Depending on your GPU, you can export out 8k.
- For most workflows, ​8-bit PNG ​is fine.
- For height maps, you want at least ​16-bit EXR​ files.

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