Exporting Packages In Substance Painter: A Step-By-Step Guide

how sould you export your package in substance painter

Substance Painter is a powerful tool for creating realistic and stylized textures for 3D assets. It offers a wide range of export options to suit different platforms and engines. The first step to exporting your Substance Painter assets is to choose the right output template for your target platform or engine. Substance Painter provides presets for popular platforms such as Unity, Unreal Engine, Maya, and Blender, and allows for customization of export formats and settings. This article will guide you through the process of exporting your package in Substance Painter, covering the basics of exporting, important considerations, and tips and tricks to optimize your workflow.

Characteristics Values
First Step Choose the right output template for your target platform or engine
Platforms Unity, Unreal Engine, Maya, Blender
Export Process File > Export Textures > Select output template, file format, resolution, and destination folder
Multiple Exports Export multiple texture sets at once or use batch export for multiple projects
Import to Unity Ensure project settings match the output template, drag and drop exported files, create a new material, and assign textures
Import to Unreal Engine Similar to Unity, use Substance plugin for direct import
Import to Maya Use compatible renderer and shader, e.g., Arnold template with Arnold renderer and aiStandardSurface shader
Import to Blender Use Cycles or Eevee renderers with Principled BSDF shader, use Substance plugin for direct import
Export Dialog Customize format and settings, enable/disable texture set export, adjust settings for each texture set
Export Formats PSD (Photoshop), USD, USDz (Apple AR), bitmap files
Texture Outputs Color, Normal Map, Packed Texture (Ambient Occlusion, Roughness, Metallic), optional Emissive texture

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Choosing the right output template

When it comes to exporting your package in Substance Painter, choosing the appropriate output template is crucial. This allows you to modify the names, formats, and configurations of the exported textures. Substance Painter offers a variety of preset output templates for popular platforms such as Unity, Unreal Engine, Maya, and Blender. These preset templates are easily accessible through the Presets list, which also includes any custom templates you have created.

To choose the right output template, consider your target platform or engine. Each platform may have specific requirements, such as compatible project settings and texture formats. For instance, when importing assets into Unity, ensure that your project settings align with the chosen output template. If you used the Unity HDRP template, you must have the High Definition Render Pipeline package installed in your Unity project. Similarly, for Unreal Engine, if you used the Unreal Engine 4 Packed template, set the texture format to BC7 and the sRGB option to false.

You can also create custom output templates to suit your specific needs. Custom templates provide flexibility and allow you to manage names, formats, and configurations according to your requirements. These templates are saved as individual files and can be shared with other Substance 3D Painter users. When using custom templates, take advantage of the export preview feature to check how textures will appear on different platforms before exporting.

Additionally, utilize the same naming convention for texture sets and files across platforms for easier identification and assignment. This simplifies the process of importing and exporting assets and ensures a seamless workflow. Remember that the output template you select will determine the textures that will be generated and their composition, so choose wisely based on your target platform and specific requirements.

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Exporting multiple texture sets

When you are satisfied with your work in Substance 3D Painter, you can export your textures to bitmap files. These bitmap files can be used in almost any 3D software. To export your textures, go to File > Export Textures or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + E. This will open the Export Textures dialog, which has three tabs: Settings, Output Templates, and List of Exports.

The Settings tab is where you can enable or disable the export of texture sets and adjust settings for each texture set. You can also use Global settings to adjust settings for all texture sets at once. The Output Templates tab is where you can manage your templates, which tell Painter how to organize your textures for export. You can use preset templates or create your own.

If you want to export a single texture set for your object in Substance Painter while still using material IDs, you can follow these steps: First, temporarily assign a simple single material to your object and export that version as an .fbx file. Next, create and assign a separate Multi-subobject material with standard materials and a different diffuse colour for each polygon/material ID. Export this version to an .fbx file as well. In Substance Painter, create a new project and select the single material version. Bake your maps (except the ID map) with this single material version. Now, open the "Bake Mesh Maps" dialogue and check the ID map while unchecking all other map types. Load the Multi-subobject material version in the slot for "High Definition Meshes". You should now have a single Texture Set with the ability to use a colour selection mask in Substance Painter.

If you have multiple texture sets that you want to merge, you can do so in Designer or Photoshop. First, export your textures from Substance Painter with transparency and padding. Then, open the files in Photoshop and use the Load Files into Photoshop Layers function. Alternatively, you can export your current textures as document channels, export a plane from any 3D app, and create a new Painter Project with this plane as the mesh. Import the textures, set up layers for each texture, and export.

To improve efficiency when exporting and importing Substance Painter assets, you can use the same naming convention for texture sets and files across different platforms and engines. You can also use the export presets feature to save output settings and the export preview feature to check how textures look on different platforms before exporting. Additionally, the Substance Automation Toolkit (SAT) can be used to automate and customize export and import processes.

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Bitmap files

When exporting bitmap files from Substance 3D Painter, it's important to note that you are exporting from a Graph, not a Package. This is because a package does not generate image content by itself. The number and resolution of exported bitmaps are determined by the Outputs of a Graph. The file type is set for all Outputs/bitmaps.

To access the Export Dialog, you can go to File > Export Textures, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + E. The Export Textures dialog has three tabs: Settings, Output Templates, and List of Exports. In the Settings tab, you can enable or disable the export of texture sets and adjust settings for each texture set. The Output Templates tab is where you can manage your templates and tell Painter how to organize your textures for export. You can use preset templates or create your own.

When exporting, you can choose the output template, file format, resolution, and destination folder. You can also export multiple texture sets simultaneously or use the batch export option to export multiple projects at once.

It's important to understand the difference between exporting and publishing. When publishing SBSAR files, you publish the package, not the graph. All graphs contained in a package will be included in the SBSAR file, and any exposed settings or parameters will still be available. Bitmaps, on the other hand, are locked in resolution and functionality. They are a snapshot of the state of your graph at export time.

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File formats

When it comes to exporting your package in Substance Painter, the specific file formats and output templates you use will depend on the target platform or engine you're working with. Substance Painter supports a range of file formats, including bitmap files, PSD (Photoshop) files, and USD format.

To begin the export process, go to "File > Export Textures" and select the output template, file format, resolution, and destination folder. Substance Painter provides a range of preset templates for popular platforms such as Unity, Unreal Engine, Maya, and Blender, which dictate how your textures are organised for export. You can also create your own custom templates or modify existing ones to suit your specific needs.

If you're exporting to bitmap files, you can use these across almost any 3D software. You can customise the format and settings of the exported files, including the bit depth, which affects the quality and file size of your textures.

For PSD (Photoshop) files, each texture set from a project is exported as a single PSD file, containing all the exported textures associated with that texture set. Folders are automatically converted as groups if the export format is PSD.

If you're working with USD format, checking the USD asset box allows you to export in this format while taking into account any template or parameter configurations you've set up. This includes exporting a .usda file that points to the texture maps folder, an optional .usd file that assembles materials with the original mesh file, and another optional .usd file that includes the mesh used in the project.

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Importing to Unreal Engine

To import your Substance Painter assets into Unreal Engine, you need to ensure your project settings match the output template you used. For example, if you used the Unreal Engine 4 Packed template, you must set the texture format to BC7 and the sRGB option to false.

You can then import your assets by dragging and dropping the exported texture files into the Unreal Engine content browser. Next, create a new material and assign the textures to the corresponding slots. You can also use the Substance plugin for Unreal Engine to import your Substance Painter projects directly and adjust the parameters in Unreal Engine.

To import your textures into an open Unreal Engine project, you can use the Substance Painter plugin. This will create a connection between Substance Painter and Unreal Engine and send a command to Unreal Engine to import the textures. You can download the plugin and place the folder in your Substance Painter plugin folder. You can then open Unreal Engine with the project where you want to import the textures. In Substance Painter, go to Window > Views > Send To Unreal Engine. A panel will open, allowing you to select the Unreal Editor to send the texture to and choose which export presets to use.

To import your textures into Unreal Engine, you must first export them from Substance Painter. To do this, go to File > Export Textures (Ctrl + Shift + E). In the Export dialogue, scroll down until you find Unreal Engine 4 Packed, set your desired resolution, and click Export. This will generate four texture files: BaseColor, Normal, Emissive (optional), and a fourth one that combines Occlusion, Roughness, and Metallic.

Frequently asked questions

To export your textures from Substance Painter, go to File > Export Textures. From there, you can select the output template, file format, resolution, and destination folder. You can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + E to access the Export Textures dialog.

Substance Painter exports to a wide range of file formats, including PSD (Photoshop) files and USD format. A higher bit depth provides a higher-quality texture but can increase file sizes dramatically.

To import your Substance Painter assets into Unity, first ensure that your project settings are compatible with the output template used. For example, if you used the Unity HDRP template, you need to have the High Definition Render Pipeline package installed. Then, simply drag and drop the exported texture files into your Unity project folder and create a new material.

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