Isabella Flores
Substance Painter offers a range of texturing options, including Base Color, Roughness, Metallic, Normal, Height, and Masks. The Normal Map feature in Substance Painter allows users to add intricate details to their 3D models without increasing the geometry. By default, Substance Painter separates the normal channel from the baked normal, preventing direct painting on the normal map. However, by adjusting the Texture Set settings to replace instead of combine, users can override this default behavior and paint over the baked normal map to fix issues or hide details. This process involves creating a new fill layer and placing the baked normal within the normal slot in the properties panel. Additionally, users can increase the Normal Map intensity by adding another layer and adjusting its opacity, allowing Substance Painter to automatically handle the required calculations.
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What You'll Learn
Painting over the baked normal map
In certain situations, painting over the baked normal map can be useful to hide details or fix baking issues. The default setup in Substance 3D Painter does not allow this, as it computes the normal channel and the baked normal separately. However, this behaviour can be altered via the Texture Set settings.
By default, a Texture Set is created with the normal mixing setting set to 'combine'. To override and paint over the normal map, this setting must be changed to 'replace'. This will make the normal map disappear from the viewport, but this is expected. By changing the mode to 'replace', Substance 3D Painter is instructed to only consider the normal channel and the height channel when generating the final normal map.
Next, create a new fill layer and insert the baked normal inside the "normal" slot, via the properties panel. Following this, create a new layer (regular or fill) and change its blending mode to "normal" for the normal channel. Once this setup is complete, anything painted on the normal channel will supersede the baked normal map on the layer below. This allows for the addition of intricate details and the use of smart materials, masks, and brushes to texture 3D models in real-time.
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Adjusting opacity and contrast
Adjusting Opacity
Opacity adjustments can be used to fine-tune the appearance of your normal map and enhance specific details. To adjust opacity in Substance Painter, you can follow these steps:
- Create Additional Layers: Start by adding a new layer above the layer containing your baked normal map. This new layer will allow you to adjust the opacity without directly altering the underlying normal map data.
- Set Blending Mode: Change the blending mode of the new layer to "Normal." This ensures that any adjustments made on this layer will affect the normal channel, influencing the final appearance of the normal map.
- Adjust Opacity: With the new layer selected, adjust the opacity slider to increase or decrease the opacity of the underlying normal map. This adjustment will create a more subtle or pronounced effect, depending on your desired outcome.
Adjusting Contrast
Contrast adjustments can enhance the depth and definition of your normal map. Here are some considerations for adjusting contrast:
- Understanding Contrast: Contrast refers to the difference in colour or brightness between the lightest and darkest areas of an image. In the context of normal maps, contrast adjustments can affect the perceived depth and intensity of the map.
- Using Contrast Carefully: While increasing contrast can make certain details stand out, excessive contrast adjustments can also introduce artefacts or distortions in your normal map. It is important to strike a balance and avoid overly aggressive contrast enhancements.
- Layer Adjustments: Similar to opacity adjustments, it is recommended to create additional layers when adjusting contrast. This allows you to adjust the contrast of specific elements or details without affecting the entire normal map.
- Consider Map Balance: When working with landscapes or environments, consider the overall balance of your normal map. A normal map with consistent contrast throughout can help maintain a sense of visual cohesion. Adjust contrast gradually and selectively to avoid abrupt changes.
By carefully adjusting opacity and contrast, you can refine the appearance of your normal maps in Substance Painter, adding depth, detail, and realism to your 3D creations. Remember to experiment and adjust settings gradually to achieve the desired visual outcome.
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Baking a high poly mesh to a low poly mesh
Baking is the process of saving information from a 3D mesh to a texture file (bitmap). This process typically involves two meshes: a high poly mesh and a low poly mesh. The high poly mesh, with its many polygons, can display high-resolution 3D details, while the low poly mesh, with fewer polygons, is cheaper to store and render. Baking allows you to combine the benefits of both, transferring the high poly mesh details onto the low poly mesh.
To bake a high poly mesh to a low poly mesh in Substance Painter, follow these steps:
- Export the high poly mesh from ZBrush.
- Export the low poly mesh from ZBrush as well.
- Import the low poly mesh into Maya or another modelling tool.
- Create UVs in Maya for the low poly mesh and export it.
- Create a new Substance Painter project and select the low poly mesh with UVs.
- Set up the Texture Set Settings to allow painting over the baked normal map if needed. This is done by changing the normal mixing setting to "replace" instead of the default "combine".
- In the Texture Set Settings window, click "Bake Mesh Maps" to open the Baker Settings window.
- Click "Bake selected textures" or "Bake 'Your Material Name'" to initiate the baking process.
- Once the baking is complete, click OK to close the dialog. Your project is now ready for texturing.
It is important to note that you can bake a single low poly mesh from multiple high poly meshes. However, it is recommended to consist of the low poly mesh in multiple elements and use name matching to avoid intersection errors during baking.
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Using the Texture Set settings
When using Substance 3D Painter, the default setup does not allow you to paint over the baked normal map. This behaviour can be changed via the Texture Set settings.
To do this, create a new Texture Set with the normal mixing setting set to 'replace'. This will indicate to Substance 3D Painter that only the normal channel and the height channel should be considered when generating the final normal map. The baked normal map will disappear from the viewport, but this is expected.
Next, create a new fill layer and insert the baked normal map into the "normal" slot via the properties panel. This will allow you to paint over the baked normal map and add details or fix any baking issues.
Additionally, you can enhance the quality of your texturing by utilising Mesh maps, which are baked textures specific to the mesh and Texture Set. Mesh maps can be augmented using filters, Smart Materials, and Smart Masks, providing more intricate details to your 3D models.
For specific scenarios, such as dealing with rotated tangents, a solution suggested by Allegorithmic involves creating a user0 channel set to RGB16F in the texture set settings. You can then create new layers and paint your normal map information on the user 0 channel while deactivating the other channels.
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Working with texturing channels
When working with texturing channels in Substance Painter, you can view single channel information by using the drop-down menu in the viewport. Each new layer you create will give you the following channels: Base Colour, Roughness, Metallic, Normal, and Height.
Base colour is the colour of an object without any lighting or shadow information. Roughness defines how reflective or shiny a surface is, and it is displayed in grayscale, from white to black. Metallic refers to the most common PBR texture creation workflow, especially if you are using UE4 or UE5.
Height maps define depth information and are often used to generate additional normal map detail information. They are black and white with grayscale in between. When exported, all height information created in Substance Painter will become part of a normal map texture.
Alpha channels are another important aspect of texturing channels. They are typically paired with a specific channel within your texture set, such as Base Colour, Roughness, or Metallic. These channels define transparency and add depth to your textures. With alpha channels, you can simulate real-world transparency effects, create convincing textures for worn surfaces, and add organic details like leaves or cracks without complex geometric modelling.
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Frequently asked questions
To add texture to normal maps in Substance Painter, you need to create a new layer and change its blending mode to "normal". This will allow you to paint directly on the mesh, adding detail to your 3D models.
There are several ways to generate normal maps. One common method is baking a high poly mesh to a low poly mesh. Another way is by using Substance Painter's Height Channel, where height information is used to generate additional detail.
To increase normal map intensity, you can adjust the levels or contrast using a slider. However, this may cause artefacts to appear. An alternative method is to add another layer and adjust its opacity, allowing Substance Painter to automatically adjust the intensity.
