Exporting Normals From Substance Painter: A Quick Guide

Substance 3D Painter offers a wide range of file formats for export, including bitmap files, which can be used in almost any 3D software. The Output Templates tab allows you to manage your templates, which tell Painter how to organize your textures for export. You can use the Global settings to adjust settings for all texture sets simultaneously or select texture sets to adjust settings for each texture set. Exporting textures in 8-bit can lead to banding in gradients, especially with Normal and Height maps. To solve this issue, you can use higher precision or compensate with dithering.

Exporting to bitmap files

To access the Export Textures dialog, go to File > Export Textures or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + E. The dialog box 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 set. You can also use Global settings to adjust all texture sets simultaneously.

The Output Templates tab is where you manage your templates, which tell Painter how to organize textures for export. You can use pre-existing templates for most 3D applications or create your own. When you select a template, you can see which files and maps it exports. You can also add extra files to a template using the buttons next to Create.

When exporting, it's important to consider the bit depth. A higher bit depth provides higher-quality textures but increases file sizes. Some applications don't support high bit depths, so you may need to use a lower value. Exporting textures in 8-bit can cause banding in gradients, especially with Normal and Height maps. This can be solved by using higher precision (16 or 32-bit) or compensating with dithering, which introduces slight noise to mitigate banding while still using 8-bit information.

Exporting in USD format

Universal Scene Description (USD) is a format developed by Pixar to describe 3D data. It is an open-source format that has gained popularity in the 3D industry and is supported by various tools, including Blender, Maya, Unreal Engine, and Houdini. Substance 3D Painter offers USD workflow, allowing you to export assets in USD and USDZ file formats.

To export in USD format, go to the "File Menu > Export Textures" from the main menu and then select the "EXPORT" tab. Next, choose "USD PBR Metal Roughness" in "Config". This will create and save five texture files: base colour, metallic, normal, occlusion, and roughness. These files will be saved in JPG format, except for the normal map, which will be in PNG to avoid artefacts due to lossy compression.

The USD format supports collaboration and is interchangeable, allowing you to carry many different types of data. When you export in USD format, you can choose the scope and variants, subdivision levels, and animation frames. Additionally, you can export a UV'd mesh from Houdini, import it as a USD into Substance Painter, texture it, and then export the textures and mesh as two USD files. These files can then be imported back into Houdini.

It's important to note that there might be some quirks when using the USD format with Substance Painter. For example, one user reported that the normals seemed to be inverted when importing USD files into Substance Painter, causing issues during baking. Another user mentioned that the diffuse map was not hooked up to the USDPreview surface shader. Therefore, it is recommended to be cautious and test the workflow before fully implementing it.

PSD file format

PSD, or Photoshop Document, is the default file format for Photoshop. It is the only format, besides the Large Document Format (PSB), that supports all Photoshop features. PSD files can store multiple layers of content, images, and objects, often in high resolution, making them a powerful tool for image data storage and creation. They can support up to 30,000 pixels in height and width, and file sizes of up to 2 gigabytes. PSD is considered the industry-standard file type for digital image manipulation and editing.

When exporting textures from Substance 3D Painter, you can export your textures to bitmap files, which can be used in almost any 3D software. The software provides an export dialog that lets you customize the format and settings of the exported files. You can access this dialog by going to File > Export Textures or by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + E. The Output Templates tab in the export dialog is where you can manage your templates, telling Painter how to organize your textures for export.

When exporting in PSD format, each texture set from a project is exported as a single PSD file, containing the exported textures associated with the texture set. This means that output maps will be gathered together inside a single file on the disk. Exporting textures in 8-bit can lead to banding in gradients, especially with Normal and Height maps. This can be solved by using higher precision (16 or 32-bit) or compensating with dithering.

PSD files can be opened in other Adobe products, such as Adobe Express, Illustrator, or Premiere Pro. However, you will need Photoshop to edit the original file.

Output Templates tab

The Output Templates tab in Substance Painter allows users to manage and create new export presets for configuring the names, formats, and content of exported textures. This is useful for reusing specific configurations. The preset list shows all the custom presets currently available in the application, and from this list, users can create, rename, duplicate, or delete presets.

The Output Templates section displays all the textures that will be generated by the preset and their composition. It also lists all the types of textures that can be created. Users can name each texture using a custom naming convention and include specific keywords that will be automatically replaced by the application when generating the final file.

The first dropdown menu in the Output Templates tab is used to specify the file format of the output map, while the second dropdown menu is used to specify the bit depth. The bit depth depends on the selected file format. To ensure that the format and bit depth settings are considered during export, the file type in the general settings should be set to "Based on output template."

The input map list in the Output Templates tab regroups all the channels that can be added via the Texture Set settings. These user channels are based on their original name (user_x), while custom names are ignored. The output files of the Bakers are saved inside the project file (*.spp) and can be exported by right-clicking on a baked texture in the Shelf and choosing "Export." Alternatively, users can use the File > Export Textures dialog and choose the "Mesh maps" export preset.

Export presets

When creating an export preset, users can manage templates that specify how textures are organized during export. Templates for common 3D applications are included, but users also have the option to create custom templates. Users can add new output maps, name them, and drag and drop input maps into the available channel slots. This provides flexibility in determining which maps correspond with specific channels.

During the export process, users can select the desired preset and further customize the export settings. The Settings tab allows users to enable or disable the export of specific texture sets and adjust settings for each set. The Output Templates tab displays the list of available templates and the corresponding output maps and files. The List of Exports section provides an overview of the textures that will be generated based on the selected preset and export settings.

It is important to note that the export presets only save the last used preset within a project. If a preset with the same name already exists, the preset inside the project will be marked as "Outdated." Substance 3D Painter offers a wide range of export formats, including bitmap files, PSD (Photoshop) files, and USD format. The bit depth can also be adjusted, affecting the quality and file size of the exported textures.

Frequently asked questions