Mastering Light Movement In Substance Painter

In Substance Painter, moving the light around is a crucial aspect of creating realistic and visually appealing scenes. With the ability to adjust lighting, artists can enhance the mood and atmosphere of their digital creations. Adobe Substance 3D Stager offers a range of environment lights and tools to manipulate lighting conditions. By utilizing features such as the Environment Lighting tool, artists can fine-tune the positioning and properties of lights, including rotation and intensity, to achieve the desired visual effects. Understanding how to manipulate light in Substance Painter empowers users to elevate their 3D scenes and bring their digital art to life.

Use the Environment Lighting tool to adjust scene lights

The Environment Lighting tool in Substance Painter allows you to adjust scene lights and create different effects. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to use this tool:

• Set up your 3D scene: Before adjusting the lighting, ensure you have set up your scene with the necessary elements.
• Access the Environment Lighting tool: In the toolbar, switch to the Environment Lighting tool. This tool provides you with the ability to manipulate the lighting in your scene.
• Rotate the environment light: Click and drag within the viewport to rotate the environment light around your scene. You can choose between "Free" rotation, which allows movement in both horizontal and vertical directions, or "Horizontal" rotation, which constrains the light to move only horizontally.
• Adjust light intensity: Aside from rotation, you can modify the intensity or brightness of the environment light. Play with the intensity to achieve the desired level of illumination in your scene.
• Preview lighting effects: Substance Painter allows you to preview lighting effects in real time. This helps you see how your scene looks with different lighting setups.
• Consider the artistic aspect: Lighting is both a technical and artistic skill. The type of lighting you choose depends on the style of your model and the purpose of your project. For example, stylized and colourful lighting might suit a fantasy character, while natural and subtle lighting could be better for a historical or realistic character.

By following these steps and experimenting with the Environment Lighting tool, you can effectively adjust scene lights in Substance Painter to achieve the desired visual outcome.

Rotate the light source with the click-and-drag function

To rotate the light source in Substance 3D Stager, you can use the Environment Lighting tool. This tool allows you to adjust the lighting in your 3D scene to get the desired effect.

Once you have set up your scene, follow these steps to rotate the light source with the click-and-drag function:

• Switch to the Environment Lighting tool in the toolbar.
• Click and drag in the viewport to rotate the light. You can rotate the light around your scene by moving the cursor in the desired direction.
• The click-and-drag function gives you control over the rotation of the light source. You can choose to rotate the light freely, allowing for both horizontal and vertical movement. Alternatively, you can constrain the rotation to only horizontal movement if needed.
• As you click and drag, you will see the light source rotating in real time. This allows you to visualize the lighting effects on your 3D scene as you make adjustments.
• In addition to rotating the light, you can also adjust the intensity or brightness of the environment light using the same tool. This gives you further control over the lighting conditions in your scene.

By utilizing the Environment Lighting tool and its click-and-drag function, you can easily rotate the light source in Substance 3D Stager to achieve the desired lighting setup for your 3D rendering projects.

Control lighting in the viewport with Display Settings

To control lighting in the viewport with Display Settings in Substance Painter, follow these steps:

• Access the Display Settings: Go to the Painter menu, then select Interface > Display Settings. The Display Settings window will appear, where you can adjust the environment, camera, and viewport settings.
• Understand the View Mode: The View Mode controls how your viewport will look. You can change the view mode using the dropdown in the corners of the viewport. The dropdown has three sections: one for selecting the view mode, one for cycling between channels, and one for switching back to material mode.
• Control Lighting: To specifically control lighting in the viewport, pay attention to the Environment Settings within the Display Settings. Here, you can adjust lighting parameters to fine-tune the lighting conditions in your scene.
• Use the Grid: Utilize the grid settings to display and manipulate the drawing of a 3D grid within the 3D viewport. The grid divisions automatically adjust based on the current camera zoom and angle. The grid unit is displayed in the bottom left of the viewport.
• Adjust Environment Lighting: If using Adobe Substance 3D Stager, you can adjust environment lighting to refine your 3D scene. Switch to the Environment Lighting tool, then click and drag in the viewport to rotate the light. You can rotate the light freely or constrain it to horizontal rotation only. Additionally, adjust the intensity to control the brightness of the lighting.

By utilizing these Display Settings and lighting adjustments, you can effectively control and manipulate lighting within the viewport in Substance Painter.

Adjust the intensity to change the brightness

When working with Substance 3D Painter, there are times when you need to adjust the brightness of your environment map. This can be done by clicking on the Display Settings icon on the right side of your screen. Here are the steps to adjust the intensity and change the brightness in Substance Painter:

Environment Exposure (EV)

The Environment Exposure (EV) value can be adjusted to make your environment map brighter or darker. This is particularly useful when creating metallic textures, as increasing the EV value will make it easier to work with the metallic surfaces by brightening the environment.

Brightness/Contrast Filter

The Brightness/Contrast filter allows you to adjust the brightness and contrast of your material. You can target specific channels with this filter. For example, you can increase the brightness of the emissive channel or the contrast of the roughness channel. It's important to note that the Normal channel cannot be modified using this filter as it behaves differently from most other channels.

Environment Opacity and Blur

In addition to adjusting the brightness, you can also modify the environment opacity and the amount of blur. These adjustments can be made in the Display Settings, similar to the Environment Exposure (EV) adjustment.

By following these steps and adjusting the intensity through the various tools available in Substance Painter, you can effectively change the brightness of your environment map to achieve the desired lighting effects.

Use horizontal or vertical rotation constraints

When working with lighting in Substance Painter, you have the option to use horizontal or vertical rotation constraints to move the light around. This feature is available in the Environment Lighting tool in the toolbar.

The Environment Lighting tool gives you the ability to adjust the lighting in your 3D scene. When you click and drag in the viewport, you can rotate the light to achieve the desired effect. The rotation options are "Free", "Horizontal", and implied "Vertical".

Selecting "Free" rotation allows you to move the light both horizontally and vertically without any constraints. This gives you the freedom to position the light anywhere around your scene.

On the other hand, choosing "Horizontal" or "Vertical" rotation constrains the movement of the light to only one axis. "Horizontal" rotation keeps the light moving in a horizontal plane, while "Vertical" rotation restricts it to a vertical plane.

These rotation constraints are useful when you want to make precise adjustments to the lighting in your scene. For example, if you have a specific area that needs more light, you can use the horizontal rotation to focus the light on that area without changing the vertical position.

Additionally, the rotation constraints can help you maintain the desired lighting effect while making other adjustments. By constraining the rotation to one axis, you can fine-tune the lighting without accidentally altering the entire lighting setup.

Frequently asked questions