Isabella Flores
When it comes to 3D modelling, Maya and Substance Painter are two of the most popular software tools. While Maya is considered the world's leading 3D software, Substance Painter has become the industry standard for creating textures for games and films. However, transitioning between the two programs can be challenging due to their different interfaces and features. One common issue is maintaining smooth edges when transferring models between Maya and Substance Painter. This can be addressed by subdividing the mesh or using the Smooth Preview feature in Maya before export. Additionally, customising project template files and utilising plugins like maya2painter and MtoSubstance can facilitate a more seamless transition between the programs. While there may be workarounds, it's important to note that Maya and Substance Painter have distinct functionalities, and certain features may not be directly transferable.
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What You'll Learn
Smooth edges in Maya become sharp in Substance Painter
When exporting models from Maya to Substance Painter, users have reported issues with smoothed edges in Maya becoming sharp and rigid in Substance Painter. This problem occurs because the smoothing applied in Maya is only a preview and does not translate to the final model in Substance Painter.
To address this issue, you can try the following methods:
- Before exporting from Maya, duplicate the mesh, and then smooth it.
- In Maya, use the Smooth Preview to Mesh Converter to convert your smooth preview into a higher-poly model.
- In Maya, subdivide the actual mesh (Mesh > Subdivide) to permanently increase the level of subdivision. This may require redoing your UVs.
- When exporting to an FBX file, deselect "Smooth Mesh" in the FBX options. Additionally, press 3 to smooth and uncheck every box under the Geometry tab.
- In Substance Painter, use the Smooth tool to smooth the model after importing.
It is important to note that smoothing a model will double the number of faces with each smoothing operation, so it should be used carefully. Additionally, the smooth preview in Maya (key 3) is only a preview and will not be retained upon export. To maintain the shape of the object, add edge loops near the edges.
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Subdivision of the mesh
When working with a model in Maya, using the 3 key for smoothing edges may not translate directly to Substance Painter. This smoothing effect is temporary and only applies to the viewport or render. If you want the smoothed appearance to persist, you must subdivide the actual mesh. This can be done by navigating to Mesh > Subdivide. This process may require you to redo your UVs, although some users have suggested that this is not always necessary.
An alternative approach is to duplicate the mesh in Maya and smooth it before exporting. This ensures that the smoothed appearance is retained. Additionally, if you don't want to subdivide the model, you can use the Smooth Preview feature. When exporting to an FBX file, press 3 to smooth and uncheck all boxes under the Geometry tab.
It is worth noting that subdividing the mesh increases the polygon count, which can impact performance and rendering times. If you are working with a complex model, consider optimising it by reducing polygon density in areas that don't require high detail. This can help improve performance without sacrificing visual quality.
When subdividing the mesh, you can utilise various tools in Maya to fine-tune the results. For instance, the Insert Edge Loop Tool allows you to insert edges on partial or multidirectional edge ring paths. The Quad Draw tool in the Modeling Toolkit can also be used to merge close vertices together, creating a smoother surface.
Finally, keep in mind that subdividing the mesh can introduce challenges when it comes to mesh smoothing, lighting, and displacement seams. These issues may arise when separating the mesh into different parts. To mitigate this, ensure that seams are hidden, such as by covering them with clothing or other objects.
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Baking highpoly on a lowpoly object
Baking is the process of saving information from a 3D mesh to a texture file (bitmap). In this case, the information of the high poly mesh is transferred onto the low poly mesh, allowing you to retain the high level of detail from the high poly mesh while benefiting from the low performance costs of the low poly mesh.
To bake high poly on a low poly object in Substance Painter, you first need to ensure that your objects are set up properly. In Maya, create UVs for the low poly mesh, then export the mesh. Next, create a Substance Painter project and select the low poly mesh with UVs. Finally, bake the maps by selecting the exported high poly mesh as your high poly object.
It's important to note that you should have both your low and high poly meshes set up so that each separate piece is its own object, with matching, corresponding names between the two. This will help you avoid issues with intersecting cages. If you encounter such issues, you can adjust the max frontal and rear distance or use a custom cage.
Additionally, you can use Marmoset to preview your work before the final bake. This allows you to make adjustments and preview the results before committing to the bake.
When baking high poly on a low poly object, you may also want to consider using multiple texture sets, as they can provide more freedom when painting in Substance. However, transferring these sets to a single-layer LP while maintaining the ability to bake can be challenging. One possible solution is to create new texture sets when creating/defining the UVs for the LP Model Retopology layer and then exporting this to Substance before applying the HP to LP bake.
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Navigating the viewport in Blender
Blender offers two fundamental view modes: Orthographic and Perspective. In Orthographic Mode, the scene is flattened, providing a more precise and realistic approach to modelling, especially when working from 2D concept sketches. Conversely, in Perspective Mode, objects are displayed realistically based on their distance from the observer, making distant objects appear smaller.
To navigate the viewport in Blender, you can use the following controls:
- Panning: Shift-MMB pans the view freely by dragging the mouse. Shift-Wheel pans the view vertically, and Shift-HorizontalWheel pans it horizontally. You can also use Ctrl-Numpad8/Ctrl-Numpad2 to pan the view up/down in fixed steps, and Ctrl-Numpad4/Ctrl-Numpad6 to pan left/right in fixed steps.
- Zooming: Roll the Wheel or drag with Ctrl-MMB to zoom in and out. Use NumpadPlus and NumpadMinus for discrete steps.
- Dolly: If you hit the point where zooming no longer works, hold Shift-Ctrl and drag up or down with MMB to dolly. This will move the point of interest and the view.
- Frame: If you get lost in 3D space, use Frame All and Frame Selected to show the contents of your scene.
- Viewport Navigation: To focus on one object, use . (dot) on the numpad.
While Blender's navigation may feel harder than other 3D apps at first, once you get comfortable with the shortcuts and viewport tools, most people prefer Blender's setup.
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Exporting objects from Maya as FBX
To export objects from Maya as FBX, follow these steps:
- Launch Maya and open the file you want to export.
- Go to File > Export All or File > Export Selection, depending on whether you want to export the entire scene or just specific objects.
- In the Export dialog box, select FBX from the File of Type menu. If you don't see FBX as an option, you may need to activate the fbxmaya.mll plugin in Maya's Plugin Manager.
- Enter a name for your FBX file and choose the export options you want to use, or select a preset from the Presets menu. The Autodesk Media and Entertainment preset is a good general option for animation workflows.
- If you're using tessellation or the 3 key to smooth your model, be aware that this won't carry over to the final model in Substance Painter. To preserve the smoothing, apply the subdivision to your models and remake the UVs before exporting to FBX. Alternatively, you can duplicate the mesh in Maya and smooth it before export.
- Click Export to save your file.
Note that FBX does not support the export of all Maya attributes. For example, the SmoothDrawType attribute will be reset to its default value on re-import if it is encountered by the FBX plugin during export.
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Frequently asked questions
First, export your model from Maya as an FBX file. Then, create a Substance project for that FBX file with a predefined project template.
In Maya, use the Smooth Preview to mesh converter to convert your smooth preview into a higher poly model. Alternatively, duplicate your mesh in Maya and smooth it before export.
Baking high-poly versions of a low-poly model is a common practice when making textures on a polygon budget. In Substance Painter, you can bake a high-poly version of your low-poly model.
Yes, the project template files are not compatible with previous versions of Substance Painter. The provided template files were created with Substance 3D Painter, version 7.2.3.
