Again, I think PBR frees the artist. They are not bogged down in the technical aspects of rendering and instead they can focus on art design. Let the shaders handle the science and the artist handle the art. But please don’t get me wrong. I am not saying an artist should shy away from the technical. I would say I am a much better artist by learning lighting theory, studying materials and what they are made of and better understanding the science behind it.

Imagine a situation, where you have a very basic low poly planet, with sort of just colors for materials. How would you approach this production with Substance Painter?

Here I would start by establishing some basic materials using Fill Layers. These materials would represent the land, oceans, and clouds. From there, I would blend these fill layers using the mask that are driven by procedural noises to create the separation of land and water as well as create the cloud layers.