Tips and Tricks

My tip is to get used to UV unwrapping because it’s fundamental for everything that will later be done inside Substance. With tools like unfold 3D, it’s easy to do that. And after that, when we paint or make Substance textures, it is important to understand how materials are made in the real world. For example, I received a question about how to make dirt on windows, as the person who was asking couldn’t get it right playing with roughness or bump. The problem is that dirt isn't a structural part of the glass, it is a separate layer of materials. When you realize that, it’s easy to make two different materials, and then with some masking put them together. Look around, observe and think how things are layered in the real world, and then it’s easy to bring this perspective into your software tools.





Substance Painter Features

My favorites, for now, are smart materials and smart masks. With them, in a few minutes, I can see how my objects behave and I don’t lose much time in creating layers. In the future, I would like to have accurate export presets for popular renders like Corona, Octane, and Redshift. I am aware that there are some of these already exist, but I’m not completely happy with them, and sometimes I need to do some additional work inside renderers to get the look I want.