Substance 3D Painter
Substance 3D Painter is a 3D painting software that allows users to texture and add materials directly to 3D meshes in real-time.
 

Steps:

  • Maya

    • before exporting your models, add more faces (polygons) if needed. If you had a high-resolution mesh that you wanted to bake out normal information, you would bring high-res mesh here.

    • Lay down UV maps in UV editor. Rearrange the UV shells if needed.

    • File > Export selection as OBJ or FBX.


  • Substance Painter

    • File > New > PBR – Metallic Roughness Alpha
    • Document Resolution: 2048
    • OK


    • 2D 3D / 3D only view 
    • Rendering (Iray) 
    • Texture set list, Display settings, Shader settings, History 
    • Tools 
    • Assets > Library... 


    • Go to Texture set settings > Bake Mesh Maps 
    • Baking

      • Out Size: 2048
      • Dilation width: 128 
      • Ambient Occlusion – Secondary Rays: 256, Ignore Backface: Always  
      • Curvature - Secondary Rays: 256 
      • Thickness - Secondary Rays: 256 
      • Bake Selected textures

         
    • All libraries  
      • Materials, Smart materials, Smart masks, Filters, Brushes, Alphas, Textures, Environments,
           

    • Layers 
      • Add Effect, Add Mask, Add layer, Add fill layer, Add preset layer, Add group,  
      • White mask, Black mask: Black mask blocks its layer revealing the layer beneath. White mask does the opposite. 
      • Fill layers may be added to the Smart mask folder. I.e.) Add a Fill layer > Properties > Uncheck all but roughness 
      • Mask editors: icons appeared below the mask  


    • Tools 
      • Polygon Fill, Mesh Fill 

    • Properties > Materials > colors, height, rough, metal... 


    • Applying materials in Maya 
      • Color > File Attributes - Color Space: Raw
      • Geometry – Bump Mapping > Bump2d > 2d Bump Attributes > Use As: Tangent Space Normal.

Advanced:

  • Anchor points: powerful feature that let you reuse a part of your layer stack. 
    • Select the second layer - Add generator – Click and select the generator – Properties – Generator - Add anchor points 
    • Go to Top layer – Add black mask – Add Fill


  • Generate ID maps
    • Materials are often driven by maps. If you don’t have maps, you won’t get those effects.
    • ID maps are powerful. When you have a lots of small objects.
    • Color source: Material
    • Common: bring ID file
    • In Layers panel, you can create your own materials
      • Fill layer > Metal edge wear
      • Properties-Generator
      • Layers – Group
      • Tools > Polygon fill
      • Symmetry - Radial
      • Stroke – Hold Shift
      • File > Export texture > Document channel + normal Reimport: from the folder drag it into the shelf Drag and drop it to Mesh map.