Nira's VFX Blog
A journey through my master

Tag: Substance Painter

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Final Major Project FMP

Week 4: Texturing in Substance Painter

This week I focused on texturing in Substance Painter and testing the textures in Maya and Unreal Engine

Base & connections rock texture

For the rock texture, I mixed Substance’s pre-made rock textures, to then scale them down, orientate them vertically and lastly, I added a layer of dirt to give more variation and dimension. For the block of flats in the rock layer, I kept it a bit simpler as there is already a lot of detail in this section and I did not want to overcrowd it. Also, for the connections I added the same rock texture and some asphalt texture for the roads with stencilled road signs on top.

Base colour of the city base, and scale-down and orientation of the rock texture
Rocky base texture – front view
Rocky base texture – side view in high light conditions
Rocky base texture – side view in low light conditions
Block of flats texture
Bottom block of flats texture with stencilled signs
City connections with rocky and asphalt textures, and stencilled signs

General city buildings, skyscrapers, & main tower textures

For the city buildings, I downloaded a texture from Substance website which already has the windows set up to increase/decrease to amount of lit windows and the intensity and colour of the lights. I could also adjust the size of the frame of the windows so they have the proper dimensions for my model. I also added an emission layer to this texture so when exporting it, I have an emission map to adjust the windows light intensity in Unreal Engine. This was actually a good discovery as I could texture all the buildings at the same time and pretty quick, whereas if I had to do the buildings one by one, it would have been time consuming and a pretty tedious job to do. For the bridges, I used another texture that I found in Substance website which resembles the texture of the circuits of a machine and, by adding an emission layer, I could show some neon lighting in the circuit details so it makes them stand out. As a final touch, I added a flying car landing sign on the top of some buildings using one of Substance pre-made stencils. I also added a purple neon glow to make it more futuristic.

For the skyscrapers, I added a simple glass texture for the windows as I am planning to add an emission effect later on in Unreal Engine. Then for the main body of the skyscrapers I used a metal texture with some scratches and a concrete texture with some dust painted on top manually. The skyscrapers textures are simple as these are not going to be too visible in the night ambient of the scene.

For the main tower, I also used the same circuit texture that I used for the bridges. In the edges, I added a glass texture with a purple colour which will be lit later on in Unreal Engine. Lastly, using a stencil and an opacity layer only, I painted some vents on the top of the tower.

City buildings initial texture view
Increase of windows lights and change light colours for variation
Top landing signs made using a Substance Painter pre-made stencil with the addition of a purple glow in the edges
Overall view of final buildings texture
Skyscraper 1 – Windows and main body textures
Skyscraper 1 – Dust painting on rooftop
Skyscraper 2 – Windows and main body texture – Front view
Skyscraper 2 – Windows and main body texture – Back view
Skyscraper 3 – Windows and main body textures
Skyscraper 3 – Roof top dust paint on concrete texture
Skyscraper 4 – Windows and main body textures
Skyscraper 5 – Windows and main body textures, and stencilled landing signs
Skyscraper 6 – Windows and main body textures
Skyscraper 7 – Windows and main body textures
Skyscraper 7 – Roof top dust painting on concrete texture
Main tower – Circuit and purple glass texture
Main tower – Stencilled vents

City details textures

I chose a patterned texture for the city wall and metallic edges. Then I painted some dust on the lower parts so it blends in with the rocky base texture.

For the capsules, I used a glass texture for the top part and another circuit texture (different from the main tower and the bridges texture) to simulate the capsules engine.

The lamp posts and the antennas were textured really quick as they are very small and won’t be too visible. Therefore, I added a metallic and a glass texture for the lamp posts (which will have lighting added on later on in Unreal Engine), and metallic and carbon fibre textures for the antennas.

The cranes also have a metallic texture with some rusty details and a rope texture for the cable which I painted in grey so it looks like a metallic cable. The base has a concrete texture.

Lastly, the flying cars have also a basic glass texture for the windows and a basic metallic texture for the main body as these are going to be very small in the scene. The only distinctive attribute these have is the blue stripe in front which will be the car’s front light. I am also planning to add some emission effect in Unreal Engine to this front light.

City wall – painting dust marks
City wall – Metallic patterned texture with dust painted on – Final look
Capsules – Glass and engine textures
Lamp posts – Metallic and glass textures
Antenna – Metallic and carbon fibre textures
Crane main body – Concrete and rusty metallic textures
Crane cable – Rope texture painted in grey colour for metallic look
Flying car – Glass texture for the windows and metallic texture for the main body – front glass stripe for car light
Categories
Advanced & Experimental Group

Week 9: Hologram Base Textures in Substance Painter & Final Model Animation in Maya

This week I focused on finishing the textures of the hologram and refine its animation.

Hologram UVs correction and base texture

When I started to add the textures to the base of the hologram in Substance Painter, I noticed that my UVs were wrong as I sliced them in sections. Therefore, any time I tried to add a rust effect on edges, the programme was not detecting them and placed the textured in the middle. I then went back to Maya and redo the UV maps, but this time only cutting off the edge that was less visible, and unfolded the UV from that cut. Then, I updated the UVs in Substance Painter and added the rust effect in the edges.

Hologram UV maps corrected in Maya

Originally, I wanted to do the texture in bronze colour to follow the style of most of the objects in the master render. However, I then realised that this texture will not work as hit is too flat and yellowish so it does not really match with the blue hologram effect on top of it.

Initial bronze texture test in Substance Painter with some dirt and rust effect added on top
Rings with bronze texture and dirt effect
Overall look with bronze texture

After testing the bronze texture, I decided to swap to a more reflective and metallic texture such as the copper texture, and then add the dirt and scratches masks I made for the previous bronze texture on top of the new texture.

Base with copper texture for the overall surface and cobalt texture for the small rivets and the central star
Base texture made of copper preset mixed with some previous features from the bronze texture (dirt and damaged edges effects)
Outer ring texture is the same as the base but changed the position and the quantity of dirt effect shown
Outer ring rivets textured with cobalt preset and some surface scratches mask
Both inner rings have damaged cobalt as texture – I didn’t add many effects to these rings as they are inside the hologram so they are not too visible
After I finished with the textures, I baked them all and exported them in Arnold aiStandard (as bmp)

After exporting the textures from Substance Painter, I created the shaders in Maya using the Substance plug-in, and linked each shader the the correspondent part of the hologram. After relinking textures in Maya, I noticed that the metallic textures looked too flat and they did not shine as a metallic surface would do in reality. Therefore, I checked the roughness map of the copper texture and reduced the ‘alpha gain’ till 0.5 (it was 1 before) and then changed the ‘color gain’ to a darker gray so the shadows had some contrast from black to gray (before they were white so they were not visible, hence the flat look). Then, I went to the ‘Lens Effect’ I added for the hologram and reduced the ‘threshold’ from 1 to 0.65 so it did not look that white/burnt shine on the surface of the metallic base.

‘Lens Effect’ added in render settings for hologram effect
‘Threshold’ reduced from 1 to 0.65
In copper shader – ‘Roughness map’ – reduced ‘Alpha Gain’ and ‘Color Gain’ changed to darker gray

After the textures were finally completed, I redid the animation of the spinning of the rings and the little satellites rotation on them with manual key framing.

Final hologram model with textures and animation
Categories
Advanced & Experimental Group

Week 8: Hologram Reduction of Model Subdivisions in Maya, & Radio Textures in Substance Painter

This week I had to remodel the base of my hologram and make the hologram effect to test in in final scene, along with finishing the radio textures.

Hologram remodelling

After Martyna and Roos tested the hologram in the master render, they were having some issues with the hologram as it was too heavy for the scene. Then they figured that the particles used for the particle effect had too many subdivision and asked me to redo this with simple cubes instead (it will not have that polished effect, but it will lower the poly count of he model considerably). Apart from the particle effect, Roos also recommended me to delete any unnecessary subdivisions, so I deleted most of them from the constellations cylinders, from rings, rivets, and base of the hologram. After reducing the poly count, I also had to redo the hologram’s UV maps.

Hologram’s new UV maps after amending subdivisions

Radio Textures

I also carried on with the radio textures this week so the CG lead could have most of the final objects with textures to test the illumination with them in the master render. In Substance Painter, I chose a wood texture for the base and main body of the radio and mixed it with some metallic textures to give that futuristic look to it. I also, found two pictures online about the channel dial of retro radios, so I created an alpha and a normal map version of these and added them to the radio. I made the normal map to add some texture to the typography in it and the alpha map to add some emission to the screen (focusing on the typography only) as if the radio was turned on.

Top channel screen base colour (Cobalt)
Top channel screen alpha
Top channel screen normal map
Middle channel screen base colour (Pilcher)
Middle channel screen alpha
Middle channel screen normal map
Top channel switchers with bronze texture in the centre – also added some scratches and damaged edges with some masks
Cobalt material added for the sides of the top channel switchers – also added stains and scratches with a mask
Bronze texture added for top shell decoration – added some rust effect with a mask coloured in dark red
Same bronze texture with rust effect added to middle channel switcher as for the top shell
Middle channel screen left blank in the middle to add channels texture later on in Maya – borders textured as damaged cobalt
Rusty edges added to middle channel screen with mask coloured in dark red
Copper texture was added for the decoration with a dirt mask that has high contrast and has been placed only in the parts were the decoration is joining the wood texture
I also added a rust mask in dark red/brown
Radio handle textured with damaged cobalt for the overall parts and then with bronze for the rings – it also has rust effect
Top speakers had a circular patterned texture that was coloured with a subtle ochre tone for the base and a cobalt texture for the circles edges and the speakers edges.
The top speakers also had a wood preset texture with the colour changed to a darker/reddish brown – I also added a scratched texture to the edges
Main body has also a wood preset texture with the colour changed to a darker/reddish brown
A scratched texture was also added in the edges and some bits of the main body.
On the sides of the main body, I added a damaged cobalt texture to give a futuristic look to it. I also softened the damaged level of the preset texture as it was looking too pronounced.
The bottom speakers have also a damaged cobalt texture with a red rust mask
Inside the bottom speakers I added the same texture I made for the top speakers
The base of the radio has also the same wood texture as the main body but with a higher level of scratches and dirt (base parts of furnitures are usually more wore off)
Once I finished with the textures I baked them and exported them for Arnold aiStandard

In Maya, I linked all the textures as I did with my spaceship, by using the Substance plug-in to automatically link and group the different layers and maps into shaders. Then these shaders were connected to the correspondent parts of the radio. I also linked the channels screens to the radio and added a bit of emission (as previously mentioned) to give the feeling that the radio is turned on. However, after I uploaded this textured model to FTrack, Gonzalo mentioned that this emission was too bright and should be turned down slightly. Therefore, I corrected this and uploaded the final version to FTrack.

Radio model with emission levels too high in the middle channel screen
Final radio model with textures

References

Cobalt. Vintage radio dial (online). Available at: https://stock.adobe.com/gr_en/search?k=radio+dial&asset_id=55983088 [Accessed 3 June 2023]

Pilcher, G. Vintage radio dial face (online). Available at: https://id.pinterest.com/pin/740279257483290061/ [Accessed 3 June 2023]

Categories
Advanced & Experimental Group

Week 6: Spaceship UV Maps in Maya & Textures in Substance Painter

This week I focused on finishing my spaceship by editing the UV maps and creating the textures in Substance Painter.

UV Maps in Maya

Since I consider that my knowledge about tidying up UV maps was basic and my spaceship model had a lot of complex shapes and details, I decided to research about how to lay proper UV maps in complex objects. Therefore, I found the following tutorial which had a useful workflow to do proper UVs.

UV maps tutorial (On Mars 3D, 2021)

After this tutorial, I carried on to do my spaceship UV maps and get it ready for texturing in Substance Painter. Since there were lots of different parts of the spaceship that needed a lot of space in a UDIM, I decided to separate each part in a different UDIM to have the best resolution when adding textures. I also cut each section in pieces to then unfold them properly and use layout to spread them in the UDIM. Sometimes, some of the UVs were layout really mixed up and not properly oriented, like in the main body of the spaceship, so I manually corrected orientations and tidied them up (so they were also easier to spot when texturing separate sections).

Outer cover UV maps
Outer cover poles UV maps
Side wings UV maps
Side wings poles UV maps
Back wings UV maps
Side engines UV maps
Back engines UV maps
Back engines pipes UV maps
Base UV maps
Top UV maps
Main body UV maps – manual layout

Textures in Substance Painter

I wanted to achieve a realistic texture result with my spaceship, so I decided to use Substance Painter for this. Since I have never used this software before, I researched some tutorials in YouTube and also asked to Marianna and one of the technicians at uni for advice. I found the following tutorial that teaches the basics of Substance Painter.

Substance Painter beginners tutorial (Adobe Substance 3D, 2021)

I mostly used the preset textures for my base, such as copper, copper worn, chrome blue tint, and glass firm dirty. Then, from these base textures I started building up with fill layers, masks, and generators to add dirt, scratches, burns, and rusty borders. Once I was happy with the textures look, I baked them all.

Side wings copper texture
Main body copper texture
Scratches effect added to edges on top of ‘Copper Worn’ material
Added some red rust to the borders so it looks more damaged
I also added this red rust to the tips of the tubes manually with a paint brush
Side windows texture with ‘Glass Filim Dirty’ material and tweaking the dirt mask to accentuate the contrast of this
Added same effect from side windows to front windows
Outer base copper texture
Engines ‘chrome blue tint’ textures with a ‘metal dirty’ mask added on top
Engines ‘copper’ textures with a ‘metal dirty’ mask added on top
I also added some burnt effect manually with a paint brush
After I finished with the textures, I baked them all

However, I had some issues in the outer cover of the spaceship, since the UV maps were not unfolded properly, so they were overlapping and showing like stripy patches in some areas. Therefore, I went back to Maya and corrected the wings UVs, cutting the inside parts of each piece, unfolding them and then laying them out properly. Once this was corrected, I had to search for another tutorial as I was not sure how to update the UV maps in Substance without having to start from the beginning the whole process of texturing. Therefore, I found the following tutorial that has a really quick way to update this:

Updating UV maps in Substance Painter tutorial (On Mars 3D, 2020)
Outer cover with stripes issue
Outer cover UV maps updated in Maya
Outer cover UV maps updated and rebaked in Substance Painter
Outer cover textures now showing without any issues

Once the textures were finished, I exported them and relinked them in Maya as shaders following this tutorial for a quicker way to relink all texture maps in Maya:

Exporting textures from Substance Painter to import and relink in Maya tutorial (What Make Art, 2022)

I also added some emission effect to the windows so it looks like there are lights on inside the spaceship.

Textures relinked in Maya
Spaceship render in dark background – side view
Spaceship render in dark background – front view
Spaceship render in dark background – bottom view
Spaceship render in dark background – 3/4 view
Spaceship render in dark background – back view
Spaceship render in dark background – back engine close up
Spaceship final model with textures – 360 render

References

Adobe Substance 3D (2021). Substance Painter 2021 Getting Started – Part 01 – Materials & masking (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j27AS0VQOw [Accessed 20 May 2023]

On Marrs 3D (2020). Substance Painter – How to Update Models AFTER You Textured It! (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjYzLgVOqrc [Accessed 21 May 2023]

On Mars 3D (2021). How to UV Map Complex Objects in Maya (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiEQNDZapXs [Accessed 20 May 2023]

What Make Art (2022). Export Substance Painter Textures to Maya with Plugin Tutorial (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCKc_6nTRPM&t=227s [Accessed 21 May 2023]