Final Steps and Exporting

[00:00:00] But before we jump right into the

[00:00:00] export, I do want to take a little bit

[00:00:00] of a dive over into talking about

[00:00:00] resolution. I hinted at this at the very

[00:00:00] beginning of the video. So up here where

[00:00:00] we have our texture set list, which this

[00:00:00] is our materials as I discussed, we have

[00:00:00] our cover and our case. And then there

[00:00:00] is some resolution settings here right

[00:00:00] next to it. And so at the start of this

[00:00:00] project, I started off using a

[00:00:00] resolution of 2048x 2048. So, we're

[00:00:00] going to take a look at how we can

[00:00:00] change this. So, let's look at the case.

[00:00:00] I'm going to zoom in and we can look at

[00:00:00] the data or the texture detail that

[00:00:00] we've been creating, right? So, let's

[00:00:00] come over here to the case. If I click

[00:00:00] this little uh resolution button, you

[00:00:00] can see it gives me a drop down and I

[00:00:00] have a bunch of different options. Let's

[00:00:00] do something crazy like 256 x 256. So,

[00:00:00] I'm going to change my resolution and

[00:00:00] you can see that this looks horrendous.

[00:00:00] Substance Painter has taken the the 2K

[00:00:00] textural detail that we created that

[00:00:00] we've been authoring and we've just

[00:00:00] thrown it all out and now we're at this

[00:00:00] 256 x 256.

[00:00:00] So, what I'm showcasing here is that

[00:00:00] with Substance Painter, you can move up

[00:00:00] and down the resolution stack. So, it's

[00:00:00] resolution independent. And so, now that

[00:00:00] we've thrown away this data, typically

[00:00:00] you wouldn't be able to get this back.

[00:00:00] So, like if you were in say Photoshop

[00:00:00] and you did like an image resize, you're

[00:00:00] not going to be able to scale it back

[00:00:00] up, right? So, here we have no data.

[00:00:00] This looks terrible. But if I were to

[00:00:00] switch this back to 248 or excuse me,

[00:00:00] 2048 x 2048, I can just get all my

[00:00:00] resolution right back. So, I can move

[00:00:00] from somewhere as terrible as 128 x 128

[00:00:00] and go all the way to 2048 x 2048, which

[00:00:00] is pretty cool. Let's take a look at

[00:00:00] another example. If I zoom in really

[00:00:00] close at this 2K, I can see that well,

[00:00:00] it looks okay, but the circles, you

[00:00:00] know, there's not enough these circles,

[00:00:00] this is a small detail. Uh, and in this

[00:00:00] texture space, the UV coordinates, this

[00:00:00] is something referred to as tixel

[00:00:00] density. Uh, you can see that, uh,

[00:00:00] there's not enough tixel density here to

[00:00:00] give me this really nice sharp circle.

[00:00:00] Looks okay from far away, but if I want

[00:00:00] to do a nice close-up shot, this isn't

[00:00:00] going to cut it. However, I have

[00:00:00] Substance Painter, so I can change the

[00:00:00] resolution. Let's bump this up to 4096

[00:00:00] now. So, 4K. And you'll notice that we

[00:00:00] are now going to increase our

[00:00:00] resolution. So, we'll go to 4K.

[00:00:00] Substance Painter has now computed that.

[00:00:00] And you can see that we get an even more

[00:00:00] crisp result. Now, it didn't perfect. Of

[00:00:00] course, the more and more you zoom in,

[00:00:00] just because we're working with a a

[00:00:00] rasterized image here, of course, we're

[00:00:00] going to lose information. But you can

[00:00:00] see that I can now work at 4K. And at

[00:00:00] this angle, say if this is going to be

[00:00:00] my shot, this is going to look great.

[00:00:00] And like I said, we can uh work at 2048

[00:00:00] and have this level resolution. So I'm

[00:00:00] going to have my viewport as I'm

[00:00:00] working, everything's going to be

[00:00:00] snappy. That's the way you want to work.

[00:00:00] And then I know that okay, once all the

[00:00:00] work is done, I could upscale this to

[00:00:00] 4096. And I say upscale, it's not like

[00:00:00] just a res up, right? Substance painter

[00:00:00] is actually redrawing this information.

[00:00:00] Just to give you an idea, if I come over

[00:00:00] here to this history button, Substance

[00:00:00] Painter keeps a history of everything

[00:00:00] that I've been doing. So I can move

[00:00:00] through this history stack, but uh I can

[00:00:00] substance painter can use that to

[00:00:00] basically redraw my image at the at the

[00:00:00] correct resolution. So I'm actually

[00:00:00] getting a true 4K image. And when you

[00:00:00] import a bit map, so something that's

[00:00:00] locked like a bit map that is maybe at a

[00:00:00] low resolution like 12, like we'll say

[00:00:00] 1K by 1 or 1024 x 1024 or 1K and we

[00:00:00] scale that up. Yeah, it is going to

[00:00:00] upscale that bit map. That's why for the

[00:00:00] logo, you can see that I used that

[00:00:00] Illustrator file with that vector detail

[00:00:00] or that vector data, I mean. And that's

[00:00:00] great because that is vector

[00:00:00] information. I can scale that and

[00:00:00] Substance Painter is like, "Oh, you you

[00:00:00] want to go to 4K? No problem."

[00:00:00] Mathematically, under the hood, it's

[00:00:00] using the vector data before that final

[00:00:00] output of this rasterized kind of bit

[00:00:00] map. That's why the the logo itself

[00:00:00] looks fantastic even at this 4K

[00:00:00] resolution when I zoom in on it. Whereas

[00:00:00] the circles, which are a base

[00:00:00] resolution, I believe it's probably 2K.

[00:00:00] That's the circles here that we used. Uh

[00:00:00] you can see that uh while it does

[00:00:00] improve under 4K, it's not it's not

[00:00:00] perfect. So again, just uh you know,

[00:00:00] food for thought in the sense of like if

[00:00:00] you want to have something like a logo

[00:00:00] that you need to scale up and down, use

[00:00:00] different resolutions, uh using an

[00:00:00] Illustrator vector graphic is a good way

[00:00:00] to go. All right, so let's talk about

[00:00:00] that export. So like I said, usually I

[00:00:00] keep this all at 2K. It just depends on

[00:00:00] your system. Like I said, Substance

[00:00:00] Painter is GPU bound. So if you have a

[00:00:00] beefy GPU, yeah, maybe you can work at

[00:00:00] 4K. Usually I'm just used to 2K and then

[00:00:00] I uh upscale when I need to. It is kind

[00:00:00] of nice. It just is said another tip

[00:00:00] that as you're working every now and

[00:00:00] then if you know you're going to export

[00:00:00] at 4K bump it to 4K and just check and

[00:00:00] see because sometimes you'll notice here

[00:00:00] that at 2K this bevel uh the blur looks

[00:00:00] a little bit softer but it's a little

[00:00:00] bit sharper under 4K. So you know just

[00:00:00] so you don't get any surprises every now

[00:00:00] and then just check at what resolution

[00:00:00] you want to work at. Okay so let's talk

[00:00:00] about that export. So I want to export

[00:00:00] out a series of textures or we'll say a

[00:00:00] material. So, what I do is I come over

[00:00:00] here to file and I choose export

[00:00:00] textures. And that's going to give me

[00:00:00] this new dialogue window. And here I

[00:00:00] have the settings tab. Now, over here on

[00:00:00] the left, I can see the two materials

[00:00:00] that I've been working with. And those

[00:00:00] are the materials that are here in the

[00:00:00] texture set list. If I want to, I could

[00:00:00] say, hey, you know what? I only want to

[00:00:00] export just the case. So, I can uncheck

[00:00:00] cover and export just the case. But

[00:00:00] here, of course, I want to do both. Now,

[00:00:00] once we have both here, we want to set

[00:00:00] an output directory. So you would just

[00:00:00] choose where you know what where on your

[00:00:00] computer you want to save the file. So

[00:00:00] now we have this section here for output

[00:00:00] template. And if I click this dropdown,

[00:00:00] there's all these different options for

[00:00:00] different workflows and different

[00:00:00] renderers that you would support or that

[00:00:00] you would be exporting for. Now in my

[00:00:00] case, what I like to use most often is

[00:00:00] I'm just going to choose this document

[00:00:00] channels plus normal plus AO meaning

[00:00:00] ambient occlusion. Uh no alpha. And so

[00:00:00] let's take a moment here to discuss what

[00:00:00] you know what is this document channels.

[00:00:00] So when we first set up our project we

[00:00:00] used the template and that's what these

[00:00:00] document channels are. You can see that

[00:00:00] over here in the texture set settings.

[00:00:00] So let me just close this window. If we

[00:00:00] come over now we didn't talk much about

[00:00:00] these texture set settings but what this

[00:00:00] is is think of it like our texture set

[00:00:00] list where we have our two materials.

[00:00:00] This is where we set up the overall kind

[00:00:00] of settings. This is where the channels

[00:00:00] live. everything for these materials or

[00:00:00] texture sets. So if we look under the

[00:00:00] general properties, you can see that we

[00:00:00] have these channels and like I said when

[00:00:00] we first created our project, we chose a

[00:00:00] template and that template had these

[00:00:00] specific channels base color, height,

[00:00:00] rough, metal, normal uh that we were

[00:00:00] going to be working with here. So if I

[00:00:00] choose to export using the template

[00:00:00] document channels, it's going to export

[00:00:00] the channels that I have listed here.

[00:00:00] Now, one thing you can do in Substance

[00:00:00] Painter is you can just add channels as

[00:00:00] you need them. So, for example, if I

[00:00:00] wanted to create or if I was working on

[00:00:00] a texture or material that was going to

[00:00:00] be more complex, like for example, if I

[00:00:00] come over and click this plus button

[00:00:00] here, here, let me just expand this

[00:00:00] window a little bit. And then we'll

[00:00:00] click this plus button. You can see that

[00:00:00] I have lots of different custom

[00:00:00] channels. For example, if I was doing

[00:00:00] something with like clear coating or

[00:00:00] scattering or translucency, I can work

[00:00:00] with these more advanced channels. Now

[00:00:00] in this course we didn't cover that but

[00:00:00] just wanted you to know that that

[00:00:00] capability is there and that is what

[00:00:00] we're talking about with our document

[00:00:00] channels. So again going back to our

[00:00:00] export textures. So now taking a look at

[00:00:00] the file type if I click this dropdown

[00:00:00] there's all kinds of options different

[00:00:00] file formats like PNG target and so on.

[00:00:00] However if I scroll down towards the

[00:00:00] bottom there's this SPS format. This is

[00:00:00] what I'm going to use. So, SPSS stands

[00:00:00] for substance archive, and it's

[00:00:00] essentially what we call a substance

[00:00:00] material. With all the textures we've

[00:00:00] been authoring, it's going to pack them

[00:00:00] into this one file. This is super

[00:00:00] convenient because you have one file.

[00:00:00] All the texture information is embedded

[00:00:00] in this one file. And any major 3D

[00:00:00] application that already supports the

[00:00:00] Substance plugin can easily read this

[00:00:00] information. So, you're not having to

[00:00:00] jump into a shader and manually hook up

[00:00:00] texture maps. You can just let the

[00:00:00] Substance plugin do all the heavy

[00:00:00] lifting. So, we're going to use this SPS

[00:00:00] AR. Uh then we have our bit depth. We'll

[00:00:00] just leave this at default. And then we

[00:00:00] have our size here. So it's based on the

[00:00:00] texture set size. And if we take a look

[00:00:00] over here, you can see that in my

[00:00:00] texture set list, I've already switched

[00:00:00] this to 4K. But as we discussed earlier

[00:00:00] in the video, we can just click this and

[00:00:00] choose a different dropdown. So if I

[00:00:00] have this set at 4K, then using this

[00:00:00] option based on texture set size, it's

[00:00:00] just going to export the SP SPS with a

[00:00:00] 4K texture. However, if I were to have

[00:00:00] kept this resolution at a lower value,

[00:00:00] such as like 2K, what I could do is I

[00:00:00] could come over here at export time and

[00:00:00] then choose 4K or even 8K at this point.

[00:00:00] So, one way that I like to work is, like

[00:00:00] I said, I keep things at just 2K. Keeps

[00:00:00] my viewport snappy. And I jump over to

[00:00:00] my resolution here in the texture set

[00:00:00] settings. Just check it every now and

[00:00:00] then, make sure everything is is good.

[00:00:00] And then on my export, I might just

[00:00:00] switch that to 4K. So, again, options.

[00:00:00] You can use whatever works best for you.

[00:00:00] Uh so in this case, I'm just going to

[00:00:00] set it to the based on each texture size

[00:00:00] and I have it set here in the texture

[00:00:00] set list. Now you also have this other

[00:00:00] option here for padding. Just leave this

[00:00:00] as a default. What this is doing is

[00:00:00] adding a little bit of dilation. This is

[00:00:00] really good if your textures are being

[00:00:00] processed by something like a game

[00:00:00] engine where the they're probably going

[00:00:00] to get mipmapped which just means as

[00:00:00] they are scaled down there's going to be

[00:00:00] basically some bleed outside of the UV

[00:00:00] shells. So again, as these textures are

[00:00:00] scaled down, you're not going to get

[00:00:00] like a black line around where the UV

[00:00:00] shells are. It's a it's advanced topic.

[00:00:00] So again, just leave the padding here at

[00:00:00] this default setting. It's going to be

[00:00:00] good for all kinds of situations. And

[00:00:00] it's one of those we can set it and

[00:00:00] forget it kind of things. Okay. So with

[00:00:00] everything set up, I can just click

[00:00:00] export. And Substance Painter is now

[00:00:00] going to export all the textures,

[00:00:00] compile it to the Substance Archive

[00:00:00] file, and then I'll have my substance

[00:00:00] material file, that SPS that I can then

[00:00:00] use in my 3D program. So, here I'm in

[00:00:00] Blender and you can see I've exported

[00:00:00] the hard case and the cover and it's a

[00:00:00] Substance material and it's just been

[00:00:00] applied. And like I said, the the beauty

[00:00:00] of using this method is that the

[00:00:00] Substance add-on, the Substance 3D panel

[00:00:00] here, it creates the shader network for

[00:00:00] me. So, it's literally just kind of like

[00:00:00] import and apply and I'm good to go. So,

[00:00:00] here's the same scene with the Substance

[00:00:00] materials loaded into Cinema 4D and I'm

[00:00:00] rendering here in Red Shift.

[00:00:00] And here we have our scene and our

[00:00:00] materials applied here in Maya rendering

[00:00:00] with Arnold.

[00:00:00] And that's going to close out this

[00:00:00] tutorial. I hope you enjoyed your first

[00:00:00] steps with Substance Painter. And

[00:00:00] there's just so much more to learn. I

[00:00:00] hope you enjoyed this video and learned

[00:00:00] a lot. And I encourage you to continue

[00:00:00] your journey starting your own projects.

[00:00:00] Thanks a lot for watching and I'll see

[00:00:00] you next