Abhishek Kumar

Beginning PBR Texturing

Learn Physically Based Rendering with Allegorithmic’s Substance Painter

Abhishek Kumar
Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India
ISBN 978-1-4842-5898-9e-ISBN 978-1-4842-5899-6
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-5899-6
© Abhishek Kumar 2020
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To Mom; Dad; Prof. B K Prasad; Usha Sinha; and my beloved wife, Alka, for 11 fantastic years of marriage and many more to come. To my daughter, Rishika Ryan, and my son, Shivaay Singh Ryan, who were both in a hurry to enter the world. I love you all.

Introduction

This book delves deep into the concepts of physically based rendering (PBR) using Substance Painter. It also covers the integration of PBR textures with various 3D modeling and rendering packages as well as a game engine, in this case, Unreal Engine 4.

PBR-based texturing is in high demand in the video game industry with games becoming more and more graphically realistic. Traditional texturing workflows are rapidly being replaced with fast, procedural texturing suites such as the Substance suite, Quixel DDO Painter, and Mari. Allegorithmic’s Substance Painter is an extremely powerful texturing tool that is used by studios worldwide for texturing game assets, environments, and characters. This book covers all the necessary aspects of the software and its general concepts that will help you understand the software better and also guide you through implementing some incredible possibilities. Starting with the theory of physically based rendering, the book moves into the specifics of the Substance applications. Next, it covers baking, material and masks, and procedural texturing. This is followed by instructions for how to integrate with rendering engines, both internal as well as popular external ones. The final chapters reinforce the concepts through practical implementations.

After going through this book, the reader will have complete knowledge of texturing workflows as well as a pipeline for implementing generated textures into the 3D renderer and game engine’s real-time renderer.

This book is suitable for beginners to intermediate users in the fields of 3D animation, computer graphics, and game technology. This book is primarily for the students looking for a career in the 3D animation, games, and visual effects industries and those who want to learn to effectively use all the latest industry-standard tools and techniques. This book wraps up by explaining how to create show reel–ready assets using Iray and how to integrate with game, animation, and visual effect industry-standard applications like Blender and Autodesk Maya.

Specifically, in this book you will do the following:

  • Learn what’s needed to get into game design as a career

  • Learn the fundamentals of PBR-based texturing from the ground up

  • Learn to integrate PBR textures with game engines

  • Learn to integrate with standard 3D modeling and rendering applications such as Maya and Blender

  • Learn tips and tricks that will improve your workflow and help you create a production-ready textured model from scratch

Acknowledgments

It gives me immense pleasure to express my deep sense of gratitude to my mentor Prof. Saket Kushwaha and my PhD supervisor, Dr. Achintya Singhal, associate professor at Banaras Hindu University and my Mentor Prof. Alok Kumar Rai, Professor at Banaras Hindu University who have been the inspiration for this endeavor. Without their encouragement, support, and guidance, this accomplishment would not have been possible.

I would also like to thank Bhuvnesh Varshney, Spandana Chatterjee, Divya Modi, and Laura Berendson for their contributions to publishing this book. Their helpful comments and suggestions resulted in numerous refinements and corrections that improved the quality of this book.

A special thanks to Prof. Ramadevi Nimmanapalli and Bhaskar Bhattacharya for providing unconditional support.

Table of Contents
Chapter 1:​ What Is Our Goal in This Book?​ 1
Want a Career as a Game Developer?​ 2
Game Studios 2
Tools 4
What’s in This Book?​ 5
Chapter 1:​ What Is Our Goal in This Book?​ 5
Chapter 2:​ Graphics in the Game Industry 5
Chapter 3:​ Texturing Workflow 5
Chapter 4:​ Texturing Games vs.​ Texturing Movies 6
Chapter 5:​ PBR Texturing vs.​ Traditional Texturing 6
Chapter 6:​ Substance Suite and Substance Painter 7
Chapter 7:​ Hardware Specifications for Your Computer 7
Chapter 8:​ Painters’ Graphical User Interface 7
Chapter 9:​ Viewport Navigation in Painter 8
Chapter 10:​ Setting Up a Project 8
Chapter 11:​ Baking and the Importance of Mesh Maps 8
Chapter 12:​ Working with Materials, Layers, and Masks 9
Chapter 13:​ Working with Procedural Maps 9
Chapter 14:​ Substance Anchors 10
Chapter 15:​ Rendering with Iray 10
Chapter 16:​ Integrating with Blender, Maya and Marmoset 10
Chapter 17:​ Rendering a Portfolio 11
Chapter 18:​ Integration with Unreal Engine 4 11
Chapter 19:​ Tips and Tricks of Substance Painter 11
How to Best Use This Book 12
Chapter 2:​ Graphics in the Game Industry 13
Concept of Computer Graphics 13
Uses of Computer Graphics 16
Substance Suite in the Industry 21
Visualization Basics 22
What Is PBR?​ 27
Game Engines 28
Chapter 3:​ Texturing Workflow 31
Game Texturing Pipeline 32
Useful Tips for Texture Artists 34
What Is UV Mapping?​ 35
Types of Textures 35
Chapter 4:​ Texturing Games vs.​ Texturing Movies 39
Texture Pipeline for Movies 40
Texture Pipeline for Games 40
Common Pipelines and Similarities for Games and Films 41
Chapter 5:​ PBR Texturing vs.​ Traditional Texturing 43
Texturing Using 3D Painting Applications 44
Texturing Using 2D Painting Applications 45
PBR Textures in the Gaming Industry 45
Chapter 6:​ Substance Suite and Substance Painter 47
Why Substance?​ 47
Uses of Other Substance Suite Applications 49
Substance Source 49
Substance Alchemist 50
Substance Designer 52
Chapter 7:​ Hardware Specifications for Your Computer 55
GPU vs.​ CPU 55
Recommended Hardware 57
Chapter 8:​ Painters’ Graphical User Interface 59
The UI and Tools 59
Guide to the Shelf 66
Chapter 9:​ Viewport Navigation in Painter 71
Keyboard Shortcuts 71
Guide to Commonly Used Tools 74
Chapter 10:​ Setting Up a Project 77
Getting Started with Substance Painter 77
Project Configuration in Detail 79
Chapter 11:​ Baking and the Importance of Mesh Maps 81
Introduction to the Baker 82
Uses of Mesh Maps 85
Chapter 12:​ Working with Materials, Layers, and Masks 89
Materials and Smart Materials 89
Layers and Masks 90
Layer Operations 91
Masks 94
Smart Masks 97
Mask Operations 98
Chapter 13:​ Working with Procedural Maps 105
Filters 105
Applying a Filter 105
Commonly Used Filters 108
Generators 117
Dirt Generator 119
Metal Edge Wear Generator 122
Dripping Rust Generator 124
Auto Stitcher 124
Mask Builder – Legacy and Mask Editor 125
Uses of Grunges and Other Procedural Maps 127
Using Patterns as Height 129
Patterns as Masks 133
Procedural Images as Maps 137
Chapter 14:​ Substance Anchors 143
What Is an Anchor?​ 143
Using Anchor Points in a Practical Way 144
Chapter 15:​ Rendering with Iray 157
Launching the Renderer 158
Renderer Settings 158
Chapter 16:​ Integrating with Blender, Maya and Marmoset 165
Low Poly and High Poly Workflow 166
Blender to Substance Workflow 169
Maya to Substance Painter Workflow 174
Importing into Blender, Maya, and Marmoset 176
Exporting from Substance for Use in Blender 176
Exporting from Substance for Use in Maya 181
Exporting from Substance for Use in Marmoset Toolbag 184
Chapter 17:​ Rendering a Portfolio 187
Integration with Blender 187
Integration with Maya 203
Integration with Marmoset Toolbag 215
Chapter 18:​ Integration with Unreal Engine 4 221
Exporting to Unreal Engine 4 222
Importing into Unreal Engine 4 225
Chapter 19:​ Tips and Tricks of Substance Painter 243
Using Brushes and Alphas 243
Creating Stitches 250
Creating Damage Using the Height Channel 251
Index 257
About the Author
Abhishek Kumar
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is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at the Institute of Science at Banaras Hindu University. He is an Apple Certified Associate, an Adobe Education Trainer, and Autodesk certified. He is actively involved in the development of animation and design engineering courses for various institutions and universities.

Dr. Kumar has published a number of research papers, covering a wide range of topics in various digital scientific areas (image analysis, visual identity, graphics, digital photography, motion graphics, 3D animation, visual effects, editing, and composition). He holds two patents in the field of design and IoT and has created two inventions related to a pipeline inspection robot to help visually impaired people.

Dr. Kumar has completed professional studies related to animation, computer graphics, virtual reality, stereoscopy, filmmaking, visual effects, and photography from Norwich University of Arts, University of Edinburg, and Wizcraft MIME and FXPHD in Australia. He is passionate about the media and entertainment industry and has directed two animation short films.

Dr. Kumar has trained more than 50,000 students across the globe from 153 countries (top five: India, Germany, United States, Spain, Australia). His alumni have worked on national and international movies such asRa-One ,Krissh ,Dhoom ,Life of Pi , theAvengers series, theIron Man series,GI Joe 3D ,300 ,Alvin and the Chipmunks ,Prince of Persia ,Titanic 3D , theTransformers series,Bahubali 1 and 2,London Has Fallen ,Warcraft ,Aquaman 3D ,Alita , and more.

 
About the Technical Reviewer
Bhuvnesh Kumar Varshney
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works as a 3D and visual effects developer with 13+ years of experience in production and product development. His main interests are in character, creature, and facial animation. He has worked at various companies as a team lead and senior artist with the world’s leading animation and visual effects studios, including Technicolor, DQ Entertainment, and Anibrain. Currently he works at Yash Raj Films as a senior creature animator.

His notable work on movies, TV series, and commercials includeWallykazam ,Sava ,99 Super Hero ,How to Train Your Dragon ,Barbie ,Penguins of Madagascar ,Robot and Monster ,Freez ,Back at the Barnyard ,Mickey & the Roadster Racers ,Sheriff Callie’s Wild West ,Super 4 ,Tell It to the Bees ,Show Dog ,Budweiser ,Skoda ,Norm of the North , andRump and Azwan . He is currently working on Bollywood movies such asWar ,Mardani 2 , and the upcoming moviesPrithviraj andShamshera from Yash Raj Films.

Email:[email protected] ,[email protected]

 
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