For those who don’t know the site: FippedNormals is/was a CG store for assets and training you use alongside Blender, ZBrush, Unreal Engine, and the Substance 3D tools, when your pipeline needs fewer guesses and more ready-to-ship bits. Also Plugins, Tutorials, 3d-Printfiles and much more.

The dates you need on your calendar

The FlippedNormals Marketplace will stop accepting new orders on March 31, 2026. After that, purchases are done. Access to previously purchased files stays available until April 30, 2026. After that date, marketplace files will no longer be accessible. Creator payouts have a final date too. The last creator payout happens on April 15, 2026.

April 30, 2026 is also tied to creator operations, because the Creator Dashboard shuts down on the same day customers lose access to file hosting. If you bought something in the past, invoices matter. An invoice was emailed after every purchase, and it should be in the email inbox used at checkout. You can keep what you have locally forever, but you need to get it locally first. Treat April 30, 2026 as a hard donwload deadline, not a friendly suggestion.

What is actually shutting down

This is a shutdown of the marketplace, not a blanket disappearance of everything connected to it. The official plan is a smaller, more focused reboot that pivots away from running a broad storefront with thousands of creators. The new website is planned to focus on FlippedNormals Exclusives and FlipBox.

Why it is happening

The reason given is simple and painfully familiar to anyone who has ever stared at an infrastructure bill and then stared at their revenue chart. Expenses increased significantly over the last years while earnings decreased. Salary reductions were also mentioned as part of efforts to keep things going.

A key detail here is that revenue from FlippedNormals Exclusives was used to keep the marketplace afloat during that period. That combination of higher operating costs, lower earnings, and internal cost cutting still led to the conclusion that the marketplace model was no longer sustainable. If you are reading this as a warning label for other niche CG storefronts, resist the urge to generalize. The only confirmed facts here are the reasons described for this specific shutdown, not the whole sector.

What customers should do right now

Log in, open your library, and pull down everything you have paid for to local storage before April 30, 2026. If your workflow spans multiple machines, back up like you mean it. Put a copy on a second drive. Put another copy wherever your studio keeps long-term project archives. If you rely on invoice PDFs for accounting, store those alongside the content so future you does not have to play detective.

If you depend on the platform for recurring downloads during a production, plan to stop depending on it before the cutoff. The last thing you want is a late-night render emergency that turns into an “amrketplace is gone” surprise.

There is also a specific path for owners of exclusives content. If you purchased FlippedNormals Exclusives on the current marketplace, there is a process to move them to the new site once it launches.

That process requires contacting support after the new site is live, using the support email address. A 100 percent promo code is described as the mechanism to migrate courses to a new account. One more detail that will trip up anyone on autopilot: you will have to make a new user account for the new site as part of that migration flow.

What creators should expect

If you sell on marketplaces, you already know the question creators ask first: what about payouts. The official timeline includes a final creator payout date of April 15, 2026. That is presented as the last payout event. There is also an operational cutoff on April 30, 2026, when the Creator Dashboard shuts down.

If you are a creator and you have analytics, product files, thumbnails, descriptions, license text, or customer support notes you rely on, assume you need to export whatever you can before that dashboard goes dark.

The new site focus, as described, narrows the catalog to FlippedNormals Exclusives and FlipBox. That is a very different value proposition from a wide creator marketplace, even if the UI ends up sleeker. If your pipeline planning relies on “I can always re-download that later,” change the habit. This event is a reminder that availability is a feature you only notice once it is gone.

https://help.flippednormals.com/article/130-flippednormals-marketplace-closing-down-faq

The post FlippedNormals Marketplace closes March 31 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

InstaMAT Studio is out now – a layer-based painting and node-based authoring tool in the same general category as Substance 3D tools like Substance 3D Painter, Substance 3D Designer, and Substance 3D Sampler, with integrations into common DCCs and engines including 3ds Max, Blender, Maya, Unity, and Unreal Engine.

What changes in 2026 is the set of levers available for high-precision, iteration-friendly detailing. Curves Brushes move detail painting toward an editable, control-point workflow. Lazy Stroke helps freehand lines behave. Radial symmetry adds a new patterning tool. Masking and mesh filters expand geometry-aware selection and effects. The new toolbar and hotkeys aim to keep artists in flow instead of chasing settings panels.

And yes, your first experiment should probably be those curve-driven panel lines that always look great right up until the model changes. This time, the system is explicitly designed so the detail survives that upstream change.

Curves Brushes: strokes that stay alive

Curves Brushes let you create editable curve paths on the mesh, using control points rather than a one-and-done freehand stroke. Those curves remain editable after creation, including moving and refining control points, and transforming an entire curve as a unit by translating, rotating, or scaling the path.

A single curves layer can hold multiple curves, and their painting sequence can be reordered. Curves can also be set to erase instead of paint, and they can be closed to form continuous shapes from end point to end point.

Control points support different point types, including linear, symmetrical, smooth, and cusp, with a Joint Smooth setting to control how sharp or fluid the transitions are between segments. Each control point also supports per-point settings for radius, falloff, flow, and rotation, enabling effects such as tapering and gradual fading along the curve.

Curves can orient brush strokes along the path, so details follow the curve’s flow rather than fighting it. Curves also support dynamics for randomised size, flow, rotation, and position to add variation without manually wiggling your wrist into submission. The Curves workflow uses a GPU-accelerated 3D painting engine and does not rely on mesh UVs. The stated result is that curves remain intact even when topology or UV layout changes, which is framed as especially useful for repeating high-precision details such as panel lines, seams, stitches, and decorative elements.

Lazy stroke smoothing, now built in

Alongside Curves, InstaMAT 2026 adds Lazy Stroke, a brush-smoothing feature designed to dampen shaky-hand input and cursor jitter. When enabled, the brush follows the cursor with a delay set by a configurable radius, producing smoother lines for precision freehand painting. The feature is positioned for tasks such as smooth linework, organic patterns, and fine-detail passes where jitter becomes visible in the final maps. If you have ever zoomed in to paint one confident line and instead produced a seismograph reading, Lazy Stroke is aimed squarely at that moment. Try it, then decide if it belongs in production.

Symmetry upgrades: radial joins planar

Radial symmetry painting is new in InstaMAT 2026, enabling repeating brush instances around a central axis. The symmetry axis can be set to X, Y, or Z, the number of repeated instances is configurable, and the angle span can cover full 360 degree patterns or partial arcs. The plane origin is also customizable, allowing the symmetry center to be placed where it is needed on the asset.

Planar symmetry painting is also described as significantly improved. The symmetry plane can be offset to a custom position on any of the three world axes, plane visibility can be customised, and there is an option to mirror the brush on the opposite side of the plane. Symmetry accuracy is described as improved even when painting on meshes that are not exactly symmetrical, targeting the real-world scenario where characters and props have small asymmetries and deformations.

Masking: normals, submesh size, and raytraced AO

InstaMAT 2026 extends its mask set with new workflows aimed at isolating geometry features without hand-selecting everything. The new Mesh Normal Mask can isolate parts of a mesh based on polygon normals and an angle tolerance. The workflow is click-based: click a region, and the mask selects surfaces with similar normal directions. Multiple chosen areas can be defined within a single mask, and tolerance can be adjusted per point. The mask is described as UV independent and stable across topology or UV changes.

The Mesh Submesh Mask can mask submeshes by size and distance, targeting scenes with many similarly sized objects where manual isolation is tedious. There is also a Mesh Ambient Occlusion Mask described as using raytracing to generate occlusion-based selections for isolating crevices, corners, and recessed areas.

Mesh filters and nodes: mirror, bevel normals, drips, and smoothing

A batch of mesh-oriented effects and nodes are listed as part of the 2026 update. Mesh Laplacian smoothing arrives as an option in the Mesh Smooth node, described as producing a more unified surface while better preserving mesh volume compared to traditional smoothing methods that can shrink geometry. The described use cases include cleaning scan data, removing photogrammetry noise, and refining sculpted details while preserving silhouette.

Mesh Mirror can mirror decals, masks, and entire layers, and it can be applied to a layer group to mirror complex effect and mask combinations.

Mesh Bake Bevel Normals is a node for beveling low poly asset edges using a GPU-accelerated bevel normals baker, with procedural masking for selecting which objects or edges to bevel. The behavior is described as procedural, so bevel placement remains correct if the input mesh topology or UVs change.

Mesh Directional Blur is presented as a way to create leak and drip effects by blurring in a specific direction in 3D space, keeping directionality consistent across the mesh surface regardless of UV layout or texture resolution. It includes distortion and falloff controls.

Additional mesh features listed include Mesh Solidify for solidification to prevent rendering artifacts, Mesh Sharpen for definition and detail clarity, and a Mesh Stylized Filter for non-photorealistic texturing options.

InstaMAT UI and workflow: less hunting, more painting

InstaMAT 2026 introduces a dedicated painting toolbar intended to centralise common controls. The toolbar provides quick access to brush and curve settings, including radius, flow, rotation, Lazy Stroke radius, symmetry, and curve-specific controls. It is described as dynamic, updating based on the active layer type so only relevant options are displayed.

There is also a dedicated brush rotation hotkey, described as Cmd or Ctrl+Shift with a left-mouse drag, to rotate the brush, aiming to reduce interruptions during stroke work.

Viewport and gizmo changes include planar translation gizmos for moving a mesh, effect, or mask along two axes at once, plus custom viewport wireframe settings for width and color, and a viewport shortcut overlay that displays hotkeys while painting, using curves, and using the paint projector.

Mesh import settings add options to configure mesh up axis and coordinate system handedness for asset texturing projects.

Integrations: Blender, Unreal, 3ds Max, Maya

The release notes list updates for several integration plugins tied to the latest https://docs.instamat.io/en/Products/InstaMAT_Studio release.

InstaMAT_for_UnrealEngine lists support for Unreal Engine 5.7.3, plus fixes for crashes when creating invalid graph instances, and fixes for broken materials and mesh orientations for Scene outputs. Library previews are added for Mesh-type Graphs and Graph Instances.

Blender integration notes include support for the latest Studio release, improved performance when setting mesh as a graph input, improved performance when resetting graph instance inputs, and fixes for plugin stalls when creating faulty graph instances. Library grid UX is adjusted with fixed cell width, and search results quality is described as improved.

3ds Max integration notes list support for the latest Studio release and a fix for the plugin getting stuck when creating faulty graph instances, plus window icons changed to match the main menu.

Maya integration notes list support for the latest Studio release, improved mesh-as-input performance, fixes for plugin stalls on faulty graph instances, and a fix for incorrect exported textures when using the export dialog window.

InstaMAT Licensing and pricing: what the numbers say

InstaMAT licensing is split across tiers with revenue or funding caps stated for some options. The Pioneer license is free and fully featured with commercial-use rights, with availability limited to individuals or businesses with annual revenue or total funding less than 100,000 US dollars, and it requires attribution.

The Indie license is available for individuals or businesses under 250,000 US dollars in annual revenue or total funding, with an option at 8 US dollars per month billed annually, and a perpetual Indie price shown at 489 US dollars. For Pro, the pricing page lists a Pro subscription shown at 36 US dollars per month billed annually, and a perpetual Pro license shown at 989 US dollars.

If you are evaluating the tool for a pipeline, test it against real assets, real render targets, and real deadlines before it touches a production branch. New tooling should earn trust with results, not promises.

Finally, keep an eye on how the new mesh filters slot into your existing material graph habits. Directional blur for drips in 3D space, procedural bevel normals, and AO-based masking can remove steps that otherwise happen in separate tools. If it holds up, it reduces context switching. If it does not, at least you learned it on a duplicate branch instead of the hero asset.

Also, do not skip the boring step: validate exports, naming conventions, and texture packing against your engine ingest rules before you fall in love with a shiny new brush. The most dangerous bug is the one that looks like a style choice until delivery day.

InstaMAT Test: Painting, Procedurals and Pasta

The post Abstract ships InstaMAT 2026 Curves Brushes first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Manuel Kotulla.

Adobe’s Substance 3D Designer 15 (released July 2025) brings long-demanded upgrades for production artists: a unified viewport renderer, native post-processing FX, and direct scene-based context editing. This is not just a facelift—it’s a workflow upgrade for material creators who want to see results that won’t embarrass them in dailies.

Unified Renderer: Real-Time Raster and Path Tracing, No Compromises

The all-new renderer merges real-time rasterization and GPU path tracing into a single engine. Shadows are physically plausible, ground planes are supported, and switching between preview and final-quality output no longer involves arcane OpenGL settings or the creaky Iray plugin. MaterialX support is also built in, which may be useful for studios prepping for cross-pipeline transfers.

This renderer now replaces both the old OpenGL and Iray viewport modes—so what you see in Designer finally matches what you get in production renderers. This isn’t speculative; CG Channel{:target=”_blank”} and 80.lv{:target=”_blank”} both confirm it.

Native Post FX: Bloom, DoF, and Modern Tone Mapping

Post-processing is now handled directly in the 3D viewport. Users can enable bloom for those inevitable emissive materials, add depth-of-field (in raster mode), and choose modern tone-mapping profiles like ACES and AgX. No more exporting a bunch of screenshots for “Photoshop it later” passes—production lookdev can happen right where you texture. These FX are in-app and don’t require third-party plugins.

Scene Context Editing: Import USD/GLTF, Edit Materials in Place

Material authors can now import whole 3D scenes—including USD, USDA, USDC, USDZ, GLTF, PLY, and STL—and replace or tweak materials directly on selected meshes. That means actual context for lookdev: artists can edit, preview, and export scene-based material graphs without round-tripping to another DCC or losing mesh data. This is not a half-step: USD edits are non-destructive and maintain scene fidelity.

Workflow Upgrades: Tooltips, Bakers, CLI

Designer 15 includes context-sensitive, illustrated tooltips for atomic nodes—finally, some clarity for anyone lost in spaghetti graphs. GPU-accelerated bakers are improved, non-square UVs are supported, and the baking CLI is now more sensibly named substance3d_baker.exe.

One Caution: Test Before Production

As always: New features should be thoroughly tested in your actual production pipeline. Rendering, material export, and FX might behave differently outside the pristine confines of Designer’s viewport.

These tweaks (and more) are detailed in Adobe’s own release notes.

The post Substance 3D Designer 15 arrives first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

At GDC 2025, Adobe revealed a suite of updates for Substance 3D Painter, Designer, and Modeler, with the spotlight on faster workflows, more control, and expanded access for indie developers and students. The tools aim to streamline asset creation for game development and real-time 3D workflows by refining UI, expanding format support, and adding procedural and real-time enhancements—although, as always, testing for stability in production is advised before integrating into ongoing projects.

Substance 3D Painter: Path to Precision

The new version of Substance 3D Painter introduces a feature called Filled Path, a new Path Type that allows artists to fill shapes directly traced on 3D model surfaces. Assets imported from Illustrator, Substance 3D Designer, or Substance 3D Sampler can now be updated in real-time within Painter—enabling texture refinements without halting creative flow. Path functionality also gains precision with snap-to-geometry, use as a measuring tool, and easy copy-paste between masks and content layers. A new automatic cage option for baking texture maps reduces setup time and simplifies achieving accurate results. Additionally, a unified export window consolidates file export tasks to minimize time spent on file management.

Substance 3D Designer: More Realism, Less Guesswork

Substance 3D Designer now features enhanced rendering technology for more realistic material previews. USD (Universal Scene Description) support is integrated, improving asset transfers between applications. Rich tooltips have been added to improve usability and reduce time spent deciphering UI elements.

Unmetered Assets: Limitless Downloads

Artists now have unrestricted access to over 20,000 assets—materials, models, and lighting setups—via Substance 3D Assets. This includes hyper-detailed sci-fi textures and historically inspired materials, with new Signature Collections from artists like Anna Koroleva and Niki Marinov. The previous download caps have been lifted, encouraging more experimentation in scene building.

Indie Pricing: The Bundle for the Rest of Us

The Substance 3D Indie Bundle is now available on Steam for $24.99/month. It includes Painter, Designer, and Modeler, along with curated assets. This move targets small studios and solo developers, providing access to pro-grade tools previously reserved for AAA pipelines.

Pipeline Integration: Less Friction, More Flow

Substance 3D deepens integration with Blender, Unreal Engine, Unity, 3ds Max, and Maya. USD support has been expanded, improving asset mobility and supporting a more standardized 3D ecosystem. Adobe’s role in developing USD is documented at the Alliance for Open USD.

Pricing and Availability

The Substance 3D Indie Bundle is available via Steam for $24.99/month. Unmetered access to assets is included. For full pricing and enterprise options, visit Adobe Substance 3D.

Conclusion

Adobe’s updates focus on precision, real-time refinement, and access. From the indie-friendly pricing to expanded format support, the changes aim to reduce friction in daily workflows. However, as always in production environments, the new features should be tested for reliability and compatibility before full deployment. Stability remains key, even when the tools are flashy.

The post Painter, Designer, Modeler: Adobe Refines the 3D Toolbox first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Adobe has rolled out Substance 3D Designer 14.1, and it’s a treat. This update brings a mix of new features and fixes to enhance the tool’s usability. Let’s dive into the specifics.

Improved Node-Based Workflow

One of the key improvements in this version is the overhaul of the node-based workflow. With improved performance and stability, users can now enjoy a smoother experience when working with complex node setups. The update optimizes node rendering, making it faster and more reliable, a must-have for those dealing with large-scale projects. This ensures that artists can focus on creativity without worrying about system lag. As usual, the interface is designed to keep things simple and efficient—ideal for professionals who need results, not hassle.

Substance 3D Designer 14.1 enhances the software’s Spline and Path tools, first introduced in Substance Designer 13.0 (2023) for creating and manipulating 2D shapes. Key updates include the new Scatter Splines on Splines node, showcased in the video above, which enables the creation of a snowflake-like branching embroidery pattern. Additionally, the Spline Bridge List node now allows randomization of spline placement, generating splines that cross selected ones. The Mask to Paths node, which converts a greyscale mask into path segments, has been refined to offer more control over the placement of the first vertex on the path.

Game Dev Focus: Real-Time Compatibility

For those working in game development, the update ensures better real-time compatibility. Adobe has enhanced the export features, making it easier to get assets into game engines. Whether you’re working with Unreal Engine or Unity, you’ll find that the workflow has been simplified, and the assets will retain their quality and detail when transferred.

Adobe Substance 3D Designer 14.1 is available now through the Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. The price is competitive for professionals looking for a robust 3D toolset, but check Adobe’s official site for the latest pricing and options.

Maxon One Bundle Brings Substance 3D Tools Together

In another exciting development for VFX and 3D professionals, Maxon has teamed up with Adobe to bundle its Substance 3D tools with the powerful Maxon One suite. This bundle offers a streamlined workflow for 3D artists by providing access to Cinema 4D, Redshift, and more alongside Adobe’s Substance 3D Designer tools. Maxon One ensures that your creative process remains efficient by providing an all-in-one solution for 3D design, rendering, and texturing. The integration between Substance and Maxon tools creates a cohesive, flexible environment that is perfect for professional production teams working across multiple platforms.

For more details on the Maxon One bundle, check out the full article on maxon.net..

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The post Adobe Substance 3D Designer 14.1 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Adobe Substance 3D Designer has a new addition to its procedural arsenal: the Kizzle Splatter Node, developed by 3D artist Kai Mergener. This custom node simplifies the creation of intricate patterns by offering an intuitive approach to scattering and aligning elements within textures. Designed for efficiency, it caters to professionals working in procedural texturing, VFX, and real-time graphics.

What Is the Kizzle Splatter Node?

The Kizzle Splatter Node is a powerful solution for artists dealing with repetitive or complex patterns. By introducing streamlined controls for density, scatter intensity, and element alignment, the node addresses common challenges in procedural texturing. Artists can customize attributes such as rotation randomness, scale variation, and blend modes to generate dynamic textures without resorting to elaborate manual configurations.

Whether creating debris fields, fabric textures, or organic scatter patterns, the Kizzle Splatter Node enhances the node-based workflows that Substance 3D Designer is known for. This addition not only speeds up the material creation process but also reduces the need for external scripts or plugins, making it a practical choice for various production environments.

The Developer: Kai Mergener

Kai Mergener, the creator of the Kizzle Splatter Node, is a seasoned 3D artist and developer with a focus on addressing real-world production challenges. His contributions to the Substance 3D Designer community emphasize practical tools that streamline workflows without sacrificing artistic control. The Kizzle Splatter Node reflects Mergener’s deep understanding of procedural design and the needs of professional 3D artists, offering a user-driven solution that integrates seamlessly into Substance Designer’s ecosystem.

Use Cases in Digital Production

The Kizzle Splatter Node is ideal for professionals across multiple industries:

• In game development, it streamlines the creation of procedural textures like foliage, rubble, or terrain.
• For VFX, it simplifies generating splatter masks and seamless scatter patterns for compositing tasks.
• Material designers working on industrial or artistic projects can achieve precise, repeatable patterns with minimal manual input.

Pricing and Availability

Substance 3D Designer is available as part of Adobe’s Substance 3D Collection, starting at €23.99/month for individual plans. The Kizzle Splatter Node is a community contribution and can be accessed through Kai Mergener’s artstation – a personal License costs 1 US Dollar, and a professional license costs 3 US-Dollars.

Conclusion

The Kizzle Splatter Node exemplifies the collaborative spirit of the Substance 3D Designer community, bridging artistic creativity and technical precision. With its procedural capabilities, it provides a centralized and efficient approach to pattern creation, making it a valuable addition for game developers, VFX artists, and material designers alike. However, its adoption in live projects should follow careful evaluation to confirm its stability in complex production settings. For more details, visit the official pages for Kizzle Splatter Node

The post New Kizzle Splatter Node Enhances Adobe Substance 3D Designer first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Although I had been working with Substance Designer for some time, I needed a little more convincing to buy Substance Painter. I already had 3DCoat. In addition to the fantastic sculpting, retopo and UV options, I already had a fully-fledged toolset for PBR texturing. Or so I thought. Of course, that changed abruptly after I tried Substance Painter for the first time and got to know the great procedural workflow. But one wish remained unfulfilled for many years. In 3DCoat I was always able to use textures along a path and work very precisely. I always missed that in Substance Painter. Well, that has changed.

New updates to the Substance3D products have been released, bringing with them long-awaited features. In addition to a complete Path Tool Set, some very helpful presets have been added to Substance Painter. 3DCoat still remains one of my favourite tools for all the other possibilities. Here I will go through various application examples. Let’s start with Substance Painter.

At the beginning

So I’ll start as usual by creating a new project and adding a 3D model. As soon as we add a painting layer in Substance Painter, we also have access to the various painting tools at the top left of the user interface. There is now a new icon at the third position from the top which looks like the tip of an old fountain pen. We can now use it to paint paths on our model by placing them point by point on the surfaces and thus defining the path length. To end a path, press the ESC key or the Enter key.
Initially, all points are automatically smooth Bezier points without handles. However, they can be converted into corner points by double-clicking on them. Alternatively, you could also select several points and convert them using the corresponding button in the top toolbar. In a subsequent update, the user was also given the option of adjusting the handles on the splines.

As a result, we now have the path that uses the brush that was selected when it was created. As long as we are in Paths mode and the path is active, I can click on one of the brush presets in the library and then use this brush with this path. The Paths tool doesn’t work with all brushes, but there are many existing brushes that can be used with the new interactive spline paths. What I like most here is that I can reopen the project tomorrow and adjust each point of these paths again. So we have a non-destructive workflow. That’s how I like my procedural projects. I had rarely used the Paint Layers before because they are, to put it crudely, destructive. Of course, I don’t mean that they destroy my work. I rather mean that they have not been procedural so far.

What I used to paint was then fixed in my material and if I wanted to make changes, I had to delete these paint layers and then create them again. Today, I can also select the spline path option at any time and then make adjustments later by changing the path or the brush used with it afterwards. I can add more points by clicking on a path between the existing points or delete points by selecting them and deleting them with the Delete key.
Of course, new brush presets have also been added that work specifically with the new paths. So we now have seams with different selectable thread patterns, pure tension pattern folds caused by hidden seams or other influences, zips in various designs, welded seams and a pipe rack tool which creates something similar to a crumpled tube.
When the Draw Paths tool is active, I see the word Paths in the top left of the 3D view window. This is a menu in which I can select my desired path for later adjustments. The paths can also be copied, duplicated or deleted in this menu. I like to use this to duplicate existing, fully defined paths, move them as a whole and then just reposition the points.

Practice!

So, enough theory. I have created a few models especially for this article and will upload one of them to a new project. After the usual rituals and baking the high poly information onto my low poly model, I assign a metal material to the main body and a material from the leather box to the pouch. As this is a robot-like model, welded seams or rivets could fit very well here. Both can now be applied much more easily and precisely thanks to the new path tools.
To create the weld seams that connect the legs to the body, I simply roughly place the points for the path where I estimate good positions. I also prefer to place fewer points to start with rather than too many. The first path is created and if the weld seam preset Metal Welding has not already been selected, I assign it now. This is followed by the fine adjustments until the sizes, dimensions and distances look realistic. Each of these presets has a variety of setting options. For the Metal Welding material, I can specify the welding method in a list. Here we can choose between Gas Standerd, Arc Standard and Gas Weave. I can also use the Shape Irregularities slider to access the quality of the weld seam and the strength of the relief and discolouration at the edges of the seam.

Designer

Although we have a fantastic and very helpful tool in Substance Painter, my secret love is still Substance Designer. There used to be external add-ons from creative people that you could buy and work with some kind of paths. Since this update for the whole Substance 3D family, paths and splines have been added to Substance Designer. This now offers us so many possibilities that I would actually have to write several articles about it.
Two new categories have been added to the libraries in Substance Designer. One contains the spline nodes and the other contains the path nodes. The spline nodes can be divided into four sub-categories: Create, Merge, Modify and Render. In the Create section we have three, actually four, options to add a spline to the graph.
Spline (Poly Quadradic) can almost be compared to a Nurbs Spline. You can define the number of points between three and ten and these then influence the shape of the spline like magnets. If I wanted to try to create a sharp corner using this method, I would actually have to position two, or even better, three points very close to each other.
From this point of view, this node is helpful if you want to create flowing shapes. However, I can assign specific properties for each point. In addition to the height and thickness, I can also set the smoothness. This means that a value of 0 for smoothness would also produce a very hard angle.

Spline (Cubic) consists of a start point and an end point, both of which have a handle to form the spline in between. This makes it a very practical tool for simple paths. Later I will go into how each individual point of a spline can have individual multiple properties. This is very practical and also helpful, but can lead to a confusing number of spline points and at some point can be difficult to control and quickly become confusing. So it’s like always in 3D: as much as necessary, as little as possible. For this reason alone, the spline (cubic) is a good alternative for simpler splines.

Circles

Spline Circle is already self-explanatory. A circle is created. However, this is a shape that we can use in many variations. One possibility would be to combine several splines into a more complex shape. But I’ll come back to that later.
When I started this article, I was still thinking about going in a Celtic direction in terms of design. So you could quickly and easily create a stylised sun with the spline circles. To do this, I need two centred spline circles. One small and one large circle.
With the Node Spline Bridge (2 Splines), I can create any number of connections between two splines. As a result, I only get the splines of the connections and the two circles are no longer included.
Many of the tools that we know from the previous graphical nodes are also available as spline variants. We can use the spline warp node to distort these splines using black and white noise.

Thickness Node

As we have not yet given these splines any information about their width, we can do this retrospectively with a Spline Samples Thickness Node. As this example is a circular arrangement, I use a paraboloid shape to achieve a wider shape in the lighter areas than in the darker areas. To generate a graphical shape from these thin splines we use the spline mapper Grayscale. For now, we only use the upper settings in this node.
We can use the Segments Amount to make the resulting shape appear more angular or softer. For the effect of a Celtic symbol, it can be a little less angular and so seven segments are enough for us here. With Start and End we could define from where to where the shape starts and ends at the splines.
We utilise the full range from 0.0 to 1.0. For Thickness Mode, we leave the setting at From Spline because we have already defined which areas should be thicker with the previous node. We then set the desired width using the slider below. As we are not adding a colour map here, we do not need any UV information and the shape does not matter at the moment. The default setting of Plane therefore fits very well.
The inner area of the sun now looks a bit tattered. Which makes sense, because the spline warp has also done its work there. However, we still have the small circle from the beginning of this construct. From this, we go into a new spline fill node and, because the circle is still too small for me, I add a classic edge detect and use the edge width to create a larger ring. If I set the Invert to True in the Edge Detect, I now have the option of using a Blend Node to remove this white ring with Subtract from this tattered inner area.

Celtic

Since my brain was still stuck in the Celtic design world at the time, let me briefly show the benefits of Spline Poly Quadratic with the creation of a classic Celtic band. This often involves several lines that sometimes run on the left and sometimes on the right, crossing over and under each other.
In this case, four lines are involved. So I start with the first spline, which runs from the bottom left via the centre to the top right. In the Spline Poly Quadratic settings, I can define at the top how many points I want to use and further down the exact position of each individual point. This allows me to set each individual point to its mathematically logical position.
Once I have drawn all four splines in this way, I can merge them with several spline append nodes. This is followed by the spline mapper Grayscale used earlier. This time, however, I add a pattern to the colour input. As a pattern that runs from left to right works best here, the pattern was created using a transformed uniform colour map and an edge detect.

To ensure that everything now looks like the Celtic template, I have to return to the Spline Poly Quadratic Nodes. So I double-click on the spline mapper node to see its result in the 2D preview and single-click on the first spline poly quadratic node to adjust its settings. Above the section for the positions I have the Rollout Points Properties, in which I can set the height of each individual point. This makes it easy to define the over and under course of the spline.

Rivets

Even though paths now allow us to create any shape, the previous workflows, i.e. shapes using a combination of basic shapes and effects such as warp, swirl and many more methods, can still offer an easier way. This is where the Mask to Paths Node helps us. We can use it to convert shapes and black and white patterns into paths.
The nice thing here is that we can not only use shapes with hard outlines, but also shapes with gradients, i.e. with soft edges. This node also offers us a slider for the exact positioning of the path on the gradients. This allows us to determine whether the path is placed closer to the white area of the shape or closer to the black area.
This is a practical application if you are too lazy to draw all the paths in Substance Painter for every single seam or section of rivets. With a few simple tricks, this can be quickly automated in Substance Designer.

As this Distance Node penetrates from the white areas into the black areas, I add an Invert Grayscale Node beforehand. Now I can set the distance so that I can define an even gradient to the inside of each UV island. In the past, I would have used a Histogram Scan Node or a Threshhold Node to create a new sharp-edged black and white mask.
However, as the new Mask to Paths Node also works with gradients, I can save myself this extra effort and use it to my advantage. In the Mask to Paths Node, which now follows the Distance Node, I can now use the slider to set exactly where I want to place the path within the gradient to the edge of the UV Islands. Thanks to the procedural setup of the Substance Designer workflows, I can also adjust this at any time afterwards.
As is so often the case, not all nodes always match all other nodes. For example, we cannot distribute other objects along a path; this is only possible with splines. A Paths to Spline converter node is therefore attached to the Mask to Paths node and we can use the Scatter on Spline to distribute any patterns we have to this spline.

As usual in Substance Designer, there is also the subdivision in the nodes as a colour version or as a black and white version. The black and white version is sufficient for this specific workflow. We only want the distribution of the pattern as a greyscale pattern for the height relief information.
There are now three outputs from the Paths to Spline Node, Spline Coordinates, Spline Data and Splines Amount. We could now make each individual connection manually or we can temporarily use the shortcut “2” to link all outputs and splines at once. With the shortcut “1” we would then be back to the individual link per input and output. As the names of the outputs already indicate, they provide different information that we can utilise in other workflows. The scatter on spline node, on the other hand, has considerably more inputs. So we could also insert a background here, to which the information created here is then added. You could, for example, also use the fabric height information here and then use it to add this rivet structure. Similar to some tile generators, we also have inputs here to mask the pattern to be created, to scale it and to assign height information to it.
Then there is the obligatory pattern input, which we can use to insert one or more self-created patterns for distribution. But we don’t need this here. As with all tile generators, we have our usual basic shapes that we can use. And what could be better for rivets than the paraboloid template. The settings of the Scatter on Spline Node offer a wide range of options, of which I will only go into those that are important at this point in the workflow.

Spacing

The Shape Spacing slider is definitely important for us here. We use it to control the spacing of the distribution of the paraboloid shape on the spline. In addition to the usual settings in tile generators for position, rotation and scaling as well as the option of a random factor for all of these transformations, only the basic scaling is important for us in this case. This allows us to set the size of the rivets to a credible dimension.
It would be nice if the scatter on spline node also output a mask. But this is not so important here, as we can quickly extract it from the output using a histogram scan node or a threshold node. This allows us to blend these rivets over the other height texture and mix the colour assignments as well as define other areas, such as the possible folds in the fabric caused by the rivets.

The octopus

At some point, the idea of an octopus took root in my brain, which I would use as the basic concept for this article. I create the head of the octopus in the classic way with the shape nodes Parabolid and Capsule and scale and position several copies of the basic shape of the skull and the round eye shapes. The eye opening, on the other hand, is a rather curved shape and would need several deformers to define it precisely. Alternatively, I could also create a shape in an SVG node. However, this is not quite as easy to control. Partly because I can’t define Beziers in SVG. So that would be another task that is much easier to accomplish with splines. Here I could use the splines (Poly Quadratic) or also splines (Cubic). However, it is important to me here that the respective end points and the start points lie exactly on top of each other.

There are various methods for connecting several splines together. The Spline Append Node creates a common spline object, but still allows each individual spline to be edited completely. I can use Spline Connect to connect the respective beginnings and ends of the individual splines.
If one of the splines is now edited, the start of the other spline remains attached to it and moves with it. If I want to create a long path consisting of several splines, I access Spline Merge List and should also pay attention to the direction in which the respective splines were drawn. For my purposes here, a spline append node followed by a spline fill node is enough to create a closed shape. This is then subtracted from the eyeball as usual with a Blend Node and Subtract.

Cubic Quadratic

For the first version of the octopus, I basically used the same method as for the sun created earlier. The only difference was that I started with a small cubic quadratic spline, duplicated it and distributed the points of the duplicate around the edge of the image to create a larger outer shape. This was followed by the Spline Bridge Node, a Spline Thickness Node, the Spline Warp Node and finally the Spline Mapper.
However, this central motif on the backrest did not fit in with the Celtic pattern I had been holding on to until then. And so I saw the arms of the octopus and the idea of the repeating pattern with the folded arms was born. Of course, I need more control for this than the spline bridge node offers me.
So I create a separate spline for each arm for the octopods that are to make up the pattern and simply connect each spline node to the next. This is another method of connecting several splines together. To make my life easier, I set the appropriate thickness per point for the first spline I create so that the top point is the thickest and the following points are thinner. Now I just have to duplicate this first spline several times and adjust the respective positions of the points.

For the exact positions and mutual retention, I attach a spline mapper node to the end of this node strand and use a normal transform 2D node and a height blend node to create the appropriate segment for tiling. It is important here that I do not use the colour output from the spline mapper node, but the height output. Now I can adjust the position and height for each individual point in each individual spline so that the arms can cross over and sometimes run over and sometimes under. It sounds complicated at first, but this setup makes it quite quick and controlled.
I decided to keep the original octopus created by Spline Bridge as the central element. I just want to enhance it a little. As already mentioned above, I can also add a texture as colour input in the spline mapper. For the first spline mapper, I create a horizontal gradient Linear 2 and scale it so that the light area is in the centre of the arms and the dark area is towards the edge. In this way, I can also assign the rounding of a cylindrical shape to the arms. If I set the mode in the spline mapper to ‘Draw Single Spline’, I can select one of the input splines based on its ID. This makes my graph a little more complex, but I can assign each tentacle its own individual UV twist.

The nice thing about Substance Designer is that many developers put a lot of thought into how events could be linked together. In this particular case, when the bridge splines were created, each of them was assigned an individual spline ID. And this is exactly what we can access here.
So I duplicate the spline mapper node together with the colour input and adapt the latter by adding suction cups at the bottom with the help of a tile generator. To make optimum use of this new colour input, I add a curve node to the twist curve input in the spline mapper. This allows us to adjust the curve and the uvs rotate around the arms accordingly. Of course, the shape in the spline mapper must be set to Cylinder so that we can twist the Uvs accordingly.
Now I duplicate the spline mapper and the curve node seven times and can thus create different variations of the respective UV mappings per tentacle. These eight tentacles can now be merged with several blend nodes. Here I select the spline ID output as the mask. As this carries further transparency information with it, I first have to send it through a levels node to obtain a clear white mask. Now we have a spline mapper with the UV-adjusted colour input, which looks interesting but has lost its three-dimensionality. However, since we created fake height information for the splines in the original spline mapper node earlier, we can merge this as compositing. In the end, I create a new blend node and place this fake height information with multiply on the UV colour information. The upper layer with the fake height information can also be influenced by the layer transparency.
Just to complete the workflow, I would like to mention that I run the result of the central octopus through a threshold and enlarge it with an edge detect and a blend to create a mask that blends this pattern into the general background pattern. But these are workflows that you are probably already familiar with in Substance Designer.

Conclusion

Here it is. Our Art Deco armchair with a customised pattern, which I can adjust and change procedurally at any time. I guess you can see between the lines why I’m so excited about the new paths and splines in Substance Painter and Substance Designer. These workflows that we went through here are also just one of the many tips of the iceberg of what can be done with these new tools in the future.

The post Paths in Substance Painter and Substance Designer in use first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Mike Kuhn.

In nuce: Software developer Rod Zilla releases his Material Maker in version 1.0. Material Maker is a node-based tool for PBR material creation and 3D texture painting.

Background information on Material Maker: The Godot Game Engine runs in the background of Material Maker. Material Maker is often described as a source-free alternative to Substance 3D Designer and Substance 3D Painter. The handling of Material Maker is said to be comparable to that of Substance 3D Designer. The tool is available for Windows, Linux and the Mac operating system.

Click further: All further information on Material Maker. We last reported on Material Maker on 25 November 2019 , when version 0.7 was released. For those interested, it may be worth comparing how the tool has evolved since 2019.

The post Software developer releases Material Maker 1.0 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

The Substance Designer 6.0 update has now been followed by an update for Substance Painter from Allegorithmic. Here we give you a brief overview of what you can expect in the 3D PBR Painting software. You can read the complete release notes here. If you have more time, you can also watch the one-hour video on the new features that we have linked in the article.

2.5 update features

• Brush opacity was a long-awaited feature that now allows you to make finer additions to your materials.
• Colour management has been enhanced with colour profiles and LUTs.
• Text for Substance Material can now also be added in Substance Painter. The text tool came with the last Substance Designer update.
• Custom interface for shaders is one of the workflow improvements that allows custom shader interface tools.

Other new features

All new nodes from Substance Engine 6 as well as texture baking up to 8k resolution are now supported. Parallax occlusion mapping has been added as an additional texture map. In addition, the scripting interface has been expanded for better integration into VFX pipelines.

Cost

The 2.5 version is free for anyone who has a Substance Painter 2 licence or a Substance Live subscription. You can find more information here.

The post Allegorithmic: Substance Painter 2.5 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.