Substance and Sketchup Workflow
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Thanks Jason, that clears it all. I'm still watching tuts but for what I seen I totally understand everything you're saying.
I had also set my mind to that jumping in aproach wich I feel it's fundamental!
However, I really appreciate your willingness to help me see the broader picture before I waste too much time with something that clearly will never work.
In a matter of fact I thrust what you guys are saying here so much that I've started by blender and UV unwrapping and how to fit that in my workflow as seamless as possible.
If that doesn't work for me though, what I seen about the materials that can be created from a substance by itself, wich I clearly know I can simply use straight forward in my current workflow and toolset, might be already enough to justify using substance designer.
I'm sorry for being a pain, but I can only say thanks for bearing with me!
Best regards and I wish I could retribute somehow, someday...
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FWIW -- IMO the "jumping in" approach will serve you best. There really is no need to fear UV layout, or even using other packages. It is a pretty straightforward process once you get into it. And in the end you will be better off for understanding it... even if you come to the conclusion the workflow doesn't suit you.
Also, help will be easier to provide once you are dealing with actual issues rather than rhetorical concepts.
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True!
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I've found that Substance Designer is retarded when it comes to movement... I don't know why these companies cannot let me determine the uses of my mouse and navigation.
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@unknownuser said:
I don't see where this doesn't go the full distance
I'll be sure to keep an eye open for anything that comes out of this conversation.
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Yes, I was overly excited and mistaken. I've been experimenting all weekend, as well as breaking the importer. and... Yes, I think I got lucky on that stone and concrete. They happened to wrap the corners very nicely. My other tests have not had that result. UV's are indeed a wall that must be mounted and climbed before you can have any good result, not only that. but normals don't even seem to read correctly in SD. While this works well on flat surfaces and simple shapes, 90 degree corners and rather simple topography does not do well in most cases. Grass and Dirt hides the imperfections in SU's normal creation.
Now, I'm going to see what Thea's procedural mats and see what can be done with it.
And I'll be damned if I didn't install Blender...
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@krisidious said:
And I'll be damned if I didn't install Blender...
That's the only thing I did so far.
I managed to import a perfect model into blender using blend up (wich I highly recommend...);
I managed to create an Unwrapped UV layout very easily;
I managed to import it back to sketchup as DAE and the geometry was perfect. The thing is I can't seem to bring the UV unwrapped Material back with the model... -
@jql said:
@krisidious said:
And I'll be damned if I didn't install Blender...
That's the only thing I did so far.
I managed to import a perfect model into blender using blend up (wich I highly recommend...);
I managed to create an Unwrapped UV layout very easily;
I managed to import it back to sketchup as DAE and the geometry was perfect. The thing is I can't seem to bring the UV unwrapped Material back with the model...I've managed after all, it was a simple matter of ticking a box in the Export Collada options: "Include UV textures"
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Awesome. that's why I installed Blender, not for this but for my Simulator Mod. Some guy over in that forum made a blender plugin to import and export the models, so I was testing it to replace Max... as I hate Max. next on my list was testing Blender's UV mapping & unwrapping.
Though, in the mean while I found something else... and it's kinda awesome. 3D Coat.
It also does some fantastic "re-topology"...
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These guys are very good...although I have not started, the curriculum looks really thorough and the approach seems to be for dummies like me.
!Looks like a great way to get to know the entire "Substance" science and application.
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Roland I've been following Substance Videos and although my own substances are still bitmap based, I really can tell this is big!
Nothing you can't do with it.
I'm taking advantage of Thea's Substance Converter so the simplest workflow for me is as follows:
- Sketchup Model;
- Export to Blender using Blendup (free for up to 1000 faces wich is not much so better buy it);
- UV Unwrapping within Blender with Smart UV Project (wich is automatic, fast and easily tweakable);
- Export as Collada;
- Import collada into sketchup and run Cleanup3 to merge faces keeping UV;
- Import into Substance Designer and work your texturing;
- Publish your substance as high as 16k textures (If you have enough GPU ram, I have a Titan X)
- Convert Substance to Thea material using Thea converter;
- Apply material in Collada model using Thrupaint to keep UV modes.
- Render!
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@jql said:
I'm taking advantage of Thea's Substance Converter so the simplest workflow for me is as follows:
- Sketchup Model;
- Export to Blender using Blendup (free for up to 1000 faces wich is not much so better buy it);
- UV Unwrapping within Blender with Smart UV Project (wich is automatic, fast and easily tweakable);
- Export as Collada;
- Import collada into sketchup and run Cleanup3 to merge faces keeping UV;
- Import into Substance Designer and work your texturing;
- Publish your substance as high as 16k textures (If you have enough GPU ram, I have a Titan X)
- Convert Substance to Thea material using Thea converter;
- Apply material in Collada model using Thrupaint to keep UV modes.
- Render!
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@unknownuser said:
Roland I've been following Substance Videos
The link leads to a new set of videos available as of yesterday so you haven't followed theses ones. -
I can tell you Kris, I can predict this becoming big at our office.
Materiallity is a big deal in architecture, there's no hatching or physical model that can replicate it!
I'm thinking of conceptual creative work based on procedurally generated textures with sketchup basic shapes and, in the future, maybe even blender...
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I am glad you found a workflow that will allow you to incorporate Substances -- they are worth it IMO.
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@jason_maranto said:
I am glad you found a workflow that will allow you to incorporate Substances -- they are worth it IMO.
Thanks Jason,
Some procedural only work well at 4k, as they have to be upscaled for 8k or 16k. That is the only limitation I'm aware for now.
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Gee, I never thought I'd see an SU/Substance workflow but you guys are breaking ground....
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Well, we know we're not breaking ground, we may be able to use some substance outputs, but we're under no illusions that we're using true substances or that we will be able to. But, like with most things in Sketchup, it may not be top end, but it's good enough. I don't need live rendered substances, I just need good looking textures for on the fly renders. If I can take it out and take it to SD and get a better look and it doesn't take too long? I'll take it. But, I'm not selling renders... Pro Rendering guys may not think this passes the sniff test. And they're probably right. I'd call it a shortcut.
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Anyone using Substance ever tried making overlapping wood planks? Something like this? http://www.textures.com/download/woodplanksoverlapping0030/46418
Can it be done or should I better model it in 3d instead. I would be using the output in Unreal Engine (normal map / ao map / heigth map / roughness map). -
The guys over at gametextures.com have a wood siding material...
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