Create Wood Textures in Substance Designer

Learn one of the many techniques used to create wood patterns in Substance Designer. We'll work on creating that swirly knotted pattern commonly found in wooden materials.
Get the finished graph here: gumroad.com/l/yuypk
Chapters
0:00 - Introduction
1:44 - Creating the iconic wooden knots
10:38 - Adding natural distortion
16:25 - Add finer detail
22:53 - Adding the panels
29:33 - Albedo/Color
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Twitter: / jeremyseiner
Instagram: / jezzadoes3d
Website:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gear I Use
Computer: amzn.to/2FPeTUO
Monitor: amzn.to/38qZK7V
Camera: amzn.to/3dN9U3y
Lens: amzn.to/37wUpvl
Mic: amzn.to/3eFIsFf
Keyboard: amzn.to/35cj5rv
Software:
Substance Designer

wow someone that actually builds a material from nothing so people can actually learn. 👍🏿

[@aboldmule]

Just wow! First tutorial ever I could follow along real time. Excellent

[@niEt0]

Thanks Jeremy, great tutorials. Keep them coming plz!

[@JeremySeiner]

Thanks!

[@PrimordialStrange]

One of the best clearly explained tutorials out there for designer. For subs designer, the thinking process actually matters more than the nodes itself. I hope your channel continues to grow. thank you for this guide.

[@Yoso_tv]

this tutorial peeked my interest because my wood game was really weak, but turns out this is the first tutorial that explains every step of the workflow correctly and you explained every node you used very well, good job man. Someone finally competing with the official substance designer tutorial guy

[@Baszczer]

Understandable for a beginner, useful, professionally made. It is a pleasure to learn from your tutorials.

[@ohlookanotherchris1751]

This tutorial is brilliant. Minute changes to the original settings creates such wonderful variations. Thank you for this tutorial and I look forward to watching more of your videos!

[@JeremySeiner]

Thank you! And thanks for watching =)

[@matthieuboeuf4462]

This was really helpful, thanks! I hope your channel continues to grow as good Designer tutorial makers feel rare or hidden.

[@JeremySeiner]

Thanks! Glad it was helpful! 😊

[@rzanima764]

I really like your tutorials; just the perfect pace and amount of info. Thank you.

[@JeremySeiner]

Thank you very much 😊

[@BrunoTicianelli]

Man you deserve more views and subscribers, this tutorial is basic and fantastic, I'm jumping to the others right now!

[@JeremySeiner]

Thank you very much! 😊

[@lethevutran7297]

This is so good, now I can actually learn this program. Thank you Jeremy :)

[@JeremySeiner]

Andrew Trần you’re very welcome! Happy to help!

[@mishakarpinska4118]

Thank you for this wonderful tutorial. Your workflow with Substance Designer is so graceful and elegant. On top of that, the way you re-iterate why each thing is being done is refreshing and fantastic! Also the intermittent laughter when something turns out better than you thought is always nice to hear :)

[@JeremySeiner]

Thank you! I’m so happy to hear you liked it. 😊

[@SenshiSerenity]

This tutorial was incredibly helpful - please make more! Thank you!

[@JeremySeiner]

Thank you! So glad it helped! Much more to come! 😊

[@JannerBros]

The best tutorial ever on KZbin for learning Substance Designer ! Thanks for the video 👍✨ ~Janner

[@JeremySeiner]

Thanks Janner! So glad you liked it!

[@ERIC-nj4yp]

Hello, after several tries looking for a tutorial for Substance Designer, I finally found what I was looking for, thank you, I recommend.

[@sebastianpossel6687]

Thanks Jeremy! love your tutorials so far... This is my second one! and I with some slightly changes i did, I really enjoyed the results .

[@JeremySeiner]

Great! Thanks!

[@Lokkix2]

This is an amazing! I really like it. Your videos helps a lot to figure out how it's everything working in designer. Great job!

[@JeremySeiner]

Thank you very much! I’m so glad you like it and that it’s helping! 😊

[@KUBE.archvis]

Lovely tutorial! Clear and concise with great explanations of the logic. Thank you!!

[@JeremySeiner]

Thanks!

[@dibritto1298]

this is a really good class about the organization of nodes, as a beginner i aways get lost with so many nodes, thank you for share you knowledge, I see so many tutorials but you are by far the best teacher

[@austingattie5735]

Litterally the best channel to learn SD step by step, your videos are fantastic!

[@JeremySeiner]

Thank you very much! I’m so glad you like them!

[@Cyborg_Dolphin_Goat]

This is actually a perfect tutorial, why can't all tutorials be this good?

[@JeremySeiner]

Thank you so much!

[@dbharath6876]

great job dude, thanks for the video

[@dreidrey]

Finally! I did your wool tutorial and now I'm back for more. :D I gave up on the Substance by Adobe official tutorials as they are out of date with the current version of the designer. I found myself getting super frustrated and demotivated until I found your channel. thank you, Jeremy. You're my Substance Designer Angel!

[@JeremySeiner]

So happy I could help! Thank you for your kind words!

[@Gam3inGpR0Zz]

Thank you so much for a non stupid time lapse video, clear to understand and very informative for beginners who are trying to understand the fundamentals

[@JeremySeiner]

Thanks for watching! Glad you liked it! 😊

[@merryannnguyen2935]

Thank you so much for sharing, You are a wonderful teacher. Please continue to help us peasants!

[@yiannibompotsis7219]

Such a great person, the tutorial is amazing. Thank you very much!!!

[@JeremySeiner]

Thanks you!

[@Russ002]

Thank you! I've been having such a hard time on substance designer for my school and with this, I feel like I can actually "play around" with the work process you made compared to other videos that might be a bit too advanced for me. Thank you so much!

[@JeremySeiner]

Thanks! I’m so glad it’s helpful. 😊

[@jburkathan]

Dude, epic tutorial! I started on Substance's learning platform. That was a huge mistake! Glad I found your channel!

[@JeremySeiner]

Thank you! I’m so glad it helped ☺️

[@AugustusLee98]

Just getting into node based texturing and this video really increased my comfortability with the software! Thanks!

[@JeremySeiner]

Awesome! So glad to hear it!

[@pix2cad490]

Thank you Thank you thank you thank you thank you Sooooo much Man! You just did what I was searching for weeks.

[@JeremySeiner]

So happy I was able to help! =)

[@pix2cad490]

Lucky to find you on you tube.

[@damian_madmansnest]

A year ago i watched this tutorial for the first time. I was a Designer noob and everything looked like pure magic. It was a great idea to revisit it now that i have a feeling of what every node does.

[@JeremySeiner]

That’s awesome! I remember that feeling. Sometimes I still get it. Thanks for coming back. I like coming back to older tutorials I’ve watched too.

[@merrynguyen6131]

thank you! this was amazing

[@petrruzicka452]

1 minute in and I know this will be excellent tutorial!

[@mrozer]

You are a good teacher. Thanks

[@DRAWTIST1]

I like this video and would love to see more of this

[@Marco-bd3ez]

that was a great tutorial ! Thank you for that. keep it going :D

[@JeremySeiner]

Thank you!

[@SaraDesigner]

I learned many things from this tutorial, thank u so much .keep going

[@JeremySeiner]

So glad to hear that! Thanks!

[@kifayatUllah712]

Excellent, excellent bro!!!! Wow! Awesome techniques! Love it! I've decided to make this! Thanks! Love from Pakistan!

[@JeremySeiner]

Thank you very much! 😊

[@rigglethedrake9040]

thx a lot mate, so helpful

[@PageFrederick]

Really clean tutorial, thanks mate!

[@JeremySeiner]

Thank you very much and thanks for watching!

[@maceymcculler9933]

You're brilliant my guy, thank you so much!

[@JeremySeiner]

Thanks! 😊

[@martinnorlin1739]

Love your tutorials!

[@JeremySeiner]

Thanks!

[@MrSerenity1223]

This is an excellent tutorial! I paid for a few on Udemy, but this is better than half of them. Explanation is clear, a clean organization system and great sound and video quality. Thank you!

[@JeremySeiner]

Thank you Daniel! So glad you like it! ☺️

[@hatsonhatsonovich3496]

Very details tutorial. Awesome! Thanks a lot!

[@JeremySeiner]

Thanks for watching :)

[@frankenjstein9371]

Just a note on the AO step, skip the AO node and plug the output of the Blend directly into the AO output node. This is for the latest release of SD 13.0.2 b6942. Adding the extra AO node causes weird artifacting. and heavy computation. Height control can be achieved by using the Smoothness interpolation in the AO noise and the intensity in the NM node. I added a histogram scan to replace the AO height adjustment. I'm sure there are other nodes that would do the same job but better, I just chose HS because it worked for the time being.

[@sallayy6025]

How exactly did you adjust the AO so it looks realistic? For me nothing else works except for the AO (HBAO) node which causes the weird artifacting

[@SkullRaven]

​@@sallayy6025 Sounds like your node setup is in 8 bits per channel. At least your AO and Normal maps need to be in 16 bit or else you'll get artifacts. Go to Base Parameters (right-hand side) and look under Output Format, there should be a button called "Select Method of Inheritance", set it to Absolute and then select 16 Bits per Channel.

[@kenjiju2174]

@@sallayy6025 I had this issue as well and looked up a fix. It has to do with the output format under the node. If you have a Blend node that says 8, go to where it says Output Format in the Parameters and change the little blue marker to Absolute, then change the dropdown right under it to 16 bits. Any corresponding nodes should also update to "16' in the number below the node. Hope this helps someone.

[@Anna_Lou98]

Thanks so much for this tutorial! I've learnt so much :D

[@JeremySeiner]

So glad to hear that! Thanks for watching 😊

[@tonyc4777]

I am learning SD right now and this tutorial is very helpful. Thank you for sharing. You got a new subscriber :)

[@JeremySeiner]

Awesome! Thanks for watching and I’m glad you like it!

[@bhaskarmaity2890]

Wonderful tutorial. Really helpful. You deserve more subscribers.

[@JeremySeiner]

Thanks!

[@Poiter0]

thank you very much, this tutorial really help me!

[@JeremySeiner]

You’re welcome! So glad it helped! 😊

[@BruceWillis992]

Perfect wood tutorial!

[@JeremySeiner]

Thank you!

[@PixelEte]

You're so amazing thanks for this one this helps me a lot

[@JeremySeiner]

You’re very welcome! Thanks for watching!

[@glchannels]

This is a complete manual on how to start studying SD with wood. Thanks for sharing. It will be very useful on my journey! Cheers friend 🍻

[@JeremySeiner]

Thanks! I’m glad it’s helpful ☺️ good luck on your journey!

[@marcomantuetto5538]

great tutorial dude! thank you so much

[@JeremySeiner]

You’re welcome! ☺️

[@ksmolsen]

Thank you! Very useful for a new user of the program such as me.

[@JeremySeiner]

Glad to hear it! Thanks for watching 😊

[@Ronson1998]

Great tutorial, easy to follow, great end result! Only thing, it would be good if it would be more slated, like in both horizontal and veriticle, that way it would look more realistic in environment.

[@massivetree7937]

Excellent tutorial!

[@JeremySeiner]

Thanks!

[@kennethchadhiley2579]

Jeremy - this is one of the best and most professional tutorials I've seen. How did you become so knowledgable with Substance Designer? I am looking forward to more of your videos, and wish you well in growing your channel.

[@JeremySeiner]

Thank you so much! I really appreciate that! 😊 I guess I’ve done a lot of experimenting with the different nodes trying to recreate different materials. But I’ve also watched a bunch of tutorials from other channels to see how they approach similar situations. Thanks for the kind wishes I’m so glad you enjoyed it!

[@artemkovalevskyi1265]

Wow, thx for this tutorial. It's my second day in substance designer and I've already achieved something. Will watch your other tutorials

[@JeremySeiner]

Awesome congratulations!

[@jakubkrolikowski8538]

thanks, very helpful :)

[@Kinkoyaburi]

Great tutorial!

[@JeremySeiner]

Thanks!

[@tesdimensions]

Thank you SO much

[@CGDEVANIMATION]

This is very good tutorials for free

[@hassanabuidrees9774]

Thanks short and great

[@jillianmurphy2604]

Awesome tutorial

[@JeremySeiner]

Thanks!

[@misselnora]

Absolutely amazing tutorial! I'm new to SD and this gives such a good feel for what the software can do!

[@JeremySeiner]

Thanks!

[@sumdude5172]

honestly you are lucky, i learned designer 4 years ago, there was a no free tutorial this well made, explaining each nodes and each parameter, i still rememeber slowing down and squinting at timelapse, trying figure out what nodes they were using

[@kawtharmarhoon2481]

superb!

[@sharonpfister608]

love it

[@murtazarizvi368]

thanks. didnt knew about the pick gradient option.

[@JeremySeiner]

It was an absolute game changer for me =)

[@danielhilton7476]

For some reason, Substance software is not working at our uni, so my tutours have not been able to show us how to use any of the software. This has helped me so much as this is the first time I have used Designer at all. Thank you for taking the time to do this for us all!

[@JeremySeiner]

Thank you Daniel for your kind words! I really appreciate it. I’m so glad this was helpful!

[@h1oma_]

Thank you so much for this tutorial. I making a skins for games and this is really helpfull for me.

[@JeremySeiner]

Great! You’re welcome! ☺️

[@HandsomeDragon]

Awesome Tutorial, thank you so much! For anyone who has a problem around 32:00 where you connect the Ambient Occlusion Node to Base Color, but it keeps automatically connecting to the Ambient Occlusion Node Output, make sure that your Link Creation Mode is set to Standard, and not set to Compact Mode. If it's at Compact Mode, Substance Designer will automatically assume you want to connect the AO Node to the AO Output.

[@JeremySeiner]

Thanks! And I appreciate the tip! Yeah the link creation mode can throw a wrench into that for sure. Glad you liked it!

[@HandsomeDragon]

​@@JeremySeiner I appreciate your time! My goal is to get comfortable knowing how SD works. What I’m realizing is that there’s never one way to do something, and 99% of the time the creation process is trial & error, and seeing what works.

[@amandal2185]

followed this and was good. Is there a way to tilt the individual planks? Like you see on old buildings.

[@ihabyaareb3328]

Thank you. I appreciate it Can you please make more like this tutorial for 1- plaster wall 2- metal 3- or anything that you can. I really had fun with this tutorial. Thank you

[@jonahunger]

As someone who is studying 3d modelling in university, you explain this better than my lecturers.

[@JeremySeiner]

Thanks!

[@GrafikerDigital]

Gracias, por esto!

[@JeremySeiner]

You’re welcome! 😊

[@ibrahimkollari1180]

Thank you

[@mphx_sye2048]

Thanks

[@dirkdiggler60]

Hi there, thanks a lot for your tutorial, I did enjoy it a lot and have the same problem as someone had before. I want it to look like parquet, so having tiles in both ways and shifted patterns in both directions. I found a comment of yours on an earlier comment, but I can't get it yet myself ...

[@crayce_official]

Hello from Russia! Its great material, thanks for it! You really helped me out to remember what the pipeline to create materials in Substance. (Also i always heard not knots but nuts lmao)

[@JeremySeiner]

Haha great! Thank you! Glad you like it 😊

[@roobeerrrtt1633]

nice job brother

[@JeremySeiner]

Thanks!

[@razor191919]

An absolutely fantastic tutorial, my only question is: How can I make it look like the planks are breaking up like on a normal floor? :c I made the Y value 2 in the Tile Sampler, but I'm not sure how to make it random so all the Y's don't line up.

[@JeremySeiner]

Hi David - If you use a flood fill node to isolate the different floor tiles, you can use a "Flood Fill to Random Gradient" node to give each tile some slightly different height information. You could blend that on to break them up. Also, in the Tile Sampler, you can use the "Offset" parameters under position to make it so they don't line up. Hope this helps!

[@sketchbooksquared]

thanks

[@g8610g]

Awesome result and artistic vision! :D Are you going to make more videos? :) 🙏

[@JeremySeiner]

Thanks! Super busy at the moment but I hope I can make more videos in the near future!

[@driggledraggle7702]

I don’t know how to get my material in my 3-D viewer to look like yours. In the newest version of substance it starts out with this dark metal cube, and there’s this really common problem where it’s pure black and there’s seemingly no way of fixing that. I managed to get around it by starting over using a default template instead of a blank slate where you start with zero nodes. But that still leaves the problem of being left with a dark metal cube. I added the uniform color to the base color output and that helped a little. But when you start getting into the fine details nodes, it makes it look really ugly really fast. It looks like yours in 2D view, but by no means in 3D view.

[@JeremySeiner]

Hmm. Try right clicking on an empty space in the graph and choose “View Outputs in 3D View”. Does that help?

[@randallvolk8437]

Would you be willing to do a tutorial on how you would make a tron style texture? All the random light emitting lines and circles.

[@JeremySeiner]

That sounds really cool! I’ll look into it!

[@damian_madmansnest]

I observed that using Warp for wooden knots pattern tends to create pairs of knots next to each other (as can be seen from 6:00) which is not very realistic. I got better results with a Directional Warp with high (50+) intensity.

[@TyCarriere]

Great tutorial! I'm exposing some of the parameters so they can be tweaked later. Is there a way to expose the albedo for the gradient that you know of?

[@JeremySeiner]

Thanks! Good idea exposing those parameters. I’m not quite sure about exposing the gradient, but I did a tutorial about how to grab colors from an image a little while back. Might be a good starting point or spark an idea?

[@JeremySeiner]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/q5_NlIOnop19gKs

[@TyCarriere]

@@JeremySeiner Awesome! Thanks so much Man!!

[@vedikasomany8101]

Hi! I bought the final graph from your website but I am unable to access it in Substance Designer 2018, do I need a newer version and if yes, which version

[@JeremySeiner]

I believe I originally made it in a version of 2018, however I’m unsure of what specific version number. Are you able to download the latest 2018 version? If not I can certainly offer you a refund.

[@vedikasomany8101]

@@JeremySeiner I am not sure which version of 2018 was the last. Anyway I am able to download 2019 version. Do you think it will open in that?

[@JeremySeiner]

@@vedikasomany8101 oh yes anything newer than what the graph was made originally can convert it. The problem is with older versions.

[@proflooney]

so if I just want a wood material without the flooring stuff for beams etc or chairs what parts would I leave out of the graph?

[@JeremySeiner]

You can bypass the "Adding the panels" chapter and use the last blend for the color section

[@proflooney]

@@JeremySeiner thanks

[@2PACBRB2014]

Is it possible to create this texture without the metalic roughness template?

[@JeremySeiner]

Yes, but you would need to create your own outputs using the output node and assign them to the proper channels.

[@petrruzicka452]

At 16 minute mark you created mask to isolate knots, so they aren't everyone to make the wood feel more natural. This was a good call. But then by adding the finer detail in 20+ minute mark, all the knots are back. I think it would be better to use different mask for the finer detail.

[@BkSMedia]

Thanks a ton for this tutorial man! I grabbed your completed file after Designer crashed out on me 40 mins in :( It's not much, but I hope it helps!

[@JeremySeiner]

BkS Media really appreciate it thank you! Haha I never realized how they could be used as crash-savers too. So glad it helped!

[@spjad1091]

nice

[@spjad1091]

i have a problem tho how can we outline the cracks between themin black

[@Alpha-zs3ct]

i don't have "Warp"

[@Rolandfart]

20:00 is some seriously good asmr.

[@nb3dart460]

good tutorial. but i miss some knots^^

[@user-su2id5pt3g]

Hey bro is it possible to create burl wood in substance designer? You know the swirly fancy knotty wood.

[@JeremySeiner]

What an amazing texture idea! I'll have to look into it. Such a good pattern. Thanks for the suggestion!

[@user-su2id5pt3g]

@@JeremySeiner Heh never thought you'd react back, glad you did! There is basically 0 tutorials about such wood, everything is either parquet or normal wood. Never have I seen a burl wood material being made in substance designer, it would be an amazing tutorial.

[@francoisbethermin6095]

Even if your voice is sizzling like a Kardashian, it was a really nice tutorial, you deserve more thumbs up ( and a big spoon of honey )

[@austinjoseph8849]

What's the difference between tile generator and tile sampler?

[@JeremySeiner]

Great question! They’re very similar, but the tile generator doesn’t have as many inputs as the sampler, and it computes a little faster. 😊

[@austinjoseph8849]

@@JeremySeiner Sorry to disturb again, but when I try to link ambient occlusion with base color of base material, the connection shown as red dotted lines. How?

[@JeremySeiner]

@@austinjoseph8849 sounds like you have color data (orange connection) mixing with grayscale data (gray connection). You can convert the grayscale data to color by using a default Gradient Map node. Then plug that Gradient Map node into your blend.

[@damian_madmansnest]

How do you bring up the reference image?

[@JeremySeiner]

I’m using a program called PureRef which is free and highly recommended. You can enable “always on top” so that when you click away, it stays above the other windows.

[@damian_madmansnest]

@@JeremySeiner Thanks!