Effortless Workflow: ZBrush to Substance Painter - Speedy 3D Model Texturing Tutorial!

Unlock the secrets to a seamless 3D modeling journey! In this tutorial, I guide you through the quick and efficient process of taking your stunning creations from ZBrush to Substance Painter. Say goodbye to time-consuming hassles and hello to a streamlined workflow that maximizes your productivity. Whether you're a seasoned artist or just starting out, we've got the tips and tricks to make the transition smooth and straightforward. Dive into the world of fast and fabulous texturing - your 3D models will thank you! #ZBrush #SubstancePainter #3DModelingTips"
0:00 Zbrush to Substance Painter
00:24 Dive right into Zbrush
01:20 Zremeshing in new project
02:40 Projecting mesh onto new mesh
04:45 Unwrapping mesh for UVs inside Zbrush
08:50 Copying UVs to original mesh for export
09:26 Exporting mesh out of Zbrush
09:40 Creating scene in Substance Painter
10:10 Baking High poly onto Low poly
12:00 Testing materials on mesh

[@kell_alves]

Jesus christ, my friend. You don't know how much time i've spent trying to find and learn this Zbrush>Substance workflow you masterfully explained. Your video and didactics were so sooo great. Thank you so much for this!

[@fabbiotimpano]

Glad I could help!

[@sunxutao]

You can't imagine how much time I've spent on retopology and UV unwrapping these past few days. Your method is really effective. Thank you so much! Please let me call you a master🎉

[@fabbiotimpano]

You're very welcome! And not yet, let me earn that title 🙏🏼

[@makingcloudsofthought3006]

Watching this felt like finding the advice on how to beat a level of a game you haven't been able to piece everything together yet to solve. The Uv map suggestions, Normal map baking, and so on are what I haven't been able to make sense of over the past year while in college for 3D animation. Putting things into a use-case scenario all together as well as you did here was so helpful. Looking forward to seeing how much I can repair of a 26M point zbrush file i spent a few hundred hours on including poly-painting before realizing I should have used subdivisions not high dynamesh resolution a year ago has made it hard to justify cleaning it all up now but this and a few other processes should get it closer to functional for sure. Subscribed and really appreciate the effort you put towards creating this tutorial,

[@fabbiotimpano]

Im so glad you finally found my video and that it helped. Remember there is always a way to make your workflow easier and less stressful as a 3D artist. Thankyou 😁

[@vbaswinbaby3997]

I was soo depressed but then i found your video now i have a perfect low poly model in substance painter 🎉

[@fabbiotimpano]

No worries, goodluck! 😀

[@vbaswinbaby3997]

Thankyou so much ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@fabbiotimpano]

No thankyou for watching

[@DeibydPerez]

I was looking for this information days ago. you saved my day and my project. I really appreciate that you have taken the time to explain so well and so clearly this process that can seem complex to us newbies. Thank you very much again for sharing. Suscribed ✌

[@fabbiotimpano]

Im so glad you understood me, goodluck and thanks for the sub

[@JJulio17]

Hi! Thanks a lot for the tutorial!

[@fabbiotimpano]

No worries 😀

[@UcheOsoka]

This is a great video. Thank you.

[@fabbiotimpano]

I appreciate that, thanks! 😁

[@blacklotus3784]

Thanks you for the tutorial :3

[@fabbiotimpano]

Thankyou 😃

[@mkelly180]

This was incredibly helpful. Thank you.

[@fabbiotimpano]

Im glad I could help! thankyou 😃

[@allytrippers729]

This was so helpful!! thank you so much for this tutorial :D

[@fabbiotimpano]

No worries!

[@mateosantinusandizaga4181]

thank u so much really helpful, just the workflow i was searching for, just starting out with zbrush for concept art and its seems a really simple process

[@fabbiotimpano]

Awesome! let me know how it goes.

[@user-ts4mn2br5k]

tks

[@fabbiotimpano]

😁

[@tiagomesquita6980]

Thanks for this tutorial. It's an awesome workflow to get a preview on the final textures.

[@fabbiotimpano]

Thats great to hear! I use it always to get a good visual understanding of how my textures are going to look on my characters.

[@tiagomesquita6980]

definitely going to use on my next sketch :D@@fabbiotimpano

[@BBC_Video_Ideas_565]

Thank you.

[@fabbiotimpano]

I appreciate it!

[@DCrispim]

Thank you, this was great! You are a great teacher, I'd love to see more content like this. Really helped me out.

[@fabbiotimpano]

Thanks, I plan to work on some new content. What area interest you the most and maybe I can target that.

[@DCrispim]

@@fabbiotimpano Maybe on how to proceed inside Substance for texturing the models? I've picked up studying zbrush recently and been mainly '"texturing" my models with polypaint and compositiing in photoshop. I can make it look cool, but only from the angle I've rendered the artwork at. Would be nice to know how to make the textures correctly.

[@fabbiotimpano]

​@@DCrispimthat sounds like a great idea. I can delve more into a substance painter soon! Stick around because I got loads more content as well that will help.

[@lesmunte3090]

Waaaaao this is very a great video, help me a lot thanks, suscribed for sure

[@LeMat00]

Thanks, that was a great help! You can also use Subtance's auto-unwrap, I don't know which one solves UVs better but it's good to know it's also available!

[@fabbiotimpano]

Great tip!

[@sreehari7275]

❤❤

[@augblog_207]

thank you, but what about if you need to work with multiple subtools from a project in substance, not just body?

[@fabbiotimpano]

You can export out more than just one part of the mesh, just make sure they dont share the same UVs and are seperate polygroups :)

[@KianKrashesky]

This was amazing, so easy to follow along to and understand. Can I export multiple or all the tools (all-together) to substance painter?

[@fabbiotimpano]

I believe if you have one single mesh with multiple poly groups and each have their own UVs then you could. I would have to check my project to see if it's possible.

[@darthvaderitasidius4550]

Very nice video, but I have a question. How many polys can substance bakes with the high poly ? (even if the model has already been decimated)

[@fabbiotimpano]

Good question, this is a technical question depending on how good your computer is. I can usually bake out a few million polys onto a 30k tri mesh with no problems, but my computer was built for high demand when baking so I very rarely run into errors when baking. If you find that you are having problems with the baking then just re-project high details onto a low poly again in zbrush and then decimate it, you will be able to achieve some high detail but low poly mesh doing this. goodluck :)

[@NightWhiteSkies]

Thanks, quick question...Does that final model in Substance actually have that geometric detail or does it need a displacement map for the rendering software I would be using? For instance, If I'm using Unreal 5.3 and I don't want to use Nanite Displacement, will I still see all that detail just with normals, roughness albedo etc? Thanks

[@fabbiotimpano]

Hi! Thanks for the question. The short answer is Yes, you will get these details in your normal, roughness, base textures. Although you will need to consider what textures you output from Substance. The geometric detail you are reffering to would definitely be in the normal map! In unreal or any other real-time program all you would need to do is create a material shader with the option to apply a normal map texture. I can also mention that before going into any major programs like unreal/unity etc. I would even consider dropping your model into Marmoset (real-time renderer) and play with the maps you got from substance, this is also another quick way to see how it would like in its final state.

[@mkelly180]

Sorry for spamming this comment section 🙃 just and fyi to other viewers. you need to save your low poly model with _low and your high poly model with _high at the end of the respective files to the high to low poly bake. might seem obvious to some but I thought Fabs was saying to do this for organization reasons. you need to do this or substance painter won't do the bake.

[@fabbiotimpano]

Hi, thats a great tip. I have been doing this for so long I forget that it would help always no matter what you are bringing into substance use the prompt _low and _high. Thanks again

[@smthunbvbl]

What if there are problems with some details? For example, after divide + project all, not all elements were projected as required. In some moments there is emptiness, something was not transferred to the end, and somewhere there were empty places altogether.

[@fabbiotimpano]

Always make sure your low and high mesh line up or hopefully you dont lose a lot of geo when remeshing. If you move either one to far, when you project it will not catch the detail. Its a game of trial and error until you get a clean prject. Goodluck

[@jhonjairoquinterovergara202]

me sirvio de mucho ese video ya ando aprendiendp zbrush no encotra algo que explicra bien como su video

[@fabbiotimpano]

Thats amazing, thankyou! (Eso es asombrosa gracias)

[@vi8799]

How do you get around the problem that zremesher loses its shape on the sharp parts of the model?

[@fabbiotimpano]

I mentioned this in another comment but, when you project mesh make sure you arent going overboard with the changes in the mesh. The project function without playing around to much will do its best to line up both of the meshes but if you changed the mesh to much it will lose a lot of detail. Keep playing around with the project, try it on more simple mesh before a final character for example. Goodluck

[@Lathspell_]

And now if you want to rig this model? I assume you would texture it, export the maps and then rig it in whatever software and then apply all the texture maps and finally render?

[@fabbiotimpano]

If you want to rig your model. Hot tip here... Bring the low poly together into something like maya and start rigging, this way you will be able to continue with your texturing while rigging the same mesh on the side.

[@user-bs6ws6xk7h]

Sir, if my low poly mesh uses UVS of UDIM to import into substance painter, But is it feasible to use high poly mesh without UVS or not UDIM as "use low poly mesh as high poly mesh" for low poly baking details? The UVS of the two models are different, will it matter? Please help me!

[@fabbiotimpano]

If the high poly and low poly line up then it will bake. You only need UVs for your low poly.

[@user-bs6ws6xk7h]

thankyou！@@fabbiotimpano

[@mkelly180]

It's so weird. If you want to learn zbrush, there are tons of fantastic, professional tutorials. If you want to learn Substance Painter, again, tons of great tutorials. If you want to learn how to export models from zbrush to substance painter there's like 5 tutorials and they all suck. This tutorial is is in its own league. it's so helpful and straight forward and complete. All the other tutorials are like "okay, so take your unsubdivided poly corrected neutral mesh that's been converted to quasi high poly with obtuse ngons then simply hit export. if you haven't already unsubdivided poly corrected neutralized your mesh to be quasi high poly with obtuse ngons, be sure to do that before starting this tutorial. there are other videos that explain how to do that. i won't be focusing on it for this video. anyways, once you have that done, it's super easy." or they're like "okay, we're going to be exporting from zbrush to substance painter, but first, we're going to touch up our model in another 3d program you don't know how to use. sooooo sucks to be you." thank you for making this a complete tutorial, fabs. you're artwork is awesome, btw.

[@fabbiotimpano]

Thankyou, I appreciate this!

[@user-xs8ns5bs8l]

Is there any other reason to go through the work on clone process?

[@user-xs8ns5bs8l]

First of all, sorry for the many questions. I followed your tutorial exactly, but when I load the low-poly modeling into Substance Painter, it doesn't look smooth. Perhaps because of this, when baking HighMesh, other maps are baked correctly, but normal maps have problems. The angled parts of the raw mesh are baked Can you tell me what the problem is?

[@gronnip]

im having trouble losing all details in the eyes doing this, if anyone has any tips let me know the eyes become crusty little objects and all definition

[@fabbiotimpano]

Hi, I mentioned something about this in another comment but, try to not go overboard on the difference in the low and high. The project function will do it best to project on what is very similar too. If you try to project onto a low mesh that has lost a lot of its high defenition shape then it wont pick up the same, try using the smooth function on your remesh before projecting aswell for a better result. Goodluck

[@ryanwest8058]

The seams still look the same for me after I do protect paint, what's wrong?

[@fabbiotimpano]

You need to paint the mesh again or even unwrap it again.

[@royjordi7950]

the croc god should be green anyway😅

[@jaxmurderer4091]

Hi god, its me again... Thank you good sir

[@fabbiotimpano]

Welcome back

[@TextureArtist-kj6vp]

mate nobody want's to see your mug, esp not at the detriment of seeying the bloody apps.

[@fabbiotimpano]

sorry maybe next time I will let you do the tutorial?