How to create a dent effect in Substance 3D Painter

[@Vizeral]

You explained it in detail and it still looks like magic.

[@jeffyboi6969]

Oh my god I love that dent active slider. Its controlling so much.

[@wes.mcdermott]

Thanks! Yeah its using Anchor points to link layers. Super powerful.

[@HussainAli-hh3fh]

One of the most comprehensive technical demo out here. No doubt educational information is now easily accessible online in the recent years but its very rare that we find such a useful guides free or easily accessible. Appreciate your contribution Wes.

[@wes.mcdermott]

Thank you so much for these kind words! Many more videos to come ; )

[@Ricardo-de9ju]

The biggest investment a software company can make is in education. SP changed the game forever.

[@Braytonks3D]

Such an elegant effect! Thanks for the vid, Wes

[@wes.mcdermott]

Sure thing! More to come

[@basquera]

So..... Finally someone made me understand the Compare Mask function 😁. Thanks man 🙏🏻. Looking forward to more tutorials of this level.

[@wes.mcdermott]

Thanks! More to come!

[@aaronjohnson4604]

Your explanations are intense. Thank you for being so thorough. 🦾

[@wes.mcdermott]

Thanks for watching!

[@TheIcemanModdeler]

Wes making a Painter tutorial like the old days!

[@wes.mcdermott]

Yes! I’m back to focusing on videos and content! More to share soon

[@100Peterll]

Incredible, stumbled on this by accident on Twitter and recognized your voice from the getting started tutorials, such a clear and great explanation even a complete beginner like me managed to understand. Great video Wes, makes me wish every Substance Painter tutorial was made by you lol

[@wes.mcdermott]

Thank you so much! I’ll be posting more tutorials.

[@niemanickurwa]

@@wes.mcdermott I thought it was your voice! :D Yeah keep posting mate you're one of the best at Substance Painter tutorials.

[@amaltea83]

Hi Wes, I just want to say thank you for all the time and work you invest in these videos, your work is helping me massively!

[@wes.mcdermott]

Thank you so much! That is very great to hear.

[@lohnthom9353]

Nothing but quality educational content over here.

[@wes.mcdermott]

Thank you much! So glad you like the videos.

[@Kakuro7]

you taking my painter knowledge to another level

[@wes.mcdermott]

Thanks! Awesome to hear!

[@Jaro3Me]

Absolutel legend! Thank you for all the knowledge and tricks you've shared over the years - single handedly helped me to get a good fundamental understanding of painter and designer and your approach to explaining this is so easy to follow and understand! much love!

[@wes.mcdermott]

Thank you so much! Greatly appreciate it and so glad to hear you have liked the content. Much appreciated!

[@pi198273]

What an absolute genius

[@alexalier9819]

This is so cool! I used to apply effects on height details by rebaking those height elements to the normal map, but I find this technique way much better and non-destructive. Tho it's more complicated, but it's worth to learn it :D

[@ArtemM3D]

Compare mask is quite interesting. You could probably get away with levels in this case, but compare mask does seem easier and more intuitive. great as always, Wes

[@wes.mcdermott]

Yes indeed. Definitely could use levels. I find I often forget about compare mask. It can be super powerful. Thanks for checking out the video!

[@GoDfaThEr041]

This is amazing. Thank you so much Wes, you made my month!

[@honeydhami3877]

Wow That one Is Nice tutorial Sir you explained in to much easy way and In Detail Also ❤ I Love That Way of tutorials thank you

[@wes.mcdermott]

Thank you! So glad you liked the tutorial.

[@EddyNeveu]

Super cool as always!

[@rafaelcavalcante6129]

Cara, obrigado por compartilhar o conteúdo. Uma sugestão, tenta na próxima gravação deixar a tela menor.

[@AltoDuce]

THIS IS INSANE, THANKS FOR UR TUTORIALS!

[@wes.mcdermott]

Glad you like them! Thank you!

[@Flightlevel420]

Such a great teacher. Thank you

[@b4rtmod]

Thats soo amazing my friend, can wait to create some textures with these effects, keep these tutorials coming!!! Loved!

[@wes.mcdermott]

Thank you much! More to come : )

[@staticbuilds7613]

Oh, the tessellation. I was wondering why other people was getting a better effect than me and my custom alpha's. You're video really cleared that up in a easy way. Thank you for this amazing and easy to follow tutorial

[@wes.mcdermott]

Glad I could help!

[@albert_gazizov]

Thanks a lot! It's really cool video and effect, which you demonstreted for us!

[@wes.mcdermott]

Glad you liked it!

[@nosky9296]

What a legend, easy to follow, will try making my own.

[@wes.mcdermott]

Thanks! So glad you liked the video

[@millie2079]

So excited to try out this technique! thanks man. Keep up the great tutorials.

[@wes.mcdermott]

Awesome! Thanks much for checking out the video!

[@saadullah5583]

man what a tutorial, amazing work

[@wes.mcdermott]

Glad you liked it!

[@alessandromorra00]

Such a great tutorial, thank you! 😌

[@wes.mcdermott]

Thanks! Glad you liked the video.

[@fsalad]

Very cool. Clear and concise explanations. I learned a lot. Thank you

[@wes.mcdermott]

Thank you much!

[@ymmanuel_who]

Keep up the great work!

[@Astara_2055a]

Really cool & useful tutorial thanks for publishing

[@rodrigobutron1983]

Excellent tutorial, very well explained, thank you very much, Greetings from Mexico

[@wes.mcdermott]

Thank you very much!

[@huabi7376]

thank you so muchhhhhh😭❤‍🔥❤‍🔥❤‍🔥

[@alvoltta]

Awesome trick!

[@michaelllrobson]

Amazing tut, recently subscribed and already learned some awesome tricks, thanks for share man

[@wes.mcdermott]

Awesome, thank you!

[@Yogesh0698]

Amazing

[@TitusKrakenDesigns]

Learned again a lot! thxMaster! maybe can you do a tutor for noobs about that substance designer, to learn the basics how to make those nice alphas?

[@wes.mcdermott]

Thanks! Yes that is a good idea. I will add it to the list

[@rajeshrajan80]

Awesome technique .Thank you for sharing.

[@wes.mcdermott]

You are most welcome!

[@dimitriskoutris6139]

I was waiting for that!Thx!

[@lykan7865]

As Usual: WES is da BES !

[@wes.mcdermott]

Thanks so much!

[@БогданСардак-б7я]

Awesome tutorial! A lot of new information for me! Thank you so much!

[@wes.mcdermott]

You are most welcome! Thanks for checking out the videos

[@vincentz2631]

Awesome work.!Thanks for sharing.

[@wes.mcdermott]

Thank you!

[@YannickSeptier]

Thanks a lot for the tutorial!!! It's really great!

[@wes.mcdermott]

You're very welcome!

[@monterotorrent]

Nice content!

[@mustafayerebasmaz390]

I have a question I followed the steps. HBAO gave AO effect at the borders of the dent. I don't know why? Also thank you for the amazing tutorial, Wes!

[@wes.mcdermott]

Thanks! Glad you liked the video. I think the HBAO can have an effect on the edges of the dent based on the transparent area of the dent effect. I ended up adjusting the HBAO settings so that it minimized the effect on the edges.

[@mustafayerebasmaz390]

@@wes.mcdermott Thank you!

[@manday3058]

Hi, thank you for you lesson. But HELP me please, how can I correct this intersection edges? I tried to make like in your lesson with mask but nothing is corrected.

[@wes.mcdermott]

Thanks! Glad you liked the video. Can you explain what are the intersection edges?

[@manday3058]

​@@wes.mcdermott sure, at 0:54

[@sergiej7508]

thanks!

[@NightVisionOfficial]

This video, is awesome!

[@wes.mcdermott]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@3DFlick7]

keep creating!

[@peterrandall6761]

Wait, so substance painter can do actual displacement?

[@wes.mcdermott]

Yeah! It's not Zbrush : ) But you can paint with height data and export tessellated meshes. Definitely has some good use cases.

[@youngsiks5434]

Hello, I have one question. I have enabled tessellation and displacement while texturing, but I am unsure how to export the textures in a way that these effects will be properly applied in the game engine. (should i enable the displacement in the engine?) Could you explain how to export the textures and ensure that they work correctly in the engine?

[@wes.mcdermott]

In that case, you need to use a tessellation shader in the game engine. You can also choose to export mesh from Painter and check tessellation, and this will create actual geometry. You will have a denser mesh, but if you are using Nanite in UE it will be work great.

[@MaxCDet]

Really informative, thanks a lot

[@wes.mcdermott]

Glad it was helpful!

[@PencuryTimun]

awesomeeee!!!

[@LanceC09]

With doing somthing like this it needs the height map right? So would you have to model the asset with it to export for games that wont use the height map, or can you export the new geometry from within substance? But then id expect the better option would be modelling it within the low poly to begin with.

[@wes.mcdermott]

Yes, this is driven by height and displacement mapping with tessellating the geometry. You can export the tessellated mesh from Painter under the File menu. You can use that to retopologize a low-res mesh.

[@artyommitrius9466]

This is very cool! Thank you very much for such useful material.

[@wes.mcdermott]

Glad it was helpful!

[@kishorpasha7874]

amazing

[@jquintero462]

This is an amazing tutorial! I was wondering how to import custom-made alphas into Substance 3D Painter?

[@wes.mcdermott]

Thanks! You can go to File>Import Resources and then tag it as an alpha in the import window.

[@Yenn_up]

im beginner in substance, how are u deforming the mesh???

[@wes.mcdermott]

This video shows how to create the effect. In Painter, I am using displacement and tessellation. It allows you to do some rudimentary "sculpting" using height data.

[@MrSosho]

how did you make the height map affect the model like that in 3d? it ussually affects my brush in a 2d illusion

[@wes.mcdermott]

I am using the tessellation shader in Painter. You can increase the height scale and paint height information and it will displace the mesh. You can then export the new version of the model from Painter. It's kind of like sculpting. Nothing like Zbrush, but works very well for effects like this.

[@juanmilanese]

I spent a lot of time this year breaking edges with trim smooth border in zbrush for stylized rock assets and baking them into low poly bevels. I'm sensing a lot of that work could be done procedurally inside SP. Is there any way it could be done all inside SP?

[@wes.mcdermott]

Yeah you could do this in painter a few ways. You can use the UV border generator to create smoothed masked around UV shells or use the curvature generator.

[@Oranneg]

hi guys sorry for this question but where i can downloand alpha brush dent?

[@wes.mcdermott]

I am sorry! I forgot to add the download to the video description. Here is the link. www.dropbox.com/s/k1099msc5469r97/dent_alpha.png?dl=0

[@Oranneg]

@@wes.mcdermott ty so much

[@marcos_ferreira1997]

So nice

[@wes.mcdermott]

Thanks

[@vsluj3508]

what will it look like in a game engine?

[@wes.mcdermott]

It will look very similar. You can export this mesh as a tessellated mesh from painter or just use the normal to fake the effect.

[@rizochi4543]

Which videocard do you have?

[@wes.mcdermott]

I am using a nvidia 3080 Ti.

[@Lyco0n]

I sitll do not understand how compare mask work at all

[@wes.mcdermott]

I will look at making some more basic tutorials.

[@Lyco0n]

@@wes.mcdermott when I got to you it myself I figured it out how it works, but the feature is confusing when explained, thanks

[@GartiOG]

i dont have designer how do i create that aplha can you please give away your alpha please?

[@wes.mcdermott]

You can download the alpha here: 1drv.ms/u/s!AnegYkPcSt0Ji9sjXeLncobd4sYAnA?e=YIhnIE

[@GartiOG]

@@wes.mcdermott thx

[@cgvinny]

aWESome!

[@katyagodina2497]

1000000 likes

[@maristov]

man i wish anchor points were just called reference :) use them all the time and the name still seems weird

[@r.b.667]

hold your horses... why is it so fast?

[@wes.mcdermott]

Thanks for the feedback :) Definitely can talk to fast at times.

[@a420dro]

How to create a dent effect in Substance 3D Painter: Step 1. open Designer :D

[@wes.mcdermott]

Haha :)

[@batka50515051]

wow, that's great!!!!! so we don't have to sculpt every small details

[@wes.mcdermott]

Absolutely! Yeah, with Painter you can height some height details with displacement. It's not a replacement for a full sculpting tool but great for smaller details.

[@EmagedBunny]

do youi know how to get rid of sems while using a lot of filters? that will be great to know

[@wes.mcdermott]

Some of the filters will have an option for Triplanar. You can use that option to get rid of the seams. In other cases, I will create a layer above with all channels set to passthrough and I will then use the clone stamp to paint out seams.

[@boxmeta1834]

Thank you so much Sensei d=====(￣▽￣*)b

[@wes.mcdermott]

Thanks! I am wondering what this means : ) d=====(￣▽￣*)b

[@boxmeta1834]

@@wes.mcdermott That 'd' represents a thumbs-up.(Old school Japenese Emoji)