You may have learned Substance 3D Painter wrong. Addressing an uncommon workflow issue

Stop using multiple texture sets for 1 UV map! Follow this guide to find out why, and how to fix your workflow!
DISCLAIMER*** This video is for the very small minority of new Substance 3D Painter users who have been taught a very inefficient, unnecessary method of using the software. 95+% of you won't need this video. It's a very basic concept that, unfortunately, was taught wrong to a small number of people in the Substance community. My hope is to show them there's a better way, so no one has to pull their hair out meticulously recombining texture sets when they don't need to. The fact that someone actually wrote software to recombine texture sets blows my mind. It shouldn't have needed to exist in the first place.
Also, this video doesn't touch on things like UDIMs, as this is a problem I've mostly seen in the game dev community, and mostly with people still learning the software. Unfortunately, some of them go on to the workforce without learning the right way, and it can hurt their chances to be selected for a job opportunity, or to work efficiently/effectively in a timely manner.
This video isn't meant to be divisive, or argumentative, in any way.
Also, could I have been more concise? Sure. Maybe I'll redo this video at some point. I like to be thorough, and sometimes I go on a bit long. Apologies if that's something that bothers you.

[@1Robertwaterworth]

Good point. I agree with you. I work mostly on assets that end up in TV and Film pipelines. So I use UDIMs for complicated models. I have noticed that some beginners have not been taught much about this workflow. And to be honest, Substance Painter didn't have a great start in this area. You could work with UDIMs but it was confusing to many. It is much better now since Adobe introduced a UDIM workflow, but it still can get confusing for some. I guess one problem is to do with the 3D modeling programs which Substance Painter has no control over. I work in Maya and can say if you don't prepare your models properly before exporting them out you will run into issues once in Substance Painter.

[@louisemelin1129]

Nice video :) You could also do a simple auto-repack of your UVs if you don't mind having several texture sets, it's just one click in Painter and I use it all the times. Also don't forget geometry masking! Usually faster than manually painting masks.

[@3dmarkaa]

The problem with auto-packing the different texture sets is that now you potentially have vastly different texel densities between them. All your UV work should be thought-out and deliberate

[@louisemelin1129]

@@3dmarkaa true! but this should be fixed soon

[@qfoil]

Hi! That's quite a good advice in itself! But I have personally never ever seen anyone teach that "wrong" technique and I have watched tons of videos on the subject. It's either masking (the way you show in the second half) or separating UDIMs with fully saturated UV spaces for having more texture resolution for rendering usually, not for realtime. Maybe I've been lucky to watch the "right" lessons all these years but could you for the sake of my curiosity drop a few names or links to see who is really teaching this nonsense? Much appreciated! Cheers.

[@3dmarkaa]

Honestly, the title of this video is purposefully, slightly clickbait-y. I know that the majority of Substance Painter users have been taught the right way. But I've run into enough users on discord/reddit/etc that have been taught this "wrong way" that I got tired of explaining the right process over text, with the hopes that those who have been taught that way will see this video and click it. I don't know who's teaching them this method, but there are even third-party tools created just for recombining texture sets. So it's big enough of a problem that people are creating tools to solve issues that shouldn't even exist if the software is used correctly.

[@qfoil]

@@3dmarkaa Oh, okay, I see your point! Yeah, that's a very strange idea that someone might need additional tools to solve a problem that should not exist. Good for you then to try and nudge people in the right direction! And thanks for reassuring me in my ways! Your clickbaity-ness worked on me and here I am in your comments after all :) I think I might find something interesting in your other videos too so I'll see what else your channel has to offer. Keep on doing the right stuff and educating people!

[@UtterUnit]

Oh wow, I actually just got hit by this mistake for the first time because I seen a recent video that used the incorrect workflow. Not only was it completely inefficient and wasted my time meticulously organizing my UVs, it was such a pain switch between texture sets in substance. Never making that mistake again. There are so many better ways to mask out geometry.

[@TheTimeProphet]

I just use a colour mask rendered from 3ds Max to select different parts.

[@kickassmovies5952]

What's the point of recombining, if one has kept as separate, there is a useful reason for it. All depends on one's end usage and that will decide how you approach from the beginning. Suppose one wants to render in 3ds max, they can use multi sub object material and use multi maps one got from substance.

[@SputniksArmy]

because its incredibly stupid, inefficient, and retarded to have them uncombined, and especially initially splitting materials by texture sets.

[@SegaMegaLoh]

I dunno bro, I think it's the most basic technical stuff for texturing and me personally never have problems with it. The only thing that I could add to color selection is: if you have bad pixelated borders on color mask, just add a blur filter on top(with ~0.11-0.15 intensity, not more) and then apply levels and play with them to adjust your borders and get much cleaner smoother result. Good luck.

[@3dmarkaa]

Yeah I've updated the description to mention that this is an uncommon problem that beginners face. It's super simple, but some people are taught to do it the way I mention in the beginning. For the color selection advice: Agreed. I use this method all the time for smoothing out bad masks, or giving nice height insets.

[@TacticsTechniquesandProcedures]

What’s your opinion on Snowrunner ( video game) requirements for a minimum of two materials for vehicles, ie glass, frame etc? My understanding is the xml Must reference glass for the cockpit view and a separate material for the frame/cab/interior. If there is a way to optimize these two materials I’m up for it.

[@3dmarkaa]

I mean yeah, there's nothing wrong with using more than one material/texture set for an object. It's just when you use separate materials for objects that you've already UV mapped together. It's wasteful. On an object like a car, especially if it has an interior, I'd expect a minimum of 2-3 material IDs. And each material ID should be UV mapped separately from each other.

[@MetalGearMk3]

Okay so I haven't seen anyone teach it like this and its definitely wrong.

[@3dmarkaa]

Yeah it's not very common, but I've seen it from enough beginners that it's definitely a problem. There's a person or people out there teaching it this way to a small number of new artists, and I'm just trying to help them get out of that workflow.

[@MetalGearMk3]

No I haven't! Lies.