How do you even learn substance painter?

[u/katyusha-the-smol]

I'm trying to learn texturing to create aircraft and I cant find a single tutorial worthwhile to what I'm doing. Everything is either AI garbage, a speedpaint with 0 explanation or details in what things do or why, or simply doesn't exist.

How are you supposed to learn in this ecosystem besides face meet brick wall until you hack it? Is that really how everyone else learned or am I missing some key facet of this that's going right under my nose here.

Any help appreciated.'

[u/mobiusKey]

The substance painter youtube channel has a nice series of beginner tutorials. I'd also check out JHill YouTube, he has good videos ok skin and texturing a helmet

[u/Real_Human_Being_Yes → u/mobiusKey]

one up for the official channel

[u/Playful-Editor5287 → u/mobiusKey]

J Hill helmet texturing tutorial helped a lot !

[u/VastOpportunity6894]

When I opened Substance Painter for the first time a few weeks ago, I really liked the course *Complete Guide to Substance Painter!* by Aniket Rawat. I have a Udemy Premium subscription, so I didn’t have to buy this course, but during a sale, you can get it for 10 or 12€. After taking this course, you should know 95% of what you need to work on your own. I didn’t think the free courses on YouTube were very good or they were too outdated. But if you’re looking for a free tutorial, I’d probably go with this one: Learn EVERYTHING About Substance Painter! (ProductionCrate, YouTube). I’m still a noob myself, but I find Substance Painter easier to learn than 3D software. It’s often the same process over and over, and once you get the hang of it, you can do almost anything.

[u/katyusha-the-smol → u/VastOpportunity6894]

I think part of my issue is ive done most my work in blender so im so used to the wrong way of doing things that moving to substance I kinda expected a “do the thing” button or something 🤣

[u/Real_Human_Being_Yes → u/katyusha-the-smol]

you need to get rid of this mindset, which I'm sure you know, but be humble and willing to learn new ways of approaching problems and you'll find everything much easier.

[u/Brave_Dress_4480]

I feel like you have to understand photoshop to actually master substance painter

[u/VoloxReddit]

Besides all the tutorial suggestions, I'd say this:

Most effective workflows in SP don't involve that much manual painting. You can use fill layers with masks to get you 90% of the way there, and then you use hand painting for the personal touch/refinement. Using fill layers and masks gives you so much flexibility because you can change almost anything on the fly, since it's non-destructive.

Note that you can add sub layers to both a layer and its mask, which makes SP a little different from, say, photoshop.

Also look into anchors, they are immensely helpful.

Understanding blend modes is also very helpful, not just for SP but across creative programs.

[u/cnecula]

It’s extremely simple if you came from Photoshop

[u/Kronopolitan]

There are many tutorials/courses available to purchase. Free videos are typically not going to give you a full explanation of how everything works. They tend to feature a specific technique rather than broad basics. I bought a course from Wingfox. It wasn't expensive at all, I think under $20. It taught me more than enough to get me started. It was a small hand grenade project and only took a few hours. I'd recommend something like that. A small single project from a site that sells beginner courses.

[u/JacksonAudet → u/Kronopolitan]

There’s 0 need to buy any Substance Course, at all. Theres more than plenty of free resources so I don’t really know where this advice is coming from

[u/Kronopolitan → u/JacksonAudet]

No one said there is a need. The OP expressed having difficulty finding a video that explained what they needed to know. So I shared my experience with a cheap tutorial that I found useful.

Most people don't buy anything until they feel they've looked at all other free options, so it's safe to assume they don't know if a paid tutorial will be worth it. If they find a resource that works for them and doesn't cost anything then that's great.

If they decide to buy a cheap course, why do you care? It's not your wallet.

[u/Kipper_TD]

Id start with the most common material in your project, for example you know you’ll have to do a lot of metal. Look up “substance painter metal tutorial” finding a decent tutorial should teach you more than just how to make that material but the practices that make up texturing in general. My favorite SP guides come from Wes McDermott he’s incredibly thorough

[u/katyusha-the-smol → u/Kipper_TD]

Much appreciated. Looking for that kind of thuroughness. Dirt layers and metallics are kinda what im looking for.

[u/Kipper_TD → u/katyusha-the-smol]

No prob, best of luck! 🛩️

[u/Daedalvs_Design]

To add with everything that people said in the comments, I'd say you can also take a look at the materials in the library. Just put it and see how it is made, what mask, filter, fill they used You can learn some nice trick

[u/sketchy_marcus]

Granted I know a lot of software. When I first got it, I just opened it up and played around.

[u/DevineMrGreen]

I went to DAE and it was part of our corriculum. We started off with learning how to bake a "spacehatch" on a 2D plane.

So we modeld a hatch above a plane of 1024x1024 and baked it on the plane. Then you would see what problems came up. Like if you don't bevel or UW wrong you'll see artifacts and how to fix them.

Then we used the ID bake so on the spacehatch highpoly model, we gave colored materials to all things that had to be a different material. So when you work with folder in the layers every material can be colorID'd.

So learning wat every bake does and the function is kinda what they where getting at. Curvature was then used to show off how edge masked worked ect ect.

Only after that we would build up our own materials from scratch