Art

I’ve used Photoshop for texturing for years. Anyone who has used software for such a long time gets comfortable with its functionality, quirks, UI, etc. My favorite function, by far, in Photoshop was Blend-If. It was almost a “make awesome” slider. Blend-If will “knock out” pixels of a current layer based on the shadows/midtones/highlights of itself, or the layer beneath. This function was essential in creating believable masks or combining photo-sourced textures. I made a Substance node that emulates Blend-If.     Here, two images are plugged into the Blend-If Color node.   Blending by Base Map will make the Top […]

This is a living document detailing all the cool workflow shortcuts and node observations I’ve found while working in Substance Designer. This post is sticky on my front page, so check back if there are more. Shoot me an email if you have a tip too.   Effects The Distance Node will only expand pixels whose values are 128 or above. Anything below will just be discarded. Gradient map too flat? Blend a White Noise Fast to the pattern, set to Add/Sub, and a litttle bit of strength. Disconnect the outputs for a speed boost if you just need to work […]

I love Allegorithmic’s tools. Substance Designer is a godsend. The focus of the tool is to create high-end procedural materials for realtime rendering, but I wondered if I could use it to create some old school-style art? This is just a prototype of the filtering method I’m using in the node graph. The brick generator node is fed into the tree and out comes pixel art coolness. All of this is generated inside Unity (or Unreal if you prefer) in realtime, so you can see the potential here. Surfaces are no problem, but what about items? I thought a little […]

  So this was fun. For those who have been working in Substance Designer, you’re well aware of the fact that anything can be done 1000 different ways. That’s a good thing in the long run, but a pain in the butt for those starting out. In this exercise, my goal was to just get a plain ol’ concrete. You’d think you might start out with a noise, adjust it, render a normal, then go back and start adding different effects. I’ve found that workflow can be painful and I believe it’s important to work modularly in Substance Designer. Initially I […]