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Inflate tool | Substance 3D Modeler

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      1. 2022/08/02 V0.17.0
      2. 2022/06/22 V0.14.1
      3. 2022/05/13 V0.10.2

Inflate tool

💻 Shortcut: I

🥽 Quick swap: Switch between adding and removing clay.

Note:

The Inflate tool is part of the Surfacing Tool group. Other Subtools of the Surfacing tool group are the Raise tool and Buildup tool.

Use the Inflate tool to build up or carve away from the clay surface.

You can import custom textures for use with the Inflate tool:

  1. Use File > Import Brush textures.
  2. Navigate to and select the texture.
  3. Click open.
  4. With a surfacing tool selected, enable Use textures.
  5. Use the 3 dots to open the texture selector.
  6. Select your imported texture.

Inflate tool parameters

 

Size

Modify the scale of the brush

Increase or decrease the size of the brush. Very large brush sizes may cause a delay between drawing the stroke and clay being updated.

Strength
Control the amplitude of the Inflate effect

Strength modifies the amount of clay removed by the tool on each pass.

Color intensity
Change how much color is applied along strokes A Color intensity of 0% will result in no color being applied, while a value of 100% applies color with full opacity where the brush is at maximum hardness.
Pressure
Toggle pressure sensitivity

Pressure sensitivity allows you to dynamically adjust the scale of your stroke as you draw out your strokes.

  • 🥽 Vary the amount of pressure you apply with TT during your stroke.
  • 💻 Pressure sensitivity works best with a pressure sensitive pen and tablet.
Lazy
Toggle Lazy stroke

With Lazy stroke enabled, the stroke is dragged behind the cursor rather than appearing directly beneath it. This helps create smoother strokes and clean curves.

Steady
Toggle Steady stroke

Steady stroke takes time to catch up with the cursor. Unlike Lazy stroke, Steady stroke will eventually reach the cursor. This helps create smoother strokes and clean curves.

Mode
Switch between additive and subtractive modes

By default, the Inflate tool adds clay to the surface of existing clay, but you can also toggle the mode to remove clay instead.

Use texture
Toggle brush alphas

You can use textures to add more control to the appearance of strokes and stamps.

Note:

When Use texture is toggled on, additional parameters to manage textures become available.

Select Texture
Change the assigned texture Different textures can create different effects. This setting displays the currently selected texture. Click the three dots to select a different texture.
Tiling
Adjust texture tiling. Tiling refers to how often the texture is repeated across the brush. A higher tiling value increases the number of times the texture appears, while a lower tiling value can increase the size of the texture relative to the brush.
Height position
Change which value is considered to be the texture's zero point By default, a heigh position of 0% means that black pixels of the texture are considered to be flush to the surface of existing clay when applying a stroke. Adjusting the height position allows you to control which value is considered flush to the surface, allowing to create different effects. A 50% height value means that middle grey will be considered flush, so while the tool is on additive mode, any values from the texture darker than middle grey will subtract from the surface. This can help when textures don't have a fully black background.
Height intensity
Control the height of the applied stroke This value acts as a multiplier to the strength value so you can adjust how the brush applies different textures. Low contrast textures may need a higher height intensity value.

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