Documentation for Substance 3D Painter is now available on Experience League. After March 14th, HelpX pages will automatically redirect to the equivalent Experience League page.
Refer to the FAQ for more information about which documentation is affected.

User Guide

Smart Materials and Masks | Substance 3D Painter

Search
Substance 3D Painter

Substance 3D Painter

Open app
  1. Substance 3D home
  2. Home
  3. Getting Started
    1. Getting Started overview
    2. Activation and licenses
    3. System requirements
    4. Project creation
    5. Export
      1. Export overview
      2. Export window
        1. Export window overview
        2. Export settings
        3. Output templates
        4. List of exports
      3. Output templates
        1. Output templates overview
        2. Default Output templates
          1. Default output templates
          2. Predefined output templates
          3. USD PBR Metal Roughness Preset
        3. Creating Output templates
    6. Glossary
  4. Interface
    1. Interface overview
    2. Assets
      1. Assets overview
      2. Navigation
      3. Customizing the layout
      4. Filter by path
      5. Saved searches
      6. Advanced search queries
      7. Adding a new library
      8. Sub-library tab
    3. Substance 3D Assets
    4. Color picker
    5. Display settings
      1. Display settings overview
      2. Environment settings
      3. Camera settings
      4. Viewport settings
    6. History
    7. Layer stack
      1. Layer stack overview
      2. Creating layers
      3. Managing layers
      4. Masking and effects
      5. Blending modes
      6. Layer instancing
      7. Geometry mask
    8. Main menu
      1. Main menu overview
      2. File menu
      3. Edit menu
      4. Mode menu
      5. Window menu
      6. Viewport menu
      7. Plugins menu
      8. Help menu
    9. Project configuration
    10. Properties
    11. Settings
      1. Settings overview
      2. General preferences
      3. Shortcuts
      4. Libraries configuration
    12. Shader settings
      1. Shader settings overview
      2. Updating a shader
    13. Texture Set
      1. Texture Set overview
      2. Texture Set list
      3. Texture Set settings
      4. Texture Set reassignment
    14. Toolbars
    15. Viewport
      1. Viewport overview
      2. 2D view
      3. 3D view
      4. Camera management
    16. Miscellaneous
      1. Sliders
      2. Log
      3. Update checker
  5. Painting
    1. Painting overview
    2. Paint tools
      1. Paint tool overview
      2. Paint brush
      3. Eraser
      4. Projection
      5. Polygon fill
      6. Smudge tool
      7. Clone Tool
      8. Quick mask
    3. Path tools
      1. Path tool overview
      2. Paint along path
      3. Ribbon path
      4. Filled path
      5. Erase along path
      6. Smudge along path    
    4. Straight line   
    5. Lazy mouse 
    6. Symmetry
      1. Symmetry overview
      2. Mirror symmetry
      3. Radial symmetry
    7. Fill projections
      1. Fill projections overview
      2. Fill (match per UV Tile)
      3. UV projection
      4. Tri-planar projection
      5. Planar projection
      6. Spherical projection
      7. Cylindrical projection
      8. Warp projection
    8. Presets
      1. Presets overview
      2. Creating and saving presets
      3. Creating particles presets
        1. Creating particles overview
        2. Installing the particle editor
        3. Overview of the particle editor
        4. Creating a new particle script
      4. Photoshop brush presets
        1. Photoshop brush presets overview
        2. Exporting Brush Presets from Photoshop
        3. Importing Photoshop Brush Presets
        4. Photoshop Brush Parameters Compatibility
    9. Dynamic strokes
      1. Dynamic strokes overview
      2. Enabling Dynamic Stroke feature
      3. Dynamic Stroke Performances
      4. Creating custom Dynamic Strokes
    10. Advanced channel painting
      1. Channel painting overview
      2. Ambient Occlusion
      3. Flow Map
      4. Height Map
      5. Normal Map
    11. Vector graphic (.svg & .ai)
    12. Text resource
  6. Effects
    1. Effects overview
    2. Generator
    3. Paint
    4. Fill
    5. Levels
    6. Compare Mask
    7. Filter
    8. Anchor Point
  7. Baking
    1. Baking overview
    2. How to bake mesh maps
    3. Mesh map settings
    4. Baking visualization settings
  8. Content
    1. Creating custom effects
      1. Creating custom effects overview
      2. Generic filter
      3. Channel specific filter
      4. Generators
      5. Mesh map
      6. Mesh based input
      7. User data
    2. Importing assets
      1. Adding resources via drag and drop
      2. Adding resources via the import window
      3. Adding content on the hard drive
      4. Receiving assets from other Substance 3D applications
  9. Features
    1. Automatic resource update
    2. Automatic UV Unwrapping
    3. Physical size
    4. Smart Materials and Masks
    5. Subsurface Scattering
      1. Subsurface Scattering overview
      2. Enabling Subsurface in a Project
      3. Subsurface Parameters
      4. Subsurface Material Type
    6. Dynamic Material Layering
    7. UV Reprojection
    8. UV Tiles
      1. UV Tiles overview
      2. Image Sequence
    9. Color Management
      1. Color management overview
      2. Color management with Adobe ACE - ICC
      3. Color management with OpenColorIO
    10. Post Processing
      1. Post Processing overview
      2. Color correction
      3. Depth of Field
      4. Glare
      5. Lens Distortion
      6. Tone Mapping
      7. Vignette
      8. Color Profile
    11. Iray Renderer
      1. Iray Renderer overview
      2. Iray Settings
      3. Viewer and MDL Settings
    12. Plugins
      1. Plugins overview
      2. Autosave
      3. Resources Updater
    13. Sparse Virtual Textures
    14. Custom Shaders
    15. SpaceMouse® by 3Dconnexion
    16. Universal Scene Description (USD)
    17. Send to
  10. Technical Support
    1. Performance Guidelines
      1. Performance guidelines overview
      2. Mesh and UV setup
      3. Layer management
      4. Project resources and settings
      5. Conflict with background applications
      6. GPU VRAM and Drivers
    2. Configuring Pens and Tablets
    3. Exporting the log file
    4. Exporting a DXDiag
    5. Technical issues
      1. GPU Issues
        1. Crash when working with overclocked GPU
        2. Forcing the external GPU on Mac OS
        3. GPU drivers compatibility
        4. GPU drivers crash with long computations (TDR crash)
        5. GPU has outdated drivers
        6. GPU is not recognized
        7. GPU is not recognized and is mentionned as GDI Generic
        8. Issues with Nvidia GPUs on recent Mac OS versions
        9. Multi/Bi-GPU
        10. Running on integrated GPU
        11. Painter doesn't start on the right GPU
      2. Startup Issues
        1. Application failed to start because of Qt
        2. Crash or freeze during startup
        3. Software conflicts
      3. Rendering Issues
        1. Artifacts and glitches on Mac OS with Custom GPUs
        2. Blocky artifacts appear on textures in the viewport
        3. Mesh appears pink in the viewport
        4. Mesh flash to white when moving camera
        5. Some HDPI scaling values are not working
        6. Viewport appears broken or unresponsive on Ubuntu
      4. Stability Issues
        1. Crash during export
        2. Crash when opening or saving a file
        3. Crash while baking
        4. Crash with low virtual memory
        5. Windows Blue Screens
      5. Miscellaneous Issues
        1. Corrupted texture error message
        2. Shelf resources are gone after 7.2 update
        3. Error there is no disk in the drive
        4. Error with missing api-ms-crt dll
        5. Impossible to drag and drop files into the shelf
        6. Impossible to use the ALT keyboard shortcut on Linux
        7. Assets (or shelf) previews are empty
    6. Workflow Issues
      1. Export Issues
        1. My exported opacity map is totally black
        2. Texture dilation or Padding
      2. Tools Issues
        1. Normal map looks incorrect
        2. Paint Tool bleeds on other UV islands
      3. Project Issues
        1. Corrupted project file
        2. Loading files from a network
        3. Preserve brush strokes setting stays disabled
        4. Projects are really big
      4. Library Issues
        1. Thumbnails in the shelf look incorrect
        2. Error when importing a Font
      5. Viewport Issues
        1. Mesh faces disappear when looking at them from behind
        2. Viewports and textures are blurry or lack sharpness
      6. Plugins Issues
        1. Substance Source plugin doesn't load
      7. License Issues
        1. Maintenance is expired dialog on startup
  11. Pipeline and integration
    1. Installation and preferences
      1. Preferences and application data location
      2. Automated installation
      3. Retrieving the installation path
    2. Configuration
      1. Command lines
      2. Environment variables
      3. Firewall Configuration
      4. Querying Current Software Version
      5. Remote Desktop
    3. Resource management
      1. Shelf and Assets location
      2. Resource paths
        1. Add resource paths manually
        2. Editing resource paths manually
        3. Edit Shelf Preferences with Python
      3. Adding saved searches manually
      4. Preferences and content migration
      5. Excluding resources in a resource path
  12. Scripting and development
    1. Scripts and plugins
      1. Creating a Javascript plugin
      2. Remote control with scripting
    2. Shader API Reference
      1. Shader API overview
      2. Changelog - Shader API
      3. Libraries - Shader API
        1. Lib Alpha - Shader API
        2. Lib Bayer - Shader API
        3. Lib Defines - Shader API
        4. Lib Emissive - Shader API
        5. Lib Env - Shader API
        6. Lib Normal - Shader API
        7. Lib PBR - Shader API
        8. Lib PBR Aniso - Shader API
        9. Lib Pom - Shader API
        10. Lib Random - Shader API
        11. Lib Sampler - Shader API
        12. Lib Sparse - Shader API
        13. Lib SSS - Shader API
        14. Lib Utils - Shader API
        15. Lib Vectors - Shader API
      4. Parameters - Shader API
        1. All Custom Params - Shader API
        2. All Engine Params - Shader API
        3. All Rendering States Params - Shader API
        4. Layering Bind Materials - Shader API
        5. Layering Declare Stacks - Shader API
      5. Shaders - Shader API
        1. PBR Material Layering - Shader API
        2. PBR Metal Rough - Shader API
        3. Pixelated - Shader API
        4. Surface Shader - Shader API
        5. Toon - Shader API
  13. Release notes
    1. Release notes overview
    2. All Changes
    3. Version 11.1
    4. Version 11.0
    5. Version 10.1
    6. Known issues
    7. Old versions
      1. Version 10.0
      2. Version 9.1
      3. Version 9.0
      4. Version 8.3
      5. Version 8.2
      6. Version 8.1
      7. Version 7.4
      8. Version 7.3
      9. Version 7.2
      10. Version 2021.1 (7.1.0)
      11. Version 2020.2 (6.2.0)
      12. Version 2020.1 (6.1.0)
      13. Version 2019.3
      14. Version 2019.2
      15. Version 2019.1
      16. Version 2018.3
      17. Version 2018.2
      18. Version 2018.1
      19. Version 2017.4
      20. Version 2017.3
      21. Version 2017.2
      22. Version 2017.1
      23. Version 2.6
      24. Version 2.5
      25. Version 2.4
      26. Version 2.3
      27. Version 2.2

Smart Materials and Masks

Substance 3D Painter supports the use of advanced layer presets . These presets can be used to quickly share across Texture Sets or Projects a similar texturing process while keeping the results different, adapted to the mesh topology .

Note

Note that once added in the layer stack, there is no way to retrieve which smart material was used. In the case a smart material need to updated, the process will have to be done manually.
However individual resources can be updated with the Resources Updater .

How to use Smart Materials/Masks ?

Smart Materials can be used anywhere in the layer stack, while smart masks can only be used in the effect stack.
To know more about the differences, see : Layer stack and Effects

Adding a Smart Material

Smart Materials can be added in two different ways :

  • By drag and dropping a smart materials from the shelf into the layer stack :

  • By clicking on the Smart Material button to open a mini-shelf :

Adding a Smart Mask

Because Smart Masks are presets of effects, they can therefor only be added to effect stacks (for mask specifically).

  • To add a Smart Masks, simply drag and drop one from the Shelf onto the target layer :

  • Drag and dropping multiple Smart Masks will accumulate them :

  • It is possible however to replace the whole effect stack by pressing CTRL during the drag and drop :

How to create Smart Materials/Masks ?

To create a Smart Materials, a folder is required.
The content of the Smart Materials will be contained in the folder. Then simply right-click on the folder and select " Create smart material ". The Smart Material will then be added to the current shelf and will be named accoridng to the folder selected.

To create a Smart Mask, simply right-click over a layer and choose " Create smart mask ".

How to share/retrieve a smart material/mask ?

The presets are saved on the disk and can be retrieved from their dedicated folder.
To find the shelf location , see : Adding content on the hard drive .

Then anybody can simply import the file into their Substance 3D Painter shelf to use the preset.

Adobe, Inc.

Get help faster and easier

New user?

Quick links

View all your plans Manage your plans
View quick links
Hide quick links

Legal Notices    |    Online Privacy Policy