The Basics of Complex Materials
A few days ago I posted a smart material and one of the messages I got was something like: “Oh wow… I could never get to that level. How many days did you spend on this?” And that made me smile. Because the material looked cool… but it was actually incredibly simple. I didn’t spend days on it. I didn’t build some crazy 40 layer monster. When we think about “advanced” or “complex” materials in Substance Painter, it’s easy to assume we need tons of layers, complex generators and super detailed masks. But most of the time what makes a material feel good is controlled variation. Let’s say you’re building a synthetic fabric for a superhero suit. Stay with me for a second. Don’t start with micro detail.

Smart Materials, Texturing