Trying to export material with brush alpha - Confused on how to.

[InfernalVisions]

Hello Substance 3d Community.

First of all, I would like to say I am very new to using SD and my learning has largely relied on YouTube tutorials and anything else I could find online so please bear with my lack of knowledge.

I have a material which makes use of a number of alphas that I can choose between via a multi switch node. These alphas are used to create normal, specular, glossiness and diffuse with various nodes editing them in-between. I attempted adding another output node where I'm outputting the results of the edited alpha as-is, but after export, it's impossible to drag the material to the alpha input in painter.

I worked around this by creating a separate package, including my alphas and relevant nodes and exporting said graph with unspecified type so I can import it as alpha in painter. This means I need to match the settings of both alpha and material however and is simply a hassle.

So my question is: Is it possible to somehow include an alpha/brush in the material export? Am I doing something wrong?

Thank you.

[Cyril Dellenbach]

Hi @InfernalVisions,

Thanks for the question.

It's not possible to have an alpha used in a brush with exposed parameter linked to a material.

But you could remove the alpha from your .SBSAR material, and replace it by a simple "input" node, where you'll be able to place your parametric alpha directly in Substance 3D Painter.

You could also extract a part of your graph in an ouput named "user", and use it through anchor points as mentioned here.

Tell me if you need more guidance.

[InfernalVisions]

Hello Cyril, thank you for the response, it's been helpful. I would like to ask, is it possible to somehow point that input to the brush's alpha directly?

[Cyril Dellenbach · Accepted solution]

No, that's not possible. You'll always have to control the material and the brush's alpha parameters separetely, but if you want to detail your project, I could give a more specific help.