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marke53685031
Participating Frequently
September 14, 2022
Answered

How apply material properties to only non-transparent parts in Planar projection

  • September 14, 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 1949 views

I'm using planar projection to place a texture on my model. This is working. The problem is applying material properties to the projected image -- how do I change the rough/metal look of the texture but LIMIT the application of the material (like rough, metal) to just the parts of the projection that are NOT transparent.


My texture has a transparent background. I ahve confirmed this. So for this post, magine the texture to be composed of a check mark pattern..  In this case the projection "box" will be defined by the 4 sides of the chack mark's boarders. So as you can imagine, there is the checkmark "paint" itself, but also transparent background that then fully defines the projection's boarders. When I project this onto the nodel, it works just fine when the projection fill layer is the same material properties as the background... then all I see is the check mark of the projected texture (see pic 1 of an example of a perfect projected paint on background) 


But HERES THE PROBLEM: If I change the metalness of the projection's fill layer, the metalness is now applied to the entire projection box. The result is pic 2..  instead, I'm trying to get the metalness to be applied to just the non-transparent parts (painted parts of the texture).  How is that done?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer davescm

Hi

I found a way to restrict the other channels to the non transparent areas of the basecolor using a custom filter.

 

Make a channel specific filter in Substance Designer and connect the channels as shown. The Alpha split node extracts the transparency from baseColor.   Note for the metallic, roughness, and height channels I duplicated the outputs and changed the name, the usage and identifier of those duplicates to metallic_Alpha, roughness_Alpha and height_Alpha.

Save the sbs file and publish it to your Painter effects library as an sbsar.

 

Next open up painter and add a filter to your material layer. Drag and drop this new filter and teh channels will now be restricted to the non transparent areas of the basecolor.

Before filter:

After Filter:

 

I've attached the sbsar, which you can drop into your shelf library, and the sbs that you can adapt and edit.

Dave

2 replies

davescm
Community Expert
davescmCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
September 16, 2022

Hi

I found a way to restrict the other channels to the non transparent areas of the basecolor using a custom filter.

 

Make a channel specific filter in Substance Designer and connect the channels as shown. The Alpha split node extracts the transparency from baseColor.   Note for the metallic, roughness, and height channels I duplicated the outputs and changed the name, the usage and identifier of those duplicates to metallic_Alpha, roughness_Alpha and height_Alpha.

Save the sbs file and publish it to your Painter effects library as an sbsar.

 

Next open up painter and add a filter to your material layer. Drag and drop this new filter and teh channels will now be restricted to the non transparent areas of the basecolor.

Before filter:

After Filter:

 

I've attached the sbsar, which you can drop into your shelf library, and the sbs that you can adapt and edit.

Dave

    davescm
    Community Expert
    davescmCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 14, 2022

    If I am reading your issue correctly,

    I would apply the material as a fill layer then use a mask to create the shape. You can add a fill or paint to the mask and use alphas in planar projection to get the shape you need. That way the mask applies to the entire material restricting adjustments to the visible areas.

     

    Dave

    M
    marke53685031Author
    Participating Frequently
    September 15, 2022

    Thanks for the response, but sorry, not following this part... "then use a mask to create the shape." restate this please? How is this done... I though masks mask-off parts of the project? how is it used to "create a shape"?

    If you take a look at pic2 I sent, I'm trying to stop the chrome parts that are beyond the painted/colored stripes in the projected image.

     

    And for reference, here is how I have done that so far (what you see in the 2 attached pics):

    Create Fill layer + black mask + paint ,   Then added the texture to the Fill's Color. Then using Fill layer Planer projection, projected the texture thats in the Color onto the body of my model. (Pic1).

     

    But if I try to increase metal of the Fill layer in the projected texture, instead of making ONLY the colored parts of the texture metal, metal is being applied to the entire "projection" -- see Pic2.  I want ONLY the colored parts of the projected texture to be metalized,  NOT the entire projection box background (which you can see as the Background Chrome in Pic2)   How do I get whats in pic 2 (metal colored parts of the projected texture)  without the chrome background?  Thanks.

    davescm
    Community Expert
    davescmCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 15, 2022

    To limit where a fill layer impacts you use a mask. You can use a single mask for the entire material i.e. all of the channels, including metal, share the same mask. You then project that mask in planar projection onto your model.

    All the material properties are visible only within that masked area

     

    The screenshot below might help demonstrate what I mean.

    Dave

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