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Billy Joe Williams
Participating Frequently
May 24, 2023
Question

How to work with a subdivided model in Substance Painter (subdivision surfaces)

  • May 24, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 6848 views

Hello.

I am currently learning how to use Substance Painter.

I have a mesh in Cinema 4D that is subdivided. I took off the subdivision surface in order to bring the base mesh into Substance Painter thinking I would be able to subdivide it there because I would like to paint on it in its final state.

The model is appearing it its low res form in SP. How can I see it subdivided?

Thank you for your help.

Joe.

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Cyril Dellenbach
Community Manager
Cyril DellenbachCommunity Manager
Community Manager
May 24, 2023

Hi Joe,

 

Thanks for the question.

 

Unfortunately, you can't subdivide the mesh inside Substance 3D Painter. You'll have to export from C4D the mesh with the desired subdivision. 

 

With that being said, as long as the UVs are the same between your subdivisions, the textures made inside Substance Painter should work on all the subdivision's levels of the mesh.

 

Best regards,

 

Cyril Dellenbach (Micro) | QA Support Artist | Adobe
B
Billy Joe WilliamsAuthor
Participating Frequently
May 24, 2023

Hi Cyril,

Thank you for the information.

So, in other words, the workflow would be:

- Make your UV Layout on the low-res mesh in C4D

- Drop the low-res mesh into a subdivision surface (at, let's say, level 3)

- Export the model from C4D with the subdivisions baked in

- Import the subdivided mesh into Substance Painter

- Do the texture painting on the subdivided mesh and generate the maps

- Back in C4D, apply the texture maps onto the unsubdivided, low-res mesh.

- Subdivide the mesh in C4D again and it will look right.

Did I get that right? Let me know.

Best,

Joe.

B
Billy Joe WilliamsAuthor
Participating Frequently
May 24, 2023

I see no problem with that workflow, but I am not really sure why you would apply the textures on an unsubidivided mesh instead of the original mesh you used for Substance Painter.

 

Best regards,

 


Hi. The reason being that it is part of a character that is already rigged. Thus the points on the mesh are already weighted and the subdivision is added on top of it in order to smooth things out. If I were to switch to the high-res mesh, not only do I assume I would need to re-rig it, but it would be a lot harder to rig since there would be so many more vertices.

In my experience, sometimes you want to leave the subdivision live on a low res mesh. Do you know what I mean?

Joe.

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