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General Procedure for Applying a Substance to a 3D Model

1. Start with prepared appropriately UV unwrapped 3D Model (can be modeled on 3D engine of choice: Maya, Blender, etc.)
2. Open Substance Painter and create a new project and select 3D model as the file to be opened on the project. Set the document resolution to 2048 and import normal maps (obtained from the .sbs file of the texture to be applied).
3. Drag in the appropriate .sbsar file of the desired texture into the workspace on Substance Painter as a “base material” and import the resource into the “current session” and click “import.”
4. Drag the resulting texture onto the 3D model and adjust as needed (ex: resize, rotate, etc.)
5. Use the layers to paint on any desired changes to color, height, metal, normal, or roughness maps. Use this step to add any customization.
6. When completed, export the textures with the appropriate export setting as desired (for example, if the texture and mesh will be used in Unreal, set the configuration to Unreal Engine 4).
7. Open Substance Designer and create a new project with a PBR substance graph.
8. Import the bitmap image resources exported from Substance Painter. At this time, you should also import any needed 3D meshes.
9. Double click the 3D mesh resource to be displayed in the 3D viewer, and connect the imported resources to the PBR exports. Use this step to add any customization.
10. Before this texture is ready to be exported as an .sbsar, make sure all atomic nodes are set “Relative to Parent.” This will ensure any changes in quality will be uniform throughout the entire project.

Helpful Links

How to apply a substance onto a 3D model in Substance Designer, with fine tuning of details in Substance Painter https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB0wXHrWAmCyvb0TsSFb3UunisJHcGcuq