Comprehensive skill for Adobe Substance 3D Painter texturing and material creation workflow. Use this skill when creating PBR materials, exporting textures for web/game engines, optimizing 3D assets for real-time rendering, or automating texture workflows. Triggers on tasks involving Substance 3D Pa

Substance 3D Texturing Overview Master PBR (Physically Based Rendering) texture creation and export workflows for web and real time engines. This skill covers Substance 3D Painter workflows from material creation through web optimized texture export, with Python automation for batch processing and integration with WebGL/WebGPU engines. Key capabilities: PBR material authoring (metallic/roughness workflow) Web optimized texture export (glTF, Three.js, Babylon.js) Python API automation for batch export Texture compression and optimization for real time rendering Core Concepts PBR Workflow Substance 3D Painter uses the metallic/roughness PBR workflow with these core channels: Base Texture Maps: baseColor (Albedo) RGB diffuse color, no lighting information normal RGB normal map (tangent space) metallic Grayscale metalness (0 = dielectric, 1 = metal) roughness Grayscale surface roughness (0 = smooth/glossy, 1 = rough/matte) Additional Maps: ambientOcclusion (AO) Grayscale cavity/occlusion height Grayscale displacement/height emissive RGB self illumination opacity Grayscale transparency Export Presets Substance 3D Painter includes built in export presets for common engines: PBR Metallic Roughness Standard glTF/WebGL format Unity HDRP/URP Unity pipelines Unreal Engine UE4/UE5 format Arnold (AiStandard) Renderer specific For web engines, PBR Metallic Roughness is the universal standard. Texture Resolution Common resolutions for web (powers of 2): 512×512 Low detail props, mobile 1024×1024 Standard props, characters 2048×2048 Hero assets, close ups 4096×4096 Showcase quality (use sparingly) Web optimization rule: Start at 1024×1024, scale up only when texture detail is visible. Common Patterns 1. Basic Web Export (Three.js/Babylon.js) Manual export workflow for single texture set: Steps: 1. File → Export Textures 2. Select preset: "PBR Metallic Roughness" 3. Configure export: Output directory: Choose target folder File format: PNG (8 bit) for web Padding: "Infinite" (prevents seams) Resolution: 1024×1024 (adjust per asset) 4. Export Result files: Three.js usage: 2. Batch Export with Python API Automate export for multiple texture sets: 3. Resolution Override per Asset Export different resolutions for different assets (e.g., hero vs. background): 4. Custom Export Preset (Separate Channels) Create custom preset to export metallic and roughness as separate files: 5. Mobile Optimized Export Aggressive compression for mobile WebGL: Post export: Use tools like pngquant or tinypng for further compression. 6. glTF/GLB Integration Export textures for glTF 2.0 format: 7. Event Driven Export Plugin Auto export on save using Python plugin: Integration Patterns Three.js + React Three Fiber Use exported textures in R3F: See react three fiber skill for advanced R3F material workflows. Babylon.js PBR Materials See babylonjs engine skill for advanced PBR workflows. GLTF Export Pipeline 1. Export textures from Substance (as above) 2. Export model from Blender with glTF exporter 3. Reference Substance textures in .gltf JSON 4. Use gltf pipeline for Draco compression: See blender web pipeline skill for complete 3D asset pipeline. Performance Optimization Texture Size Budget Desktop WebGL: ~100 150MB total texture memory Mobile WebGL: ~30 50MB total texture memory Budget per asset: Background/props: 512×512 (1MB per texture × 4 maps = 4MB) Standard assets: 1024×1024 (4MB per texture × 4 maps = 16MB) Hero assets: 2048×2048 (16MB per texture × 4 maps = 64MB) Compression Strategies 1. JPEG for baseColor (70 80% quality) 10× smaller than PNG 2. PNG 8 for data maps (normal, metallic, roughness) lossless required 3. Basis Universal ( .basis ) GPU texture compression (90% smaller) 4. Texture atlasing Combine multiple assets into single texture Channel Packing Pack grayscale maps into RGB channels to reduce texture count: Packed ORM (Occlusion Roughness Metallic): Red: Ambient Occlusion Green: Roughness Blue: Metallic Export in Substance: Mipmaps Always enable mipmaps in engine for textures viewed at distance: Common Pitfalls 1. Wrong Color Space for BaseColor Problem: BaseColor exported in linear space looks washed out. Solution: Substance exports baseColor in sRGB by default (correct). Ensure engine uses sRGB: 2. Normal Map Baking Issues Problem: Normal maps show inverted or incorrect shading. Solution: Verify tangent space normal format (DirectX vs. OpenGL Y flip) Substance uses OpenGL (Y+), same as glTF standard If using DirectX engine, flip green channel in export 3. Metallic/Roughness Channel Order Problem: Metallic/roughness texture has swapped channels. Solution: Default Substance export: Blue channel = Metallic Green channel = Roughness Matches glTF 2.0 specification 4. Padding Artifacts at UV Seams Problem: Black or colored lines appear at UV seams. Solution: Set padding algorithm to "infinite" in export settings: 5. Oversized Textures for Web Problem: 4K textures cause long load times and memory issues on web. Solution: Default to 1024×1024 for web Use 2048×2048 only for hero assets viewed close up Implement LOD system with multiple resolution sets 6. Missing AO Map in Engine Problem: AO map exported but not visible in engine. Solution: Three.js: Requires second UV channel ( geometry.attributes.uv2 ) Babylon.js: Set material.useAmbientOcclusionFromMetallicTextureRed = true Alternative: Bake AO into baseColor in Substance Resources See bundled resources for complete workflows: references/python api reference.md Complete Substance Painter Python API references/export presets.md Built in and custom export preset catalog references/pbr channel guide.md Deep dive into PBR texture channels scripts/batch export.py Batch export all texture sets scripts/web optimizer.py Post process textures for web (resize, compress) scripts/generate export preset.py Create custom export preset JSON assets/export templates/ Pre configured export presets for Three.js, Babylon.js, Unity Related Skills blender web pipeline Complete 3D model → texture → web pipeline threejs webgl Loading and using PBR textures in Three.js react three fiber R3F material workflows with Substance textures babylonjs engine Babylon.js PBR material system integration

substance-3d-texturing