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Josh Lynch Substance Designer Sketchbook

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interpolator
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josh_lynch interpolator
Substance Designer has been on my mind for a while now, and recently I decided to really dive in. So far its been a blast and am loving the workflow.

The team at Allegorithmic does a fantastic job of providing training on their YouTube channel. The videos from Richard "Pipes" Piper and Rogelio Olguin are really inspiring!

With all that said I wanted to start a thread dedicated to my personal Substance Designer projects.

The first material I decided to tackle was a set of interior/subway wall tiles that have aged showing dirt and scratches.

Subway_Wall_Tile_Cube_Layout_Comp_Josh_Lynchpng

Subway_Wall_Tile_Layout_Comp_Josh_Lynchpng

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  • Brian "Panda" Choi
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    Brian "Panda" Choi high dynamic range
    Josh, how would you describe Substance Designer to someone who's been using dDo for a while?

    I still can't wrap my head around what Substance does, and I've seena chunk of their tuts already.
  • josh_lynch
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    josh_lynch interpolator
    I too have used dDo for a long time now and am a huge fan of the Quixel tools.

    I would describe it as a workflow that is liberating and has a lot up sides. The main one to me is working in Substance Designer is very adaptable. For example, now that I have everything created for this tile material I can change the amount of tiles in the pattern and everything will update. I can change anything I have on this material and see it real time. The color of my tiles, my gloss map, the grunge, scratches on the surface of the tiles, etc.


    Your not painting when using Substance Designer, your using a network of nodes to create whatever your going for.

    I had watched a lot of tutorials before I got started and it wasnt until I got in there and started messing around that things really clicked. And once I started to see what was going on I felt a lot more creative and working in nodes wasn't a burden to me.
  • JuddRoy
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    JuddRoy polycounter lvl 10
    Really nice variation of the tiles and cool to see what Substance Designer can do. Looking forward to seeing more stuff in this thread Josh.
  • beefaroni
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    beefaroni sublime tool
    josh_lynch wrote: »
    I too have used dDo for a long time now and am a huge fan of the Quixel tools.

    I would describe it as a workflow that is liberating and has a lot up sides.

    I agree with this. I would add interactive and fun to liberating. I have a bunch of materials that I can easily adjust sliders of to alter the final render in real time. Edge needs to be a bit wider for edge wear? Hmm, lemme try blurring this map. No clicking and waiting for DDO to save maps and update, it's more or less instant, which is a ton of fun.

    I think the main problem that I have seen is that people are scared by the crazy technical parts of the software. For the time being, I've completely ignored all of that tech-y stuff and just use the nodes provided. I also bring in a decent amount of outside maps to plug in.

    Anyways, back on topic. that first substance looks great. Are you doing everything inside of substance designer, or are you bringing in outside maps?
  • josh_lynch
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    josh_lynch interpolator
    Juddzroy - Thanks man! There is more coming :-)

    Beefaroni - You bring up a lot of great points! As I mentioned in my initial post I am loving how adaptsble everything is and you can see all updates in real time making iteration something to look forward to and not be annoyed by. Like you said it makes it fun :-).

    I also don't find myself seeing the same maps tile like dDo, because everything I make has its own style and story. And there isn't a factor of clicking and waiting for results.

    As far as the technical side goes I think that's something that is not as big of a factor as it may seem. It's a mode based creation workflow, you can't get around that. But that's not a problem because everything is non destructive. I was able to watch available videos online and get in there and make art. Once I got some basic things down it was just about experimentation and iteration. And honestly everytime I open it up I discover something new!

    To answer your question everything was made in Substance Designer with out of box options. No outside maps were used. I wanted to see what it could do and I was not disappointed.
  • josh_lynch
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    josh_lynch interpolator
    Created more variations of the pattern.

    Subway_Wall_Tile_Small_Layout_Comp_Josh_Lynch.png

    Subway_Wall_Tile_Cube_Small_Layout_Comp_Josh_Lynch.png

    Subway_Wall_Tile_Vertical_Layout_Comp_Josh_Lynch.png

    Subway_Wall_Tile_Cube_Vertical_Layout_Comp_Josh_Lynch.png

    Subway_Wall_Tile_Bevel_Layout_Comp_Josh_Lynch.png

    Subway_Wall_Tile_Cube_Bevel_Layout_Comp_Josh_Lynch.png
  • Moist
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    Moist polycounter lvl 7
    the brown stuff looks like someone threw dookie on the walls.
  • Kaine123
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    Kaine123 polycounter lvl 10
    Moist wrote: »
    the brown stuff looks like someone threw dookie on the walls.

    That's not unrealistic for a metro station in pretty much any city lol.
  • Moist
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    Moist polycounter lvl 7
    Good ole NYC Subways. I talked with Josh in person; I work with him. Basically I was mentioning how the gloss/cosine seems to created in a way that feels like theres dirt on every tile, which would be great for a tile texture in something like a heavily trafficked construction site. But for regular dirty subways, some more variety in how much dirt is in the center of the tiles would make this texture be spot on. Also if he's able to make some slight cracks in the tile to vary up the normal map, and slightly less exaggeration on the tile bevel.

    As usual, great application man! :)
  • N83ds
    This is looking good, I like the vert slats the best. But what I really love is how you show how versatile your workflow is with designer. Keep it up bud.
  • Lulufinder
    I would add a normal map that adds variation to the angle of each brick. You'll notice in reality that they're never quite planar with each other which causes the reflections to disappear on certain bricks even though they all appear to be facing the same direction. All it takes is for one brick to be angled a few degrees in a different direction and it'll cause it to 'miss' the light source its neighbors are reflecting. I remember good ol' half-life 2 having a normal map that did this on one of their tile materials. Looking great otherwise.
  • Zieg_Reborn
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    Zieg_Reborn triangle
    I can attest to this. I've been using substance at work now for a few months and it has sped up my texture/material workflow 'substantially'.

    In all seriousness though, I've used Designer and Painter, as well as dDo and nDo and I find substance to be a bit more liberating, workflow-wise. It's been awhile since I've worked with dDo but the node system in Substance is incredibly powerful.

    Art Director doesn't like a certain aspect of a material? Takes about 5 minutes to change, rather than a complete texture overhaul.
  • josh_lynch
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    josh_lynch interpolator
    Updated grunge pass per all the feedbacks provided!

    Subway_Wall_Tile_Small_Rev_02_Layout_Comp_Josh_Lynch.png
  • toxic_h2o
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    toxic_h2o polycounter lvl 8
    Awesome progress Josh! Cool to see each iteration getting better! :D Looking forward to your next update.
  • wpetrosky
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    wpetrosky polycounter lvl 6
    its getting better everyday, keep up the great work
  • Lulufinder
    This is what I was mentioning before that I think your material still lacks:

    15_prospect_parkf4.jpg

    Each tile is angled differently. Right now the specular reflection of your tile is implying that every one of those tiles is completely planar with each other.
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    I agree with Lulufinder, was just thinking about those small bumps in the subway the other day. Your gloss should probably be less contrasty as well.. Let the reflections play in the small and bigger bumps together with the angles you put in there and you'll have a very convincing material.

    Keep it up!
  • josh_lynch
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    josh_lynch interpolator
    toxic_h2o - Thanks!

    wpetrosky - Thanks!

    Lulufinder - Thank you for providing that. I agree with you that there needs to be more of an angle to the tiles. As of right now I am working through the best way to achieve this in Substance Designer. Dig the ref :-)
  • Jerc
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    Jerc interpolator
    If you used the Tile generator filter, you can use a gradient as the tile pattern and then play with the random rotation parameters and use that as an additional heightmap/normal map to add slope variation to the tiles.
  • josh_lynch
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    josh_lynch interpolator
    sltrOlsson - Thanks for your comment! When you say less contrasty do you mean less grunge in the gloss/roughness?

    Jerc- Thats what I was going to try tonight. I was going to try that or the brick generator as I know that has great slope features.

    I wish slope was just part of the tile generator node itself. Theres no reason for them to be seperated that I can see :-)
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    Yeah, look at the ref.. The surface is fairly even in it's gloss.

    Regarding what Lulufinder refereed to, look at how the reflections appear bent, it's like a wave pattern. It's probably connected to how the tiles are made.
  • josh_lynch
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    josh_lynch interpolator
    Jerc - Your suggestion was spot on, I was able to get some results with that set up. Thanks so much!

    sltrOlsson - Evened out the gloss a bit.

    Lulufinder - Added shift to normal map on tiles.

    Subway_Wall_Tile_Small_Rev_04_Layout_Comp_Josh_Lynch.png
  • josh_lynch
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    josh_lynch interpolator
    Reworked normal map to have more warp in tiles that respond to lighting. Reduced contrast on the gloss, updated cracks. Changed HDR for better lighting matching albedo colors.

    Subway_Wall_Tile_Small_Rev_05_Layout_Comp_Josh_Lynch.png

    Subway_Wall_Tile_Sphere_Layout_Comp_Josh_Lynch.png

    Subway_Wall_Tile_Plane_Rev_01_Layout_Comp_Josh_Lynch.png
  • Stromberg90
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    Stromberg90 polycounter lvl 11
    Looking good, really like the cracks you got there :)
  • Sammy101
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    Sammy101 polycounter lvl 6
    Is this all Substance Designer or did you have to make some maps/images in PS?
  • josh_lynch
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    josh_lynch interpolator
    Got some feedback it was reading a bit plastic like so I upped the gloss. Tweaked grunge by lessening overall amount in albedo and gloss. Added a couple specific grunge spots to for eye movement and breakup.


    Subway_Wall_Tile_Small_Rev_06_Layout_Comp_Josh_Lynch.png

    Subway_Wall_Tile_Cylinder_Rev_06_Layout_Comp_Josh_Lynch.png

    Subway_Wall_Tile_Sphere_Rev_06_Layout_Comp_Josh_Lynch.png
  • slosh
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    slosh hero character
    This looks great Josh. I like the subtle discoloration and the imperfections as well. The shine looks just right too. Nice work!
  • josh_lynch
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    josh_lynch interpolator
    Sammy101 - This is all in Substance Designer using out of the box nodes. No photos were used.

    Slosh - Thanks! Glad you like the subtlety :-)
  • N83ds
    Loving the new changes to it! Looks great now, just like some good old subway tiles. Nice shine to them.
  • Huntard
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    Huntard polycounter lvl 12
    The material is feeling really good man! Some of the cracks feel a little too flowy. like the tiles might break a little more jagged
  • AshuraDX
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    AshuraDX triangle
    Are those cracks procedural aswell :O ?
    if so how did you manage to mask them to unique tiles ?
  • josh_lynch
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    josh_lynch interpolator
    N83ds - Thanks!

    Huntard - Thanks for the feedback on the cracks I will take another look at them.

    AshuraDX - All the cracks are procedural. Everything in the image was generated using nodes in Substance Designer :-). I used the same node as I used to generate the tiles to mask them out the cracks.
  • AshuraDX
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    AshuraDX triangle
    josh_lynch wrote: »
    N83ds - Thanks!

    Huntard - Thanks for the feedback on the cracks I will take another look at them.

    AshuraDX - All the cracks are procedural. Everything in the image was generated using nodes in Substance Designer :-). I used the same node as I used to generate the tiles to mask them out the cracks.

    would you mind sharing the graph for this once you are done ?
    I'd love to dig into that and see what I could learn
  • josh_lynch
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    josh_lynch interpolator
    I will work on putting something together regarding specific aspects of the workflow. Thank you for your interest!
  • rogelio
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    rogelio greentooth
    Dig the progress shots and fixes done per each iterations. Now I would try a variant for really broken or missing tiles :)
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    Looking great man! Good job!

    How much do your values change in the different tiles? Would be great to see one using white on all tiles..

    If you wanna take this even further it would be great to see you push one version towards being as clean as possible and one with boken tiles/chipped tiles.
  • josh_lynch
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    josh_lynch interpolator
    Still working on the workflow guide for the cracks on the subway tiles, I haven't forgotten :-).

    roegelio - Thanks! I think later on I will revisit the tiles and do a couple of variants.

    sltrOlsson - Glad you like it! Values dont change on the tiles, its 1 solid value. I think the lighting and the tilt in the normal map is affecting that. I like the idea of a really clean version ;-).

    Recently started watching "Marco Polo" on Netflix and the palace interior tile caught my eye. Thought I would give it a shot using Substance Designer through and through.

    Trying to match the surface qualities of the pocks and scratches as well as the striations on the stones.

    marco_polo_floor_ref_12.png

    marco_polo_floor_ref_20.png


    Floor_Stone_Tile_Rev_01_Layout_Comp_Josh_Lynch.png
  • Solmas
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    Solmas polycounter lvl 4
    Subscribed. The progress from beginning this texture to where you finished it is excellent! I think I need to start my own Substance learning thread too :) Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work!
  • josh_lynch
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    josh_lynch interpolator
    Solmas! Wow, thanks that means a lot!

    Tutorial coming today :-)
  • josh_lynch
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    josh_lynch interpolator
    Here is the tutorial write up on the nodes used to create the cracks on the tiles.

    Any questions let me know!

    Click image higher res version.

    Substance_Designer_Cracks_512_Josh_Lynch.png
  • rogelio
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    rogelio greentooth
    awesome stuff :) Love that last floor very simple but yet a lot of nice details.
  • [Deleted User]
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    [Deleted User] polycounter lvl 3
    I will just add that sometimes, dependent on what you are after, it's good to plug blur node between your deformation noise and Warp node gradient input, to get cleaner deformation. That way you got more control on your noise than by using already softened pattern.
  • josh_lynch
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    josh_lynch interpolator
    rogelio - Thanks! Glad you like the subtle details :-).

    mantragora - Thats a great point. Love how in SD u can throw nodes around and see what happens.


    A bunch of stuff in this update.

    - Surface flakes tweaked and pushed further for more depth variation and thick to thin look.

    - Noise added in grout.

    - Tweaked spec and gloss for further separation between grout and 2 stone surfaces.

    - Contact dirt applied to crevices of flaked stone and pits/dips.

    Floor_Stone_Tile_Rev_02_Layout_Comp_Josh_Lynch.png

    Floor_Stone_Tile_Cylinder_Rev_02_Layout_Comp_Josh_Lynch.png

    Floor_Stone_Tile_Sphere_Rev_02_Layout_Comp_Josh_Lynch.png

    Floor_Stone_Tile_Plane_Rev_02_Layout_Comp_Josh_Lynch.png
  • JuddRoy
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    JuddRoy polycounter lvl 10
    Dude, thanks for the crack tut and these Marco Polo tiles look great!!
  • Special KBS
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    Special KBS polycounter lvl 3
    Thanks so much Josh for that crack tutorial, really helps to know what some of the nodes do as have only just picked up Designer. Those tiles look great, really love the Marco Polo ones, and how the subway ones differ in reflection angle, still can't wrap my head round how that was done. Hope to see more from you!
  • AkiRa
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    AkiRa polycounter lvl 6
    Looking awesome Josh! Loving these small edge dents on the individual tiles! :D

    Thanks a bunch for that crack tutorial! I used to create cracks in tiles with a crystal generator and painting out some areas with an SVG but your method seems to deliver a lot more natural and believable results.
  • bugo
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    bugo polycounter lvl 17
    lovely work Josh!
  • josh_lynch
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    josh_lynch interpolator
    JuddRoy - Not a problem and thanks!

    Special KBS - Glad you like the tutorial and thanks for the kind words!

    AkiRa - Cool thank you glad the tutorial was helpful. I to started to use an SVG to mask it out but I found it very destructive. Happy to hear you find the result more natural and believable :-).

    Bugo - Thank you! :-)
  • Smooth_Criminal
    Thats some pretty cool texture you going in there.

    Thanks for sharing the tutorial. After going through the thread I feel like giving Substance painter a shot myself as well!
  • josh_lynch
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    josh_lynch interpolator
    First pass on floor wood panels.

    Floor_Wood_Panels_01_Cylinder_Rev_01_Layout_Comp_Josh_Lynch.png

    Floor_Wood_Panels_01_Sphere_Rev_01_Layout_Comp_Josh_Lynch.png
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