[Substance painter] Using ambient occlusion for dirt

JamesLarden

Hey everyone, I just had a quick question regarding using the ambient occlusion map in Substance Painter as a basis for dirt? I remember seeing this technique on a video a while ago, he seemed to be able to accumulate dirt and dust based on the ambient occlusion.

Thanks for any help in advance.

Ausun

Here's how I do it:

- create a fill layer at the top of your layer stack and adjust the Base Color to the color you want your dirt to be.

- add a black mask to the fill layer

- add a generator to the mask and select MG Dirt

- adjust the look of your dirt with the sliders.

MG Dirt uses ambient occlusion and curvature maps so you'll need to bake those.

jfitch

You could also use your ambient occlusion ask a mask in it self, though you may want to invert it first, if you'd like to paint the dirt manually. Cavity also works well for this, or even a hand painted mask period using alphas.