Normal map, Ambient Occlusion map, Curvature map, etc. in Substance Painter

kevingamerartist

Hi All,
So I have been practicing using Substance Painter for a fair amount of time now. I was wondering, for Normal, Ambient Occlusion, Curvature, and other types of maps, should you usually create those in Substance Painter, or is it your choice on where you create those?

I also could create some of those maps in Knald or in ZBrush, but I just wanted some opinions about that. Any feedback about this is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

another caveman

Hello, I'm still learning a lot, but from what experienced, it's very up to you. This is what makes your workflow, choose the options you prefer.
Maybe one day you have a boss who forces you into using X or Y software but until then well a bake is a bake there's no BEST option or 'you have to' option.

musashidan

Yeah, use whatever suits your work. Personally since I've started baking in SP(1 year ago) I haven't had to go back anything else.

kevingamerartist

so after I'm done with the high poly mesh, do I just paint the material/texture and details that I want before I bake any of the other maps?

musashidan

Usually baking first and then texturing. If using Substance or Quixel your  baked maps are essential to the texturing process.

another caveman

To me, baking/painting the normal is still part of the MODELING process : so you should not be texturing until its done

mobkon

I've recently been baking all my maps in Painter and have had great results without needing to use xNormal or anything else. Also, no need to explode meshes anymore when using "match by name" in Painter - a godsend! 

kevingamerartist

So because the mesh that I have in Substance right now is just going to be a low poly mesh, can I still bake Normal, AO, Specular, and etc. maps for just a low poly mesh without having a high poly mesh?

musashidan

You can bake AO/curvature (per pixel instead of per vertex)/worldspace/position. Specular isn't a baked map (and isn't used in the metal/rough workflow)

Note, however,  that the AO and curvature will drive most of your convex/concave effects and because you've no NM they will rely on the geometry so the results will be dependent on that factor alone. So a very low poly mesh with little detailing might not give you the results you're expecting. You will probably need to chamfer the edges to derive a decent curvature  map.

kevingamerartist

so when I'm aiming to only do a low poly mesh, I don't need to create a Normal Map for it? Also by that I mean it depends on what texture I'm going to use correct?

so when I'm creating maps for a low poly mesh, I can still bake them in Substance right? Do I still need to just bake the maps before texturing the mesh?

musashidan

The sole purpose of a high-poly is to bake the details to a normal map. So if you're not using a high-poly then you have nothing to bake from. You can add normal details to your low-poly in SP and when you export the map channels you will have a normal map.

The second part of your question I answered in my post above.