Substance Alchemist - Beta Testing - Material Blends

DamjanMX · Aug 2018

Hello Polycount,
I hope you don't mind some Alchemist art dump here.

You can find more here - https://www.artstation.com/artwork/6ADJW

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/fr/fe1brkyhrlbf.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/9r/1v6khzujjzoc.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/fc/22mwcele40wz.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/53/czzqz52eqz0z.gif

DamjanMX · Oct 2018

Ten days ago, out of a simple dare, I decided to out a new approach for my self-improvement.

Since I am already playing around with beta version of the Substance Alchemist (epic tool btw!), let's see if I can make one material every day. Two rules: time-box myself to 30-ish minutes per material and do 100 of them. Simple enough

These are the first ten:

And the combined breakdown video

https://vimeo.com/294454621

I will post here every 10th milestone but if you would like to keep in touch with daily updates then please follow me on Twitter or Instagram.

https://twitter.com/damjanmx

https://www.instagram.com/damjanmx/

DamjanMX · Oct 2018

Here are batches 11-20 and 21-30.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/24/u9sfp1fgsm4k.jpg

And video breakdowns:

DamjanMX · Nov 2018

Batch 4/10!

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/6e/05zu2566cgwd.jpg

LaurentiuN · Nov 2018

These are looking amazing!! Can`t wait to play with alchemist!

DamjanMX · Nov 2018

s1dK said:

These are looking amazing!! Can`t wait to play with alchemist!

Thanks

Yeah...Alchemist is a fun tool!

DamjanMX · Nov 2018

Halfway there!

Favorite material from this batch (you can actually download the textures here):

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/8q/c20t18or892r.png

Entire batch:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/y4/g59vkyh0u1cq.jpg

Breakdown video:

You can follow me on Twitter or Instagram if you would like daily updates.

DamjanMX · Nov 2018

Not sure if spamming or just talking to myself

Anyway, here is my favorite mat from batch 6/10:

Entire batch:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/76/zclsfgbyyhqq.jpg

And the breakdown video:

Smashjaw · Dec 2018

Wow I love this one.

These are looking great. Keep them up!

DamjanMX · Dec 2018

Smashjaw said:

Wow I love this one.

These are looking great. Keep them up!

Thanks! That one is in mine all-time top5 for sure

It was a happy accident actually - those cuts were made by blending in the cavities of a rope substance, coloring it pink and changing roughness.

Also, I haven't updated this thread with two more batches:

Batch No.7
Favorite mat - Ammonite Fossil

Batch No.8
Favorite mat - Deco Bricks:

And videos:

DamjanMX · Jan 2019

One more to go.

Here is #9.

Fav material - Porous Tiles

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/6x/yj42y1n4g9qk.png

Full batch:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/cs/hegwnkeu9i1v.jpg

See you at the finish line

DamjanMX · Feb 2019

OK, I am done!

100 materials in 100 (ish) days. Proper blog post and renders are coming soon!

This is all of them:

musashidan · Feb 2019

Fantastic work and a really great achievement. It says a lot that you saw this through till the end as you stated you would. That, in itself, is admirable. I love some of these.

DamjanMX · Feb 2019

musashidan said:

Fantastic work and a really great achievement. It says a lot that you saw this through till the end as you stated you would. That, in itself, is admirable. I love some of these.

Thank you!

It wasn't easy as it might seam though. Biggest challenge was maintaining a constant long-term side project alongside a regular job and a family, plus finding inspiration day after day. I had my highs and lows - first 20 were the easiest, 50-70 were the hardest (end was not in sight I wanted to give up couple of times) and after 80 it just became easy and second nature. This is a bit oversimplified but that was my journey in a nutshell

DamjanMX · Mar 2019

I can finally close of this project. What a ride!

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/0XEN4V

https://www.allegorithmic.com/blog/substance-alchemist-100-materials-100-days-nikola-damjanov

Nanashi · Mar 2019

Hey man, really amazing work!! and I have couple of questions for you since you used both Substance Designer and Substance Alchemist. Do they complete each other or replace each other ? and from what I have seen they look like they do the same thing but Designer is a node based, more hardcore and Alchemist is user friendly layer base, is that it or there is more to it ? and finally I Want to became a full environment artist and I know the usual softwares like Maya - Zbrush - Painter - Marmoset - Unreal but I want to learn Designer but with the Alchemist out what do you recommend it since its more user friendly or learn Designer since we know the potential of the program and Alchemist's potential is still unknown ? and do you see Alchemist as the new standard ?

sorry about asking a lot

DamjanMX · Mar 2019

Nanashi said:

Hey man, really amazing work!! and I have couple of questions for you since you used both Substance Designer and Substance Alchemist. Do they complete each other or replace each other ? and from what I have seen they look like they do the same thing but Designer is a node based, more hardcore and Alchemist is user friendly layer base, is that it or there is more to it ? and finally I Want to became a full environment artist and I know the usual softwares like Maya - Zbrush - Painter - Marmoset - Unreal but I want to learn Designer but with the Alchemist out what do you recommend it since its more user friendly or learn Designer since we know the potential of the program and Alchemist's potential is still unknown ? and do you see Alchemist as the new standard ?

sorry about asking a lot

Hey Nanash, thank you very much! I'm glad you like it

Now, to your questions - I don't think they overlap each other that much. Sure they both make materials/textures but in order to make them in Alchemist you need to either extract data from photos or blend some existing materials. So, if you want something specific - either style or control wise - your only choice is Designer. Its still a more powerful tool for certain things.

What I think it will happen - artists who need base materials fast and are OK with quality/variety they can get from existing materials will use Alchemist. Those who are dealing with very specific requirement will use Designer. And everyone will use Alchemist to blend materials

gnoop · Apr 2019

A convenient material blender and composer Is what should Substance Designer be from day one. Too bad it never became.

I am looking forward to Alchemist indeed but to be honest what I see in videos is not very exciting yet. Kind of same old approach with making lots of cool conveniences for irrelevant things and what's relevant is still a huge pain in ... Like a simple quick manual re-composing/patching to get rid of typical surreal appearance of procedural textures. Hope I am wrong .

The real magic is what I see in Artomatics Art engine our company subscribed. I wish Adobe would buy it too and make price more accessible

DamjanMX · May 2019

In the wake of #SubstanceDays Shanghai I would like to share something nice with you - I will share my entire #MaterialMarathon library for FREE! Cool?

I will share what I can and that is 2k maps, all channels.

I still need to think of a best way on how to distribute them. Probably will use #WednesdayShareday for it.

Stay tuned!

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/ho/v3qdmd5wp6yg.jpg

Forester · May 2019

You were not talking to yourself at all. These are very cool! and a good inspiration to the rest of us. The Alchemist seems like a great tool. The Algo tutorial videos helped me, I tried it out on a real project and was able to create what I wanted right off. Would love to get a copy of your Marathon library! Thanks for when you post that!