[Substance Painter/Marmoset/Unity] I need help regarding emission maps.

oraeles77

(with this example I'm only worried about the 'paper' parts of the model, Im not worried about the metal bits, they aren't a problem)

im making a paper lanten, it was going to be part of that Artstation challenge, but I switched to some other objects instead.

so here is the problem.

i made a paper material using Substance Designer, I made a second one and added a black/white emissive material to it.

I've textured the object in Substance painter, but I've hit a dead end, as I would like to mask some areas of the emissive, such as the black logo which is painted on top of the paper, the seams where the paper is glued together  (these would be 50 percent dimmer) etc.

also after adding an emissive channel, I chose L8 (I assume that is grayscale? because metalic and roughness use it.) but it turns the lamp green/white when emitting light. very weird, so I leave it RGB8.

however under RGB8, in the emissive channel the model glows a very strong white light and playing about with the 'emissive channel's layer blending buttons doesn't seem to affect anything.

in the image below I marked out the areas of the mesh I would like to make non-emissive, in red if you could have a look and suggest  the best blending option to use.

also a friend suggested I try using subsurface scattering and thickness maps? would that work?

thank you.

rexo12

if the areas you want to mask are full black, you can just use a subtract with the emission map, otherwise you'll have to mask them by hand. 

Your second method is perfectly viable though, I experimented with it myself a while back. If i recall, you will still need a mask to control which parts are SSS, but i believe the Thickness map baker does that for you (where black is full thickness and white is no thickness IIRC). You can then just set a flat colour for translucency, and place a lamp inside the lantern. 

Either way you are probably still going to have to mask things by hand.

oraeles77

rexo12 said:

if the areas you want to mask are full black, you can just use a subtract with the emission map, otherwise you'll have to mask them by hand. 

Your second method is perfectly viable though, I experimented with it myself a while back. If i recall, you will still need a mask to control which parts are SSS, but i believe the Thickness map baker does that for you (where black is full thickness and white is no thickness IIRC). You can then just set a flat colour for translucency, and place a lamp inside the lantern. 

Either way you are probably still going to have to mask things by hand.

hi, thanks for your information.

when I add the emission channel, what should choose? L8? RGB? etc etc?

rexo12

RGB - the map stores the colour of the light being emitted.

Obscura

rexo12 said:

RGB - the map stores the colour of the light being emitted.

I would say that kinda depends. Using L8 would make you creating and using a grayscale mask, so any emissive color can be multiplied on it. I work with Unreal, and personally  I hate it when I get assets with colored emissive maps, unless it has a colored texture to it rather than a uniformly colored mask. So my suggestion would be to use a mask and color it in the material in the engine. This also allows you to make little changes or adjustments without a need to go back and forth between the texturing package and the render engine, because the color or intensity tweak can be done right in the renderer.

oraeles77

Obscura said:

rexo12 said:

RGB - the map stores the colour of the light being emitted.

I would say that kinda depends. Using L8 would make you creating and using a grayscale mask, so any emissive color can be multiplied on it. I work with Unreal, and personally  I hate it when I get assets with colored emissive maps, unless it has a colored texture to it rather than a uniformly colored mask. So my suggestion would be to use a mask and color it in the material in the engine. This also allows you to make little changes or adjustments without a need to go back and forth between the texturing package and the render engine, because the color or intensity tweak can be done right in the renderer.

I see thank you. I will take that on board!

oraeles77

completed!

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/k4QVDl