Continuing its update-filled summer, Allegorithmic announced the latest additions to Substance Painter. The Summer Update introduces subsurface scattering (SSS), a feature prized by some of the biggest VFX and film companies in the world, along with new projections and fill tools, enhancements to the UX and support for a host of new meshes. The update is available now.
VFX, game studios and individuals working at a professional level are constantly looking for ways to create realistic lighting effects that help them separate the good from the great. Using Substance Painter’s newly updated shaders, they will be able to add subsurface scattering as a default option. Artists can simply add a Scattering map to a texture set and activate the new SSS post-effect. Skin, organic surfaces, wax, jade and any other translucent materials that require extra care will now look even more realistic, with redistributed light shining through from under the surface. And thanks to direct Iray integration, artists can do it all without leaving Substance Painter.
The release also includes updates to projection and fill tools, beginning with the user-requested addition of non-square projection. Images can be loaded in both the projection and stencil tool without altering the ratio or resolution. Those projection and stencil tools can also disable tiling in one or both axes. Fill layers can be manipulated directly in the viewport using new manipulator controls. Standard UV projections feature a 2D manipulator in the UV viewport. Triplanar Projection received a full 3D manipulator in the 3D viewport, and both can be translated, scaled and rotated directly in scene.
Along with the improvements to the artist tools, the Substance Painter Summer Update also includes several updates designed to improve the overall experience for users of all skill levels. Substance Suite users will also see an immediate benefit thanks to an improved consistency between tools. Additions like exposed presets in Substance Designer and a revamped, universal UI guide makes it easier than ever to jump between them.
“While the Substance Painter team has been working on this update for more than four months, we’ve been working toward subsurface scattering for a long time,” said Sebastien Deguy, CEO and founder of Allegorithmic. “This addition will open up a new range of options for users of all skill levels, and ensure that they have all the tools they need to expand into new levels of realism.”
Additional updates include:
- Alembic Support – The Alembic file format is now supported by Substance Painter, starting with mesh and camera data. Full animation support will be added in a future update.
- Camera Import and Selection – Multiple cameras can be imported with a mesh, allowing users to switch between angles in the viewport; previews of the framed camera angle now appear as an overlay in the 3D viewport.
- Full gITF support – Substance Painter now automatically imports and applies textures when loading gITF meshes, removing the need to import or adapt mesh downloads from Sketchfab.
- ID Map Drag-and-Drop – Both materials and smart materials can be taken from the shelf and dropped directly onto ID colors, automatically creating an ID mask.
- Improved Substance Format Support – Improved tweaking of Substance-made materials and effects thanks to visible-if and embedded presets.
The Substance Painter Summer Update is available now at no cost to Substance subscribers. Attendees at SIGGRAPH 2018 will also be able to see live demonstrations of the latest features for all Substance tools at Allegorithmic’s booth #415.
Pricing/Availability
The new update to Substance Painter is available today. Following the 30-day trial period, individual users will be able to subscribe to the Substance Indie or Pro plans. Substance Painter is also available for individual-license purchase, which includes 12 months of maintenance. Subscriptions to Substance Indie cost $19.90/month; Pro plans cost $99.90/month. Enterprise and education pricing is available upon request. Students and teachers can request a license at no cost.
