baking the cool way

What this method of baking allows you to do in substance is have multiple versions of the same mesh which share a texture. Painting on one will effect all, granting you easier access to little nooks while also being able to see the mesh together or posed in different ways.

1. Import the whatever mesh you want to bake high res detail onto. In the example above I used an exploded version of the game res to ensure that no ambient occlusion was baked that I didn't want and I have access to each piece individually.

2. While you can redo baking if necessary, make sure that the bake is successful before moving onto the next step

3. In whatever modeling software you are using, export out all the different variations of the mesh you want to see in substance as a new file. 

4. In substance painter, go to Edit -> Project Configuration -> Select. From here select the new multi-mesh file.

Module 3 - Environmental Art Techniques Part 03

Tri Count : 52,486

Created with ZBrush, Blender, and Substance Painter

Module 3 - Environmental Art Techniques Part 02

Schedule

Week 1 - Proxy Model [COMPLETE]

Week 2 - High Res [COMPLETE]

Week 3 - Retop/UV/Bake

Week 4 - Texture

Surface Damage

The surface damage on the jaguar was created by masking out the areas which I wanted to be preserved from damage with mask brush; default zbrush alpha25. I then sharpened the mask and extracted the subtool at 0.001 thickness. With the initial subtool selected, I then boosted the mask twice (in masking) and carved out the damage around the edge of the mask with the Orb brush pack rock noise brush.

Created with ZBrush

Module 3 - Environmental Art Techniques Part 01

The smaller assets are pieces of jewelry, which are meant to be duplicated and transposed in ZBrush after being sculpted upon.