Frame Colors, plugin for Designer

Here is my second plugin for Substance Designer: “Frame Colors”. After the first one, “Print Modified Values”, I immediately started with this new utility. The purpose of this plugin is very simple: to quickly change the color of selected frames choosing between various predefined samples in a palette.

⬇️ Download “Frame Colors”
Frame Colors in action

How to install it

Once you have downloaded and unzipped the ZIP file, move the main folder “etr_frame_colors” (which also contains a .json file and another subfolder folder with the same name) to where you normally have other Designer plugins installed.

If you have never done it I recommend you to use this directory:

/Users/NAME/Documents/Adobe/Adobe Substance 3D Designer/python/sduserplugins/

Then start Designer, open Preferences / Projects, click on the vertical tab “User project” (inside Configuration / Project Files) and then on the horizontal tab Python. Click on the little + icon on the right and add the above directory. And as indicated in yellow, once this is done you will have to restart Designer.

Once Designer is restarted, the plugin should be loaded. But just in case, open Tools / Plugin Manager and check that the checkbox of our plugin is enabled. Doing this, by the way, you can activate or deactivate any plugin.

As soon as you install it, you will not see it appear in your top bar. To do this you must first create a new Substance Graph. Do it. Now you will see a new little green frame button appearing in the main toolbar. And this one can enable or disable the big group of color samples immediately below. I recommend to close the Atomic nodes to make room for this (after all, I particularly never add them from here, but using the space bar)

How to use it

It is very simple: select the frame or frames you want to colorise and press any of these small color buttons. You can use a “lasso selection” to select a bunch of frames and also nodes, don’t worry: the plugin will recognise frames, discarding nodes or any other graph element, and will apply the color.

As you can see, default blue is marked with a dot. I recommend to use the first vanish-subtle colors with big frames, the ones that are behind a big group of nodes. And leave the more vivid-strong colors for those frames that are used as a call for attention in some special or important node.

DISCLAIMERS

SHORT: I have done my best to create a stable and robust tool. But use with caution, please. I recommend to create a copy of your graph before proceed to comment your nodes using this tool.

LONG: THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Print Modified Values, plugin for Designer

I present you my first plugin for Adobe Substance 3D Designer: “Print Modified Values”. The purpose of this plugin is to add a Comment, as a “child” of a node, containing the information of those parameters that have been modified.

In February 2023 I will teach a Designer course in my town (I will share more information soon) and in the preparation of the contents for that course I immediately realized how useful this tool would be. I searched and asked around, but found nothing, so I got down to work myself.

After a lot of work, here you have the first version. I hope it will be useful, especially to those of you who like to spread the word by sharing screenshots of your Graphs. It is certainly saving me a lot of work, hopefully more than it has taken me to create it… 🤪 In any case I have learned a lot, not only about Designer API, but also about the internal structure of the application itself.

⬇️ Download “Print Modified Values”
Print Modified Values in action

How to install it

Once you have downloaded and unzipped the ZIP file, move the main folder “etr_print_modified_values” (which also contains a .json file and another subfolder folder with the same name) to where you normally have other Designer plugins installed.

If you have never done it I recommend you to use this directory:

/Users/NAME/Documents/Adobe/Adobe Substance 3D Designer/python/sduserplugins/

Then start Designer, open Preferences / Projects, click on the vertical tab “User project” (inside Configuration / Project Files) and then on the horizontal tab Python. Click on the little + icon on the right and add the above directory. And as indicated in yellow, once this is done you will have to restart Designer.

Once Designer is restarted, the plugin should be loaded. But just in case, open Tools / Plugin Manager and check that the checkbox of our plugin is enabled. Doing this, by the way, you can activate or deactivate any plugin.

As soon as you install it, you will not see it appear in your top bar. To do this you must first create a new Substance Graph. Do it. Now you will see 2 new little buttons appear in the toolbar: the one without color can activate or deactivate the presence of the other one, in orange.

How to use it

It is very simple: suppose we have a Splatter Circular node that we have modified and we want to write down what parameters we have changed. We simply select it and click the little orange button. Automatically a Comment node will be added as a “child” of our Splatter (“child” means that when we move the node, the comment is moved with it).

You can also use “Q” as a keyboard shortcut instead of the button, as it is much more agile. I have chosen that letter because it evokes “Query” (ask the node about its own parameters). If you don’t like this shortcut or it conflicts with another one you already have, you can change it by editing the __init__.py file located inside the “print_modified_values” subfolder. But be careful not to touch anything else, if you don’t know what you are doing 😉.

DISCLAIMERS

SHORT: I have done my best to create a stable and robust tool. But use with caution, please. I recommend to create a copy of your graph before proceed to comment your nodes using this tool.

LONG: THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Curso Substance Painter para CTA

En el momento que escribo estas líneas me encuentro preparando los contenidos para el próximo curso que voy a impartir a través del Centro de Tecnologías Avanzadas (CTA) de Zaragoza: “Aprender a Texturizar Modelos 3D con Substance Painter”.

Se trata de un curso que se hará online (debido al Covid19). No es algo que me entusiasme, la verdad… Impartir el curso, sí, pero hacerlo online ya no tanto. Prefiero el contacto directo en clase con los alumnos. Pero en fin: trataremos de hacerlo lo mejor posible y luchar contra los inconvenientes técnicos que, espero, NO surjan ;-)

Y ojo, que aunque la forma de impartir el curso sea “online/virtual”, el número de plazas está limitado a 16, así que no “os durmáis” si tenéis pensado apuntaros.

  • Fechas: del lunes 18 de octubre al miércoles 3 de noviembre. 12 mañanas (el lunes 1 es festivo)
  • Horario: 4 horas cada mañana, de 9.30 a 13.30. Un total de 48 horas.
  • Precio: gratis, previa preinscripción y superación de una prueba de acceso, que también será online.
  • IMPORTANTE: fecha límite para inscribirse, miércoles 29 de septiembre a las 8:00 horas.

Tenéis la ficha oficial del curso y, sobre todo, el botón para realizar la preinscripción en el siguiente enlace:

APRENDER A TEXTURIZAR MODELOS 3D CON SUBSTANCE PAINTER

Si tenéis dudas sobre cualquier cosa que NO sean estrictamente los contenidos del curso (que es lo único que yo controlo) lo mejor es que contactéis directamente con el CTA en el teléfono 976 71 51 06, preguntando por África Gómez Garrido.

A continuación os dejo el contenido del curso. Ojo, este “índice” tuve que elaborarlo a principios de verano. Pero como ya os he dicho, justo ahora me encuentro preparando los contenidos del mismo, primero las partes más teóricas y luego los ejercicios. Así que es muy posible que alguno de estos apartados “baile” de orden:

MÓDULO 1: Introducción al software y primeras prácticas básicas.

  1. Introducción, interfaz usuario, creación y settings de un nuevo proyecto.
  2. Atajos de teclado básicos.
  3. Preparación de un modelo 3D para obtener “Texture Sets” en Painter. Opciones.
  4. Importancia de crear “Baking Maps” antes de empezar a pintar.
  5. Qué son los Normal Maps, ID Maps, Curvature Maps, AO Maps, Position Maps, Thickness Maps.
  6. Opciones del Base Shader.
  7. Pinceles: propiedades del pincel. Lazy Mouse. Alphas.
  8. Paleta “Layers”. Tipos de layers: Paint Layer, Fill Layer, Masks.
  9. Efectos básicos: Paint, Fill, Levels…
  10. Importación de “Resources” externos.
  11. Primeras prácticas sencillas con modelos 3D básicos facilitados por el profesor.

MÓDULO 2: Herramientas especializadas y prácticas avanzadas.

  1. Efectos avanzados: Generators, Filters…
  2. Simetría normal y simetría radial.
  3. Smart Materials. Cómo usarlos, cómo crearlos.
  4. Anchor Points e Instancias.
  5. Exportación final de los mapas de textura para usar en nuestro programa 3D.
  6. Aplicación de toda la teoría practicando sobre modelos 3D más complejos, también facilitados por el profesor.

NOTA: a lo largo del curso trabajaremos practicando sobre varios modelos que yo os facilitaré. El casco samurai que aparece en el vídeo será uno de ellos. Pero no el único. Habrá más… pero no podían aparecer en ese vídeo, pues aún lo estoy preparando.