Hello guys, So I've got this tool that builds me some cool voronoi patterns on geometry (see attached image) which I'll use a to model a certain fruit and I want to do some cool texturing to this in substance painter. My question what's a good approach that you guys would take in laying out UV's for the voronoi patterns that gets generated to have a nice texturing experience in substance. I know substance but I haven't done a lot of texturing so I'm looking to get super comfortable in this area. Thanks much for any assistance.

Are you looking to use Smart Materials? If so you need UV maps that don't overlap or your AO's and Curvature will be incorrectly calculated.

I have a series of videos on how to prepare UV's for Substance in Houdini, but with geometry like yours it can be tricky to say the least.

If you're not planning on Smart Materials, you could probably get away with just a UV Texture node set to spherical, and then use TriPlanar mapping in Substance. Not pretty but should get the work done.

Otherwise, for Smart Materials I would do the AutoSeams/UV Flatten technique that I outline, or alternatively use the LABS AutoUV's. Unless you want to do your custom cuts in UV Pelt.

Midphase
Are you looking to use Smart Materials? If so you need UV maps that don't overlap or your AO's and Curvature will be incorrectly calculated.

I have a series of videos on how to prepare UV's for Substance in Houdini, but with geometry like yours it can be tricky to say the least.

If you're not planning on Smart Materials, you could probably get away with just a UV Texture node set to spherical, and then use TriPlanar mapping in Substance. Not pretty but should get the work done.

Otherwise, for Smart Materials I would do the AutoSeams/UV Flatten technique that I outline, or alternatively use the LABS AutoUV's. Unless you want to do your custom cuts in UV Pelt.

Thanks, will definitely check out those videos.

I’m planning on using smart materials as a base then do some individual custom painting so overlapping uv isn’t an option. I’m gonna give the auto uv a shot but just in case I have situations similar where auto uv doesn’t give me what I want It’s nice to have different approaches (procedural ones preferably

Sometimes with complicated meshes, AutoUV's can generate some overlaps which can then create issues in Substance Painter. I found that switching method to UVUnwrap can sometime help reduce or eliminate the overlaps:

Honestly, for the example you posted I'd try to do that whole voronoi pattern with displacement and normal maps rather than trying to UV that mesh. It'd be much more flexible to do an unwrap of the original geometry and then build up that voronoi pattern in textures.

Midphase
Sometimes with complicated meshes, AutoUV's can generate some overlaps which can then create issues in Substance Painter. I found that switching method to UVUnwrap can sometime help reduce or eliminate the overlaps:

Yeah I did the auto seams and then flatten then drop a uv layout to get rid of overlaps but each cell only takes up a very small part of the UV space (because there is so many of them) so the texel density would be horrible in painting and doing UDIMS so many pieces of course wouldn't make sense.

I'm thinking it's a bit of a nightmare lol. Might just have to go with displacement maps! Let me know what you think.

toadstorm
Honestly, for the example you posted I'd try to do that whole voronoi pattern with displacement and normal maps rather than trying to UV that mesh. It'd be much more flexible to do an unwrap of the original geometry and then build up that voronoi pattern in textures.

Yeah after doing a UV test, I'm thinking this might actually be the way to go with displacements!

@Midphase and @toadstorm I'm having some trouble with getting a displacement map from the geometry for lower res model, any workflow tips there? Also, in this they seem to do some kind of sorcery projection in nuke but the scales of the look chameleon looks like real geometry. What love to know if anybody has any insights into this workflow. Thanks

texturing part in video happens at about 1:28

I managed to bother Eben Mears the director of this spot about this set up, He said that it was actual geometry and the set up to texture it was done by Jonah Friedman (now at autodesk . But I'll take any solution you guys can provide that works efficiently.

You can also try to project uv from other geometry using functions like xyzdist() and intersect(). There are probably many of ways to do this. Here is a simple setup of a few ideas.

If you have used geometry displacement, you can use Labs Maps Baker to bake the displacement from high-res to lower res as a texture.

miccetro
.... so I'm looking to get super comfortable in this area. Thanks much for any assistance.

you could also look at using UDIMs for that density of mesh.

Jikian
If you have used geometry displacement, you can use Labs Maps Baker to bake the displacement from high-res to lower res as a texture.

Hey thanks for tip, I tried using the baker but just not working out for me, think I'm doing something wrong. I've attached a demo file

Aizatulin
You can also try to project uv from other geometry using functions like xyzdist() and intersect(). There are probably many of ways to do this. Here is a simple setup of a few ideas.

Thanks for the setups definitely useful stuff for future stuff.

I modified your setup to utilize Labs Maps Baker.

Merged highres geometry with original then VDB for solidified geometry - Maps Baker doesn't seem to like having topology holes when baking normal maps.

Added normals after converting VDB back to polygons, baked to a normal map and reapplied on original geometry with Labs Quick Material. You can also bake out other maps, but I used normal since I think it shows better visually.

I haven't used Substance but you should be able to bring these maps in for further processing.

Jikian
I modified your setup to utilize Labs Maps Baker.

Merged highres geometry with original then VDB for solidified geometry - Maps Baker doesn't seem to like having topology holes when baking normal maps.

Added normals after converting VDB back to polygons, baked to a normal map and reapplied on original geometry with Labs Quick Material. You can also bake out other maps, but I used normal since I think it shows better visually.

I haven't used Substance but you should be able to bring these maps in for further processing.

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Awesome, gonna give this a shot!

miccetro
Hello guys, So I've got this tool that builds me some cool voronoi patterns on geometry (see attached image) which I'll use a to model a certain fruit

Would that certain fruit be a jackfruit?

Bennell

miccetro
Hello guys, So I've got this tool that builds me some cool voronoi patterns on geometry (see attached image) which I'll use a to model a certain fruit

Would that certain fruit be a jackfruit?

Yes indeed!