All language subtitles for CustomMetahuman_7.3.mp4

As I mentioned before, in Chapter 7.1,

our goal for the final outfit is to have
as few materials and textures as possible.

So let's look at the workflow
of how to make that happen.

When we export
all our textures from Painter,

we will have a ton of maps to deal with.

Remember,
I had 23 materials set up for texturing.

Each material will have at least three
maps that we will use for the PBR shader.

The base color,

the ORM texture,
which contains the ambient occlusion,

roughness and metallic maps,

and the normal map.

You might also have additional maps

such as opacity or emission,
depending on what you want to achieve.

So in total,
we end up with 69 or more texture maps.

However, what we want to have as a result
are only seven texture sets.

One for each of the UDIM tiles
that we have in our UV layout.

It's like merging several layers
into a single one.

If we look at all the base color texture
maps for the 1011 tile, for example,

we have a total of five maps, each
occupying a different space on the map.

so we need to bake them all into one texture.

Let's export all textures from Substance Painter first.

Now, for this workflow to work,

we need to use the following
settings for export:

Because we want to merge
several files into one,

we need to enable transparency.

So let's set the output template to
"Document channels + normals + AO (With Alpha)"

That's important.

For the padding, instead of "Dilation infinite"
choose "Dilation + transparent",

and set the dilation width
to something smaller, like two pixels.

So if we have UV islands
that are very close to each other,

we don't get any overlaps
in the merging process.

Next, we will need one little program
that's called Texture Set Combiner,

which you can download for free on Gumroad.

Feel free to donate something
to support the developer.

Here is how the workflow looks like.

After exporting all textures from Substance Painter,

we get a bunch of files for every material.

We can then organize the files
and put the files

that need to be merged into separate
folders. One for each UDIM tile.

These are our source folders.

Texture Set Combiner will then merge the textures and store
the new files in a destination folder.

Finally, we can add the UDIM number
at the end of the file names again,

so that Unreal Engine
can identify the textures as UDIM files.

Right...

Let's organize our exported texture files.

We need a folder for each UV tile.

I will just call them 1001, 1002, etc..

This is where our source files
are located.

Since all file names have the UV tile number
at the end of the file name,

I can just search for that number and move
all files into the appropriate folder.

Then let's create a new folder,

which will be the destination folder
for the combined texture maps.

Before we can begin merging,

there is a renaming step
we need to do first.

Texture Set Combiner
looks for the last entry in each file name

and requires it to end in Base
color, Roughness, etc.

The exact specifications are given in the
viewport here when you start the program.

So we need to remove all the UDIM numbers
from the file names.

You can do it manually or use automated
batch renaming, or other tools like

the Renamer program,
which you can get here.

Cool.

Now we can begin the merging.

Set the 1001 folder as the source folder

and the combined folder as the destination.

The name that you type in here
will be the new file name

for the merged texture set.

I will also check the "Channel Pack for UE4" checkbox

to generate the ORM textures.

Then click on "Combine Files".

Repeat the process for the other UDIM folders,

and don't forget to change the mesh name for each set.

Otherwise you will overwrite the files.

Finally, let's move the UDIM number
to the end of the file names,

and we are good to go.

At the end of this process,
you should have a clean batch

of seven texture sets (or however
many UDIM ties you had for your outfit).

If you want, you can import the textures
in Blender for a first inspection.

Let us duplicate the clothes collection
then delete all materials,

join all meshes, and create a new material.

Now we can drop the 1001 textures
and set the source to UDIM tiles.

Blender needs the file convention
with a ".UDIM" number by the way,

so if you use an underscore, it will not
recognize it as a UDIM texture file.

Also,

maybe it's just me,
but the UDIM function in Blender is a bit buggy.

Sometimes I have to delete the texture
and import it again.

So I have now set up the material
and can check

how all clothes components work with each other.

Maybe you will want to adjust the roughness

or color palette on some parts to better
play with other parts of the outfit.

I am quite happy with how it looks,

and will proceed to rigging the outfit
to our metahuman character in the next chapter.