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Mastering Material Magic: From Vision to Reality with Substance Painter
Sunday September 24 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm BST

Every digital artist has been there: the clear, vivid vision of a perfectly textured 3D model in your mind, yet the reality on screen just doesn’t match up. It’s a common pain!
Dive deep with us into the heart of Substance Painter and learn how to bridge the gap between what you imagine and what you can create.
But it’s not just about mastering the tool; it’s about understanding the nuances of the art. How do you maintain the consistency of textures across varying lighting conditions or environments? How do you ensure that the textures you so meticulously crafted in Substance Painter translate perfectly when integrated with tools like ZBrush, DAZ studio or Unreal? This coaching course delves into these challenges, offering tailored solutions that can cater to your needs.
Textures are more than just colors and patterns. They tell a story of wear, tear, history, and time. Crafting realistic textures means understanding these subtle tales and translating them digitally. John’s course includes creating your own organic and natural textures as well as intricate details of rusted metal, ensuring every model you craft resonates with realism.
Key Benefits of this Course
John is going to show you how to use Substance Painter so that you can:-
- Utilise Substance Painter to the maximum
- Understand materials used for hard body/soft body texturing
- Make ZBrush models “Substance Painter ready”
- Craft custom materials with Substance Sampler,
- Detail intricate cloth, fabric, and hardsurface textures
- Efficiently export your designs for platforms like Daz Studio and Unreal Engine.
This course is for you if…
- New to Texturing: You’ve dabbled in 3D modeling but find yourself overwhelmed when it comes to adding realistic textures. You’re seeking guidance to navigate the vast world of digital texturing tools and techniques.
- Stuck in a Creative Rut: You’ve been working with 3D designs for a while, but your textures aren’t achieving the level of realism or detail you desire. You’re eager to elevate your skills and bring your visions to life with enhanced clarity and precision.
- The Gap : You’re a digital artist frustrated with the gap between your envisioned textures and the final renderings on your 3D models and are seeking advanced techniques to bridge that gap.
We are going to show you how to use Substance Painter even if…
- You are new to “smart” texturing
- Have struggled with getting a complete grasp on Substance Painter in the past
Without having to…
- Spend hours manually painting details on your models.
- Go through countless tutorials that don’t directly address your unique challenges
Curriculum
Topics will be covered across four weeks
1. Exploring Substance Painter’s Capabilities
- An initial dynamic demonstration of Substance Painter’s core advantages
- Live showcase of real-time PBR (Physically Based Rendering)
- The transformative power of smart materials and smart masks
2. Navigating the Multi-Channel Painting Workflow
- Grasping the channel vs. layer paradigm
- Embracing the resolution-independent approach for consistent quality across devices
3. Preparing Models with ZBrush for Substance Painter
- ZBrush to Substance Painter pipeline
- Guidelines for exporting high and low poly models from ZBrush
- Generating texture sets derived from ZBrush polygroups
4. Setting the Stage in Substance Painter
- Step-by-step guide on setting up a new project: Importing 3D models
- The art and science of baking maps for enhanced textural fidelity
5. Getting going in Substance Painter
- A guided tour of the interface, understanding the 3D/2D view
- Hands-on application of preset materials, smart materials, and smart masks
- Distinguishing between paint vs. fill layers
- Advanced masking techniques for realistic effects
- Crafting custom decals leveraging tools like Illustrator, Photoshop, and Topaz
- Experimenting with the dynamic particle brush
6. The Substance Sampler: Crafting Custom Materials
- A practical guide on creating bespoke materials tailored for Substance Painter
- Learn to apply your materials back in Unreal or DAZ Studio
7. Detailing Cloth and Fabric Textures
- Techniques and tricks for realistic cloth and fabric textures using both Substance Painter and Sampler
8. Hardsurface Texturing Mastery
- Innovative methods for creating intricate greebles and mechanical details in Substance Painter (think Spacecraft)
9. Working with Specialty Materials
- A deep dive into materials with unique properties
- Techniques for realistic skin textures
- Crafting transparent materials like glass
- Illuminating designs with glowing panels and emissive textures
- Enhancing realism with specialized shaders and added map slots, focusing on opacity, emissive properties, and Subsurface Scattering (SSS) maps
10. Seamless Exporting Techniques
- Best practices for exporting textures and materials tailored for platforms like Daz and Unreal Engine
Event Series Details
Date : Each Sunday at 19:00 BST (London) / 11:00 PDT (Los Angeles) / 14:00 EDT (New York). Starting on Sunday the 10th of September and running for four weeks until Sunday the 1st of October.
Ticket Options
Free Ticket
- Entry to the first 30 minutes of each session.
- Excludes recordings and any bonus content.
Premium Ticket
- Entry to every whole session (4 sessions each lasting 1.5 hours in total)
- HD searchable recordings of every session.
- Gain the model content created by John Haverkamp in the sessions
- Access to a privated forum for focussed learning and support from John in between webinar sessions.
- John’s previous Substance Painter mini class (2 videos)
About John Haverkamp

John Haverkamp was born in Ohio and then moved to the pristine Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia at a young age. There he spent a semi-isolated childhood re-enacting the Lord of the Rings and being corrupted by Dungeons and Dragons. Always with the fondness for the fantastical and medieval, Art school drove him deeper into Luddite territory by granting him the skills of a traditional metal-smith. This meant post-college jobs making copper fountains, welding and steel fabricating, casting and finishing bronze sculptures, and working for an architectural blacksmith throughout his twenties.
Digitally, John got sucked into cyberspace and the arcane mysteries of 3D studio max. The perfect software match for John was Zbrush discovered over 15 years ago. Now he teaches digital arts and ZBrush, constantly endeavouring to improve his craft as a digital-sculptor and visualizer through personal work, illustration and indie game projects. As part of his workflow he also uses Substance Painter, Modo and Unreal.
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