Substance Painter Tutorial: Demystifying Trim Sheets

Trim sheets are an essential part of the game environment workflow but can be difficult to understand and grasp as a beginner. In this tutorial, Game Art Tutor Jordan Wills uses examples and use cases to help explain what Trim sheets are and how to use them to help speed up work and create more efficient environments.

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[MakeArtNoProblem]

Finally I get it! Thanks for the great and clear communicated overview of trimsheets. I am new to game environment design, and have tried to figure out what trimsheets are and how I should use them. I will now go and create my first trim sheet!

[ndBirth]

This was very helpful. Trim sheets have been a bit of a mystery to me. This answered all of the questions I had.

[MJ-lifo]

This is seriously one of the most helpful videos I've found, just what I was looking for and more!

[mishadodger]

Thank you this saved me a lot of time on a project I'm doing; I found a lot of videos without proper explanations of how to apply different materials to the same trim sheet, and this video does the job.

[johns]

At 32:50, you were asked if it is possible to preview in a 3D software. As you have done in Maya, in Blender I make an instance of the same mesh around my model, with Alt+D and so all the objects share the same mesh. And When I edit one, all changes are propagated. You can do actual instances of a collection if you work with several objects.
Great lesson, thanks.

[smoovkeys]

Thank you so much for the enlightment. I helped a lot.

[phax]

15:00, you all have to remember, that if you stack single mesh UV's on top of each other, you will have problems with light baking data islands. They can be set on top with trim sheets, but with different meshes.

[bennyweimer]

for blender users the uv squares addon basically does most of the work in straightening UV's for you.

[kenobi]

Oh wow, this is very close to the workflow Ian Hubert teaches in his Lazy Tutorials in terms of projecting the mesh onto the texture and then making the mesh conform to the texture. I think I'll adapt easy to it.

[oskarmohar]

I know this is 3 years old video, but.. I'm still waiting on a part when you actually paint using those trim sheets in Painter - you know, since it's a Substance Painter Tutorial.. :D

[FaddyVFX]

Very helpful and informative, there so much to learn, one step at a time

[Midz]

Thanks for the video! I'm trying to make a trimsheet for an old style wattle and daub house, but I'm struggling to work out how large to make each section of trim. Is there any rule around working this out? I assume texel density must be maintained throughout, so all sizes must be established first.

[maxcollis]

Great video, is there a way of combining this method with unique sculpting? For example putting a trim sheet along an edge and sculpting wear on the corners?

[DanRickmanMedia]

Amazing video thank you, one thing i'm struggling to fully understand is how to minimize repetition in the scene when it comes to in-engine. Are material instances where some of the albedo/metallic values have changed for say a different colour, a way to do it? or is that causing the same issue the trim sheets are trying to avoid? (heavy cost to engine performance). I'm concerned about adding any sort of wear and tear to my trim sheet for the same reason, is dirt and grime something that can be added to these sheets in engine instead of within the sheet or is that causing the same drain?

[frankie]

how would I go about making a trim sheet for high texel density? Like if I want 1600 px per meter? I understand making a trim sheet for 512 px per meter, because if I make a 4mx4m sheet that uses a 2048 map, that divides evenly into 4 areas on the sheet. But for 1600 px per meter, I'd of course have to use a texture higher than 2048, which is not an option. So the only thing that makes sense to me is to use a smaller size plane for the sheet, in this case a 1m x 1m plane, right? So wouldn't I only be able to fit one texture on that? Which I guess would then give me 2048 px per meter? Which then defeats the purpose of putting multiple materials on the sheet..

[_Romulodovale]

For the door/gate, is it better to use a texture atlas?

[jakubpulka]

Floater mess up with height map and ambient occlusion during baking, doesn't it?