Import PNG with ALPHA?

[Stephen Marshall]

Is it possible to import a PNG file and use its ALPHA channel in Substance? I can't for the life of me figure this out.

I don't want to paint any opacity (I know how to do that)...just need a way to retain it when the final Color texture is exported from Substance.


Any help would be appreciated.

[Colkaih]

Not quiet sure what you're after.
Once the textures are exported, then what was part of the alpha is redundant as it was used to paint onto the asset, but the whole section would then technically have no alpha, (assuming it was a decal), becoming part of the overall albedo.

[Stephen Marshall]

I think I may have explained it incorrectly.

I want to be able to import a png that has transparency, and have it show up with the transparency on my model.

I tried assigning the image to both base color AND opacity hoping that it would take the RGB channels from the first image and the A channel from the second image....but that doesn’t seem to work. I’m not a full time artist and I must not fully understand how images work.

I was able to get it to work by using Substance Designer. I used a split node to extract the RGB into a new png and extract the transparency into another png as a greyscale image. I then put these into Substance Painter and it works.

I still don’t know how to just get the original png file to just work without using Substance Designer.

[Colkaih]

I've never had a problem, just import the PNG and then use it either as a stencil or a stamp. This tutorial was the first time I had a bash at it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk_YRkDsJrQ

I've got multiple png I use for detailing and they work fine, that said, I did find one png which supposedly had an alpha channel, but it didn't work. I ended up loading it in xnview and re-saving and it was ok. I'm presuming this is the sort of effect you want.

If your PNG is 24-bit not 32, it won't have an alpha channel, in that instance, yes, splitting a channel out is a trick I've used, split it and alter levels to create an alpha / opacity mask.

[Stephen Marshall]

Just seeing your response. Thanks for the reply. Yes, that's the effect I was looking for. I still haven't gotten it to work without using Substance Designer. But at least I have a workaround.

[Colkaih]

That's odd, here's one of the PNGs I use, indeed, the one from above, so it definitely should work imported as an Alpha into SP. (I wonder, if importing as texture vs alpha makes a difference? ..Answer, yes.  If I import as a texture, I can use it as a stencil, but not as an alpha. If I import it as an Alpha, I can use it as either. Dunno if that helps). :-)