Alphas with 50% grey background to control height?

[cristobalvila]

Hi guys!

Is there some way, trick or whatever that allows to use ALPHAS with 50% grey background to control height?

I mean, when usign a brush with an alpha to control your height:

— Substance Alphas usually work like: BLACK is “not disturbance” and WHITE is “max/min” disturbance

But there are products like the “FlippedNormals SkinKit” that works in a different way:

— With this SkinKit: 50% GREY is “not disturbance”, BLACK is “min” disturb and WHITE is “max” disturb

And when using these alphas inside Painter I get that terrible square around my bump (see image)

Is there some parameter that I’m not aware?

For example, in Zbrush you need to change you “Mid Value” for alphas to 50 (see image). But I don’t see anything similar in Painter.

I contacted to Henning Sanden (co-creator of this kit) and he says about using “a fill layer with 50% grey then make a new layer, set it to overlay and use the skin kit on that”

But simply put: I don’t get. It does not work at all… That terrible square bump remains there…

Thanks for your help!

[cristobalvila]

I will ask myself:

The trick with this kind of “alphas” (the ones where background is 50% grey, like FlippedNormals SkinKit) is NOT TO USE THEM AS “ALPHAS”

Painter is different from Zbrush here.

The trick is to use them directly in the HEIGHT.

Step by step for newbies like me:

Add a Layer (a Standard One, not a “Fill Layer”)
Inside this Layer add a Paint Effect
Select this Paint, go to Material Properties and load any of your SkinKit “alphas” (textures, really…)
Drop a single paint touch

Voilà! Here is your perfect bump-relief without that square border.
The brush alpha has nothing to do here. In fact it’s the standard “circular gradient shape”

You can drop your stamps one by one (scaling, rotating, etc) or play with Jitters. Total control and perfect results.

Alternatively you can also load a Filter inside you Height (like “Height Adjust”) and inside this filter add a new Input with your SkinKit desired texture. By this way, before stamping your bump, you can control the Offset and Multiply of your Height

Big thanks to @edenexposito for the tip. I was about to throw in the towel on this issue…