Substance Node Pack | Dete Trim Toolkit

About the Trim Tool

Trim textures, or trim sheets, are commonly used in the video game industry. Until now, there hasn't been a unified workflow for creating them in Substance Designer. This tool is designed to help create and manage trim textures by giving the user accurate control of the setup process, as well as defining repeating patterns. Use it with your own Substance Designer creations or with external bitmaps.

What are Trim Sheets?

Trim sheets are a way to condense elements of an environment into a single, efficient resource that can be used on a variety of assets. They are often in a square or rectangular image format. Common sizes include 2048x2048 and 2048x4096 pixels, and are organized in rows or columns, with clear divisions for each segment. Trim sheets offer a highly efficient approach to detailing modular environments. These textures combine common elements into a single resource, minimizing texture overhead and streamlining workflow.

Key Benefits:

• Reduced Memory Footprint: By consolidating numerous textures into one, trim sheets significantly decrease memory usage, improving scene performance and resource efficiency.
• Simplified Shading: Eliminating multiple texture files translates into fewer shaders. This reduces draw calls and rendering complexity, further boosting performance.
• Reusability & Variation: A single trim sheet can be applied to diverse objects, aiding modular environment construction and quality. Shared layouts within sheets enable easy texture interchangeability for further variation.
• Seamless Repetition: Each element within the sheet is designed for seamless horizontal tiling, ensuring continuous textures with no visible repetition artifacts.

Ideal for:

• Modular Environments: Building complex scenes with consistent detail becomes effortless with trim sheets. Large environments may require multiple sheets for stylistic or detail variations.
• Optimizing Performance: Trim sheets excel in resource-constrained situations, ensuring smooth gameplay even on less powerful hardware.
• Maintaining Artistic Control: Precise placement and scaling within the sheet empowers artists to craft unique patterns and intricate details.

Overall, trim sheets offer a powerful solution for creating visually rich and efficient modular environments, making them an essential tool for developers seeking enhanced workflow and optimized performance.

How to Create Trim Sheets?

1. Gather References: Choose your subject matter (e.g., classic architecture or a sci-fi environment) and collect reference images. Identify frequently used details and break them down based on reusability and versatility.
2. Plan Element Sizes: Determine the overall trim sheet size (e.g., 2048x2048 pixels or non-square formats). Consider the different trim sizes needed for various prop sizes. Arrange elements efficiently to minimize wasted space.
3. Create Trim Elements: Use your preferred software (Substance Designer, Maya, Blender, 3ds Max, ZBrush) to create the elements. Ensure seamless horizontal repetition for each element. Consider creating masks for different trim pieces to control color, roughness, and metalness in the shader, especially for sci-fi or modern architecture.
4. Testing and Tweaking: Test the trim sheet on various models, adjust texture placement, and refine variations until you achieve a cohesive and visually pleasing result.

Remember: The key to a successful trim sheet is balancing efficiency, versatility, and artistic control. Pack it with detail, optimize for performance, and unleash the user's creative vision.

How does the tool work?

1. Start by dropping the Dete Trim Tool node in your graph (color or grayscale).
2. Set your desired output resolution using Atlas Width and Atlas Height (pixel size).
3. Set the number of trim segments you need (max 16).
4. Go through all Trim groups (Trim A, Trim B, Trim C, etc.) and set the Pixel height for each trim.
5. The last trim in the list won't have a Trim height value, but will use the leftover height of all combined trims minus Atlas Height. This value can be debugged by double-clicking the Constant Data output. The last of the 4 Values in the column is the size of the last trim element.
6. Connect your trims to your inputs and set the desired tiling mode (default is auto tile). The other options are Tile Once, Auto Tile set Y, and Set Tiling XY.
7. You also have the option to offset the trim elements by using Offset Horizontal and Vertical.
8. Once you have your base trim created, you can share the setup data between trim nodes by using the  "Use Shared Data" button.

Included Nodes

Dete Trim Profile node

This node helps with the creation of elements with molding (profiles) on the 'top', 'bottom' or 'top and bottom'. You can define the thickness of the molding, and the elements in the middle will adjust based on the thickness. You can input a pattern that you created and set its horizontal repetition value. It also has controls for the grayscale values so you can easily set the height of the tiled detail or the molding.

The Trim Tool

This tool is meant to help to speed up the Trim sheet workflow in Substance Designer. Typically the workflow is using a bunch of Transform nodes and blending stuff together over and over, which makes the nodes very messy and not very efficient to work with. The Dete Trim Tool nodes are super fast and will allow you to blend everything in one spot. You will only need to set up your trim info in the first trim node that you drop into your graph. Select the number of segments, trim height, and if you want to tile or offset the inputs in any way.

Example of the trim tool using bitmap inputs.

Example of the Trim tool in action using subgraphs as detail input

Trim Helper Nodes

The tool comes with an array of nodes to help with the process of adding details and creating effects or colors to your trim creations. These are all connected to the main trim outputs Row Data and Constant Data:

• Dete Trim Tool (Data To Random Grayscale): Creates a random grayscale value per trim segment or per tiling value.
• Dete Trim Tool (Data To Random Color): Creates a random color value per trim segment or per tiling value.
• Dete Trim Tool (Data To Gradient): Creates a gradient per trim segment or per tiling value.
• Dete Trim Tool (Data To UVs): Creates UV values per trim segment or per tiling value.
• Dete Trim Tool (Data To Position)
• Dete Trim Tool (Data To Distance): Creates Distance gradients horizontal and vertical.
• Dete Trim Tool (Data To Area): Bounding box
• Dete Trim Tool (Data To Border Profile): Allows you to create a solid or a gradient border with a profile per segment or tiliing value.
• Dete Trim Tool (Data To FF BBox): Allows you to connect the output data to be used with the Flood fill nodes.
• Dete Trim Tool (Data To Index): Output data that can be modified to create various effects.
• Dete Trim Tool (Data To Mask): A slider that outputs a mask per segment.

This tool was developed by Daniel Thiger and Marco Vitale.

https://www.artstation.com/dete

https://www.artstation.com/marcovitale

Contents

• .Sbsar files (Studio license buyers also get access to .sbs source files)
• Readme txt file
• Additional .mp4 video files showing the features of the tool
• Created with Substance Designer v 13.0.2

License

Personal, Small Business, and Studio/Educational Licenses are available. Personal licenses do NOT apply to companies or organizations. Sharing, streaming, and redistribution to third-party is strictly prohibited.

*Digital products are non-refundable