In this tutorial I will show you how to make your own denim material with stitching in Substance Painter for your project.
Texture
I add a new fill layer and rename it “denim base”
I change the color to a gray-blue for the base color [#12293D]
I change the roughness to 0.8
I duplicate the base layer and rename it to “denim variation”
I change the color to a lighter gray-blue [#1F3A52]
I add a black mask
I add a fill layer to the black mask
Under the textures tab, I search for clouds and use Clouds 1 for the grayscale option
I now adjust the balance of the mask layer
I add a filter and search for blur
I duplicate the variation layer and rename it to “denim fibers”
I change the color to a lighter gray-blue [#506577]
I open the black mask and delete the fill and filter
I add a fill layer and add the directional noise 3 texture
Under the noise parameters options, I rotate the fibers by 90-degrees
I select the fill and change the height parameter
I duplicate the fibers layer and rename it to “denim fibers variation”
I change the color [#56616B]
I open the black mask and delete the fill
I add a fill to the black mask and use an anisotropic noise texture
I change the contrast to 1
I add a filter and add a warp
I change the intensity to 0.3
I change the opacity to 30
I duplicate the fibers variation layer and rename it to “denim edges”
I change the color [#696F73]
I open the black mask and delete the fill and filter
I add a generator and select UV border distance
I add a new fill layer and rename it “denim stitches”
I change the color [#B3D9F9] and change the roughness to 0.8
I add a black mask with a generator and look for auto stitcher
Since I want these stitches to be along the edges, I change the mask mode to curvature
I select the fill and change the height to 0.05
Saving
I make a new folder to contain my denim and stitching layers and rename it
I drag my layers into the folder
I can now right-click on the folder and create a smart material