SurfaceMentor

🧵 Using Substance 3D Designer to Create Jute Fabric

Jute is a coarse, natural fiber with a distinctive woven pattern used in bags, rugs, and upholstery. Recreating its organic look inside Adobe Substance 3D Designer is a fantastic way to understand procedural fabric generation — blending weave structure, fibers, and imperfections through nodes.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to build a fully procedural jute fabric material from scratch using only nodes. You’ll create a realistic woven pattern, apply rough surface variation, and generate final outputs ready for Substance 3D Painter, Stager, or any PBR render engine.

👉 Try it yourself with the Adobe Substance 3D Collection free trial — it includes Designer, Painter, Sampler, Stager, and Modeler.

Using Substance 3D Designer to Create Jute Fabric
Using Substance 3D Designer to Create Jute Fabric

🧱 Step 1: Start a New Graph

  1. Open Substance 3D Designer and create a new Substance Graph (PBR Metallic/Roughness).
  2. Rename it “Jute_Fabric.”
  3. Set your graph resolution to 2048×2048 for detailed fibers.

💡 Tip: Start with a uniform graph layout — keep pattern generation on the left, surface detail in the middle, and outputs on the right.

🪡 Step 2: Build the Basic Weave Pattern

The heart of the jute material lies in its interwoven thread structure.

  1. Add two Tile Generators.
  2. For the first one, set the Pattern Input to Square and adjust the X/Y amount to create the vertical threads.
  3. For the second, rotate it 90° to form the horizontal threads.
  4. Blend both using a Min (Darken) blend mode to simulate interlacing.

🎯 Pro Tip: Add a Directional Warp node between each generator with a subtle noise map to simulate thread irregularities.

🌾 Step 3: Add Fiber Texture and Variation

To make the weave look organic, overlay fine thread-like details.

  1. Add a Clouds 2 or Fibers 1 node for micro noise.
  2. Blend it on top of the weave pattern using Overlay mode.
  3. Adjust opacity to 0.2–0.3 for subtle texture.
  4. Use a Levels node to enhance the contrast of fiber details.

💡 Tip: Combine Directional Noise 3 with a Warp node to introduce strand breakage and natural inconsistencies.

🎨 Step 4: Generate Height and Normal Maps

  1. Connect the weave pattern output to a Height Map.
  2. Use a Normal Map node to convert it — set Intensity between 5–10 for realistic depth.
  3. Optionally, add a Gaussian Blur before conversion to smooth sharp transitions.

🎯 Pro Tip: Use Gradient Map after your height map to control color zones and add subtle tonal depth.

🧩 Step 5: Create the Base Color (Albedo)

  1. Add a Gradient Map node and connect it to the main pattern.
  2. Choose earthy brown tones — jute’s color typically ranges from beige to deep tan.
  3. For variation, add a Grunge Map 003 multiplied over the base to break uniform color.

💡 Tip: Add a HSL Node at the end so you can easily shift hue and saturation later to create jute variations.

🔩 Step 6: Define Roughness and Ambient Occlusion

  1. Create a Roughness Map by inverting your fiber pattern — this ensures thread peaks are slightly shinier than gaps.
  2. Use a Levels node to fine-tune brightness and contrast.
  3. For Ambient Occlusion, plug your Height Map into an AO Generator node.

🎯 Pro Tip: Keep roughness between 0.6–0.8 for realistic coarse fabric reflection.

🧮 Step 7: Organize and Output

  1. Add all output nodes — Base Color, Normal, Roughness, Height, and AO.
  2. Group your node network using Frame Boxes for clarity.
  3. Save the material as .sbsar (Substance Archive) for reuse in Painter or Stager.

💡 Workflow Tip: Store procedural parameters such as thread density or color inside Exposed Parameters for easy customization in future projects.

🎥 Step 8: Preview the Material

Switch to 3D View in Designer and assign your jute material to a sphere or fabric plane.

  • Adjust lighting using an HDRI map for accurate reflections.
  • Tweak the Normal and Height Intensity sliders until the weave feels tactile and realistic.

🎯 Pro Tip: Use Stager’s “Soft Studio Light” preset to see how your jute reacts under product lighting conditions.

✅ Step 9: Export and Apply in Painter or Stager

Once your material looks perfect:

  1. Export the .sbsar file.
  2. In Substance 3D Painter, drag and drop it into your material shelf.
  3. Apply it to props like bags, rugs, or furniture — instantly realistic results.

💡 Workflow Example: In Substance 3D Stager, apply the jute material to a packaging scene to achieve natural, eco-friendly product visuals.

✅ Conclusion

With just a handful of nodes, you’ve built a fully procedural jute fabric material that’s endlessly customizable. From eco packaging to interior renders, this workflow can be adapted to any woven surface.

👉 Experiment with weave density, noise levels, and gradient hues — or explore the Adobe Substance 3D Collection free trial to expand your library of realistic materials.

Liliana Garcia
, , , , , , , , ,