Substance Painter is one of the most popular 3D painting softwares used by 3D artists, game developers, VFX professionals and more. With its powerful painting tools and smart materials, Substance Painter makes texturing 3D assets quick and easy. However, the full commercial license can be expensive for individuals and small teams.
In this article, we’ll explore all the legitimate options you have as a student or professional to get Substance Painter for free or at a heavily discounted price.
Adobe Substance 3D Collection for Students
Adobe has made the entire Substance 3D collection free for students. This includes Substance Painter, Substance Designer, Substance Source and the Substance 3D Modeler Beta.
To get the free student license, you simply need to verify your student status through Adobe’s website. You’ll get access to the latest versions of all Substance tools and free updates until you graduate.
The student license has no restrictions and can be used for commercial projects too. You retain full ownership of any work created with the student license.
This is an excellent deal for 3D arts students who want to learn industry-standard texturing tools. With the real-time renderer and smart materials of Substance Painter, you can quickly take your 3D assets from low to high fidelity.
The free student access to Substance 3D collection is relatively new and represents Adobe’s push to get Substance tools in the hands of the next generation of 3D artists.
Free Substance Painter Alternatives
If you aren’t a student, don’t despair. There are some free alternatives to Substance Painter that can get the job done:
Quixel Mixer
Quixel Mixer by Epic Games is a free 3D painting tool similar to Substance Painter. It lets you paint directly on 3D models with smart materials and has basic PBR texturing capabilities.
Mixer works across Windows and Mac and can be used with various 3D software. The smart materials help speed up texturing by generating complex effects with ease. You also get access to Megascans, a large library of free 3D scan resources.
The caveat is that Quixel Mixer isn’t as fully featured as Substance Painter. It lacks some advanced texturing and rendering capabilities. But it’s perfectly usable for basic texturing needs, especially as a starting point.
3D Coat
3D Coat offers a 30-day free trial for their 3D painting and sculpting software. It includes tools comparable to Substance Painter for applying PBR materials and painting texture layers.
The 3D painting workflow is quite similar – you can paint directly onto a 3D model based on UV layout. It supports common textures like metals, fabrics, plastics, etc.
A key difference is that 3D Coat doesn’t have as many smart materials. The texturing relies more on manual painting and effects. But the trial is useful for testing a Substance-like workflow before committing to buying it.
ArmorPaint
ArmorPaint is an open source project building a “Substance Painter FOSS alternative”. It’s still relatively barebones but shows promise for becoming a full-featured free alternative.
Some key features already implemented are PBR materials, mesh painting, customizable brushes and smart masking. It also has basic layer support and a real-time viewport renderer.
Being open source, ArmorPaint is constantly evolving with new features and improvements. It’s not yet at Substance Painter level, but is making steady progress towards that goal. You can download and try it for free today.
The GIMP + Blender
For a completely free makeshift solution, you can use Blender for 3D and GIMP for texturing. Here’s a quick workflow:
- Model and UV unwrap your asset in Blender.
- Export the UV layout image.
- Open the UV layout in GIMP. Create texture layers for base color, roughness, metallic etc.
- Paint textures and material details in GIMP using the UV map for guidance and overlays.
- Import the finished texture maps into Blender and apply them to your model.
It’s obviously more tedious than specialized 3D painting tools. But with some effort, you can texture basic 3D models for free this way using GIMP and Blender.
GIMP may not have smart materials, but it’s quite capable for hand painted or photo-sourced textures. This route just requires more manual work compared to Substance Painter automating textures.
Free Substance Painter Assets & Resources
While getting Substance Painter itself for free is tricky without the student license, you can still make use of plenty of free resources:
- Substance Source – Adobe offers hundreds of free Substance materials, textures, backplates and meshes through Substance Source. These are ready to use in Substance Painter and serve as great starting points.
- Substance Share – The community around Substance Painter regularly shares free materials, tools, brushes, textures, alpha masks and more on Share. Lots of freebies to grab.
- Texturing.xyz – A textures marketplace with hundreds of free PBR materials that are optimized for Substance Painter. Great for texturing practice.
- BlenderKit – Offers some free PBR materials and texture images that can be used in Substance Painter. Not a huge selection but can be handy.
- CC0 Textures – A site with lots of CC0 texture photos suitable for texturing 3D models. Includes categories like fabrics, floors, metals etc.
- 3DAssets.one – A repository of free 3D models and assets, some of which come textured. Useful free materials and textures.
You won’t get the full Substance Painter app for free without the student license, but these assets help you make the most of it. Studying how existing high-quality Painter materials are built is a great learning resource too.
Paid Options for Substance Painter Access
Free options for Substance Painter are limited. So what paid routes can get you access? Here are a few possibilities:
Rent-to-Own Payment Plans
Substance Painter is available via rent-to-own payment plans on sites like Splash and ColdIron. This lets you pay a monthly cost over 1-2 years until the full license fee is completed.
Monthly costs are much lower compared to paying the full $199 outright. It makes Substance Painter more accessible upfront. Just note there are interest charges involved with these payment plans.
Team/Enterprise Licenses
If you’re part of a team or enterprise, bulk licensing can make Substance Painter cheaper per user. The indie/startup plan starts at $12.50/month per user for teams under $100K revenue.
Enterprise licensing can save even more for larger organizations. Talk to the Substance sales team about discounted rates for more users.
Bundled Deals
Occasionally you can find special deals bundling Substance Painter with other tools. For example, Humble Bundle previously offered it bundled with Clip Studio Paint.
Bundles allow you to get Substance Painter discounted when partnered with other software. So keep an eye out for promotional bundles relevant to your work.
Buy a Used License
You can find used Substance Painter licenses for lower prices on sites like KVRaudio. These are sold by users who no longer need their license. Caution is advised to verify legitimacy.
Buying from the official Substance store gives peace of mind, but second-hand licenses offer savings. Just be sure to get proof of purchase and do some research on the seller.
Educational Discounts
Students can get Substance Painter free through the Adobe program. But educational pricing is also available for teachers, faculty, universities, and accredited institutions.
Standard educational discount is around 30% off. Contact the Substance sales team with academic credentials to discuss options.
For startups and annual licenses, you can also save 25% by verifying student or teacher status with Student Beans. Every bit of savings helps!
Try Before You Buy – Free Trials
If you want to fully test Substance Painter before purchasing, free trials are available:
- 15-day free trial – You can sign up through the Substance website for a 15-day free trial. Fully unrestricted and no payment info required.
- 3-month Startup plan – Qualifying startup companies can get the Indie/Startup plan free for 3 months. Contact Substance sales for eligibility.
- Steam Game Demo – There is a 1-hour demo of Substance Painter on Steam to try the workflow and tools.
These free trials give you temporary full access to the latest Substance Painter version. Great for hands-on evaluation before investing in a paid license.
Use Older Free Versions
Past versions of Substance Painter used to be available for free, though with limitations. These old free versions lack many features of the current Painter, but can still be usable.
- Substance Painter Free Trial – Legacy 1-month free trial of an older Painter version. Lacks some advanced features but provides basic texturing.
- Substance Player – Very limited free version of old Painter. Minimal toolset with no export capability, but allows viewing Substance files.
You can find these retired free versions archived on various sites if you search around. They offer a limited glimpse into Substance Painter workflow.
Learn Without Substance Painter
You can start learning PBR texturing and workspace skills without direct access to Substance Painter:
- Study texturing theory – PBR values, texture types, baking, materials etc. Still applicable to any workflow.
- Watch Substance Painter tutorials on YouTube to see techniques and workflows in action.
- Download free Substance Painter files from Share or other sites to examine how they’re constructed.
- Experiment with free alternatives for experience with 3D painting paradigms.
- Use Photoshop/GIMP for hand painting textures based on PBR principles.
While the specific tools differ, you’ll build transferable skills by studying smart materials, PBR texturing, and principles of procedural workflows.
The hands-on experience with Substance Painter is invaluable, but you can start building knowledge even without access to prep yourself.
Community Edition?
Is a “Substance Painter Community” or cheaper indie version likely to be released? There are mixed opinions:
For:
- Blender has shown open source & indie tools can thrive and innovate. Substance marketing themselves as indie-friendly suggests interest in that space.
- A community edition could get Substance Painter into more hands and build their user base. New users may upgrade to paid versions over time as their needs grow.
- Substance software started as an indie tool before Adobe acquisition, so there may be sentiment to give back to those roots.
Against:
- Painter is Adobe’s cash cow for 3D artists. They have little incentive to undercut their own paid product with a cheaper version.
- Current free student access goes far enough for Adobe to appeal to aspirational users. A free limited version may just eat into paid seats.
- Painter integrates deeply with proprietary Substance tools and Adobe offerings. A community version may not align with their ecosystem strategy.
There are reasonable arguments on both sides. Ultimately, the decision comes down to Adobe and Substance’s business priorities. But there is hope that a more indie-friendly option may emerge to democratize these cutting edge tools.
Substance Painter Alternatives Compared
If you’re deciding between Substance Painter and potential alternatives, here’s a quick comparison of the options:
| Software | Price | Strengths | Limitations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Substance Painter | $19.90/month | Industry standard tools. Smart materials. Great PBR workflow. | Expensive for individuals. |
| Quixel Mixer | Free | Free. Easy to use. Good starter 3D painting tool. | Limited features compared to Painter. |
| 3D Coat | Free trial | Full featured 3D painting workflow. Familiar if used Painter. | Trials are time limited. |
| ArmorPaint | Free | Open source. Constantly improving. True Painter alternative goal. | Early in development. Missing many features. |
| GIMP + Blender | Free | Zero cost. Manual painting gives experience. | Very slow workflow. No smart materials. |
For most professional work, Substance Painter remains the gold standard. But the free and open source alternatives are usable depending on your needs and budget.
TL;DR – Summary
Getting Substance Painter for free is tricky, but here are your best options:
- Students get full free access through Adobe Education program
- Quixel Mixer is a free alternative with basic features
- Use GIMP + Blender for manual texture painting workflow
- Try free trials available on Substance site, Steam etc
- Watch Substance Painter tutorials and study texturing principles
While the student program is by far the best deal, you have some budget-friendly options to start learning. Painter is well worth the investment for professional work if you can afford it. But the free tools allow you get your feet wet in 3D painting workflows and identify if Painter is right for your needs.
Over time, hopefully more affordable versions and indie-friendly offerings will emerge. But for now, you have various routes to get started with “Substance Painter for free”.
