Substance Painter is a popular 3D painting software known for its intuitive tools and workflow. However, it comes with a steep learning curve and hefty price tag. If you are looking for Substance Painter alternatives that can provide similar functionality at a more affordable cost, you have several options to consider.
In this article, we will discuss the top 10 Substance Painter alternatives for 3D texturing and painting. We will cover both free and paid solutions suitable for beginners, professionals, and everyone in between.
Overview of Substance Painter
Before diving into the alternatives, let’s briefly go over what Substance Painter is and who it is best suited for.
Substance Painter is a professional 3D painting program developed by Adobe. It allows artists to paint realistic textures and materials onto 3D models. Key features include:
- Intuitive painting tools and brushes
- Procedural materials and masks
- Smart materials with adjustable properties
- Exporting ability to common game engines and 3D software
The non-destructive workflow and built-in libraries make texturing quick and efficient in Substance Painter. It is well-suited for 3D artists, texture artists, and game developers. The main downsides are the steep learning curve and high cost.
Now let’s look at some of the top alternatives that can deliver similar functionality at a more accessible price point or for free.
1. Blender
Blender is an open-source 3D creation suite that includes built-in texture painting capabilities. It has a thriving artist community behind it and offers an impressive set of features considering its free price tag.
Blender contains multiple texture painting workflows. You can paint directly in 3D viewport via texture brushes or use the “Look Dev” mode for advanced materials. There is also a dedicated 2D texture painting workspace.
While not as refined as Substance Painter, Blender provides plenty of brushes, materials, and masking functionality. With its active development, the texturing tools are constantly improving. The biggest perk of Blender is that it can handle modeling, rigging, animation, and more in one free program.
2. 3D Coat
3D Coat offers professional-grade 3D painting tools while being more affordable than Substance Painter. It uses voxel-based sculpting technology for high interactivity when working with 3D models and textures.
The 3D painting workflow is very responsive. Artists can see updates in real-time. 3D Coat also provides useful tools like auto-retopologizing meshes and generating normal/ambient occlusion maps.
The material and paint library is quite expansive. And it supports common texture map exports like PBR, displacement, and normal maps. 3D Coat is available at a quarter of the cost of Substance Painter.
3. Quixel Mixer
Quixel Mixer is a cloud-based 3D texturing solution. It utilizes Megascans, a massive library of 3D scans for photorealistic textures. You can easily paint scanned textures onto models right within Mixer.
A key advantage of Quixel Mixer is speed. The smart materials and vast Megascans library accelerate the texturing process. Useful features include layer masks, customizable brush tools, and mesh editing capabilities.
Mixer is subscription-based with plans starting around $20/month. That makes it quite affordable compared to purchasing Substance Painter. The main catch is that exports will contain a Megascans watermark unless you purchase credits. But Mixer is a great option for quickly texturing scenes.
4. ArmorPaint
ArmorPaint bills itself as the “open-source alternative to Substance Painter”. It is still in development but shows a lot of potential as a free program.
It already includes similar smart materials, procedural texturing, customizable brushes, and layering. Key features like baking, smart masking, and PBR exporting are in development. And it leverages GPU processing for working interactively on high polygon models.
Given more development time, ArmorPaint could become a full-fledged free alternative to Substance Painter. It’s usable now for texture painting and sports an intuitive UI. As an open-source project, ArmorPaint is shaping up to be a promising option for low cost texturing.
5. Krita
Krita is a free and open-source digital painting program with great texturing capabilities. It is designed for concept artists, illustrators, and texture artists.
Users can take advantage of the large library of customizable brushes. Krita also supports painting on 3D models directly and can handle large textures up to 300,000 x 300,000 pixels in size. Useful features include wraparound mode, brush stabilization, layer masks and more.
While not a full 3D texturing solution, Krita works well for hand painting textures. It has a long history dating back to the early 2000s and continues to improve through open-source development. For free texture painting, Krita is a great choice.
6. 3D-Coat Lite
3D-Coat offers a completely free version of their software called 3D-Coat Lite. It provides the core 3D painting toolkit and retains the excellent performance of 3D-Coat.
In the Lite version, you get the voxel-based workflow, texture painting brushes, and real-time rendering. It supports PBR, displacement, and normal map exports. The main limitations are a low polygon model cap and lack of certain advanced tools.
But 3D-Coat Lite contains plenty of features for basic texture work. And the full paid version is reasonably priced if you need upgrades. Overall, 3D-Coat Lite is a great free way to get familiar with 3D painting before committing to paid software.
7. Toolbag by Marmoset
Toolbag by Marmoset is a game development tool for rendering, animation, and texture baking. It includes basic texture painting features as well.
The painting tools are straightforward – custom brushes, layers, masks, material selection. The key advantages of Toolbag are its rendering capabilities fueled by real-time PBR. You can visualize models and texture work with accurate material response and lighting.
There is a free version of Toolbag with limited functionality. The paid versions provide additional tools and export options. Toolbag excels at presenting PBR textures rather than creating complex shaders. So it works well when paired with other texturing solutions.
8. Demicron
Demicron is an upcoming texture painting application currently in alpha. It takes inspiration from Substance Painter but with a focus on game development.
Key features include a scanline rendering workflow, visual shader editing, customizable brushes, and Mask View for working with texture sets. There are also tools to preview textures on models in real-time.
As an alpha software, Demicron is missing some functionality like the material graph system. But it shows promise as an affordable Substance Painter alternative once officially released. The current alpha is free to try and available on Windows and Mac.
9. Materialize
Materialize is an integrated texturing toolset built into the 3D software Blender. It aims to bring a Substance Painter-like workflow into Blender.
With Materialize, artists can texture models in Blender with smart materials, custom brushes, and texture baking. The materials are fully customizable through nodes. And textures are updated in real-time when painting on models.
Since Materialize runs within Blender, it is completely free and benefits from GPU acceleration. It is still in alpha development but shows potential as an open-source texturing solution. As development continues, Materialize could become a robust Substance Painter alternative integrated into Blender.
10. Allegorithmic Substance Share
While not a full software replacement, Allegorithmic Substance Share is worth mentioning as a free resource. Substance Share is a community site for downloading free Substance materials, textures, and 3D scans.
You can browse thousands of Substance files uploaded by users. They work seamlessly within Substance Painter and other Allegorithmic tools. This can accelerate texture workflows by leveraging materials made by the community.
Substance Share helps you avoid starting textures from complete scratch. For people already using Substance Painter, it is a great supplement. And it is completely free – no subscription needed.
Key Considerations for Substance Painter Alternatives
When evaluating alternatives to Substance Painter, keep the following factors in mind:
- Features – Make sure core painting, material, and export features fit your needs
- Workflow – Look for an intuitive workflow that matches your speed and style
- Cost – Consider one-time or recurring pricing models for your budget
- Learning curve – Opt for an easier learning curve if new to 3D texturing
- Output quality – Ensure exportable texture maps meet the visual fidelity you need
The top alternatives provide strong features and workflows at lower price points. Reliable output quality comes from programs with mature 3D painting engines. Factor in your experience level, project specifications, and budget to choose the best fit.
Conclusion
Substance Painter brings professional tools for 3D texturing but has a significant cost. Thankfully, many free and affordable alternatives can deliver similar workflows.
Top options like Blender, 3D Coat, and Quixel provide full 3D painting suites. While Krita, ArmorPaint, and 3D Coat Lite offer free solutions for getting started. And community resources like Substance Share add free materials.
Consider your specific needs to pick the best Substance Painter alternative. Any of these programs can help create impressive game and 3D assets. By mixing free tools with affordable paid options, artists can achieve pro-level texturing results at budget-friendly prices.
