Adobe Substance 3D Painter Reviews & Product Details

Adobe Substance 3D Painter is a 3D texturing application that enables artists to paint detailed textures directly onto 3D models in real time. It offers a non-destructive, layer-based workflow, allowing for easy iteration and modification without compromising previous work. With a state-of-the-art viewport, users can visualize their work with accurate lighting and shadow effects, ensuring a true representation of the final output. Key Features and Functionality: - Dynamic Paint Engine: Utilize a variety of brushes, projection tools, and particles, including support for Photoshop brush presets, to achieve intricate and dynamic textures. - Smart Masks and Materials: Apply realistic surface details, from subtle dusting to extreme wear and tear, using intelligent masks and materials that adapt to the underlying model. - Advanced Material Creation: Simulate real-world material behaviors such as sheen, anisotropy, clear-coat, and subsurface scattering to enhance the realism of 3D assets. - Automatic UV Unwrapping: Import models without the need for manual UV preparation, as the software automatically generates UV maps suitable for texturing. - VFX Support: Supports multi-tile painting (UDIMs), Alembic, camera import, and Python scripting, aligning with the VFX Reference Platform standards. - Seamless Integration: Easily export textures to various renderers or game engines, with customizable export presets to fit into diverse 3D design pipelines. Primary Value and User Solutions: Substance 3D Painter streamlines the texturing process for 3D professionals by providing intuitive tools that enhance creativity and efficiency. Its real-time feedback and non-destructive workflow allow artists to experiment freely and make adjustments without fear of losing progress. The software's advanced features, such as smart materials and automatic UVs, reduce the time and effort required to achieve high-quality, realistic textures. By integrating seamlessly with other 3D applications and supporting industry-standard formats, Substance 3D Painter ensures a smooth workflow, making it an essential tool for game developers, visual effects artists, and product designers aiming to bring their 3D creations to life with stunning textures.

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Adobe

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Adobe Substance 3D Painter Community

Solution Type

Best-of-Breed

Overview by

Alyson Smith

Value at a Glance

Averages based on real user reviews.

Perceived Cost

$$$$$

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User Insights

Average based on 109 real user reviews.

Perceived Cost

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Adobe Substance 3D Painter Integrations

(2)

Integration information sourced from real user reviews.

Photoshop

Maya

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Verified User in Design

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

4/23/2018

"Substance painter. the best way to make PBR"

5/5

What do you like best about Adobe Substance 3D Painter?

I love the layers and edge detection that allow for great material effects that export directly to programs like Maya and real time engines that allow for PBR shaders. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Adobe Substance 3D Painter?

It needs a fairly robust machine to allow for multi-layered files in 4k or larger. Not a big deal because of its non-destructive resolution adjustment. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Adobe Substance 3D Painter:

make sure you use UV mapping that separates any surface with a relative angle in excess of 90 degrees to ensure a clean edge detection. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Adobe Substance 3D Painter solving and how is that benefiting you?

We are using it to create realistic surfaces for using in renders and real-time environments and primarily exporting it to PBR rough metallic workflows. The edge detection is also amazing. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Guilherme H.

SD Art Director

Animation

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

6/9/2020

"Probably your best bet for texture painting in 2020."

5/5

What do you like best about Adobe Substance 3D Painter?

Very user friendly, short learning curve. Making AAA quality texturing feels natural and in some ways, very exciting. Viewport is very responsive and powered by a good PBR render. It's fairly easy to texture most subjects with superior attention to detail by using its physic-based brushes, decals and the clever masking workflow. Also has a ton of export-presets for easy integration into your render engine of choice, from vray to renderman.

It also integrates very well with Substance Designer, being able to create your own smart brushes to share with the team is very cool. There's room for some crazy workflows if you know enough Python, since it has a decent API.

The Substance Team updates their software constantly, with major features being implemented every year, for the price it's an absolutely no-brainer. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Adobe Substance 3D Painter?

Some features are confusing at first, and performance isn't that optimized for VFX grade work, but overall it's a very solid package with loads of potential going forward. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Adobe Substance 3D Painter:

If you work with games (or want to), that's the way to go. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Adobe Substance 3D Painter solving and how is that benefiting you?

Substance Painter made texturing a lot more intuitive and effortless, it does feel like creating art, opposed to dealing with a machine and solving technical problems. It made my work a lot more fun and exciting, you can actually enjoy the process and have fun doing it, it feels almost like playing a videogame at times, since it flows so natural and intuitively. Texturing PBR assets used to be a major pain, dealing with multiple maps that are supposed to be linked together, Substance Painter streamlined all that process with a great consistent workflow. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Nadine F.

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

6/3/2020

"Amazing piece of software!"

5/5

What do you like best about Adobe Substance 3D Painter?

There are so many ways to create with this software and being able to import resources stretches this even further. I love the freedom and the fact you can see a 3D version of your assets with your work directly on them. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Adobe Substance 3D Painter?

The one thing that has been an issue for me in the past is the fact you can’t paint across UDIM tiles. This gives the appearance of seams and makes it more difficult to paint. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Adobe Substance 3D Painter:

Give it a go, you will be surprised at just how much you can create with it! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Adobe Substance 3D Painter solving and how is that benefiting you?

I have had massive benefits within substance, being able to correct textures and view them as you work. It is a super easy interface to use and has features that are similar to other software. It is a non destructive workflow which means you can easily correct issues without destroying your work. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Priyam s.

Public relation head

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

12/14/2020

"good for me"

4.5/5

What do you like best about Adobe Substance 3D Painter?

great for colouring and painting things. totally lovable. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Adobe Substance 3D Painter?

nothing much because it has nothing much in it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Yu Chieh S.

Computer Graphic Artist

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

6/27/2018

"Quick and powerful"

4.5/5

What do you like best about Adobe Substance 3D Painter?

you could create the whole PBR , customize texture from Procedural and hand paint.

especially for hard surface assets, and some background elements in the scene.

And all the setting could converted to smart Material which you could use it repeatedly. that's wonderful Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Adobe Substance 3D Painter?

projection painting is not as straight forward as Mari.

And for different type of channel, (diffuse. Spec, and such), we need to manually created those map in different programs.

It would be super useful if we could alter those maps IN substance painter. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Adobe Substance 3D Painter:

The whole substance system is really well connected between their products,

with SD B2M, Substance painter could create high end and really fast result.

my favorite is using B2M combine with SP, because it creates style, and also build you lots of seamless texture. quick apply than all other program.

there is a bit downside, that you can't really sculpting in SP. but that part we could easily solve by Zbrush. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Adobe Substance 3D Painter solving and how is that benefiting you?

all the hard surface texture that need to be created in short amount of time

Time is the huge benefit

the export options could be a bit more flexible Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

ZEESHAN M.

Environment Designer

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

5/28/2020

"Smart software for smart work. In hard way or soft way. Love to recommend others"

5/5

What do you like best about Adobe Substance 3D Painter?

I like the locations for tools that you easily find tools and most of loving thing that you can also edit your model here. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Adobe Substance 3D Painter?

Well in my way i don’t think so there’s any least thing in Substance. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Adobe Substance 3D Painter solving and how is that benefiting you?

I make a model in maya, it was a hammer. I moved my model to substance and there i found lots of ways to edit my model in real time rather than in maya. And i never ever had any problem with this software because whenever I’m using this software it’s always be like very owner to me. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Antoine D.

Animator

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

6/8/2020

"Solid software"

4.5/5

What do you like best about Adobe Substance 3D Painter?

I really like using Substance Painter for all alphas and brushes I can customize by myself. It improved an asset really fast with all the baking options for the maps and it's really smooth to work with this software! Looking forward to the next upgrade! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Adobe Substance 3D Painter?

The only thing I dislike about the software, and my one big complaint would be that I can't paint multiple UDIMs at once. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Ravi C.

Freelance 3D Artist

Entertainment

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

10/28/2019

"Efficiency and fluency"

5/5

What do you like best about Adobe Substance 3D Painter?

User interface: Substance painter user interface has a balance. You will feel a balance during work in substance painter. 3 tabs on left side, 3 tabs on right side, a shelf in middle bottom and the main working area in front above.! So cool! It increases fluency and efficiency during work! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Adobe Substance 3D Painter?

Yeah some bugs are here like other softwares. Sometime if u are using color picker tool then after picking color it don't change its icon to brush icon. When you start painting then seems like you are not painting from brush, you are painting from color picker tool!! Its looks weird! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Adobe Substance 3D Painter:

Yeah! of course its a nice texturing software! PBR based software for texture which remove the guesswork of manual texturing method using only photoshop on a flat plane surface. It lets you paint and texture in realtime! That's awesome! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Adobe Substance 3D Painter solving and how is that benefiting you?

That was a time when substance painter dont have features to export your files to photoshop. Now iam happy that we have a photoshop export plugin for that otherwise you have to export texture and then import them in photoshop. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Animation

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

5/21/2020

"Used it in Uni, was a good experience"

5/5

What do you like best about Adobe Substance 3D Painter?

I like how easy it is to get fantastic results even with the standard presets. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Adobe Substance 3D Painter?

In the beginning it was a bit complicated to get used to but once i got the hang of it it became easier Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Adobe Substance 3D Painter:

Great to get amazing and quick results. Very easy to use and definitely a must-have in your arsenal! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Adobe Substance 3D Painter solving and how is that benefiting you?

Speed was priority in university and reducing workload was very easily achieved. It helped me solve the whole trouble of good into photoshop for a basic texture Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Milan S.

Training Doctor

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

11/30/2019

"Best of 3D world"

4/5

What do you like best about Adobe Substance 3D Painter?

Substance Painter is the best texturing 3D assets software powered by Adobe. It has very powerful key features like a powerful paint engine, Smart masks, RTX accelerated bakers, and export to anything like any game engine, and so on. All the tools needed to texture our 3D assets are gathered in one application. It helps to make it real. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Adobe Substance 3D Painter?

Nothing to any big issues. But a few small problems like bugs. Sometimes the software gets stuck. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Adobe Substance 3D Painter:

Adobe Substance Painter is a powerful texturing application. Easy to work. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Adobe Substance 3D Painter solving and how is that benefiting you?

All the tools are in one software application and it has a state-of-the-art real-time viewport. Helps to paint in 3D in real time. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.