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🎨 How to Hand-Paint Stylized Textures in Substance 3D Painter

Not every 3D project needs photorealism. Sometimes, you want charm — bold colors, painted strokes, and stylized texture work that feel hand-crafted.
That’s exactly where Adobe Substance 3D Painter excels. It gives you the precision of digital painting combined with physically based rendering (PBR) control, letting you build stylized assets for games, animation, or illustration.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to hand-paint stylized textures using brushes, fill layers, and blending techniques — all directly on your 3D model.

👉 Try it hands-on with a free trial of the Adobe Substance 3D Collection and follow along with this beginner-friendly guide.

🧱 Step 1: Prepare Your Base Model

  1. Launch Substance 3D Painter and import your 3D model (.FBX, .OBJ, or .USD).
  2. Use the PBR – Metallic Roughness (Stylized) template if available, or just set your roughness and metallic values manually.
  3. Bake your mesh maps (Texture Set Settings → Bake Mesh Maps) — curvature and AO will help you add subtle shading even in stylized looks.
  4. Set your Viewport Display to Base Color to focus on painting colors rather than lighting.

💡 Tip: Use low-contrast lighting to preview colors clearly.

🎨 Step 2: Create a Clean Base Layer

  1. Add a Fill Layer and set a strong, flat Base Color that represents your model’s overall tone (for example, pastel red for armor or soft beige for wood).
  2. Turn off Height, Roughness, and Metallic channels if you’re focusing on flat-color painting.
  3. This will serve as your clean, foundation layer.

🧠 Pro Tip: Keep your base layer locked to prevent accidental edits.

🖌️ Step 3: Switch to the Paint Tool and Pick a Brush

  1. Select the Paint Tool (B).
  2. Open the Brush Library and experiment with painterly options like Artistic Soft, Dry Brush, or Charcoal Fine.
  3. In the Brush Settings, tweak:
    • Size Jitter for organic variation
    • Flow for subtle transparency
    • Spacing for smoother strokes

🎨 Style Idea: Try combining hard-edged brushes for cell-shaded looks and textured brushes for hand-painted fantasy styles.

🧩 Step 4: Add Shading and Highlights Manually

Stylized texturing is all about artistic exaggeration, not physical accuracy.

  1. Create a new Paint Layer above your base.
  2. Pick a slightly darker color and lightly brush edges and creases for fake shadows.
  3. Add another layer for highlights using a brighter tone.
  4. Set Blending Mode → Overlay or Multiply for softer transitions.

💡 Tip: Use a Soft Light blend for painterly gradients without harsh boundaries.

🧠 Step 5: Use Anchor Points for Controlled Detail

Anchor Points help your painted details influence later layers procedurally.

  1. Right-click your painted layer → Add Anchor Point.
  2. Reference it in a new layer’s mask to create outlines, shading, or gradients automatically.
  3. This is perfect for cartoon-style outlines or stylized edge shading.

✍️ Step 6: Add Line Work and Detailing

  1. Add a Paint Layer on top for outlines, cracks, or brush details.
  2. Choose a thin brush and paint black or dark-colored edges around forms.
  3. Use the Lazy Mouse (Stroke Smoothing) setting for clean, intentional lines.

🎯 Pro Tip: Keep your linework on a separate layer so you can adjust color or opacity later.

💾 Step 7: Export Your Stylized Textures

  1. Go to File → Export Textures.
  2. Use the PBR Metal Rough or Stylized PBR preset.
  3. Export at 2K or 4K depending on your target engine (Unity, Unreal, Blender).

Your stylized textures are now ready for use in any workflow — colorful, clean, and entirely your own artistic signature.

✅ Conclusion

Hand-painting stylized textures in Adobe Substance 3D Painter brings the best of both worlds — digital control and artistic expression. With brushes, blending, and layered shading, you can make your 3D models feel hand-crafted, warm, and personal.

👉 Try the Adobe Substance 3D Collection free trial and start building your own stylized assets today.

Ben Kemp
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