For a while now I haven't been texturing in Substance Painter any more. Every new model gets painted in inkpainter3d, a texture painter I'm building myself. Today I'd like to introduce it properly.
What it is
inkpainter3d is a free, open-source 3D texture painter. You load a model, paint directly onto it layer by layer, and export the textures for Blender, Unity or Godot. It runs on Windows and Linux, and it's written in Rust.
If you've used Substance Painter, a lot will feel familiar: I kept the same concepts, terms and shortcuts, so tutorials and habits carry over.
Why I switched
For me, inkpainter3d already works really well for everyday texturing. Most of my characters use regular PBR textures, and that's exactly what it's built to handle: layers, masks, baking, smart materials and export to the engine you need.
There's a second reason that matters just as much: you. When I hand over a character, you get the texture project too, and you can keep working on it without buying expensive software that might not even run on your system. inkpainter3d is free, needs no account or subscription, and runs on Windows and Linux.
What it can do today
- Import FBX, glTF and OBJ models
- Paint and erase in the 3D view and the UV view, with pen pressure, brush presets, stencils and symmetry
- Paint, fill and folder layers with masks and per-channel blend modes
- Bake mesh maps like ambient occlusion, curvature and normals from a high-poly mesh
- Generators and smart materials for edge wear, dirt and more
- Export templates for Blender, Unity, Godot, glTF and Unreal
What's next
inkpainter3d is still early, and I keep improving it while I use it. Next up are the remaining tools like projection, followed by more filters, UDIM support and installers. Stylized layers and vector paths on the surface are planned for later.
Try it
Ready-made builds are on the releases page, and the code is on GitHub. If something breaks or feels off, I'd love to hear about it in the issues there. Every bit of feedback helps.