Should I learn Substance Painter or Quixel Mixer?
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- čas přidán 25. 07. 2024
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Is Substance Painter dead? Or does Quixel Mixer still have some room to grow?
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When learning how to become a texture artist, the learning curve one must climb isn’t always the easiest. As a rule, 3D Software isn’t particularly intuitive, and there are a lot of concepts that any normal person simply would have no reason to know about. If you’re just starting out, even knowing which software to use can be a bit of a puzzle. Texturing software-the topic of today’s video-is no exception, and each software package comes with its strengths, weaknesses, and price points.
The two most well-known pieces of software for this purpose are Substance Painter and Quixel Mixer. If you’ve never used texturing software before, what makes it unique from simply painting on the model directly, is the ability to use procedural effects based on the shape of the mesh you’re working on.
Before we get into the video,
For the beginner, the first step in the process is what we call baking the maps for the low-resolution mesh. Basically what this means is we use a piece of software (a baker) to create a series of images-or maps-that capture specific details from the high-resolution mesh. These maps can be the object’s thickness in certain places, its curvature or its surface normals. A normal map is complex enough that it could be its own video, but for the sake of brevity, it basically allows us to fake the lighting to give our objects the illusion of depth.
Another reason these maps are important is they enable procedural masking. A mask is basically a black and white image that dictates whether or not the masked layer is visible or not, and when a mask is procedurally generated, this means it has been created by the application rather than painted being by hand. This is why the baked maps are important-they serve as the input for the procedurally generated masks, and without the maps, the masks won’t work.
Long story short, the baker creates the maps that are used to generate the masks.
This idea of texturing an object without painting it completely by hand is called Procedural Texturing and it is one of the central pillars of any modern texturing process. If you’re like me and can barely keep between the lines of a coloring book, it’s a great way to get really nice looking results while never putting pen to tablet.
Both Substance Painter and Quixel Mixer rely on this extensively, so let's take a look at what the workflow with each piece of software might look like.
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We got Blender and Mixer, waiting for Grinder.
Is anybody going to tell him?
@@StylizedStation >->
you do it
what's Grinder?
It’s a dating app bro.
@@zyzz5070 No thanks, I've already got a wife.
"First you make the donut in Blender. Make the sprinkles and whatnot and bake it. Then use Mixer to finish it up."
"Is this about cooking or making digital art?"
"Yes."
hahahaha , I loved your comment
"And if you like use zbrush to give it a nice glaze."
and your name should be blender guru
i know Im asking the wrong place but does anybody know a tool to get back into an instagram account..?
I somehow forgot my login password. I would appreciate any tricks you can offer me
@Mathew Zev instablaster ;)
For those of you who're worried about baking maps, Quixel released a video on baking all the maps inside of blender, and then you can export them to substance, mixer, armor paint etc.
Whereee
Nice, but I use 3ds max
@@TheTimeProphet you can still use blender for baking, the tutorial (on Quixel youtube channel) is straight away to the point, just follow that, and you'll be good to go.
@@WolfieDesigns Hate Blender with a passion. I use xNormal to do my normals, and sometimes I use substance painter
@@TheTimeProphet Why? Blender's great, already switched to it from max and maya.
Today Quixel has announced the UDMI support for the upcoming 2021 version (and other features)
LETS GOOO!!!
Great what about UDIMs
For now all Mixer needs a Baker.
*Update* :
Now, Mixer have Multiple Tex set, UDIMs and eventually there will be a baking.
?
@@mathajar9563 ?
I've been using Mixer a lot lately for my project, the only thing that missing is the baking feature, multiple mesh options and symmetry painting. I hope Mixer 2021 add those features and it will help lot of artist with low budget.
Right now, my workflow is very simple and I don't need to have all those high costly software in other to make awesome things. Blender for 3D modelling/sculpting and animations, Krita for 2d painting, Mixer for 3D texturing and of course Unreal engine for everything else.
Mixer has a tutorial on mesh baking in blender u can export for use 👍
Using both since years and lately I'm more into mixer. But it all depends on what i want to create. For fillassets and background stuff i always go for quixel mixer since it has a faster workflow. But when it comes to the focal element or procedurally texture large scale objects (like an entire city) i mostly go for substance since you have better control
Thanks for the excellent guide!
I'm a programmer who also does graphics so while I have some 'core tools' (UE4, Houdini) I find that I often end up needing to use often tools to get something done, and then forget everything before I need to use the package again. For this reason I'm going to be concentrating on Mixer, a simpler package which is getting better sounds about right for me at this time.
It is a shame though that Substance and Quixel seem so determined to have their own full suites as it makes it needlessly tricky to combine their libraries. Having access to the Megascans 3d assets and photogrammetry scans but being able to add detail and control with the Substance procedural forms and Smart Materials would just be great.
Thanks for the legitimate comparison video! This channel is doing amazing things!
-Which should I use?
-The free one obviously
The Hobbyist's mindset. You can only get so far with this atitude.
@@harrysanders818 Exactly. The obvious answer is both.
There is no "free" in this word, only cracks
@@FrancoFrames 😂😂😂😂😂
@@harrysanders818 That's why he is a nobody.
One pro for Painter that I don't think was mentioned, is the ability to create fairly complex procedural materials and filters in Substance Designer and use them in Painter. I can't really imagine losing that functionality by switching to Mixer.
Good point!
Yeah but designer is a whole diffent software
That is actually a benefit of Mixer because you can use procedural masking there which is stronger than one in Painter. Designer is out of picture in this case.
Yeah, I really missed that too, Designer is really, REALLY insane, and also using those substance materials and being able to expose parameters in Unreal Engine and being able to change them on the spot.
@@AlexiosLair You know you can write procedural masks in designer and use them in painter, right? Not to mention painter already has a library of procedural masks.
I’m really excited with mixer ! I was looking for an alternative to SP !! Ty !! ❤️
What do you guys think? Like this comment for Mixer, Leave a comment for Substance Painter.
Just so you're aware mixer is free for both non-commercial and commercial projects as long as you don't sell materials contain stuff from mega scans
also the commercial projects you can use mixer for doesn't have to be related to unreal engine at all
for me quixel mixer is so much lacking in features that it's basically useless, it really does nothing I couldn't do in blender anyway so I don't really see the point. I'm sure it'll get better (and really hope it does) but for now I'll stick to substance painter since quixel mixer is not functional yet imo.
@@Ceej16 It is absolutely not free. It is not true. Look it up. It is only free if you use or present your end results inside Unreal Engine. If you use their stuff in other engines such as Unity, you have to pay a sub or get points jus like with the other tools. (Except Marmoset, which offers perpetual licenses)
@@harrysanders818 That's not correct. The tool Mixer is free, the Megascan library is not (unless you use UE). You can use Mixer with other textures from other sources.
@@harrysanders818as ryo massaki said and I said quixel mixer itself Is free, I only stated a correction in what was said in the video which was that mixer is only free for non commercial use but it's not it's free for commercial use within its rules and guidelines e.g. rules for unreal and then separate rules for its use in unity
Thank you for this video. I was looking exactly for this.
Thank you for helping choose Mixer, since I will only occassionaly create textures for my models.
Before the Adobe acquisition both painter and designer felt like they were being developed at a similar pace to blender, Since the Adobe acquisition I dropped off for a year (wasn't doing much cg) and upgraded just before that became no longer an option. In that year it seemed like there was less development than in a quarter I would have seen previously. Particularly designer doesn't seem to be getting any love.
Between that and the pricing structure I am a bit pissed at Adobe (but at least there is still a Linux version).
I will probably keep using the versions I have got. I also quite like building materials in blender using nodes and hand painted masks. While not as powerful it does make for a combination workflow where you get the basics of what designer can do along with direct painting you get in painter in the one workflow.
Ive started to creating some models out of concept art, so since i used 3d Coat with the baking stuff i realized that you can Bake with Blender too. Having a guideline to follow, high poly to low poly, curvature, AO that works well for blender you have so much tools to manipulate the end result. Modelling the stuff, fine. Creating a Texture Base, fine. Handpainting the Stuff is the Hardest part. Trying mixer out a bit, since its the best program for new people with so much Ressources which is a crime to offer for free :D
What do you think about Marmoset 4's texturing tools? Looks very similar to Painter as functionalities
Xnormals and Knald make a huge work for baking.
I use quixel suite for a long time now for realistic things.
But for stylize i use Substance painter.
The moment Mixer adds pen pressure and a clone stamp I'm good, I prefer the rest of the workflow. Only other small issue is it's a tiny bit tedious to import your own maps, it really wants you to use megascans and it's clear it was made with that in mind.
Hey, very helpful video, i'm very much a beginner in 3d modelling/art and texturing is one of my biggest gripes as i usually just use blender's tools.
Substance is very expensive for a hobbyist like myself and mixer is probably good for learning texturing.
I've also been looking at armorpaint, seems fairly robust and is built upon blender, a video comparing all three would be very helpful.
Only catch with armorpaint is that you can either buy it for 16 euros, still not expensive, or compile it yourself if you're savvy enough for it (which luckily i am since im a software engineer).
This is very educational. Thank you for sharing
Great comparison of the tools, but consider the library content as well. While there is significant overlap, Source has a much wider selection of man-made materials whereas Megascans favors more natural surfaces. Also, Megascans has a great selection of models. That's why I use both!
Thanks for the tip! Didn't know this existed.
Thanks for this information!
I completely agree, I wish I can move over completely to Mixer and ditch adobe but until they have an internal baker I can't
Excellent summary, thanks! As soon as you said Adobe I new price would be an issue.
Great video. It would have been nice if you made a video on using mixer
Its in the pipeline!
@@StylizedStation subbed. Thank you!
I used to bake on substance painter, but everytime there's an error you have to go back to blender to fix it, then export the hi/lo res and the cage, now I just bake the normals on blender (with layers) and export as EXR with full float, then use those normals for baking the other maps in substance.
also in blender you can use the bevel shader.
Thanks for the insights!
Now there is great addons in blender for baking like texture tools where you can even assign uv ID so mixer is perfect for a blender to UE5 pipeline!
for reference in the future; mixer is adding UDIMs in the 2021 version c: unsure about details regarding baking as of apr 26 2021
Thanks for the very GOOD INFORMATION
This is why i broke up with Adobe. They are mostly buying software to they own. Hotkeys are not consistent and the Paywall and not flexible payment System fuckt me up. So I ditch Adobe completly. And now I am very happy with blender & co.
You can use XNormal. It is free, and easy-to-use tool for baking high resolution maps. And the quality is decent.
Bro, I had no idea there was a one time payment plan on steam. Thank you so much! I was not gonna get it because of the subscription, but this is great!
"Half baked" in the closing remarks - pun warning 😂⚠️😂
Awesome! Can you compare this to the new 3dcoat?
Thanks for the video ! Did you tried ArmorPaint and if so what did you think about it ?
Nice Work!
ohhh Thomas
The 3D Coloring Book course seems what I need 😉✌
Since i'm fed up with adobe's shennanigans, I just stuck with Painter 1.x released on steam back on the day. Is the course still relevant for that version?
From what I read in the course page, I could even apply that to 3DCoat's workflow, right?
Cheers, mate
If you get Painter on Steam does it stop working after a year? Or do you get to keep that version forever?
I haven't played with mixer yet, the last time I saw it it was only used to mix negacans materials, no baking and no symmetry is pretty much awful, but w/e might as well try. I'll also have to check price for pro usage
Mixer just added Udims this month in their 2021 version :)
Idk what this means as an absolute beginner, but I’m glad it’s only getting better.Are they like UVs? Why does Substance seem to be better for stylized work??
Would love to see you substance verses cycles
Teddy from Quixel has said they are working on baker and I'm almost certian eventually UDIMS as well. Haven't used mixer in a while but I remember it goes super slow on you when you have like 10-20 layers. Also, during installation, I always get a message that it has failed to download smart material packs. I think there are 4 of them.
Hopefully those come down the pipeline soon! I love Mixer so I hope it gets more attention :)
This video has subtitles. That's why I could watch this video. Thank.
Mixer now supports many of the points talked here!
i dont know why i came here, but this ended being a nice intro to texturing
I’m more of a Painter guy and I’m happy I get to keep my versions on steam but I’m so happy Mixer is a thing because it opens the doors to smaller artists. I’ll keep my eye on it and see how it develops because I’m a big fan of good UI.
Also Marmoset 4 is dope, my teacher gushes about it all the time.
Yeah, Marmoset should have been included here. It is dope. and it also not similar in price, becausethey still offer perpetual licenses one time payments.
@@harrysanders818 marmoset 4 is roughly twice the price at $300.
I’m waiting for a sale
I’m here late all this stuff is subscription based. I’d gladly pay 300. Substance is like $40 a month…
@@pawnzrtasty I just wanna make sure but you know “based” means “cool” right?
Subscription models are pretty cool but sometimes I prefer to just flat out buy an application so I don’t have to deal with the monthly payments.
@@Oretal when I said subscription based I mean base in the real meaning. A foundation to build something on. You can’t buy either one he compared. You can only rent. Not sure about what you said marmoset. I’ll look into it.
I would add Marmoset Toolbag 4's Texturing Tools to this as well. They are really amazing and in some ways also more flexible than SP, albeit also still lacking some features, like stencil projection. But, they at least have Opacity via Pen Pressure! ( This is huge, especiall forstlized) which similar to a color picker, Substance Painter never had and probably will never have (which makes the brush engine quirky for stylized, as you said in another comparison). So It is not really SP vs Mixer anymore , Marmoset is seriously good now and an even more mature alternative than Mixer already, which last time checked, even lacked decent tablet support. Marmoset pricing is also not similar to Adobe, you don't need to go subscription and they offer one time payment perpetual licenses. Huge difference.
Hey, I use Daz3D and would just like to design sometimes my clothes new or give my chars a few new skin details, like a blushed face.
Using Gimp to draw on a flat map sucks really.
Is Mixer good enough to use it for Texturing my Surfaces? And can I save the result as PNG layer or whatever? That I can add it to every char, as example a new tattoo or a scar?
which software would u suggest for stylized model with painterly textures such as world of warcraft?
great informative content :)
I think you also should have pointed out that Substance on steam has a big discount in every sale, also if you already posses an older version the discount increases even more. In january this year i bought painter 2021 for only 60€ with a one year update support included. And if you don't own a previous version i think i payed like 140€ or 160€ for painter, Designer and B2B in one bundle (in a steam winter sale)
Yeah, I paid $70 to upgrade Painter and $70 to upgrade Designer in Jan. Though I was fairly disappointed in the lack of new features since 2020... $70 to get fixes for a few bugs that I reported is a bit steep.
quixel mixer just got updated to 2022 version.
Would you like to make a new comparison video on this topic~
wait.. so if i buy substance painter on steam its a one time purchase? whats the difference between the subscription based version and the steam one-time payment version?
I'm installing Quixel Mixer now... it's downloading over 20Gb of textures. This is sick and monumental...
If baking is one of your major issues then use handplane baker. Its completely free and very powerful...
blender+armor paint+quixel is already pretty powerful.. and best of all its free... the two ones have quite a unique feature but are paid are 3d coat (splines) and zbrush( the brushes)
personally I now hope that mixer's going to allow for more procedural texture generation as well. :)
is it possible to use substance designer and quixel mixer ?
Will the steam version eventually not be updated and supported? I’d like to buy on steam and not pay a subscription. But it would suck if in some months Adobe stops supporting and updating it.
Thanks for the excellent comparison. Very useful! Also fyi, the plural of software is software.
I have to wonder if either are worth it when I already have 3D-Coat.
What about 3DCoat?
It's possible and friendly to use Mixer for painting assets/props?
There are basic painting functionalities in Mixer, but at the moment no pen pressure support and it's lagging quite a lot (at least for me). But I hope they will add more features and make the painting more stable in future versions, but at the moment it's very cumbersome.
voice is kinda different here.
btw, gonna ask. i got your course. i'm kind of confused.
I went through all the tutorials here on youtube... and then went into the course thinking there's a longer version... it's the same tho, am i looking at the wrong places?
the stuff in the course are the spp files
The first section is the workshop, which has 10+ hours of content you can only get in the coloring book!
@@StylizedStation ok cool thanks
Which one should I learn? The one made by Adobe (no explanation needed) or the one that Epic Games made free and specifically for 3d/game design?
I think the answer is obvious, specially after yesterday's painter rebrand
But you can't use quixel without internet connection you must be login to your epic account? Is substance painter the same do I need to have internet connection to use it?
In addition, Substance Painter is really stiff and clumsy in painting. switching colors is a pain, picking colors is a pain, mesh sorting is a pain. If I need hand-painted layer I go to 3dcoat, and it really boosts hand painting work 10 times!
How do these programs compare to Mari? Is Mari more comprehensive when it comes to controlling masks/layers/channels?
Quixel Mixer and Armor Paint!
If I am using blender can i just use the bridge plugin then. do i need mixer? or can i just use all the textures and do everything in blender? Like do i need to use blender, then export to mixer. or can i just use bridge with blender and leave mixer out of the mix so to speak haha.
You dont need mixer for textures in bridge. With mixer you create your own textures.
Payed for Adobe cloud "All apps" ongoing plan and this is one of the many apps not included. I guess il go back to torrent sites and discontinue my plan.
Here is the issue I have with Substance. I have used Substance for years because it was the best thing going for a while. Then Adobe purchased them and there has been little to no effecort to add it the creative cloud so $80 for both. They roll items with issues. Mixer is free you aren't limited texture downs and it is seemless import into UE. Not the case in Substance Painter. I have had numerous textures recently that didn't transfer correctly. Their Substance Source button stays broken.
workingg!!
Great breakdown! Definitely keeping my eye on Mixer, being a Blender user and Adobe skeptic lol
Can you get a job as a 3D artist just knowing Photoshop/Mixer? I am very familiar with Ai, Id, PS, Lightroom etc. I wanna make the leap to becoming a 3D artist and get a job doing this. Any advice? I only have Associates degree lol Help!
What do you think of 3D Coat?
WF is that like quick respiration sound after every sentence though?
Note that Substance Pinter and Designer are available on Steam
He did note it.
@@3DJapan if I missed it, someone else might, can’t hurt to mention it
It’s been almost 3 years, any changes?
Can i use crack of substance painter
If you are learning 3D Texturing, I highly recommend Quixel Mixer, it's amazing software. It's free to use for learning and the skills are transferrable to Substance Painter. That being said Mixer is still lacking some features so you have to be creative in texture creation, it performs slower than Substance Painter and does not have a baker, on top of that, it does not have some of the bells and whistles that Painter has.
Can confirm the Course is fanatic. :)
you know you can bake normals in blender right?
Is mixer better than blender for texturing
The last time i tried Quixel i noticed it was way too heavy compared with Substance Painter
Any chance of eliminating the sharp breaths from your recording...?
Great video, Have you looked into armor paint? It's fully free!(provided you compile it yourself) or just a pre compiled version for €16.
The developments had a good steady speed so I think it's definitely worth a look.
Yes I have! I'll probably do a 'free substance painter alternatives' video in the future :)
Why not both?
Isn't quixel completely free for unreal users, even for commercial?
is quixel mixel + foundry mari Z = powerful??
I wish they would do more stylized quixel mixer tutorials
nice Thanks
You can buy Substance on Steam for 120$ one time payment. Not sure if it costs more to update or upgrade it..
@Blob B Thats cos it's not a monthly version. It's a Perpetual License. No monthly payments to use it.
Isnt C the hotkey to toogle betwin channels? I use it all the time to jump betwin material and color channels :/
For painter? yes it is
If there is an Ultimate Substance Painter course, will be there an Ultimate Quixel Mixer course? I'm very interested to learn creating procedural textures, but I don't want to commit to Substance painter yet because of the price.
Keep up the good work Stylized Station! Love the content
I totally agree! There are way too few good Mixer tutorials, especially for Stylized and/or procedural texturing.
And Quixel mixer is free to use with ue4 for commercial use too. In fact, it's only free to use with ue4.
open source is the future, for the future, a future together, of harmony, and creation. 😎💖