Friday, January 29th, 2021 Posted by Jim Thacker

Adobe releases Substance Painter 2021.1


Adobe has released Substance Painter 2021.1. the latest version of its 3D texture painting software, adding a new geometry masking system for isolating parts of the model being painted.

The update also adds three new tools for painting stitching in 3D fabrics, and makes it possible to copy and paste effects between layers in the layer stack.

Expanded Geometry Mask system makes it easier to mask parts of the model being painted
The main change in Substance Painter 2021.1 – the release notes also refer to it as Substance Painter 7.1 – is the new Geometry Mask tool in the layer stack.

It’s a renamed and expanded version of the UV Tile Mask introduced in the previous release, and makes it possible to mask parts of an asset being painted by mesh names as well as UDIM tiles.

Artists can use the Geometry Mask to hide entire sections of geometry in the viewport, making it possible to paint on parts of a model that would otherwise be inaccessible.

Unlike painting masks by hand, the system is non-destructive and “benefits from … engine optimisations”.



Three new tools for painting procedural stitching
The other new feature in version 2021.1 is a set of three new tools for painting lines of stitching onto 3D fabrics, including straight stitches, cross stitch, and more complex stitch patterns.

Spacing can be set procedurally: you can see an overview of the parameters in the online documentation.

Workflow improvements: copy and paste effects between layers, add descriptions to UV tiles
Other than that, the release focuses primarily on updates to existing features and workflow improvements, of which the most significant is the ability to copy and paste effects between layers.

The workflow is the same as when copying masks or layers themselves – via keyboard shortcuts or simply by dragging and dropping – and works both within a layer stack and between layer stacks.

Painting across UV tiles gets a few smaller improvements, including the option to add text descriptions to individual tiles – for example, to identify the parts of a model to which they relate.

Other changes include support for Nvidia’s new Ampere GPUs – the Quadro A and GeForce RTX 30 Series cards – in the built-in Iray renderer, and the option to access Shelves and UV Tiles via the Python API.

Pricing and availability
Substance Painter 2021.1 is available for Windows 8+, CentOS 7.0/Ubuntu 18.04+ Linux and macOS 10.14+.

Subscriptions to all of Adobe’s Substance tools cost $19.90/month or $219/year for artists and studios earning under $100,000/year; and $99.90/month or $990/year for other users.

Perpetual Indie licences are now only available via Steam, and cost $149.99.


Visit the Substance Painter product website

Read a full list of new features in Substance Painter 2021.1 in the online release notes