Free add-on Paint System ‘turns Blender into Photoshop’
Artist and tools developer Tawan Sunflower has released Paint System, a free add-on that “turn[s] Blender into Photoshop”.
The tool implements Photoshop-style layer painting in the open-source 3D software, enabling users to create non-photorealistic textures by painting directly onto 3D objects.
A promising free add-on for painting non-photorealistic textures in Blender
Tawan Sunflower describes Paint System as a “simple but flexible painting system for non-photo-realistic-rendering in Blender” – in the video above, he describes it as inspired by the painterly look of Netflix animated series Arcane.
It enables users to paint directly onto the surface of 3D geometry, using a range of preset brushes: the add-on supports the brushes included in Blender’s Essentials asset library.
Painting is layer-based, supporting layer opacity, layer clipping, and – as of Paint System 1.1.6, the latest release – Adjustment Layers.
Supports a range of blending modes, including Erase Alpha for ‘erasing’ parts of a model
Paint System also supports Photoshop-style layer blending modes, including Hue, Saturation, Value, Multiply, Divide, Lighten and Darken: the full list is shown in this part of the demo video.
However, one of the most eye-catching is Erase Alpha, which renders that part of the layer transparent, making it possible to ‘erase’ parts of the object by painting over it, as shown above.
Can also be used to paint other material channels, including normal maps
We’ve covered other free Blender add-ons for layer-based texture painting on CG Channel before, including HAS Paint Layers and Ucupaint.
Paint System’s selling point looks to be its ease of use: it has a simple, intuitive UI, and is designed to avoid users having to manipulate Blender’s Shader Nodes.
However, artists willing to dive into the node graph can generate an even wider range of results.
By adjusting the connections between the node group Paint System creates the rest of a material network, users can paint texture channels other than surface color, including the normal map.
Price and system requirements
Paint System is compatible with Blender 4.1+. It’s a free download. The source code is available under a GPL v3 license.
If you want to support Tawan Sunflower’s work, you can back him on Patreon.
Download free Blender non-photorealistic painting add-on Paint System
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