THUNDEER'S 3D LEARNING RESOURCES
🎨 TEXTURING
Resources for learning about texturing methods & tools, both handpainting and procedural.
Resources directed primarily for learning character creation in 3D.
Pick resources that fit your learning style, instead of brute forcing learning in a way you don't enjoy - that's why I tried including multiple options in each topic for you to pick from!
Blender
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TEXTURING RESOURCES (BLENDER)
TEXTURING RESOURCES (BLENDER)
👨🎓 STANDALONE COURSES
Creating a Hand-painted Diorama in Blender
Jasmin Habezai-Fekri
Jasmin Habezai-Fekri breaks down her process for creating small dioramas using Blender. The course covers the modeling, UVing, texturing and lighting of the scene.
https://www.artstation.com/learning/courses/yBx/creating-a-hand-painted-diorama-in-blender/chapters/Dax/intro
📺 YOUTUBE
Texture Painting for Beginners 🖌️ (Blender Tutorial)
Ryan King Art
How to Create Professional Materials
Kaizen
The 6 Levels of Blender Materials
Kaizen
Every Shader Node You NEED to Know in Blender
SouthernShotty
Substance Painter
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TEXTURING RESOURCES (SUBSTANCE PAINTER)
TEXTURING RESOURCES (SUBSTANCE PAINTER)
👨🎓 STANDALONE COURSES
FREE
Substance Painter 101
Christophe Desse
In this course, Christophe Desse provides an introduction to Substance Painter while walking through the key tools you will need to get started with texturing your assets.
https://www.artstation.com/learning/courses/Jgd/the-basics/
Using the techniques demonstrated in the first part of the course, Christophe Desse shows how to apply them in action while texturing a mini diorama.
https://www.artstation.com/learning/courses/bdz/advanced-techniques/
FREE
Substance Painter: Pushing Your Texturing Further
Jason Ord
This course with Jason Ord provides a look into the process of texturing using Substance Painter, taking advantage of its tools and features to create a photo-realistic, game ready 3D asset. Jason explores the use of resources and accurate references, building up layers of detail based on asset intentions, and how to leverage your layers properly to ensure a clean, high-quality result.
https://www.artstation.com/learning/courses/owg/substance-painter-pushing-your-texturing-further/
FREE
Hand-Painted Textures for Stylized 3D Characters
Yekaterina Bourykina
In this four-part series Yekaterina Bourykina demonstrates her approach for making hand-painted character textures, using her character created for The Legend of King Arthur Challenge as an example.
https://www.artstation.com/learning/series/ZE/hand-painting-textures-characters
PAID ($75)
Hand-Painted 3D Character for Games
Abe Leal 3D
Learn to sculpt, retopologize, and hand-paint a stylized undead pirate character from concept to final render using ZBrush, 3DCoat, and Marmoset. Master the full 3D game art pipeline in this in-depth, beginner-friendly course for stylized artists.
https://www.abeleal3d.com/courses/handpainted
PAID ($65)
Substance Painter - From Beginner to Master
Abe Leal 3D
Learn all the necessary tools to bring your creations to life with PBR Textures. A Full guide to Texturing in Substance Painter.
https://www.abeleal3d.com/courses/SPBM
📺 YOUTUBE COURSES
Substance Painter Beginner To Pro - Course
Trigon
📺 YOUTUBE
Hand Painted Workflow in Substance 3D Painter | Adobe Substance 3D
Adobe Substance 3D, Abe Leal 3D
Everything You Need - Substance Painter Beginner Tutorial!
ProductionCrate
ALL Substance Painter Generators EXPLAINED
Abe Leal 3D
Stylized Textures Tutorial | Hand-Painted Style in Substance Painter
Abe Leal 3D
Bakes & Mesh Maps Explained - Substance Painter
Abe Leal 3D
Substance Painter Secrets: 7 Tips To Make Texturing Easier
Abe Leal 3D
Painting Opacity Maps in Substance Painter
Abe Leal 3D
Substance Painter: Painting Normal Details (FAST!)
Royal Skies
How to Make HAND PAINTED POKEMON in Substance Painter | Tutorial
Jared Chavez
HAND PAINTED GUN IN SUBSTANCE PAINTER (BATTLE CHASERS) | Tutorial
VSQUAD
How to Make Your First Stylized Texture in 5 Minutes using Substance Painter [BEGINNERS TUTORIAL]
Stylized Station
Using Substance Painter to Texture Stylized Models REALLY Fast
Stylized Station
HANDPAINTED EKKO TEXTURE (ARCANE) | Tutorial
VSQUAD
DARIUS TEXTURING IN SUBSTANCE PAINTER (ARCANE) | Tutorial
VSQUAD
Substance Painter 3D PATHS Tutorial
Abe Leal 3D
Anchor Points Made Easy in Substance Painter
FlippedNormals
Substance Painter Tutorial: Texture Your 3D Models Like a Pro with Anchor Points
Abe Leal 3D
Substance Painter Material Layering Basic Setup
Abe Leal 3D
Get Better at SUBSTANCE PAINTER!
ProductionCrate
Substance Painter NEW UPDATE! Skew Painting! OPENPBR and AutoUvs!
Abe Leal 3D
Although it is a software update video, Abe goes quite in-depth about Normal mapping and skewing issues!
Skew Baking & Auto Rebake in Painter 12.1 | Adobe Substance 3D
Adobe Substance 3D
💻 BLOG POSTS
If You Know Photoshop, You Already Know 3D Painter
Pablander Academy
If you know Photoshop, you basically already know how to use Substance 3D Painter... you just don’t know it yet. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how the skills you already have with layers, masks, and adjustment layers translate directly into building complex, realistic materials in Painter. It’s a smooth transition, and once you see it in action, it just clicks.
https://www.pablander.academy/tutorials/if-you-know-photoshop-you-already-know-3d-painter
When to Stop Detailing in ZBrush and Switch to Substance 3D Painter
Pablander Academy
When should you stop detailing in ZBrush? It is one of those questions that sounds simple, but it can completely change the way you build characters. The answer is not that ZBrush is no longer useful for detail. ZBrush is still the industry standard tool for sculpting, shaping forms, and adding the features that make a character feel intentionally designed.
https://www.pablander.academy/tutorials/when-to-stop-detailing-in-zbrush-and-switch-to-substance-3d-painter
My Top 5 Tips To Work More Efficiently With Substance 3D Painter
Pablander Academy
In this tutorial, I’m sharing five useful tips in Substance 3D Painter that I use all to make texturing smoother and less frustrating. They’re not flashy tricks, just practical things like setting up better lighting, managing texture sets, organizing assets, auto-updating linked files, and polishing small surface details. Simple tweaks that really help keep your workflow focused and efficient
https://www.pablander.academy/tutorials/my-top-5-tips-to-work-more-efficiently-with-substance-3d-painter
Texture details for collectibles!
Pablander Academy
Let’s say that you are into 3D Printing or want to create characters for collectibles. You might think that texturing your ideas in 3D Painter sounds cool but probably not necessary for 3D print / collectibles…. well think again. I’ll show you a cool trick I shared with the students from the previous cohort and I think you’ll enjoy.
https://www.pablander.academy/newsletter/texture-details-for-collectibles
How to make gradients in Substance Painter
Jesse L
How to make gradients in substance painter
https://www.artstation.com/blogs/jessel/pYle/how-to-make-gradients-in-substance-painter
How To Add Depth To Fantasy Characters: A Substance Painter Step-By-Step Texture Guide
Plarium
How you should work with lighting, surface structures, and accents to make your fantasy characters stand out? Find out by checking out our latest guide on ArtStation by Dmytro Tymoshchuk, 3D Character Artist on RAID: Shadow Legends.
https://www.artstation.com/blogs/plarium_ukraine/YQgaa/how-to-add-depth-to-fantasy-characters-a-substance-painter-step-by-step-texture-guide
Get Better at Handpainted 3D Texturing - 5 Tips!
ZUGZUG Studio
Get Better at Handpainted 3D Texturing - 5 Tips! Everything based on my own experience working on Handpainted things for the last 12 years
https://www.artstation.com/blogs/zugzug/QbvY9/get-better-at-handpainted-3d-texturing-5-tips
Overwatch style textures in Substance Painter
Ioana Oprisan
https://www.artstation.com/blogs/ioanaoprisan/A4bz/overwatch-style-textures-in-substance-painter
🔧 TOOLS
PAID ($4)
Grayscale Maker + 2 Smart Materials
Abimael Gonzalez
Resources - Grayscale Maker + 2 Smart Materials, USD $4.00. THE SMART MATERIALS WILL ONLY WORK ON SUBSTANCE PAINTER 2020 VERSIONS AND UPPER, GRAYSCALE MAKER WORKS ON OLDEST VERSIONSHello!The Grayscale Maker is a quick...
https://www.artstation.com/marketplace/p/5ygb/grayscale-maker-2-smart-materials
📄 DOCUMENTATION / USER MANUAL
Substance 3D Painter Docs
Interface
Painting
Effects
Baking
Content
Features
Export
🌀 MISC
Grayscale Workflow for HandPainted 3D Artworks - Explained
ZugZug Art
This is NOT a Substance Painter tutorial, but it's principles are very appliable
Zbrush (Polypaint)
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TEXTURING RESOURCES (ZBRUSH)
TEXTURING RESOURCES (ZBRUSH)
📺 YOUTUBE
ZBrush Polypaint Process and Render
Abe Leal 3D
Hand Painting in Zbrush for Beginner's (Arcane Style)
Chloe Worthy
How He Does It: Polypainting Tutorial
Banehorse
Polypaint a Head in ZBrush - Color Theory
FlippedNormals
Zbrush Polypaint - Painting Made Easy - How to Apply Materials on Armor - Tutorial
Gatz 3D
💻 BLOG POSTS
Is PolyPaint Worth It?
Pablander Academy
Is ZBrush Polypaint still worth your time? Short answer: yes, especially for stylised characters. Polypaint (vertex colour) is fast, forgiving and excellent for exploring colour, value and composition before committing to textures and baking. Below I’ll walk through a practical step‑by‑step workflow that gets you from a blank sculpt to a presentable, cohesive polypainted character you can export and render anywhere that supports vertex color.
https://www.pablander.academy/tutorials/is-polypaint-worth-it
ZBrush Quick Detailing Trick
Pablander Academy
Here is one of my favourite and most effective tricks to generate organic shapes and surfaces in ZBrush. The premise is very simple: Use a random texture or photo as alpha but instead of using it to control a sculpting brush, use it as a masking alpha so you can then affect any unmasked area with more control.
https://www.pablander.academy/newsletter/zbrush-quick-detailing-trick
Torn clothes trick
Pablander Academy
For this quick trick/tip I want to show you something really cool to create the effect of torn clothes on your sculptures. It only takes a few minutes to set it up and it works great.
https://www.pablander.academy/newsletter/torn-clothes-trick
This thread will be constantly updating.
(Last updated: 07/09/2026)