Should I learn Substance Painter or Quixel Mixer?

Is Substance Painter dead? Or does Quixel Mixer still have some room to grow?

Thumbnail Art by Thuan Nguyen Minh Duong

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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[Misericorde]

"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."

[WolfieDesigns]

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.

[runicpixel]

We got Blender and Mixer, waiting for Grinder.

[StylizedStation]

What do you guys think? Like this comment for Mixer, Leave a comment for Substance Painter.

[MrCshx]

Today Quixel has announced the UDMI support for the upcoming 2021 version (and other features)

[arashi]

For now all Mixer needs a Baker.
*Update* :
Now, Mixer have Multiple Tex set, UDIMs and eventually there will be a baking.

[quiskeya]

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.

[Ziflinz]

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.

[kayosiiii]

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.

[carlosrivadulla]

-Which should I use?
-The free one obviously

[SkaOArts]

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.

[normal_vector]

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.

[FrigusD-Art]

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

[Oretal]

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.

[erz]

Thanks for the legitimate comparison video! This channel is doing amazing things!

[UnrealSensei]

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

[taylrobe]

You can use XNormal. It is free, and easy-to-use tool for baking high resolution maps. And the quality is decent.

[HockEnergy]

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

[metalsiren]

Thank you for helping choose Mixer, since I will only occassionaly create textures for my models.

[willwillow]

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.