Paint the Material, Not Just the Color

2026-09-08 · New Feature

Texture Paint now goes beyond color. Brush work in 3D Studio can shape the whole material — paint roughness and metallic values, sculpt surface detail into the normal map, and apply everything per material in one pass.

What's New

• Roughness & Metallic painting — pick a value and brush it straight onto the surface to make areas glossier, rougher, or more metallic.
• Normal sculpting — raise or carve fine surface detail with the brush; the normal map updates as you paint.
• Channel-aware inspection — the brush's map selection and the Maps view stay in sync, so you always see the channel you're editing.
• Per-material apply — painted base color, normal, and ORM maps are applied to each material of the asset, preserving everything you didn't touch.
• A faster Apply — your new asset appears in the list right away, and the button shows each stage (exporting, uploading, applying) while it works.

Why It Matters

Real materials aren't just color. A scratch catches light differently, worn metal shines through paint, and fabric scatters light where leather doesn't. Until now those differences required editing PBR maps in an external tool — now you can paint them where they belong, directly on the model.

How to Use

1. Open an asset in 3D Studio and enter Texture Paint.
2. Switch the brush map to Base Color, Roughness, Metallic, or Normal.
3. Paint values or sculpt detail — check any channel in the Maps view as you go.
4. Click Apply and watch the stages complete.

Color tells you what it is. The other channels tell you what it's made of. Now you can paint both.