The desktop applications of the Substance 3D Collection for texturing, material authoring, material capture, scene staging and sculpting, which exchange models, materials and lights with each other.
Last checked 2026-09-30
CX Enterprise atlas / Content Supply Chain | Creativity & design
Adobe Substance 3D
ProductGenerally available
Content Supply ChainCreativity & design
Also known as Adobe Substance 3D for Business, Substance 3D for Business, Substance 3D Developer Tools
A family of desktop 3D applications (Painter, Designer, Sampler, Stager, Modeler), the Substance 3D Assets library and a set of APIs, SDKs and automation tools. Enterprises use it to build accurate 3D digital twins of products from design data and render them into product images, videos and variants, including in Firefly-generated scenes through the Substance 3D API in Firefly Services.
Integrates with 4
Integrated by 3
- Adobe Firefly Creative Production: 3D digital twin solution
- Adobe Firefly Enterprise Solutions
- Adobe Firefly Services: Substance 3D API
Contains 8 parts, 88 entries
- Substance 3D apps# Collection
- Adobe Substance 3D Painter# Application
Also known as Substance 3D Painter, Substance Painter
3D painting application for texturing and rendering meshes with physically based materials. Artists paint with brushes, smart materials and masks in a layer stack, bake mesh maps and export texture sets for other applications and game engines. Version 12 shipped in March 2026.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Layer-based painting and effects# Capability
Painting and fill layers with masks, filters, generators and effects, dynamic strokes, symmetry, projections and path tools, including the Ribbon tool (11.1) and layer flattening (12.0).
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Smart materials and smart masks# Capability
Reusable material and mask presets that adapt to a mesh's baked maps (curvature, ambient occlusion) so wear, edges and dirt follow the model's shape.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Mesh map baking# Capability
Bakes normal, ambient occlusion, curvature, thickness and other maps from high- to low-poly meshes with the Substance Bakers. 12.1 (June 2026) added skew map painting and automatic re-baking.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Automatic UV unwrapping and UV tiles# Capability
Automatic UV unwrapping at project creation, UV reprojection and UDIM-style UV tile workflows.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Viewport shaders and Iray rendering# Capability
Real-time PBR viewport with custom shaders and post effects, OpenPBR support (12.1), and the built-in NVIDIA Iray path tracer for final renders.
Last checked 2026-10-20
- USD support in Painter# Capability
Imports Universal Scene Description files with their material and shader properties.
Last checked 2026-10-20
- Painter Python API and plugins# API / SDK
Python and JavaScript scripting API for plugins that automate projects, layers and exports.
Last checked 2026-10-20
- Adobe Substance 3D Designer# Application
Also known as Substance 3D Designer, Substance Designer
Node-based authoring application for procedural materials, patterns, image filters and environment lights. Graphs expose parameters and are published as .sbsar files that other Substance apps, plugins and the APIs can render with variations. Version 16 shipped in 2026.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Substance graphs# Capability
Non-destructive node graphs that generate textures from noises, patterns and bitmaps, with exposed parameters, inheritance and hundreds of library nodes.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Function and FX-Map graphs# Capability
Graphs for custom functions, pixel processors and pattern scattering used inside Substance graphs.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- MDL graphs# Capability
Dedicated shader graph for authoring NVIDIA Material Definition Language (MDL) materials.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- SBSAR publishing and bitmap export# Capability
Publishes graphs as parametric .sbsar archives and exports bitmaps or PSD files for other tools.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- HDR environment light creation# Capability
Builds parametric lighting stages from procedural lights or 360-degree images.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Color management in Designer# Capability
Pantone and OpenColorIO support for color-accurate materials.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- 3D scenes, AxF and vector resources# Capability
Imports bitmaps, SVG, fonts, AxF (Appearance eXchange Format) scans and 3D scenes, including USD scenes with multiple cameras in the 3D view.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Designer Python API and plugins# API / SDK
Python 3 plugin API for automating graphs, nodes and packages, with a plugin manager and Python editor.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Substance models (model graphs)# Capability, deprecated
Graph-based parametric 3D models (SBSM). Designer ended support for model graphs in version 13.0 (June 2023), and Stager is removing them too. There is no parametric replacement: Stager offers to convert them to standard models.
Last checked 2026-10-20
- Adobe Substance 3D Sampler# Application
Also known as Substance 3D Sampler, Substance Sampler
Digitization application that turns photos and scans of physical samples into tileable PBR materials and HDR environment lights, and mixes them with filters and library content. Version 6 shipped in 2026.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Image to Material (AI powered)# Capability
AI filter that removes shadows from a photo and generates albedo, roughness, normal and displacement maps.
Last checked 2026-10-20
- Material capture and tiling# Capability
Creates digital replicas of fabrics and surfaces from photos or scanners, with automatic tiling, fold removal, physical size and parametric export.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- HP Z Captis support# Integration
Drives the HP Z Captis material capture device directly from Sampler.
Last checked 2026-10-20
- HDRI and IBL creation# Capability
Builds HDR environment lights from 360-degree images, with added effects and lights.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Parametric filters and effects# Capability
Layer stack of filters for weathering, snow, moss, fabric and pattern blending on captured materials.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Sampler Python API# API / SDK
Python scripting and plugins for automating Sampler projects, assets and layers.
Last checked 2026-10-20
- Adobe Substance 3D Stager# Application
Also known as Substance 3D Stager, Substance Stager
Virtual staging and rendering application: users place models, materials, lights and cameras, composite scenes onto photos or generated backgrounds, and render photorealistic images and turntable videos. Version 4.1 is current.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Scene staging with physics# Capability
Drag-and-drop scene assembly with collision-based transformation, snapping, alignment and presets.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- CAD, USD and glTF import# Capability
Imports CAD data, USD, glTF and other formats so product design files can be staged directly.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Match Image# Capability
Detects perspective and lighting in a background photo and adjusts the camera and lights to match; since 3.1 it creates 360-degree environment lights.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Real-time and path-traced rendering# Capability
Switches between real-time rendering and interactive path tracing with denoising for final images.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Animation presets and turntables# Capability
Orbit and spin presets for models, lights and cameras to render product turntable videos.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Publish scenes to the web# Capability, deprecated
Published Stager scenes as shareable web views with comments through Creative Cloud Files. Removed from Stager with no replacement; existing published links and comments keep working.
Last checked 2026-10-20
- Adobe Substance 3D Modeler# Application
Also known as Substance 3D Modeler
Sculpting application for creating 3D models with digital clay, on the desktop or in virtual reality (Meta Quest), with UV management handled automatically.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Organic and hard-surface sculpting# Capability
Clay, smoothing and shaping tools plus parametric primitives for hard-surface forms, with symmetry and repetition tools.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Desktop and VR modes# Capability
Work switches between a desktop interface and VR headsets in the same project.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Modeler Free Public Beta# Edition, beta
Free beta build of Modeler for trying features from Adobe Research before they reach the retail version.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Adobe Substance 3D Viewer# Application, deprecated
Also known as Substance 3D Viewer
Free beta application for opening, positioning and lighting 3D models and placing them in Photoshop (beta) as 3D Smart Objects, with Firefly image generation from 3D scenes. No longer supported or installable as of 2025-10-16, and the Photoshop (beta) workflow was discontinued. Adobe named no replacement; it returned the work to private beta.
Last checked 2026-10-20
- Adobe Substance 3D Assets# Service
Also known as Substance 3D Assets, Substance Source
Library of more than 20,000 professional parametric materials, models and HDR lights, available on demand with Substance 3D plans and in Substance apps and plugins. Downloads are unmetered since the points system was removed on 2025-01-29.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Parametric materials# Capability
Materials whose color, weave, finish and other parameters can be adjusted after download.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Assets as references for Firefly Services# Capability
Library models used as precise object references for AI generation in scenes built with Firefly Services.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Substance 3D Community Assets# Service
Free library of community-contributed Substance materials and resources.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Batch download tool for pooled accounts# Capability, limited availability
Command-line tool for team and enterprise accounts to download library assets in bulk, tested with a few customers and currently unavailable.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Plans and licensing# Collection
Substance 3D apps are sold only in Substance 3D plans, not in Creative Cloud. Plans cover individuals, teams and enterprises; enterprise entitlements are assigned in the Admin Console.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Substance 3D Collection# Edition
Plan with Painter, Sampler, Stager, Designer, Modeler and the Substance 3D Assets library, sold for individuals, teams and enterprises.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Substance 3D Collection for teams# Edition
Also known as Substance 3D for Teams
Business version of the Collection with 1 TB of cloud storage and an admin dashboard to manage licenses.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Substance 3D Collection for enterprise# Edition
Enterprise entitlement to the desktop apps and Substance 3D Assets, assigned to users per license by organization administrators.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Substance 3D Texturing# Edition
Smaller plan with Painter, Sampler, Designer and the Substance 3D Assets library.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Substance 3D - Unlimited Assets# Add-on
Enterprise product that gives every user in an organization access to the Substance 3D Assets library without assigning individual licenses.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Enterprise 3D workflows# Collection
The business uses Adobe positions Substance 3D for: digital twins built from product design data, product imagery and video at scale, and digital prototyping in product design.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- 3D digital twins# Capability
Also known as Substance 3D digital twins
Accurate 3D replicas of products, created from CAD or design data in Substance 3D with defined materials, lighting and cameras, then reused to produce content for many SKUs and variants. Substance 3D is the authoring layer of Adobe's cloud 3D digital twin solution with NVIDIA (public beta since March 2026), where Firefly Creative Production orchestrates rendering and Frame.io and AEM store and govern the twins.
Integrates with: 3D digital twin solution, Frame.io, Experience Manager Assets
Last checked 2026-09-30
- SKU and variant generation# Capability
Turns one twin into content for many SKUs by swapping sizes, colors, labels, finishes and packaging, optionally scripted with the Substance Automation Toolkit.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- IP consistency# Capability
Keeps the product model fixed and accurate while AI generates the surrounding scene, so generated images do not alter the product itself.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Digital prototyping# Capability
Photorealistic product design reviews with digital prototypes and real materials, reducing the need for physical samples.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Generative AI in Substance 3D# Collection
Firefly-powered features in the Substance 3D apps. Outputs carry Content Credentials. Sampler's generative features were retired in 2025–2026; Stager's remain.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Generative Background# Capability, beta
Also known as Text to background
Generates background images from a text prompt in Stager with Adobe Firefly, then runs Match Image to align lighting and perspective. Documented as beta; added to the main Stager app in 3.0.2 (May 2024).
Last checked 2026-09-30
- 3D model to image with guide objects# Capability
Tags placeholder 3D objects as guides so Firefly generates image details that follow their shape, position and color (Stager 3.1).
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Text to 3D# Capability
Generates 3D models from text prompts in Stager for background objects and props, which can then be textured with materials and decals.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Text to Texture, Text to Pattern and Image to Texture# Capability, deprecated
Also known as Text to Texture
Firefly-based material generation in Sampler (beta from 4.4). Removed in Sampler 5.1.2 (November 2025) with no replacement; the service stopped working in older versions in March 2026.
Last checked 2026-10-20
- Substance core technology# Collection
The shared file format, engine and bakers that the apps, plugins, SDKs and APIs build on.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Substance material format (SBSAR)# Capability
Also known as SBSAR
Parametric material archive published from Designer or Sampler and supported by major DCC tools, game engines and renderers through Substance plugins or native integrations.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Substance Engine# Capability
The runtime that computes Substance graphs into textures in the apps, plugins and SDKs.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Substance Bakers# Capability
Algorithms that compute mesh information (normal, ambient occlusion, curvature, thickness, position) into textures, available in Painter, Designer and the Automation Toolkit.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Substance 3D SDKs and automation# Collection
Developer tools for bringing Substance 3D into applications and pipelines: the Automation Toolkit, the Substance 3D SDKs and the open-source Connector. The cloud Substance 3D API is part of Firefly Services and is modelled there.
Integrates with: Substance 3D API
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Substance 3D Automation Toolkit# API / SDK
Also known as Substance Automation Toolkit, SAT
Command-line tools and a Python API for automating Substance tasks without the desktop apps, such as baking maps, cooking and rendering materials and generating variants for large asset sets.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- SAT command-line tools# Collection
Tools that are chained to automate stages of the Designer workflow.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- substance3d_baker# Capability
Bakes mesh data such as normals, ambient occlusion and curvature to textures.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- sbscooker# Capability
Cooks .sbs files into .sbsar archives ready for rendering.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- sbsrender# Capability
Renders texture maps from .sbsar files, with OpenColorIO support.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- sbsmutator# Capability
Modifies and specializes .sbs files, for example connecting bitmaps to graph inputs.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- sbsupdater# Capability
Updates .sbs files to the current version of the batch tools.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Pysbs Python API# API / SDK
Also known as Pysbs
Python package for reading, creating and modifying .sbs and .sbsar files: dependency management, variation creation, graph generation from baked maps and batch tool wrappers.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Substance 3D SDKs# Collection
SDKs for using Substance parametric materials and models inside third-party applications and plugins.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Substance 3D Materials SDK# API / SDK
Loads Substance parametric materials and tweaks their parameters in real time in any host application; the basis of the Blender plugin. Downloaded from the Adobe Developer Console.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Substance 3D Models SDK# API / SDK, announced
SDK for using parametric models made in Designer in other 3D applications; listed as coming soon.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Substance 3D Connector# API / SDK
Open-source framework for exchanging geometry and materials between Substance apps and tools such as Blender, Unreal Engine, Unity, 3ds Max and Maya, starting with send-to workflows.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Integrations and plugins# Collection
Adobe applications and third-party tools that exchange content with Substance 3D, through native links, Substance plugins or the SBSAR format.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- AEM Assets and Dynamic Media 3D# Integration
AEM Assets stores 3D files (GLB, OBJ, STL, USDZ) and rendered outputs; Dynamic Media publishes 3D assets to a URL and an interactive 3D viewer, with a 3D Media component for AEM Sites pages.
Integrates with: Experience Manager Assets
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Firefly Creative Production digital twins node# Integration, beta
Uses Substance 3D digital twins in Firefly Creative Production workflows, chained with 2D actions and rendered in the cloud through the Substance 3D API; part of the 3D digital twin solution in public beta.
Integrates with: 3D digital twin solution
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Creative Cloud app integrations# Collection
Native links with Creative Cloud apps (out of scope for this map as products): graphics from Photoshop and Illustrator on 3D models, edit-in-Photoshop round trips, and 3D models and Substance materials in After Effects.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Photoshop integration# Integration
Sends images from Sampler to Photoshop and back, and from Painter to Photoshop; Stager shows Photoshop edits to applied images live.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Illustrator integration# Integration
Uses Illustrator graphics as decals and labels on 3D models in Painter and Stager.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- After Effects integration# Integration
Brings 3D models and Substance materials into After Effects compositions.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Game engine plugins# Integration
Substance plugins for Unreal Engine, Unity and CRYENGINE.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- 3D application plugins# Integration
Plugins for design, modeling and simulation tools, including Maya, 3ds Max, Blender, Cinema 4D, Houdini, Rhino and CATIA, and fashion tools such as CLO, Browzwear and Marvelous Designer.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- Renderer and visualization support# Integration
Substance materials in renderers such as Arnold, V-Ray, Redshift and Octane, and in visualization tools such as VRED, Twinmotion and NVIDIA Omniverse.
Last checked 2026-09-30
- NVIDIA Omniverse and OpenUSD# Integration, beta
The 3D digital twin solution combines Substance 3D services with NVIDIA Omniverse libraries, RTX rendering and Kit App Streaming, exchanging scenes as OpenUSD.
Last checked 2026-09-30