GDC 2025: Adobe Substance 3D Painter gets a small but important feature

Adobe has used GDC 2025 to reveal the newest tools and features for Substance 3D Painter, which may be small additions but could really boost the creation of game art. One of the standout new features is Filled Path tool, a brand-new Path Type that enables 3D artists to easily 'fill in' a shape traced on a model's surface – ideal for creating precise details.

The Substance suite of apps feature in our best 3D modelling software guide, and are used by game artists, VFX artists and product designers alike. The update also means artists can tweak textures on the fly and see results with real-time updates; this supports assets created and imported from Adobe Illustrator, Substance 3D Designer, or Substance 3D Sampler.

The new update announced at GDC 2025 also introduces major Path improvements, giving artists greater control. Paths can now snap to geometry, double as a measuring tool, and can be easily copied between masks and content layers – saving time.

For baking texture maps, the new 'automatic cage option' takes some of the guesswork out of the process, meaning artists can now achieve precise results faster. Alongside this, Adobe has revealed a unified export window that streamlines file management, so artists can spend less time organising files and more time creating stunning visuals.

Adobe's news at GDC 2025 for Substance 3D Painter isn't groundbreaking or revolutionary, but rather a quiet update designed to improve efficiency and precision and enable game artists to make game assets in an easier way.

As mentioned, Substance 3D Painter is a part of a suite of Substance apps (it used to be one app but Adobe has split it into focused parts). To recap: Substance 3D Painter is akin to Photoshop for 3D models, Substance 3D Designer is ideal for creating textures and materials, Substance 3D Sampler can turn real world objects into 3D assets (ideal for 3D printing and creating base models for game assets), Substance 3D Modeler is Adobe's Maya / ZBrush rival, while Substance 3D Stager is a renderer and visualiser.

Individually these apps are decent and enable you to buy into the specific tools you need, but together the Substance 3D apps are a powerful and flexible set of tools. At GDC 2025 Adobe as announced a new affordable Substance 3D Indie Bundle, available on Steam for $24.99 a month. The bundle includes Painter, Designer, and Modeler as well as a curated package of assets.

It's also worth noting subscribers can access Substance 3D Assets, a collection of 20,000 materials, models, and lights and no download limit (similar to Epic Games' FAB marketplace). Adobe updates this regularly with new models and scenes, and has just added new Signature Collections from top artists Anna Koroleva and Niki Marinov.

For more read our review of Substance 3D Painter and Substance 3D Modeler. Also note, the Substance apps are compatible with Blender, Unreal Engine, Unity, 3ds Max, and Maya, as well as optimised for Apple's Pro workflow laptops.