Getting started

New to CGpainter? Start here. This page takes you from launching the app to painting and exporting your first textured model — the concepts, a tour of the interface, and an end-to-end quick start.

Introduction

CGpainter is a GPU texture painter for 3D models. You import a mesh, paint physically-based materials onto it directly in 3D, bake mesh maps from the geometry, and export the result as texture images for your game engine or renderer.

What is CGpainter?

It works the way artists expect a modern texturing tool to: a stack of layers and masks per material, procedural generators for instant wear and grime, and a non-destructive workflow that survives resolution changes and undo.

Key concepts

A quick map of the terms you'll meet throughout the docs:

• Texture set — one per material slot on your mesh; holds that material's layers, channels, and baked maps.
• Channel — a PBR output of a set (Base Color, Roughness, Metallic, Normal, …).
• Layer — paint, fill, or folder, stacked top-to-bottom.
• Mask — controls where a layer shows, driven by hand-painting, generators, and filters.
• Bake — mesh maps (Normal, AO, Curvature, …) generated from the geometry, often from a high-poly.

The PBR workflow

Instead of painting a single "diffuse" image, you paint several channels that together describe a physically-based material — colour (Base Color), how shiny it is (Roughness), whether it's metal (Metallic), fine surface detail (Normal), and so on. The renderer combines them so the material looks right under any lighting. See Texture sets & channels.

Interface overview

A tour of the main areas of the CGpainter window.

This tour shows the default workspace. The Workspace menu has several other ready-made layouts to choose from, and Save Current Workspace… lets you store your own arrangement to switch back to anytime. You can also rearrange panels by dragging their tabs (and open or close them from the Window menu); Workspace › Restore Default snaps everything back to the layout shown here.

3D viewport

The central area where you paint directly on the model. Camera controls (orbit / pan / zoom) are on the Navigating page.

2D UV view

The flattened UV canvas. Strokes you make in 3D show up here too, and you can paint directly in UV space — handy for reaching seams and tight spots.

Tool rail

The vertical strip of tools down the left: Brush, Airbrush, Eraser, Selection, Fill, Smudge, Blend, Gradient, and Eyedropper. See Tools.

Layers panel

The layer stack for the active texture set: add, reorder, group, and mask layers. See Layers.

Properties panel

A contextual editor that shows brush settings, the fill-layer editor, or the mask editor depending on what's selected.

Shelf panel

The asset library: alphas, bakes, images, and smart materials. See The Shelf.

Texture Sets & Settings

Switch between texture sets and edit a set's resolution and channels. See Texture sets & channels.

Quick-start tutorial

This walks you from an empty app to an exported texture set.

1. Create a project & import a mesh

File › New Project…, choose your mesh and a template.

2. Check your texture set & channels

Each material on your mesh becomes a texture set; pick one in the Texture Sets panel and confirm its channels. See Texture sets & channels.

3. Paint your first stroke

Pick the Brush, choose a colour and channels, and paint on the model.

4. Add a layer (and maybe a mask)

Stack a fill or paint layer, then add a black mask and reveal it by painting. See Layers and Masks.

5. Bake mesh maps

Open Bake, tick Normal / AO / Curvature, press Bake. See Baking for details.

6. Export

File › Export Textures…, pick a preset and resolution, export.