{"id":1114861,"date":"2026-07-27T20:57:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T20:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1114861\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T20:57:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T20:57:26","slug":"abstract-adds-a-new-2d-painting-system-to-instamat-2026-07","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1114861\/","title":{"rendered":"Abstract adds a new 2D painting system to InstaMAT 2026-07"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p>Abstract has <a href=\"https:\/\/abstract3d.com\/2026\/07\/23\/abstract-rolls-out-2d-painting-for-instamat-giving-artists-complete-creative-control\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">added a new 2D painting system<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/instamaterial.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">InstaMAT<\/a>, its texture painting and material authoring software for game development, motion graphics and VFX work.<\/p>\n<p>InstaMAT 2026-07, the latest update, makes it possible to paint directly on a mesh\u2019s UVs in a dedicated 2D view alongside the 3D viewport, using many of the existing 3D painting features.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A newer alternative to the Substance 3D tools for games, motion graphics and VFX<\/strong><br \/>On its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cgchannel.com\/2024\/01\/instamat-is-now-available\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">release in 2024<\/a>, InstaMAT got a lot of attention in the CG community, with many seeing it as an alternative to Adobe\u2019s Substance 3D tools.<\/p>\n<p>The core application, InstaMAT Studio, supports layer-based painting and node-based authoring workflows similar to Substance 3D Painter and Substance 3D Designer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"full-width\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/260727_InstaMAT202607_2DPainting.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"510\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-177611\"\/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Paint directly onto a model\u2019s UVs in a dedicated workspace <\/strong><br \/>Although users can already paint directly onto a 3D model, InstaMAT 2026-07 adds a new 2D painting system, making it possible to paint directly on a mesh\u2019s UVs in a dedicated 2D view.<\/p>\n<p>The workflow uses InstaMAT\u2019s existing painting engine, and supports the same key features as 3D painting, including symmetry, lazy strokes, paint projection and masking.<\/p>\n<p>2D painting also supports the UDIM UV layout format common in VFX workflows, making it possible to display UDIM tiles in the 2D view and paint across them seamlessly.<\/p>\n<p>Abstract pitches the new workflow as a way to achieve more precise texture placement than is possible with 3D painting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"full-width\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/260727_InstaMAT202607_Solo-960x487.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"487\" class=\"aligncenter size-cgc_full_width wp-image-177612\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Other new features<\/strong><br \/>Other changes include the option to solo the active material section or UDIM tile, as shown above, making it easier to focus on a particular part of a texturing project.<\/p>\n<p>The Mesh Bake Light node has been updated, and can now bake lighting from an environment map.<\/p>\n<p>There is also a new Normal to Curvature Smooth node, which provides a \u201ccleaner, broader\u201d curvature map than the existing Curvature node.<\/p>\n<p>The Tile Scatter and Guided Scatter nodes get a new Tile Number scatter mode, making it possible to scatter images in order.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Price and system requirements<\/strong><br \/>InstaMAT Studio 2026-07 is compatible with Windows 10+, Windows Server 2019+, macOS 13.0+ and VFX Reference Platform 2024-compatible Linux. <\/p>\n<p>Integration plugins are available for 3ds Max, Blender, Maya, Unity and Unreal Engine.<\/p>\n<p>The Pioneer edition of the software is available free to artists and studios with revenue under $100,000\/year, and can be <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.instamat.io\/en\/Products\/InstaMAT_Studio\/Licensing\/Free_Pioneer_License_And_Attribution\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">used on commercial projects with attribution<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You can find details of commercial pricing in our stories on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cgchannel.com\/2026\/03\/abstract-releases-instamat-2026-with-new-curves-brushes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">InstaMAT 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/abstract3d.com\/2026\/07\/23\/abstract-rolls-out-2d-painting-for-instamat-giving-artists-complete-creative-control\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Read more about the InstaMAT\u2019s new UV painting toolset in Abstract\u2019s blog post<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.instamat.io\/en\/Products\/ReleaseList\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Read a full list of new features in InstaMAT in the online release notes<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Have your say on this story by following CG Channel on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cgchannel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/thecgchannel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Instagram<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/theCGchannel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">X (formerly Twitter)<\/a>. As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we don\u2019t post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Abstract has added a new 2D painting system to InstaMAT, its texture painting and material authoring software for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1114862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3939],"tags":[303992,303993,303994,92122,303995,303996,303997,4021,4020,102768,4022,77,303998,303999,304000,48262,304001,304002,304003,304004,304005,304006,304007,304008,304009,304010,95780,304011,102770,304012,304013,67845,304014,304015,304016,304017,304018,304019,304020,304021,14836,304022,304023,304024,304025,304026,304027,16,15,30665,102769,304028,267364,304029,52672],"class_list":["post-1114861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-2d-painting","tag-3d-painting","tag-3ds-max","tag-abstract","tag-alternative-to-substance-3d-designer","tag-alternative-to-substance-3d-painter","tag-alternative-to-the-substance-3d-tools","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-blender","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-free-edition","tag-free-license","tag-game-art","tag-game-development","tag-gpu-accelerated","tag-gpu-based","tag-guided-scatter-node","tag-indie-license","tag-instamat","tag-instamat-2026-07","tag-instamat-studio","tag-instamat-studio-2026-07","tag-isolate-selection","tag-lazy-stroke","tag-mask","tag-material-authoring","tag-maya","tag-mesh-bake-light-node","tag-motion-graphics","tag-new-features","tag-node-graph","tag-node-based","tag-non-destructive-workflow","tag-normal-to-curvature-smooth-node","tag-perpetual-license","tag-pioneer-edition","tag-pioneer-license","tag-plugin","tag-price","tag-stroke-smoothing","tag-system-requirements","tag-texture-baking","tag-texturing","tag-tile-scatter-node","tag-udim","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unity","tag-unreal-engine","tag-uv-painting","tag-vfx","tag-visual-effects","tag-zbrush"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1114861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1114862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1114861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1114861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1114861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}