# texture work, photoshop alternatives. **URL:** \ **Category:** Off-topic\ **Created:** [January 30, 2015, 1:32pm UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/texture-work-photoshop-alternatives/52474 "2015-01-30T13:32:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![super\_gnu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@super\_gnu](https://forums.chaos.com/u/super_gnu)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2015, 1:32pm UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/texture-work-photoshop-alternatives/52474/1 "2015-01-30T13:32:05Z")
i very often find myself working on textures in photoshop, and wishing it was possible to truly edit/paint multiple layers simultaneously. for example, i have a source bump map, spec map and diffuse, and i need to transform, warp, clone and paint to get the final result. doing this in photoshop is a nightmare cos you have to work up the diffuse, then either generate a new bump from that, or try to recreate the map again starting with the bump. etc. etc. i wanna be able to work on all the maps simultaneously. any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Morne](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/user_avatar/forums.chaos.com/morne/32/11335_2.png) [@Morne](https://forums.chaos.com/u/Morne)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2015, 9:11pm UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/texture-work-photoshop-alternatives/52474/2 "2015-01-30T21:11:30Z")
Maybe try this: > **[Mari | High Resolution 3D Painting Software](https://www.foundry.com/products/mari)** > > Mari handles all aspects of 3D texture and digital painting without limits. Make the most of your creative abilities with artist-friendly 3D painting. What you think? ---
**Author:** ![super\_gnu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@super\_gnu](https://forums.chaos.com/u/super_gnu)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2015, 9:27am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/texture-work-photoshop-alternatives/52474/3 "2015-02-02T09:27:18Z")
well ive seen a lot of people use Mari for texture work, so i should probably give it a try.. im so scared of moving away from the comfy sofa that is photoshop though! could somebody confirm mari allows editing of multiple maps simultaneously as described above? i should probably just try the damn thing. ---
**Author:** ![pg1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ac8455/32.png) [@pg1](https://forums.chaos.com/u/pg1)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2015, 6:50am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/texture-work-photoshop-alternatives/52474/4 "2015-02-05T06:50:40Z")
Mari is great but if you are happy in photoshop then try this [http://quixel.se/](http://quixel.se/) and if you want to move away from that try substance designer. ---
**Author:** ![super\_gnu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@super\_gnu](https://forums.chaos.com/u/super_gnu)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2015, 1:33pm UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/texture-work-photoshop-alternatives/52474/5 "2015-02-05T13:33:56Z")
well i guess id have to try it.. the website is very fancy but how hard can it be to put a proper feature list for the product?! ---
**Author:** ![pg1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ac8455/32.png) [@pg1](https://forums.chaos.com/u/pg1)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 3:56am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/texture-work-photoshop-alternatives/52474/6 "2015-02-06T03:56:43Z")
yep to be honest the quixel suite put me off a bit as their website doesn’t tell really explain what the product is. It started out as photoshop actions on steroids and eventually got developed as a set of separate applications that run inside and alongside photoshop. Changing your diffuse map automatically generates changes across all maps (bump spec etc.) along the lines of crazybump but with all your photoshop brushes. It has some other handy features like clever masking. While the quixel suite can give impressive results it seems somewhat limited in its style i.e you will end with quixel suite looking textures. I think substance designer might be a much better option much broader in terms of what results you will get. Its been on my must learn how to do that list for a while. > **[3D design software - Adobe Substance 3D](https://www.adobe.com/products/substance3d.html)** > > Empower your designs with Substance 3D. Create unique materials, capture and create 3D assets, and render stunning images, all with one subscription. Designer is somewhat similar to the slate material editor Substance painter is a bit like paint in Zbrush or Mari They have been designed with the idea of replacing photoshop from your texturing workflow > **[3D design software - Adobe Substance 3D](https://www.adobe.com/products/substance3d.html)** > > Empower your designs with Substance 3D. Create unique materials, capture and create 3D assets, and render stunning images, all with one subscription. and are reasonably priced so if I ever manage to save some money I will buy it 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![stevesideas](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/user_avatar/forums.chaos.com/stevesideas/32/29103_2.png) [@stevesideas](https://forums.chaos.com/u/stevesideas)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 12:09am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/texture-work-photoshop-alternatives/52474/7 "2015-02-09T00:09:33Z")
The quixel stuff does look amazing. I’m just a little concerned about how much set up there is prior to using DDO. Is the suite aimed more for gaming textures etc ? It seems you need to have a low poly and high poly version of each model to create normals etc etc. But couldn’t I just use a high poly mesh and get the normal info, AO etc directly from the model to use within in DDO ?