Blender To Add Native Texture Layer System

Check out important updates on the future direction of Ucupaint as well.

Blender 5.2 LTS is currently in Alpha until June 3rd, with development moving at full speed and offering early glimpses of what's to come. Recently, the team added a new version of cloth and hair simulation, which many artists have already been experimenting with. Now, Blender is also planning to introduce its own texture layer system, as spotted by 3D Artist Kana Fuyuko.

However, this update seems to be planned for a version beyond Blender 5.2 LTS. The project page Layered Textures and Baking Design describes it as follows:

"The plan is to improve material and texture authoring, with support for a high-level user interface to quickly combine painted textures and procedural effects. The baking workflow will be revamped to make settings persistent and associated with materials and geometry to make re-baking easy."

Currently, you can work with layered textures using add-ons like Ucupaint or similar tools. This change will bring that functionality directly into Blender's core and ensure long-term support, especially if add-on developers stop maintaining their tools.

ucupumar, the developer behind the popular layer-based painting add-on Ucupaint, has just made an announcement in response to upcoming changes in Blender. Ucupaint's scope is expected to expand beyond Blender, and one of the first steps in this direction is better PSD layer import and export support, which is already close to being ready for the next release.

For the time being, all layered import and export features (including PSD, XCF, KRA, and Godot shader support) will be released in a new version of Ucupaint called Ucupaint Plus, which will be available exclusively to GitHub sponsors. Learn more by clicking this link.

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