Programs: 2D and 3D Paint / Motion Graphics / Video / Audio for NR2003

[Mystical]

Here are a list of 2D and 3D paint programs that are open source (free), subscription based (you rent), or perpetual (you can buy lifetime license). 2D Paint programs are most commonly known and have been around since digital art existed. You paint on a 2D canvas. 3D paint programs started to take over the market in last 8 or so years and these programs allow you t paint real time in realistic lighting sources on your 3D models directly with precise accuracy between UV seams unlike traditional 2D paint programs.

Along with these paint programs are a few motion graphics / video editors audio editors that are useful if you want to create videos of your NR2003 recordings as well.

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2D Paint Programs

Adobe Photoshop / Adobe Illustrator - Subscription
Gimp - Free Open Source
Affinity - Free / Subscription
Paintshop Pro - Perpetual
Photopea - Free Open Source
Paint.net - Free
Krita - Free Open Source


3D Paint Programs

Substance 3D Painter - Subscription /Perpetual (Perpetual only available via Steam)
InstaMAT - Free / Subscription / Perpetual
3D Coat - Perpetual
Marmoset Toolbag 4 - Perpetual
ArmorPaint - Free Open Source (Program is free open source but you have to compile the binaries from github yourself, however compiled binary can be bought for one time purchase $20 here)


Motion Graphics / Video Editor Programs

Davinci Resolve - Free / Perpetual (Perpetual version offers extra features)
Adobe After Effects - Subscription
Premiere Pro - Subscription
Hitfilm / Hitfilm Pro - Free / Perpetual (Perpetual version offers extra features)
Shotcut - Free Open Source
Kdenlive - Free Open Source

Audio Editor programs

Adobe Audition - Subscription
Audacity - Free Open Source
Wavosaur - Free
Reaper - Perpetual

Text Editor programs
Notepad++ - Free
SublimeText - Free / Perpetual
VSCode - Free
Neovim - Free
Kate - Free
Pulsar - Free
Geany - Free
Vim - Free


If you have questions about any program above and which one to use, buy, features they offer, etc you can ask in this thread. If you have a program you want added to the list you can add a post and we will consider if it meets the criteria.

 

[Mystical]

Updates:

• Hitfilm 'removed', sadly company got bought out then year later they new company shut them down.
• Kdenlive added to video editors section
• InstaMAT added to 3D Paint programs section (I've been heavily observing this, may be my new home for 3D painting replacing 3D Coat and Marmoset possibly. Linux version apparently coming in the future too)
• Added new section for text editors (since psg scripting for NR2003 is important for modders)

 

[Mystical]

Today Affinity had bundled all 3 of their apps into one and made it FREE. There is a subscription model but its just for some extra AI tools. Similar to Davinci Resolve for video editing the free version of Affinity v3 as far as I can tell is just like my v2 version with some new stuff so a really good deal if you were looking for a new image editing app but didn't want to pay. I do not have the paid version of Affinity v3, just the free version and playing around with it looking decent so far.

If you had any doubts about the tool, all my NR2003 content was made using Affinity in the last 6+ years.