Though gaming is likely VR’s most visible use-case so far, it’s capable of so much more. Creatives are using VR for a wide range of artistic endeavors including painting, drawing, 3D modeling & sculpting, animating and more. If you’re interested in exploring your creativity in VR, here’s 11 tools worth checking out.
Updated – August 9th, 2023
First, here’s a quick breakdown of the tools and their capabilities, so that you can hone in on what kind of creative tool you’re looking for the VR headset of your choice. A note about the ‘Feature Focus’ categories below: while some of these tools may support all of the features in limited ways, we marked each based on the workflows they primarily cater to.
| Platforms | Feature Focus | |||||||
| Quest | PC VR | PSVR 2 | Design | Painting | Modeling | Animation | ||
| Open Brush | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ | |
| Quill | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ | ✔ | |
| Kingspray Graffiti | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ | |
| Gravity Sketch | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ | |
| ShapesXR | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ | |
| AnimVR | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ | ✔ | |
| SculptVR | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ | |
| Masterpiece X | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Adobe Substance 3D Modeler | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ | |
| Vermillion | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ | |
| Painting VR | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ | |
That’s the short and skinny, below you can check out more info on each tool to get a better idea what they, what skill level they’re built for, and their cost.
Open Brush – Quest, PC VR (free)
Feature Focus: Painting
From the Developer: Open Brush is the community created successor to Tilt Brush, a room-scale 3D-painting virtual-reality application available from Google, originally developed by Skillman & Hackett.
Open Brush lets you paint in 3D space with VR. Unleash your creativity with three-dimensional brush strokes, choosing from a wide palette, of brushes, including stars, light, and even fire. Your room is your canvas. Your palette is your imagination.
Quill – PC VR (free)
Feature Focus: Painting, Animation
From the Developer: Quill by Smoothstep is the VR illustration and animation tool built to empower artists, designers and storytellers. You can create fully animated self-contained VR films ready for release, or use it to produce traditional 3D or 2D artwork, or assets for a game engine. It’s designed to be expressive, precise and to let the artist’s “hand” come through clearly – whether that’s a watercolor style, pencil style, oil painting style or other.
Kingspray Graffiti – Quest, PC VR ($15)
Feature Focus: Painting
From the Developer: Creating amazing street art would be much more fun without the jail time, and now you can! Kingspray is a Multiplayer VR Graffiti Simulator, with battle-tested realistic spray, colors, drips, metallics, and more! Using a wide range of caps, ultra-detailed environments and paint surfaces, unleash your creativity (just see what some of our fans have already created!) and express your style!
Gravity Sketch – Quest, PC VR, (free)
Feature Focus: Modeling, Design
From the Developer: Gravity Sketch is the immersive 3D design tool that empowers you to create, share and collaborate on your best design ideas. Go beyond the bounds of 2D sketching to express yourself in a virtual studio and explore iterations of designs. Communicate design intent with greater clarity, and invite others to help shape your ideas and decision-making.
ShapesXR – Quest (free)
Feature Focus: Design, Modeling
From the Developer: In ShapesXR anybody can start creating in 3D without prior experience within minutes. You can design and prototype your immersive app, invite others to co-create in real-time, or present your ideas using ShapesXR storyboard feature. You can also share your creation with anybody without a VR headset via Web, the Unity plugin or just a picture for your 2D deck.
AnimVR – PC VR ($30)
Feature Focus: Painting, Animation
From the Developer: AnimVR revolutionizes your 3D content production with a powerful timeline, virtual cameras, audio recording, fading & editing, combined with industry standard import and export capabilities, like Alembic Cache and Pixar’s USD. Hand-drawn animation in VR combines the best parts of traditional animation with the advantages of digital content creation tools. Jump right into story telling, without worrying about topology, rigging or skinning. Create environment layouts, 3D story boards, animatics and whole experiences!
SculptVR – Quest, PC VR ($20)
Feature Focus: Modeling
From the Developer: Create sprawling, brilliant worlds and explore them with your friends! Invite your friends to an online game, then race to the finish with hang-gliders, or switch to climbing mode for even more fun. Discover thousands of amazing creations in the interactive gallery then remix them however you want! When you’re happy with your creation, you can upload to the SculptrVR content gallery and let others see the incredible things you’ve made.
Masterpiece X – Quest (Free)
Feature Focus: Animation, Modeling
From the Developer: Masterpiece X is the 3D creation platform for modern creators! It’s designed for anyone who wants to start creating in 3D but isn’t sure where to start, or those frustrated with complex tools.You don’t need to start from scratch! Get a head start with a complete model and easily remix it into whatever inspires you!
Adobe Substance 3D Modeler – PC VR (subscription required)
Feature Focus: Modeling
From the Developer: Adobe Substance 3D Modeler is an innovative sculpting and modeling app that aims at redefining how we create in 3D by combining VR and desktop experiences with a more natural approach to 3D modeling. Substance 3D Modeler frees you from technical constraints. With a Sparse Distance Field (SDF) engine at its core, Modeler allows you to model and sculpt without worrying about polycount, topology or subdivision levels. Sculpt away and add matter to your scene without ever the need to retopologize. Start your creation from scratch or import an existing model and convert it to clay to start sculpting.
Vermillion – Quest, PC VR ($20)
Feature Focus: Painting
From the Developer: It’s time to discover your inner artist! With Vermillion, you get a fully equipped oil painting studio in your home, without any of the mess. Ready for the unrivaled sense of accomplishment from creating your first painting? Learn with your favorite YouTube artists using the built-in web browser, trace reference images directly on the canvas, or even better—learn to paint from (new) friends in multiplayer!
Painting VR – Quest, PC VR ($20)
Feature Focus: Painting
From the Developer: It’s time to discover your inner artist! With Vermillion, you get a fully equipped oil painting studio in your home, without any of the mess. Ready for the unrivaled sense of accomplishment from creating your first painting? Learn with your favorite YouTube artists using the built-in web browser, trace reference images directly on the canvas, or even better—learn to paint from (new) friends in multiplayer!
Interested in seeing what talented artists can do with VR? Check out Anna Dream Brush and Rosie Summers.
Not finding the kind of creative VR tool you’re looking for? Let us know in the comments below.