Brush Assets is out!

Late in 2022 the initial design for the Brush Assets¹ was laid out.

Earlier this year it was chosen to be one of the development targets for 2024. Much has changed since its original design, including a fundamental aspect that improves usability.

It is now integrated into Blender, as part of the Blender 4.3 release scheduled for November 2024.

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New Brush Workflow

In previous versions, brushes were saved in the current blend-file like any other data-block. It is very common to reuse, share and update brushes, so the traditional link/append workflow proved cumbersome.

Brushes are now assets, benefiting from the same ease of use and sharing capabilities as other asset types.

Combined with new ways to access brushes in asset libraries and a quick way to update them, this should improve the workflow considerably.

Essentials Library

The Essentials asset library was extended to bundle a number of brush assets with Blender:

So far all the included brushes have been converted into assets. Over time this library can grow to accommodate new brush variations.

Brush Tool

The new brush asset workflow is implemented wherever brushes are used, including sculpting and painting for meshes, Grease Pencil, and (hair) curve objects, as well as vertex, weight and texture paint (in the 3D Viewport and Image Editor).

A single, unified Brush tool replaces all the previous brush-based tools. Activating a brush automatically activates the Brush tool.

For user created brushes, there is a guide on how to convert them as part of the 4.3 release notes.

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Using Brush Assets

Asset Shelf

The new asset shelf introduced in Blender 4.0 has been extended to make use of the brush assets. It was also added to the Image Editor for texture painting.

Switch to a mode such as sculpting to find the brushes available for that mode.

Brush Selector Popup

Brushes can also be selected from the brush drop-down on the header, tool panel, or by shortcut (shift + space)

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Edit Brushes from Anywhere

Brushes can be created and updated from any Blender session, without having to manually edit the files in your asset libraries. This might be all you ever need for your personal brush management.

It is still possible to take full control by manually editing asset library files, for example to carefully curate an asset library to prepare it for sharing with others.

For those following the early iterations of this project, this means there is no more need for drafts. The brushes can now be created on the spot whenever needed.

Creating a New Brush Asset

To create a new brush asset, all you need to do is pick a brush to use as a base, and select Duplicate Asset in the tool options. You can choose one of the asset libraries configured in the Preferences (by default the User Library), and Blender will save the new asset in there.

After tweaking the settings, you can save the changes with Update Asset, and use Edit Metadata or Preview Image to change other data for the brush. Only brush assets created using the Duplicate Asset method support being edited this way. Others are managed as normal local brush data-blocks.

As mentioned before, Blender ships with a set of Essential brushes, covering all possible brush types to use as starting points for brushes.

Generated Asset Blend-Files

Brushes created using the Duplicate Asset operator will be saved as special .asset.blend files generated by Blender.

What is so special about these files? They are created and managed by Blender’s asset system, and contain a single data-block (plus any dependencies packed). It is not possible to overwrite these files from within Blender, although you can still open it and save it as a new file, which will then be just a regular blend-file. This is to prevent data loss as assets get changed, since the asset system may regenerate the file which would overwrite any manual changes.

A warning will be displayed when opening such files, and saving the file will prompt you to save as a new file instead.

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Feedback Needed

Download the latest Blender 4.3 daily build to try Brush Assets for yourself. If you have any feedback, please drop a message in the DevTalk thread.

Links

• Blender 4.3 Release Notes
• Daily builds of Blender 4.3 (alpha)
• User Manual
• Brush Assets Workflow [old outdated design]

1. Brush and Asset Drafts ↩︎