Does the painter in you get excited every time you pass by an art supply store, only to walk back after looking at the prices?
If you relate, we have a solution for you. With the growth of VR space, it has become increasingly common in different fields, such as gaming, travel, meditation, and painting.
A common question is if VR painting is anything like painting in real life. To answer in short, absolutely! In fact, you may not even realize you’re painting in a virtual world. Without further ado, let’s take a look at some of the best VR applications for painting.
3 Best VR Apps For Painting
1. Vermillion VR
Vermillion is a virtual reality art studio that allows users to perfect the art of oil painting. Oil paints can be quite expensive, and their mediums can add to the costs. So, buying oil paint just to experiment with them might not be a practical option. However, you don’t have to be limited by a lack of resources when VR art applications like Vermillion exist.
With a wide variety of simple tools and brushes to choose from, Vermillion makes the process of painting and creating art a lot more enjoyable. The tools are also customizable, where you can change features such as the grip of the brush and the size of the brush strokes.
The studio set can also be rearranged to your liking so that you can have a comfortable virtual world for creating multiple VR paintings. Additional features, such as adjusting the canvas height and repositioning the brush stand, make the app a lot more intuitive.
The haptic feedback is high in this app, so you must use a light hand to pick up paint and smear it on the canvas.
2. Art Studio VR
Art Studio VR is yet another VR painting simulator app that allows users to experience painting without touching the paint. What makes Art Studio stand out from other conventional VR painting simulators is its ability to paint on 3D models.
You get to choose from a standard white canvas to 3D models such as a vase or a shoe. The brush variety is impressive and is arranged in a neat fashion for easy accessibility.
The mechanics are easy to grasp and do not need extensive knowledge about the field, making it ideal for beginners, with its beginner mode, as well as pros. A calm, relaxing background track is added to the game to truly enhance the VR art experience. The interface is also intuitive, allowing you to switch between canvases without having to carry and mount them back and forth.
Art Studio also offers an impressive range of colors, from warm tones to cooler shades. The app was developed with realism in mind, even for minute details such as the brush touching the canvas.
3. Quill VR
Quill was created by the award-winning Oculus Story Studios. The app was initially designed as a private, in-house VR art app for the studio’s animated content, Dear Angelica. As the production moved forward, the studio figured this app would be something the whole world could enjoy. Quill was then released in beta form in the Oculus store as a free-to-use application.
The app works well with Oculus touch controllers and gives you impressive levels of control to create 3D art. Quill is designed to be user-friendly so that you can experience an immersive painting session without any unnecessary distractions. This app stands out from other painting simulations due to its unique style and design.
The scaling capacity is the most interesting tool in Quill. This means that you can create existing shapes on the canvas and scale it to whatever size you desire. Quill makes painting much easier to learn and execute while allowing you to relax and have fun.
2 Best VR Art Apps For Oculus Quest 2
1. Painting VR
Painting VR is one of the most popular VR art apps for painting simulators on the Oculus Quest 2. This app is unlike other VR painting simulators; it does not try to reinvent anything. All it does is allow the user to experience the art of painting in its full glory. Painting VR does a remarkable job of capturing the feel of applying paint on the canvas with utmost realism.
The visual details are designed well, making it extremely smooth to use and see.
Though the app is easy to use, the only downside is brush control is a needed feature to paint properly. Once you get the hang of it, activities like mixing paint and doing a double coat will all be effortless. The lines are based on how much pressure you apply on the controllers. For smaller lines, you would need to use less pressure with a light hand.
The selection of painting tools and spray paint is pretty impressive, with unique stationery such as smudge sticks, painter pens, and flick brushes included. Painting VR also comes with a spinning gun-like device that you can mount several paint brushes to create beautiful patterns.
The app features an in-game web browser that allows you to open applications such as YouTube and Pinterest, where you can look up reference images or pre-created art. When you play a video on the side, it does not affect the frame of the game at all, so you can create art alongside your favorite artists.
2. SculptrVR
SculptrVR is a painting app designed for a wide selection of VR headsets, including the Oculus Quest 2. When it comes to tool options, Sculptr has the most extensive selection of all VR painting apps. The tools include different types of brushes, palettes, spray cans, commonly used shapes, etc.
Sculptr also has a multiplayer option that allows users to play with their friends and family. Or you can join open rooms and create art with different artists.
The app has several features that make it accessible to everyone. One such feature is the Layer feature, which allows users to make changes to their work without disrupting inactive layers. The layers feature works similarly to Adobe Photoshop and follows a number system to mark each layer.
Sculptr can be useful for creating larger works without needing to put in much effort. It has a 10,000x zoom mechanism allowing you to scale your work to the desired size. This feature is ideal to start creating expansive landscapes or illusion work.
2 Best Free Painting Apps In VR
1. Tilt Brush
Tilt Brush is another VR art simulator app designed for HTC Vive. You can make use of your trackpads to select various items, from painting tools and palettes to colors, and create art with your dominant hand.
Tilt Brush is an ideal app for both beginners and professionals due to its intuitive design. You don’t need to have painting skills or any artistic skill in order to create, just sheer passion is all that’s required. The 3D drawing feature of Tilt Brush allows the user to create 3D models of their ideas with minimal effort.
Along with line types, certain additional elements can also be added to your projects, like trails of sparkle or smoke. The only issue is that there is no specific tool for geometric shape creation. However, the brush control and mechanism are crafted in such a way that you won’t need any additional tools. Google focused on making Tilt Brush a more sensory-oriented experience than an abstract one.
The sound design adds to the sensation of painting with real-life audio, relaxing music, and positional sound. Moving a tool past your ear or scratching the canvas with a pencil can all be heard accurately. So, Tilt Brush is an ideal app if you wish to sit back, start painting and relax.
2. Multi Brush
Multi Brush is quite similar to Tilt Brush with the added feature of online multiplayer mode. Enjoying art can be done by yourself, but it is great fun when it’s done with your friends. The app allows you to host a room with a unique invite link, using which your friends and family can join in. Multi Brush works best with Oculus Touch controllers and VR headsets.
The variety of painting tools is impressive, and each player gets an individual canvas for creating art. Multi Brush takes the experience of virtual reality painting and implements it in a multiplayer environment. This allows users to grow creatively and get inspired by their loved ones. It is also a great way to bond and catch up with old pals.
Final Words
Painting and coloring are known to be therapeutic for various reasons. The feeling of sliding the brush on the canvas and spreading the color across acts as an effective stress reliever.
However, painting supplies like canvases and brushes are usually quite expensive and not feasible for people with budget constraints. This also becomes a problem when they want to simply experiment.
Does this mean art should only be accessible to a specific group of people? Absolutely not. VR has grown in tremendous ways, allowing us to recreate the feeling of painting but on a budget. So, just put on your VR headset, and you’re good to go. We hope these apps bring you just as much joy as they did us!
