I’m new to the Reallusion software and i’m struggling to paint my characters in CC5. i’ve tried editing the texture images but i just don’t like it. I want to paint directly onto the model really.
Substance painter is too expensive at the moment, so i’ve been looking at alternatives. I’ve tried Blenders painting which was ok and found Armorpaint which looks interesting.
Has anyone used this with CC5 or are there any other alternatives?
3DCoat is an alternative but that’s become also quite expensive, although it has a permanent license option. You can also get Substance Painter via Steam, which seems cheaper and has a permanent license option.
I tried Arnorpaint a couple of years ago with CC4 characters, but at the time, anyway, the UDIMS just wouldn’t go. Might be better now.
If you have an iPad, you can get Procreate for cheap, and paint CC characters in there. I haven’t quite figured out how to get the lighting to work so it looks closer to the same, and there’s no depth, just metallic and roughness, but it’s still less painful than Blender.
Lastly, if you’re willing to go through Blender, 3DCoat has a textures-only version called Textura for like $100 (last I checked) that interfaces great with Blender, so you can send characters there and from there back and forth to Textura. That’s fully featured for texturing, including depth.
I’m trying out Marmoset. It’s logic is just different enough that’s it’s going slowly, even though I know it’s a cool program. If I can crack that nut, I might spring for it, but haven’t committed yet.
Anyway, there’s some rabbit holes to dive down. 
You can also download the standalone version of Quixel Mixer from the Quixel website for free. It’s the Quixel alternative to Substance and has a pretty vast library. You can also get a permanent license for Substance pretty cheap if you purchase it through Steam, you just won’t be eligible for any future upgrades.