How to Use Paint 3D: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide

Open the App and Create a New Project

When you launch Paint 3D, you’ll land on a welcome screen. Click New to open a fresh canvas, or choose Open if you’d rather edit an existing image from your computer. You can also right-click any picture in File Explorer and pick “Edit with Paint 3D” to jump straight in.

Take a moment to look at the menu running across the top of the window. This toolbar is the heart of the app, and each button opens a different set of tools in the right-hand panel:

• Art tools (brushes) — pencils, markers, watercolours and the fill bucket for painting.
• Stickers — ready-made stickers plus textures you can wrap onto objects.
• Text — add flat 2D or rotatable 3D text.
• Effects — change the lighting and colour mood of the whole scene.
• Canvas — resize the working area or make it transparent.
• 3D shapes — build or doodle three-dimensional objects.
• 3D Library — browse pre-made models you can drop straight in.

Draw and Paint With the Brush Tools

Click the Art tools (paintbrush) icon to open the brush panel. You’ll find a generous selection — marker, calligraphy pen, pencil, oil brush, watercolour, pixel pen, crayon, spray can and the fill tool. Pick a brush, choose a colour from the palette, and start drawing directly on the canvas.

Two sliders on the right give you fine control: Thickness changes how wide the stroke is, and Opacity controls how see-through the colour appears. Lowering opacity is great for soft shading or building up colour gradually in layers. Made a mistake? The eraser sits right alongside the brushes, and you can always step backwards using History.

Add 2D Shapes and Text

For clean lines and geometry, the 2D shapes section lets you drop in circles, squares, arrows and curved lines that stay perfectly crisp. Drag the handles to resize, and use the rotation handle to spin a shape to any angle before you lock it in place.

To add words, open the Text menu. You can choose flat 2D text for captions and labels, or 3D text that can be rotated and positioned anywhere in your scene. Both styles let you pick the font, size and colour, so your titles and callouts stand out exactly the way you want.

Make Your First 3D Object

This is where Paint 3D earns its name. Click 3D shapes in the top menu. On the right you’ll see two ways to create depth: ready-made 3D models (cubes, spheres and so on) and the 3D Doodle tools.

The 3D Doodle is the fun one. Choose the Soft Edge tool, then draw any closed shape on the canvas — try a puffy cloud outline. The moment you join the line back to its start, Paint 3D inflates your flat drawing into a rounded 3D object you can rotate and view from any angle. The Sharp Edge tool does the same thing but with crisp, straight sides instead of soft curves, which is handy for buildings and hard-surfaced objects.

• Pick Soft Edge or Sharp Edge under 3D Doodle.
• Draw a closed shape and connect the ends.
• Use the rotation rings around the object to turn it in 3D space.
• Drag the side handles to stretch, flatten or puff it out.

Use the Built-In 3D Model Library

You don’t have to build everything yourself. Click 3D Library and you’ll find a collection of ready-made models — animals, plants, vehicles, furniture and more. Browse or search for what you need, then click a model to drop it straight onto your canvas. From there you can resize it, rotate it, and repaint it to match your scene.

Combining library models with your own doodles is the quickest route to a polished result. Place a pre-made tree next to a doodle you drew yourself, recolour both, and you’ve got a complete little scene in minutes.

Cut Out Objects With Magic Select

Magic Select is the feature most people fall in love with. It lets you lift a person or object out of a photo automatically — no painstaking erasing required. Here’s the workflow:

• Open or import the photo you want to edit, then resize and crop the canvas around your subject.
• Click Select, then choose Magic Select. Drag the selection box so it surrounds the object.
• Click Next. Paint 3D outlines what it thinks you want in blue.
• If it missed part of the object, click Add and draw over the missing area. If it grabbed too much, click Remove and swipe over the extra.
• Tick Autofill background if you want the app to intelligently fill the gap left behind, then click Done.

Your cut-out is now a separate object you can move, resize, copy or paste into a new scene. It works best on photos with a reasonably clear subject — very busy or cluttered backgrounds can confuse the edge detection, so zoom in and refine with Add and Remove for the cleanest result.

Stickers, Textures and Effects

Open the Stickers menu to decorate your objects. Alongside the built-in stickers you’ll find textures — patterns and surfaces you can wrap directly onto a 3D model so it looks like wood, metal, fabric and so on. There’s even a Customise option that turns one of your own images into a sticker, which then moulds itself around whatever object you click.

To set the overall mood, click Effects. A colour wheel lets you change the lighting of your entire scene with a single adjustment — warm and golden, cool and blue, bright or dark. It’s a fast way to make a finished piece feel cohesive.

Work With the Canvas and Transparency

The Canvas menu controls your working surface. You can type in exact width and height values, lock the aspect ratio, and resize the whole canvas to fit your design. The most useful switch here is Transparent canvas.

Turn transparency on before exporting and your image saves with no background at all — exactly what you need for logos, stickers, product cut-outs and graphics you’ll layer over something else. If you’re showing off a 3D creation on its own, try turning Show canvas off entirely so only your object is visible.

Save and Export Your Project

When you’re happy with your work, click the Menu button in the top-left corner. You have two main choices:

• Save keeps the project in Paint 3D’s own format so you can reopen and keep editing every layer and object later.
• Save as exports a finished file. Pick Image for 2D formats like PNG and JPEG, or 3D Model to export your scene for use in other software or 3D printing.

For everyday sharing, PNG is the safest choice — it keeps your quality high and supports transparency. You can also export your scene as a short video or animated GIF if you’ve used the turntable effect, which is a nice way to show a 3D object spinning. For a deeper look at what each tool does, our homepage feature breakdown covers every option in plain English.

If you’d like to compare techniques against the official documentation, Microsoft keeps general help articles on its support site, and you can read more about the file types involved, such as the open 3MF 3D format, for context on exporting models.

If you ever find Paint 3D’s tools too basic for what you have in mind, it’s worth exploring our roundup of the best Paint 3D alternatives — from beginner-friendly browser tools to professional 3D software.

Running Into Problems?

Every now and then the app can crash, freeze, or refuse to open — usually after a Windows update or a graphics driver hiccup. If that happens to you, don’t reinstall in a panic. We’ve put together a dedicated fixes guide that walks through the most common causes one by one. Head over to our Paint 3D not working troubleshooting guide for step-by-step solutions.