Paint textures on 3D objects

You can paint textures with the 3D Paint Tool using Artisan brushes.

Artisan brushes use grayscale images to define the brush profile (or shape). You can select from 40 predefined brush shapes, or you can create your own shapes using any image format supported by Maya. You can paint, erase and clone textures using Artisan brushes.

Danger:

To paint on a 3D object

  1. Select the surface(s) you want to paint on.
    Note:

    Polygonal surfaces must have non-overlapping UVs that fit within 0 to 1 in the texture space. In general, Automatic Mapping produces UVs that can be used for painting. For details, see Polygon modeling overview .

  2. Select the 3D Paint Tool and open the Tool Settings editor (Shading menu set, Lighting/Shading > 3D Paint Tool > ). For information on tool settings, see 3D Paint Tool.
  3. Click Reset Tool to reset the tool settings. Resetting the tool is a good practice to ensure you get expected results when you paint.
  4. Beside Attribute to Paint (in the File Textures section of the Tool Settings editor), select the attribute you want to paint. The default is Color.
    • If you have not previously painted or assigned file textures to one or more of the surfaces, the following warning appears on the Command Feedback line:

    Warning: Some surfaces have no file texture assigned to the current attribute.

    Also, the brush outline displays an X () across it when you move the brush over the surface to indicate that you are unable to paint on the selected attribute texture.

    • If you have previously painted or assigned file textures, you do not get the warning and the brush displays without the X, so you are ready to paint. Skip to step #7.
      Note:

      Be sure to assign a new shader before painting your object, otherwise you will modify the default shader. If this happens, the painted texture will be assigned to any new objects you create in your scene.

  5. Click Assign/Edit Textures. The Assign/Edit File Textures window opens.
  6. Enter a size for the texture in the Size X and Size Y boxes, then select an Image Format and click Assign/Edit Textures. The Keep Aspect Ratio option ensures that the proportions of the image are maintained. Turn this option off if you want the width and the height of the texture to be different. The texture size is currently limited to 2048 x 2048 and must be a power of 2 in each dimension. Larger textures require more memory. Textures larger than 512 will yield slower performance.
    Tip:

    To assign different-sized textures to different surfaces, select each surface or group of surfaces separately and assign textures to them. Once the textures have been assigned, you can select any combination of surfaces to paint on.

  7. Set a base color for the model and save the texture. This establishes the texture you will erase back to. To do this, click the Color swatch in the Flood section and select a color from the Color Chooser. Set the Paint Operations to Artisan Paint, click Flood Paint, and then click the Save Textures button in the File Textures section.
  8. Select a brush to paint, erase, clone, smear or blur. For details, see Select a brush.
  9. Modify any other settings as required and drag on the model to paint. For information on these settings, see 3D Paint Tool.

    If you are painting Single Channel (grayscale) attributes such as bump, or diffuse, the color you paint is automatically converted to grayscale.

  10. Once you have finished painting one attribute, you can paint another attribute without leaving the tool by selecting the attribute beside Attribute to Paint. The first time you paint an attribute, you will have to assign a texture for it, unless a texture was already assigned in Hypershade.

Select a brush

The brush operation you select defines whether you are going to apply paint to the texture, or whether you are going to erase, clone, smear, or blur paint already applied to the surface.

You can apply paint to the texture using Artisan Paint brushes. To erase or clone you use Artisan brushes.

To select an Artisan brush to Paint, Erase, or Clone

  1. In the Paint Operations section, select Artisan, Paint, Erase, or Clone.

    Maya automatically selects the brush profile selected when you last used the Artisan Paint brush. (If the last profile was a custom brush, the operation remembers only that it was a custom brush, not which custom brush. If the custom brush was changed for either the Erase or Clone operations, it changes for the Paint operation and for any other operation with the custom brush profile selected.)

    Use the Rotate To Stroke option to change the orientation of brush profiles that are not uniformly round. This option is not available for the Clone operation.

  2. If you want to use a different brush profile, click the profile shape beside Artisan in the Brush section, or click Browse to select a custom profile. When you select one of the custom profiles provided with Maya, the Last Image File icon changes to show which image you selected.
  3. If you selected Erase or Clone skip to step #5.
  4. In the Color section, select a Color. If you are painting Single Channel (grayscale) attributes such as bump, or diffuse, the color you paint is automatically converted to grayscale.
  5. Select an Opacity, if necessary.
  6. In the Paint Operations section, select a Blend Mode, if necessary.
  7. In the Brush section, modify the brush Radius (U) (Artisan), if necessary.
  8. If the surface is very convoluted, you may prefer to turn Screen Projection on.

Erase paint

You can erase the strokes you paint by painting over them with the Erase brush. When you erase, you remove the color from the painted pixels, revealing the last saved texture.

To set the background texture to erase to, turn off Update on Stroke and click Save Textures. Flooding with the operation set to Erase restores the texture to its last saved version. You cannot erase when Update on Stroke is turned on, since the texture is constantly saved.

Clone paint

You can clone an area of the texture (duplicate it) and then paint that sample elsewhere on the texture or on other textures. There are two cloning approaches: dynamic and static.

With dynamic cloning, the clone source moves as you paint. In the following DynamicClone example, a small area of the top eye was set as the clone source. Painting below the eye gradually reproduced the top eye. In the StaticClone example, the pupil was cloned and stamped.

To clone an area of the texture and paint with it

  1. In the Paint Operations section, click Reset Brushes to reset the brush settings. Resetting the tool is good practice to ensure you get expected results when you paint.
  2. In the Paint Operations section, select the ArtisanClone option.

    The brush outline displays an X across it when you move the brush over the surface to indicate that you are unable to paint on the selected attribute texture until you set a clone source.

    Maya automatically selects the brush profile selected when you last used the Clone operation. However if the last profile was a custom brush, the operation remembers only that it was a custom brush, not which custom brush. Changing the custom brush for one operation changes it for any other operation with the custom brush profile selected.

  3. Select a Clone Brush Mode: Dynamic or Static.

    By default, the Clone Brush Mode is set to Dynamic. With dynamic cloning, the cloned area changes as you paint, moving alongside your stroke and maintaining a constant distance from the stroke path. This is an effective way to copy areas from existing textures.

    Select Static to keep the clone source stationary.

  4. Click Set Clone Source and click an area where you want to clone the texture. A brush outline stays on the area where you clicked.
  5. If the Clone Brush Mode is set to Dynamic, click another area on the texture to define the offset between the clone source and your paint stroke.
  6. Paint on the model where you want the cloned texture to appear. As you paint, the clone source moves alongside the stroke, maintaining the offset defined by your second click.

    If you paint over the clone source during a stroke, the original paint sample is used for the rest of the stroke, but the next stroke uses the updated clone source paint sample.

Set an image to erase back to

Using the Set Erase Image button you can set the current paint layer as what to erase back to.

Example of using Set Erase Image

  1. Paint a base layer, such as a layer of dirt.
  2. Click the Set Erase Image button.
  3. Flood the layer with a color, such as grey.
  4. Erase patches and the dirt layer shows through.

Reset brushes

You can reset brushes to their default profiles and settings by clicking Reset Brushes. The default brushes will now be used the next time you select these operations.

Undo brush strokes

You can undo as many strokes as defined in the Undo category of the Preferences window (Window > Settings/Preferences > Preferences).

Parent topic: Paint textures with the 3D Paint Tool