Paint strokes

Painting a stroke with an Artisan brush tool is like painting with a paint brush. Select a canvas (surface), select a brush (Artisan Tool), apply paint to the brush (define tool settings), and finally drag your brush across the surface.

To paint with an Artisan brush

1. Select the surface you want to paint.
2. Select the Artisan brush tool and open the Tool Settings editor (Tool > ) For example, if you want to simply paint a color on the surface, in the Rendering menu set, select Texturing > 3D Paint Tool > . The next step will continue to reference this example.
   Tip: You can right-click a surface/object and select a Paint option from the pop-up marking menu. Once you right-click an object it becomes the selection.
3. Select Paint Operations and define other tool-specific settings as required. For example, if you are using the 3D Paint Tool, in Paint Operations you can set Artisan: Paint, then in the Color section, click the Color swatch and select a color to paint on the surface. For other details, refer to the documentation specific to the Artisan tool.
   Tip: You can use Artisan marking menus and hotkey combinations to change most of the settings without opening the Tool Settings editor. For details, see Use Artisan hotkeys and Use Artisan marking menus.
4. Define any common settings, if required. See Artisan Tool Settings for details.
5. Drag the brush across the surface.

   If you drag your brush along the boundary edges of adjacent surfaces or the seams between stitched NURBS patches, then the brush will paint on all the pieces of geometry it is dragged over.

   Tip: You can make more accurate brush strokes on a surface, or have an effect on the same surface’s area again and again by snapping the cursor to the curve or a curve on the surface. For details, see the next section.

Snap an Artisan paint brush to an isoparm (NURBS surfaces only)

You can make more accurate brush strokes on a NURBS surface, or have an effect on the same surface’s area again and again by snapping the cursor to the curve or a curve on the surface.

To snap the brush to an isoparm

1. Select the surface you want to paint.
2. Select the Artisan brush tool.
3. Press and hold down the c key on your keyboard while you do the following:
   • Move the center of the brush outline directly over the path you want the brush to snap to.
   • Drag the brush in the direction you want to paint.
     Note: The c key is the default hotkey for the SnapToCurve command (under Status Line in the Hotkey Editor).

To snap the brush to a curve

1. Create the curve on the surface as follows:
   • Select the surface you want to paint with an Artisan brush tool.
   • Click the Make Live button on the Status Line to make the surface live.
   • Select the appropriate curve tool (for example, CV Curve Tool) and create the curve on the surface.
   • Click the Make Live button on the Status Line again.
2. Select the surface.
3. Select the appropriate Artisan brush tool.
4. Press and hold down the c key on your keyboard while you do the following:
   • Move the center of the brush outline directly over the path you want the brush to snap to.
   • Drag the brush in the direction you want to paint.