Convert Paint Effects to geometry

Convert to polygons

You can convert Paint Effects strokes to polygonal meshes, including construction history, using Modify > Convert > Paint Effects to Polygons.

For descriptions of the conversion options, see Paint Effects to Polygons Options.

This feature allows you to do the following:

• Render in any renderer, including the Maya Software renderer, mental ray for Maya, the Hardware renderer, and the Vector renderer (For more information, see Select a renderer.)
• Have Paint Effects show up in reflections, refractions and through transparent objects (For more information, see Raytracing.)
• Use other polygon editing tools on them (For more information, see Modeling menus.)

You can edit brush attributes and see the effect on the output mesh. Shaders that closely match the look of the Paint Effects render are automatically generated and assigned to the resulting meshes. You can optionally choose to output color per vertex and also to bake lighting onto the mesh.

Note: To optimize the conversion of Paint Effects to polygons, see Optimizing Paint Effects mesh quality.

Convert to NURBS

You can convert Paint Effects strokes to NURBS using Modify > Convert > Paint Effects to NURBS. If you select the Options box () in the process, you can choose to hide the strokes. The benefit of converting Paint Effects to NURBS is that you can work the Paint Effects objects as geometry. There is a NURBS Output section in the strokeShape Attribute Editor containing attributes for specifying converting to NURBS. For descriptions of these NURBS Output options, see NURBS Output in strokeShape node.

Convert to curves

You can convert Paint Effects strokes to curves using Modify > Convert > Paint Effects to Curves. If you select the Options box () in the process, you can choose to hide the strokes. The benefits of converting Paint Effects to curves is you can use the resulting curves for modeling, and you can render the curves in other renderers, such as Pixar®RenderMan®.