Paint on a 3D object

To accept paint, 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 Polygonal Modeling .

Another requirement is that surfaces must have an assigned texture before painting. Texture can be assigned as part of the procedure below.

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.

To paint on a 3D object

  1. Select the surface(s) you want to paint on.
    Note:
  2. In the Shading menu set, select Lighting/Shading > 3D Paint Tool > to launch the tool and open the Tool Settings editor. See 3D Paint Tool settings.
    Tip: To ensure that you get expected results when you paint, it is recommended that you reset the tool settings before starting to paint. To do this, click Reset Tool.
  3. 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 6.
  4. Click Assign/Edit Textures. The Assign/Edit File Textures window opens.
  5. 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.
  6. Set a base color for the model and save the texture. This establishes the texture you will erase back to. Do this as follows:
    1. In the Flood section, click the Color swatch and select a color from the Color Chooser.
    2. Set the Paint Operations to Artisan Paint.
    3. Click Flood Paint, and then click Save Textures in the File Textures section.
  7. Select a brush to paint, erase, clone, smear or blur. For details, see Select a paint brush.
  8. Modify any other settings as required and drag on the model to paint. For information on these settings, see 3D Paint Tool settings.

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

  9. 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.

Related topics

Parent topic: 3D Paint Tool