Select a paint 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 or Paint Effects Paint brushes. To erase or clone you use Artisan brushes. To smear or blur you use Paint Effects brushes.

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

  1. In the 3D Paint Tool settings panel, in the Paint Operations section, set Artisan: to 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.)

  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. Also in the Brush section, you can 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.
  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.

To select a Paint Effects brush to Paint, Smear, or Blur

  1. Select a Paint Effects brush using any of the following methods:
    • In the 3D Paint Tool settings panel, In the Paint Operations section, select a Paint Effects operation. If you select:

    Paint - The brush becomes the last selected Paint Effects brush with a Brush Type set to Paint. If no Paint brush was previously selected, the default Paint Effects paint brush is used.

    Smear - The brush becomes the last selected Paint Effects brush with a Brush Type set to Smear. If no Smear brush was previously selected, the default Paint Effects smear brush is used.

    Blur - The brush becomes the last selected Paint Effects brush with a Brush Type set to Blur. If no Blur brush was previously selected the default Paint Effects blur brush is used.

    • Click the Get Brush icon and select the brush from Content Browser. The paint operation changes to Paint EffectsPaint, Smear, or Blur, depending on the Brush Type defined for the brush preset. Paint EffectsErase is not supported.
    • Click a Paint Effects brush on a shelf. The paint operation changes to Paint EffectsPaint, Smear, or Blur, depending on the Brush Type defined for the brush preset.
  2. In the Brush section, modify the brush Scale (PFX) and Width (PFX) settings, if necessary.
  3. Click the Edit Template brush icon in the 3D Paint Tool settings and make the changes to the brush settings in the Paint Effects Brush Settings window. Any changes you make to the settings are remembered the next time you select the Paint EffectsPaint brush.

    You can save these settings as a new preset by following the instructions under Create new brush presets, starting at step #3. To create the icon for preset (step #8), go into canvas mode, paint a stroke, grab the icon and return to the scene view without leaving the 3D Paint Tool.

  4. Turn on Screen Projection in the Stroke section if the surface has seams, the UVs are cut up, you are painting across multiple surfaces, or the surface has uneven parameterization.

To select the last selected Paint Effects brush

  1. Click the Last brush icon in the 3D Paint Tool settings and paint. The Paint Operation changes to Paint EffectsPaint, Smear, or Blur, depending on the Brush Type defined for the last selected brush preset.
Parent topic: 3D Paint Tool