Blue Pencil is a 2D drawing tool that lets you draw in 3D space. Blue Pencil replaces Maya's previous drawing tool Grease Pencil, and offers more comprehensive drawing tools for animation and review. You can use the Blue Pencil tool to draw on frames in the Viewport that you can layer, edit, retime, and export.
To use Blue Pencil to draw in the Viewport, do one of the following:
The Blue Pencil toolbar appears below the Shelf
To... | Do this: |
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Open the Blue Pencil toolbar | Select the Blue Pencil icon from the Panel toolbar. You can also select from the Animation menu set (F4). For an overview of the tools each icon represents, see Blue Pencil toolbar. |
Close the Blue Pencil toolbar |
To close the Blue Pencil toolbar, click the X in the upper right corner. Note: Clicking the
X closes the toolbar, but
Blue Pencil remains active.
To exit Blue Pencil, press Q or switch to another tool. |
Change Blue Pencil Settings |
To change the stroke
size, press
B and drag in the Viewport.
To change
opacity, press
M and drag in the Viewport.
You can also right-click a tool in the
Blue Pencil toolbar to display related settings. See
Adjust Blue Pencil tools for more.
More options, as well as the
Blue Pencil Layer manager are available in the
Blue Pencil Tool Settings.
See the following row for how to Open the Blue Pencil Tool Settings |
Open the Blue Pencil Tool Settings | While
Blue Pencil is the active tool, double-click the
Blue Pencil icon in the Last Used Tool area of the
Tool Box.
For more advanced settings, click the Tool settings icon
in the upper right corner of Maya.
See
Blue Pencil Tool Settings for more.
|
Add a Blue Pencil frame for drawing |
Start drawing in the Viewport and a frame is created automatically. You can also click Add Frame on the Blue Pencil toolbar. A
Blue Pencil frame is added to the
Time Slider at the current time. right-click and
|
Create multiple Blue Pencil frames at the same time | Shift-select a range on the Time Slider, select to create a frame for each frame in the selected range. |
Open the Blue Pencil Marking menu | While working with
Blue Pencil,
Shift +
Ctrl + right-click to open a Marking menu so you can switch between tools and functions.
See
Blue Pencil Marking menu for more information.
|
Advance frames | Click Jump to Previous or Jump to Next Frames. |
Add text | Click the
Text tool icon
and start typing.
Note: Currently,
Blue Pencil text does not support Chinese or Japanese character sets. To use Chinese or Japanese character sets, copy and paste them into Blue Pencil from a text editor.
|
Modify a drawing | Click the
Transform icon
and drag in the Viewport to select a region. (You can also right-click the drawing and select
Transform)
Once you have manipulated the selection, press
Enter (or right-click the selection and select
Apply Transform) to set it.
Move, rotate, and scale your drawings using keyboard shortcuts. See
Modify drawings with the Blue Pencil Transform mode for more information.
|
Erase part of a drawing | Click the
Eraser icon
and drag the cursor across parts of the image you want to erase.
Erase the contents of the entire frame (without deleting the frame) with the
Clear Frame icon
. See
Clean up Blue Pencil sketches for more.
|
Ghost frames | Click the
Ghost Previous
or
Ghost Next
icons to display
Blue Pencil frames that occur before and after.
Right-click the Ghost icons to set how many frames and what color is displayed.
|
Move Blue Pencil frames on the Time Slider. | Shift-click one or more frames on the
Time Slider and once highlighted, drag it to a new location.
You can Shift + drag multiple frames. To move one or more frames by a specific increment, see Retime Blue Pencil frames on the Time Slider below. |
Retime Blue Pencil frames on the Time Slider | Click
Retime Backward
or
Retime Forward
to move the frames after the current frame by the number of frames set in the
Frame Range field beside the Retime icons.
See Work with Blue Pencil frames for more. |
Add a Blue Pencil layer to the Layer manager. | Draw in the scene and a layer is created for the current camera view. You can also click Add New Layer icon in the Layer Manager. See Manage Blue Pencil Layers for more. |
Use Duplicate Previous Frame to create an animation guide | Use
Duplicate Previous Frame
to copy sketches from earlier frames and then transform them to create an animated sketch sequence.
See Work with Blue Pencil frames for more. |
Save your Blue Pencil drawings | Export your drawings in a .zip file using the Export Frames option in the Blue Pencil toolbar. See Import or Export Blue Pencil frames. |
Draw with Blue Pencil using a tablet | Configure Maya for a tablet using the Tablet API setting in the Interface Preferences. (See also Use a tablet with Blue Pencil) |