Blue Pencil

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:

Click the Blue Pencil icon in the Panel toolbar.
Select Visualize > Blue Pencil from the Animation menu set (F4).

The Blue Pencil Toolbar displays above the Panel toolbar, under the Shelf.

The Blue Pencil toolbar appears below the Shelf

Tip: Drag the double-dotted lines to the left of the toolbar to reposition it or create a standalone toolbar.

To...	Do this:
Open the Blue Pencil toolbar	Select the Blue Pencil icon from the Panel toolbar. You can also select Visualize > Blue Pencil 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 Blue Pencil > Insert Frame(s) 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. See Preview Blue Pencil frames with ghosting.
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)

Blue Pencil

Related topics