Autodesk ® Artisan ™ is an intuitive paint and sculpting-based interface that delivers high quality, complex results in minimal time.
To open Artisan:
- Click the
beside the tool on its menu (for example, Modify > Paint Attributes Tool >
).
- Double-click the selected tool in the
Tool Box.
Tip: Leave the Tool Settings editor open as you work in Artisan. When you switch tools, the settings change to reflect the selected tool.
If you do not want to leave the Tool Settings editor open, define hotkeys or use the Artisan marking menus to change commonly used settings for each of the tools. For details, see Use Artisan hotkeys and Use Artisan marking menus.
Tailor the settings for your tools and save them to a shelf for easy access. For details, see Create an Artisan tool shelf.
Many brush tools in Maya use the Artisan interface. These tools are called Artisan tools. Artisan tools let you manipulate your geometry in a more artistic manner by allowing you to paint their values and properties with the brush tool.

Artisan BrushTool Settings
Artisan uses the Maya Tool Settings editor to set tool properties. All Artisan tools share common options, which are described in Artisan Tool Settings.
For each Artisan tool, the Tool Settings editor contains a section with settings that are specific to that tool. This unique section appears after the Brush section and its unique settings are described where the tool is described, as follows:
- 3D Paint Tool settings
- Maya Classic Dynamics
- Paint Attributes Tool Options
- Paint Cluster Weights Tool
- Paint Fluids Tool Options
- Paint Fur Attributes Tool – See Maya Fur
- Paint Hair Follicles Settings
- Paint Jiggle Weights Tool
- Paint Scripts Tool Options
- Paint Selection Tool
- Paint Set Membership Tool
- Paint Skin Weights Tool
- Paint Vertex Color Tool Options
- Painting with MEL scripts and the Paint Scripts Tool
- Sculpt Geometry Tool Options
Topics in this section