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Paint properties

The following describes the properties for the items that appear on the Paint Tools tray (that is, Paint Brush, Projection, Airbrush, Pencil, Paint Erase, Clone, Dry, Blur, Dodge, Burn, Contrast, Sponge, Hue, Hue Shift, and Invert.

NoteSome properties are not used for all tools.

General

Color

  Displays the current color for the Paint Brush. Clicking the color box displays the Paint Tool Color window which lets you modify the color assigned to the Paint Brush color.

Affect

  Specific to the Dodge and Burn tools. The presets let you bias the lightening (Dodge) or darkening (Burn) effect that occurs within the specified tonal range in the areas you stroke:

  - Midtones - Affects the mid-tones (gray value range) on the texture image in the areas you stroke.
  - Highlights - Affects the light gray to white values on the texture image in the areas you stroke.
  - Shadows - Affects the darker gray to black tones on the texture image in the areas you stroke.
  - All - Affects all tones on the texture image in the areas you stroke.
  NoteRepeated strokes of the tool in the same area of an image build up the effect.
Exposure

  Specific to the Dodge and Burn tools. Controls the amount of lightening or darkening that occurs on the affected pixels for each stroke of the brush depending on the Affect property setting (Midtones, Highlights, Shadows, or All).

Blur Strength

  Specific to the Blur tool. Determines the size of the circular area (in pixels) that is sampled for determining the amount of blur. The larger the radius, the greater the amount of blur that occurs. For more information, see Blur detail in painted textures.

Contrast

  Specific to the Contrast brush. Controls the difference between light and dark pixels. A positive Contrast value increases the contrast. Negative values reduce it. The range is -10 to 10. The default setting is 1.

Amount

  Specific to the Sponge brush. Increases or decreases the color saturation for pixels in an image in the areas you stroke.

  A positive value for the Amount property decreases a pixel’s color saturation, while a negative value increases it. The range is -1 to 1. The default setting is 1.

Hue Shift

  Specific to the Hue Shift brush. Hue values are shifted by the amount you specify in degrees around the color ring relative from their current value. For example, a Hue Shift setting of 90 degrees shifts a red pixel hue color to become green (based on a counter-clockwise direction around the color ring). You can enter either positive or negative values ranging between 1 to 180 degrees and also use the Color Chooser for reference. For more information, see Using the Color Chooser.

Size

  Sets the radius of the tool. Size is measured in world space units (for example, by default a Size of 100 = a radius of 100 centimeters). Hotkeys: press b + left-mouse-button and drag the mouse, or use [ (to reduce size) ] (to increase size).

Strength

  Determines how much the paint tool is applied with each stroke. Hotkey: press m + left-mouse-button and drag the stylus/mouse, or use ; (to reduce strength) ' (to increase strength).

Mirror

  Reflects a stroke from one side of a model to the other, along the specified axis:

  - Off - strokes are not reflected.
  - X - strokes are reflected across the world space X axis.
  - Y - strokes are reflected across the world space Y axis.
  - Z - strokes are reflected across the world space Z axis.
  - Local X - strokes are reflected across the local space X axis.
  - Local Y - strokes are reflected across the local space Y axis.
  - Local Z - strokes are reflected across the local space Z axis.
  - Tangent - strokes are reflected across the topological center line of a topologically symmetrical model. To use tangent space mirroring on a model, you must first identify the model's topological center by selecting two faces that straddle the center line and then selecting Edit > Set Topological Center. For models with n-sided faces this procedure needs to be repeated on level1.
Use Stamp Image

  Turns on the selected stamp for the tool. Stamps modify the strength of the sculpt brush according to the gray scale values in the stamp image. The darker the overall values the lower the strength of the tool. Not all sculpt brushes work with Stamps.

Orient To Stroke

  Orients the stamp such that its top points along the direction of the stroke.

Rotate

  Rotates the stamp image clockwise.

Horizontal Flip

  Flips the stamp image horizontally.

Vertical Flip

  Flips the stamp image vertically.

Randomize

  Turns on the randomize features for the tool stamp.

Random Horizontal Offset

  Randomizes the horizontal position of the brush tip dynamically through the stroke.

Random Vertical Offset

  Randomizes the vertical position of the brush tip dynamically through the stroke.

Randomize Rotate

  Randomizes the rotation of the brush tip dynamically through the stroke.

Randomize Scale

  Randomizes the size of the brush tip dynamically through the stroke.

Randomize Strength

  Randomizes the strength of the brush tip dynamically through the stroke.

Horizontal Flips

  Randomly flips the position of the brush tip along its X axis dynamically through the stroke.

Vertical Flips

  Randomly flips the position of the brush tip along its Y axis dynamically through the stroke.

Stamp Spacing

  Controls the stroke’s stamp frequency/continuity when using a sculpt or paint tool. Depending on the Size and Falloff settings for a tool, the Stamp Spacing can be set to a higher value to refine the tools behavior and improve the appearance of the resulting stroke. The default setting is 0 and ranges between 0 and 100. The higher the setting, the more visible gaps occur on the stroke depending on the tool settings.

Steady Stroke

  An option that helps to produce a smoother tool stroke by filtering mouse/stylus movements. When Steady Stroke is turned on a vector displays on the tool cursor and the stroke is not drawn on the model until the mouse/stylus has moved a distance equal to the length of the vector. The length of the vector is controlled by the Steady Stroke Distance property.

Steady Stroke Distance

  Sets the length of the Steady Stroke vector on the tool cursor. This distance limits when the stroke will be drawn when the stroke is made on the model.

Falloff

Falloff

  Specifies how the sculpt tool has a diminishing effect (or not) from its center point to its outer edge. The falloff is represented as a curve that can be edited.

  Falloff presets are available in the Falloff tool tray.

  The following options describe items that appear when you right click in the falloff image within the Properties window:

  - Insert Point - inserts a new point under the cursor.
  - Select Point - selects the point under the cursor (when the cursor is hovering over a point).
  - Delete Point - deletes the point under the cursor (when the cursor is hovering over a point).
Snap

  Constrains points to the grid.

Store To

  Save the current falloff curve to the tray.

Advanced

Remember Size

  Preserves the size of the brush between usage. With Remember Size off, the brush will inherit the size of the brush used before it.

Orient To Surface

  Orients the tool ring display (in the 3D View) along the normal of the face under the center of the ring. Orient To Surface does not influence the effect of the brush on the surface -- only the display of the cursor.

Pen Pressure

Min Size

  Specifies how small the tool size is when the lightest pressure is applied to the pen. Min Size is expressed as a percentage of the primary tool’s Size property. For example, a Min Size of 100 indicates there is no size variance, regardless of the pressure applied.

Min Strength

  Specifies how weak the tool strength is when the lightest pressure is applied to the pen. Min Strength is expressed as a percentage of the primary tool Strength. For example, a Min Strength of 100 indicates there is no strength variance, regardless of the pressure applied.

Related topics

Painting basics

Paint Tools tray