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Blur detail in painted textures

The Blur brush softens (blurs) detail in painted texture layers in the areas you stroke and is ideal for retouching localized regions directly on your painted 3D models.

1. Click the Layers tab to display the Layers window, and set the layer display to Paint.
2. In the Layers window, select the paint layer that you want to apply some localized blur.
3. In the Paint Tools tray, select the Blur tool.
4. Stroke across the painted texture in the region you want to blur/soften.

   Paint is blurred in the areas you stroke. Adjust the Blur Radius and Strength properties to control the amount of blur produced by the brush as required. If more blur is required, undo your previous blur, increase the Blur Radius and stroke again.

Notes on using the Blur brush

The Blur brush is intended to allow texture artists to perform blurring on localized areas of a 3D model without having to export their texture maps to another image editing application. For best results, the following information should be considered.

- The Blur brush works as a screen-based operation that captures the 3D View to calculate a blurred image of the view. Any operation that changes the screen image causes the reference image to be recalculated and updated. This includes: dollying, tumbling or tracking the 3D View; turning paint layers on or off; accessing features in the Object List. In addition, adjusting the Blur Radius property will cause the reference image to be recalculated and updated. You may notice a slight pause on screen whenever this occurs.
- The relationship between the camera position and the model has an impact on the blur results. That is, dollying and zooming within the 3D View affects the blur results even though other Blur brush properties may remain constant. As a result, you may want to adjust the Blur Radius value after dollying the camera in order to achieve the same blur result.
- For best results, leave the Use Texture Filtering preference turned on when using the Blur brush.
- The blur effect is applied only to the currently selected layer. If paint layer blend modes are turned on for any paint layers the results may be occluded by other layers that may exist above selected layer in the layer stack. In this circumstance, you may want to turn off any other layers that are not required when using this tool.
- Blur artifacts can occur in a number of circumstances. For example, whenever the brush ring intersects the edge of the 3D View a hard edge on the blur results occurs in those locations. Avoid intersecting the brush ring with the outside silhouette edge of the model, or across areas of a model that face away from the camera viewing plane to minimize unexpected color edits on the texture.