Raster Paint Overview
 
 
 

Raster painting is the process of painting directly on an image. It is a destructive process, meaning that each time you create a brush stroke, you're directly altering the image's pixels. Once you've painted on the image, the stroke or shape cannot be moved or altered (unless, of course you paint over it), although it can be undone. In Softimage, you can paint on an image by inserting a Paint Clip operator in the FxTree, and painting on it in the Fx Viewer using various paint tools.

TipAlthough you cannot modify strokes in raster paint mode, paint clip operators do have built-in tools for managing changes to frames. You can remove unsaved paint strokes on a given frame by reverting the frame back to its last saved state. For details, see Managing Frames in Raster Paint Clips.

Getting Raster Paint Clips

There are two ways to insert a raster paint clip into the FxTree. You can either select an image or sequence to add as a new paint clip, or you can insert a blank paint clip and configure it later. Raster paint clips can be RGB, RGBA, or Alpha type images, and can be 8 or 16 bit.

NoteYou cannot use movie files (.avi, .mov, and so on) as raster paint clips. However you can import them via File Input operators and then paint on them using vector paint operators.

Once you add a raster paint clip to the FxTree, you'll notice that it has a small paint brush icon in its upper-left corner. This differentiates it both from other image operators, which you cannot paint on, and from vector paint operators, which are identified by a different icon.

To import a raster paint clip into the FxTree

  1. Do one of the following to open a browser:

    • From the FxTree menu choose Import Raster Paint Images.

      or

    • Click the New Raster Paint Clip button in the FxTree menu bar.

  2. From the browser, select an image or sequence that you want to paint on and click OK. A new PaintClip operator is added to the FxTree workspace.

  3. If necessary, double-click the operator to open its property editor and adjust its properties. For information about all of the paint clip properties, see Paint Clip [Fx Operator Reference].

To place a blank raster paint clip in the FxTree

  1. On the Image tab of the Fx Operator selector, choose Raster Paint Clip.

  2. Middle-click an empty area of the FxTree workspace to insert the PaintClip operator.

    TipUsing the Fx Operator Selector, it's possible to set the operator's output connection before inserting it in the FxTree. This is described Getting Operators.
  3. Double-click the operator to open its property editor.

  4. Enter file name and path for the operator's source image or sequence.

    • If you wish to import an image or sequence, this should be a valid path to an existing one.

    Once you specify a source image or sequence for the operator, its other properties are updated based on the source image's properties.

    • If you wish to leave the paint clip blank, and paint from scratch, this should be the name and path that the new image will be saved under.

    Alternatively, you can click the ellipses (...) button to open a browser, from which you can select an image or sequence.

  5. If you are creating a blank paint clip, set the other properties to define the clip's attributes. For information about all of the paint clip properties, see Paint Clip [Fx Operator Reference].

Managing Frames in Raster Paint Clips

Raster paint is destructive, meaning that when you paint, you alter the image's pixels permanently and irrevocably. Fortunately, as you paint, the clip's original frames, as well as all of your paint strokes are cached until you save the changes into the clip. You can undo your changes by reverting changed frames to their original state. This works for all paint clips, whether they are still images or image sequences.

TipYou can also set a preference to save modifications to save changes whenever you change frames. See Saving Modifications when Changing Frames for details.

You can save and/or revert changes to raster paint clips from the Modified Frames tab of an Paint Clip operator's property editor.

A

The Modified Frames tab is where you manage painted frames.

B

The Modified Frames list lists every unsaved frame that you've changed. Frames are listed in numerical order.

C

The Save Frames controls allow you to save selected frames, or all modified frames.

D

The Revert Changes controls allow you to revert the current frame, selected frames, or all modified frames to their original state.

Important

You can also save modifications to raster paint clips by saving the scene. Be careful though: saving the scene saves all modifications to all frames in all raster paint clips in all FxTrees in the scene!

Unless you're about to close the scene, you'll probably want to be more selective about saving modifications to your clips.

To select modified frames

  1. Edit a raster Paint Clip operator that you've been painting on, as described in Editing and Previewing Paint Operators.

  2. From the Modified Frames tab of the operator's property editor, do any of the following:

    • Click a single frame to select it.

    • Shift+click frames to add them to the selection.

    • Ctrl+click frames to toggle their selection.

    • Click+drag over multiple frames to select them all.

To save modified frames

  • Do one of the following:

    • Select the frames you wish to save, as described in the previous procedure, and click the Save Frames Selected button.

      Modifications are saved into the selected frames, overwriting the original pixels.

      or

    • Click the Save Frames All Modified button.

      Modifications are saved into all modified frames, overwriting the original pixels.

Saved frames are removed from the Modified Frames list. Once you save modified frames, they are permanently altered and become the original frames to which subsequent paint strokes are added.

For example, painting on a frame, saving the modifications, painting again and then reverting the modified frames will revert to the frame with the first set of paint strokes.

To revert modified frames

  • Do one of the following:

    • Click the Revert Changes Current Frame button to revert the current frame back to its last saved state and deletes all cached changes.

      or

    • Select the frames you wish to revert, as described in To select modified frames, and click the Revert Changes Revert Selected button. This reverts the selected frames to their last saved state and deletes all cached changes.

      or

    • Click the Revert Changes All Frames button to revert all modified frames back to their last saved state and deletes all cached changes.

Reverted frames are removed from the Modified Frames list.

Saving Modifications when Changing Frames

You can set a preference to save modifications whenever you change frames. For example, if you paint on frame 3 of a sequence, then move to frame 2, the changes to frame 3 are automatically saved.

To save modifications when you change frames

  1. From the main menu, choose File Preferences to open the Preferences window.

  2. In the explorer pane, select Compositing to open the Compositing preferences property editor in the right pane.

  3. On the Raster Paint tab, activate the Save Frames on Time Change option.

Raster Paint Clips in the Explorer

In the explorer, an FxTree's raster paint operators appear directly under the its FxTree node, along with all of its other Fx operators.