Setting Up the Interface for Painting

 
 
 

In a typical paint session, you'll be working with a number of compositing views. Most of the procedures in this chapter assume that the following views are open:

Some of these views can be displayed in viewports, and all of them are available from the View Compositing menu in the main menu. Alternatively, you can use the compositing layout, which is described next.

Using the Compositing Layout

The compositing layout is one of Softimage's default layouts. It contains most of the tools you need to paint on images. Using this layout for painting is often more efficient than simply opening the required views in viewports, and is certainly preferable to opening them in floating views. In fact, when you use the compositing layout, the only floating views you need are the Fx color selector and a property editor.

A

FxTree

E

Timeline

B

Paint menu

F

Playback controls

C

Fx Viewer

G

Fx Operator Selector

D

Fx Paint Brush List

   

To switch to the compositing layout

  • From the main menu, choose View Layouts Compositing.

The Paint Menu

When you edit a paint operator's properties, the paint menu is displayed in the Fx Viewer. The paint menu is where you access the majority of the paint tools and settings. It remains visible as long as you are editing a paint operator.

While the menu is displayed, you can preview other operators in the Fx viewer and the menu remains visible. This allows you to paint on raster paint clip or a vector paint operator while previewing how another operator affects what you're painting.

As soon as you edit a non-paint operator's properties, the paint menu disappears.