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Paint Effects on 3D objects
Lesson 2: Painting in 3D using Paint Effects
Painting on objects
Creating a surface to paint on
In Paint Effects,
NURBS surfaces are the only surface type you can paint on. You will
create a NURBS plane, and sculpt it to make its surface appear like an
underwater terrain.
To
create a surface terrain for the underwater scene
- Select
File > New Scene.
A new empty scene is created.
- From
the main menu, select
Create > NURBS Primitives > Plane > .
The
NURBS plane options window appears.
- In
the NURBS Plane Options window,
select Edit > Reset settings and
then set the following options:
- Width:
15
- Length:
15
- U
Patches: 10
- V
Patches: 10
- In
the NURBS Plane Options window,
click Create.
Maya creates a plane primitive and positions
it at the origin. The plane is 15 units by 15 units in dimension
with 10 subdivisions along each side.
This surface will become the seabed terrain
for your scene.
To
sculpt a terrain using the Sculpt Geometry Tool
- Select
the plane surface.
- On
the Status line, select Surfaces from
the drop-down menu.
The Main Menu changes to display Surfaces menu
set.
- From
the Main menu, select
Edit NURBS > Sculpt Geometry Tool.
The cursor display changes to the brush cursor
for the Sculpt Geometry tool.
- On
the Status Line, click the Show/Hide
Tool Settings button to display the tool settings for
the Sculpt Geometry tool.
- In
the Brush section, set the Radius
(U) to 2. and set the sculpt Operation to Pull.
- Drag
the cursor along the back right edge of the plane to pull it upwards as
shown.
- Drag
the cursor along the back left edge of the plane to pull it upwards.
- Dolly
and track the view as required so you can easily view the areas
you need to sculpt.
- Sculpt
along the front and middle of the plane to make some bumpy areas.
- Repeat
steps 7 through 10 until you have your 3D terrain looking roughly as
shown in the image below.
TipIf you
want to undo a particular sculpt operation, click Ctrl + z to undo the
sculpt stroke. You can click Ctrl + z repeatedly to undo a number
of sculpt operations.
- When
you complete your terrain, return to the Rendering Menu
set by selecting Rendering from the drop-down menu on the Status
Line.
- Hide
the Sculpt Geometry Tool settings window
before proceeding.
To
select preset brushes from the Visor
- From
the main menu, select
Paint Effects > Get Brush.
The Visor panel
appears.
- In
the Visor, click the Paint
Effects tab to display the various brush folders.
- Scroll down the brush folders list to the underwater
folder, and click it to view its contents.