Attach brushes to curves

You can manually attach brushes to existing CV or EP curves. This is a convenient way to convert existing NURBS curves into Paint Effects strokes.

Laying stroke paths using curves gives you better control over the paths of your strokes and it allows you to orient your strokes relative to a mesh or surface’s normals. This is useful when you want a stroke to wrap continuously around a 3D object or you want your strokes to deform with their target meshes or surfaces.

To attach a Paint Effects brush to curves

1. Do one of the following:
   • Select the Paint Effects brush preset you want to apply to the curves.
   • Get Paint Effects brush settings from an existing stroke.

   Select the stroke and select Paint Effects > Get Settings from Selected Stroke.

2. (Optional) Modify your brush’s attributes.

   Paint Effects > Template Brush Settings or use the +b (Linux and Windows) or +b (Mac OS X) hotkey combination. For information on modifying brush attributes, see Define template brush settings.

3. Select the curves to which you want to attach your brush.
4. Select Paint Effects > Curve Utilities > Attach Brush to Curves.

The selected Paint Effects brush attaches to the selected curves.

To attach a Paint Effects brush to curves on a polygon mesh or NURBS surface

1. Select the polygon mesh or NURBS surface to which you want to attach the curves.
2. In the Maya main menu, select Modify > Make Live.
3. Draw the EP or CV curves to which you want to attach your brush on the mesh or surface.
4. Select Modify > Make not Live.
5. Select the curves to which you want to attach your brush and -select the mesh or surface to which you want to attach the curves.
6. Do one of the following:
   • Select the Paint Effects brush preset you want to apply to the curves.
   • Get Paint Effects brush settings from an existing stroke.

   Select the stroke and select Paint Effects > Get Settings from Selected Stroke.

7. (Optional) Modify your brush’s attributes.

   Paint Effects > Template Brush Settings or use the +b (Linux and Windows) or +b (Mac OS X) hotkey combination. For information on modifying brush attributes, see Define template brush settings.

8. Select Paint Effects > Curve Utilities > Attach Brush to Curves.

The selected Paint Effects brush attaches to the selected curves, and the curves attach to the nearest points on the mesh or surface.

Your Paint Effects brush strokes are automatically oriented relative to the mesh’s or surface’s normals, and they will now deform with the mesh or surface.