Create new brush presets

You can create your own customized brush presets by saving the template brush settings.

To create a new brush preset

1. Do one of the following:
   • If you are basing the new brush on existing brush settings, select the brush on the Shelf or Visor.
   • If you are creating a brush from an existing stroke, select the stroke and select Paint Effects > Get Settings from Selected Stroke.
   • If you are creating the brush from scratch, select Paint Effects > Reset Template Brush.
2. Select Paint Effects > Template Brush Settings and modify the brush attributes. For details, see Define template brush settings.
3. When you are satisfied with your settings, select Paint Effects > Save Brush Preset. The Save Brush Preset window opens.
4. In the Label box, type a name for the brush preset. If you save the brush to a shelf, this name appears only if the Icon Style is Icon/Text (Window > Settings/Preferences > Shelf Editor). If you save the brush to the Visor, this name appears below the icon for the preset.
5. In the Overlay Label box, type an overlay label for the brush preset. The overlay label appears as part of the brush icon on the shelf.
6. Select where you want to store the preset brush: To Shelf or To Visor.

   If you save the brush To Shelf, it’s stored in the currently selected shelf.

   If you save the brush To Visor, you must specify the Visor directory (which must be writable by you). You can drag brushes from the Visor to a Shelf.

   Tip

   If you are the only one using the brushes, save the brush to a Shelf. If you want to share your brushes, or if the brushes have file textures, save the brush to the Visor.

7. If you selected to save the preset to Visor, type a brushes subdirectory location in the Visor Directory box. For example, if you type mybrushes, Maya attempts to save the brush in the mybrushes subfolder (which must be writable) of the brushes folder in the Visor.
   Note

   The Visor brushes folder is typically not writable. To save brushes to the Visor, create a writable folder in the brushes folder and specify this directory.

8. Create an icon to represent the brush, as follows:
   • In the Paint Effects Panel, paint an area on the canvas or in the scene with the brush. If you are in the scene, render the strokes (Stroke Refresh > Rendered, or click the Refresh button), if necessary.
   • In the Save Brush Preset window, click the Grab Icon button.
   • In the Paint Effects Panel, drag to select a painted area that represents the brush stroke. The selected area displays in the window. If you are not satisfied with the icon, click the Grab Icon button again and reselect the image until you are.
     Note

     You can only grab icons in the Paint Effects panel.

9. Click Save Brush Preset to save the brush.
   Note

   If you are rendering on multiple machines and your brushes use file textures, you must copy your /brushes and /brushImages directories to every machine you render on if they do not share the same disk.

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