Paint Tool Settings Property Editor

 
 
 

| Paint | Mask | Display | Tool Preferences

To display: edit a paint operator and choose Paint Tool Settings from the FX Viewer paint menu, or press 3.

Allows you to pre-set the properties for new shapes. This property editor has the Brush Property Editor and the Flood Fill/Magic Wand Properties Property Editor appended to it. These property editors set the attributes of new paint strokes and new flood fill shapes/magic wand selections respectively.

Paint

New Shapes

Specifies basic attributes for new color shapes.

You can set one of the following three shape types at a time:

Bezier

Draws new shapes as Bezier shapes.

Bezier shapes consist of a series of control points, each connected to the next by a smooth or straight Bezier curve.

  • Straight Bezier curve shapes resemble polyline shapes since all of the points are connected by straight lines and the points' handles are hidden.

  • Smooth Bezier curve shapes tend to curve at every point. The points' handles can be displayed, allowing you to adjust the curve.

B-Spline

Draws new shapes as B-Spline shapes.

B-Spline shapes consist of a series of control points, each connected to the next by an interpolated curve. Each point is assigned a weight value that defines the degree top which it pulls the curve. The higher the weight, the stronger the pull, and the straighter the curve connecting a point to its two adjacent points.

Polyline

Draws new shapes as Polyline shapes.

Polyline shapes consist of a series of control points, each connected to the next by a straight line segment.

Closed

Toggles whether new shapes are closed or not.

A closed shape's last point is connected to its first point so that the outline goes completely around the fill. An open shape's last point is not connected to its first point, leaving a gap in the outline. Open shapes with no fill are often used to create paint strokes with editable points.

You can set one of the following shape states at a time:

Stroke

When activated, only the outline of new shapes is drawn.

Filled

When activated, only the fill of new shapes is drawn.

Both

When activated, both the outline and the fill of new shapes are drawn.

Opacity

Controls the opacity level of new shapes' stroke and fill. The higher the value, the more opaque the shapes.

Mask

These options control which of an images channels new shapes are painted on, as well as whether new shapes obey the paint mask.

Paint On

RGB

When active, new shapes are painted on the image's RGB channels.

Alpha

When active, new shapes are painted on the image's alpha channel.

Obey Paint Mask

The paint mask is a matte or grayscale image that defines which areas of an image are paintable, and which areas aren't (sort of like an obey matte for painting). You can set any operator as the paint mask from the operator's contextual menu.

Enable

When active, parts of the image that correspond to black parts of the mask are protected from new shapes.

Invert

When the Obey Paint Mask > Enable option is activated, activating this option inverts the mask so that parts of the image that correspond to white parts of the mask are protected from new shapes.

Display

These options toggle the display of various tools and visual cues for editing strokes and shapes in the FX Viewer.

Points

Toggles the display of shape points.

Curves

Toggles the display of curves on selected shapes (and unselected shaped if the Unselected Curves option is activated). Curves are displayed as dashed white outlines around the selected shapes' edges.

Handles

Toggles the display of edit handles for selected Bezier shapes.

Unselected Curves

Toggles the display of curves on unselected shapes. Curves are displayed as dashed red outlines around unselected shapes' edges.

Display of Curves must also be activated for unselected curves to be displayed.

Lines

Toggles the display of lines on shapes. Lines are displayed as straight solid green lines connecting shape points, but not necessarily following their outlines the way curves do.

Bounding Boxes

Toggles the display of shape bounding boxes. Bounding boxes are displayed as dashed blue rectangles around selected shapes.

Selected shapes also display a bounding box for transformations, so the dashed blue bounding boxes only appear when one of the point editing tools is active.

Tool Preferences

These options control various paint tool attributes.

Brush Cursor

Type

Defines the appearance of the mouse pointer when the Paint Brush tool or the Line tool is activated.

None: no paint cursor is displayed. The regular mouse pointer indicates where new strokes are painted.

Precise: the paint cursor is displayed as a small plus sign (+) that you can use as a cross-hairs to paint precisely.

Brush Size: the paint cursor is displayed as a circle the size of the brush stamp.

Hide Cursor While Painting

When activated, the mouse pointer disappears while you are painting a stroke and reappears when you release the mouse button and stop painting.

Shape Editing

Create Smooth Bezier Handles

When this setting is activated, new Bezier shapes are drawn with smooth handles, creating curves at each point instead of the sharp corners that are created when the setting is deactivated.

Switch to Edit Points After Drawing a Closed Shape

As advertised, activates the Edit Point tool when you finish drawing a closed shape of any type.

Freehand Strokes

Curve Accuracy

Controls how closely a new freehand shape's outline matches the contour that you draw in a vector paint layer.

When setting the Curve Accuracy, bear in mind that although shapes drawn at higher accuracy settings are more accurate, they tend to have noisier edges/outlines because the curves replicate variations caused by subtle hand movements.