The VertexPaint modifier lets you paint vertex colors onto an object. You're not restricted to only vertex-level painting. Using sub-object selection, you can also control which vertices get painted, face-by-face. All faces sharing a vertex have the adjacent corner shaded as well. The resulting painted object receives a coarse gradient across each face.
The amount of color that 3ds Max applies to a vertex depends on the distance of the vertex from the position of the paint cursor on the face. The more you select a face, the more it changes to the new color. The Opacity button also controls the strength of the color. 3ds Max shades the color, so if you have one green vertex and two white vertices for one face, for example, you'll see a gradient on that face.
VertexPaint modifier also lets you paint values for the vertex alpha and illumination channels. These channels affect the transparency and shading of vertex colors, respectively.
For best results with VertexPaint, keep the following in mind:
About Map Channels and Vertex Color, Vertex Alpha, and Vertex Illum
When using vertex paint, it is helpful to understand how 3ds Max manages vertex color, alpha, illumination, and map channels. 3ds Max stores and manages all of these different pieces of information using the same underlying system.
The map channels are defined as triple-value channels (tuples) with a unique integer ID number ranging from –2 to 99. The first five map channels have specific and familiar usages:
Every geometric vertex of a mesh or poly object can be assigned up to 102 channel values (99 + 3).
The reason for the negative numbering scheme for the vertex alpha and illumination channels is actually historic: It serves to preserve the meaning of existing map-channel data in older scene files before vertex alpha and illumination were added.
You can paint on any arbitrary channel, and to use one or more channels for any arbitrary meaning for a given vertex. It is useful in development of content for games to paint on arbitrary map channels numbered higher than those used for texture mapping (such as channels 3, 4, 5). These can be used to store logical information about a vertex: for example, whether it is “slippery” or “explosive.”
You can assign a single vertex a stack of map channels that carry different meanings. When you collapse the modifier stack, 3ds Max preserves these map channels.
The VertexPaint modifier takes this into consideration through its simple exposure of map channel IDs for display and painting.
The layer system allows you to paint changes on a single layer, then make another layer on top of that, and paint additional changes. This can be used to store different versions or variations of your vertex color painting.
Every layer has a blending mode that it uses to determine how it combines with the other layers. You can assign vertex colors using the Assign Vertex Colors utility, then add another layer, change the layer mode operator to Lighten, and paint with a white paintbrush to lighten up areas. Fifteen different modes are available, and many tasks can be accomplished using paint layers.
One of the primary advantages of VertexPaint is its use of the modifier stack as a kind of image-composite stack. Each VertexPaint modifier serves as a single layer in the composite. You can move layers up and down the stack, enable and disable them, and flatten the stack using Condense to single layer.
If you load an older file that uses a previous version of the VertexPaint modifier, then the legacy modifier will be loaded when the file is opened.
The legacy modifier has not been changed, and the two modifiers are not inherently compatible in terms of their data format during loading and saving.
If you have vertex color data in a legacy VertexPaint modifier, you can use the Condense to single layer tool of the new modifier to migrate the vertex colors into the new modifier.
To add scene lighting into an object's vertex color:
The floating Paintbox appears, docked to the left edge of the viewports.
To paint vertex colors on an object:
To see vertex colors in a viewport:
Vertex Color is one item on a drop-down list. The other items are Vertex Illumination, Vertex Alpha, Map Channel Color (which uses the spinner immediately below the list), and Soft Selection Color. Viewports can display only one of these vertex channels at a time.
Now, when you render the scene, the rendering shows the painted vertices.
To animate the opacity of a vertex color layer
To animate vertex color using UVW XForm modifier:
You can use the UVW XForm modifier in conjunction with a specific vertex paint layer to modulate vertex color effects in the viewport.
This will attenuate the RGB values of the underlying vertex color results uniformly. It will effectively dim out the vertex color result directly below the UVW XForm modifier.
To paint under an existing layer and view the result:
Now, when you paint on the layer, you will see the painting taking place under the top layer.
The controls in this group are identical to the selection controls found in the Selection group of the Paintbox rollout.
These controls specify which channel type the vertex paint layer will affect, and which map channel number you'll paint on.
If a channel has a name defined it will appear here. Channels can be named using the Channel Info Utility.
When turned on, VertexPaint ignores whatever vertex colors it receives from below it on the stack. As a result, you will see the layer's raw colors on an otherwise white object. The blend mode has no effect (it behaves like Normal mode) because the base color is considered transparent, so the layer is not blended with anything.
The purpose of this toggle is to isolate a layer from the colors below, to help the user visualize the layer's raw data. The layer is not completed isolated when this is on, because layers above it can still affect the result. The user needs to disable those layers or turn off Show End Result to see the current layer in complete isolation.
The Ignore Base Color toggle should only be needed when the object at the bottom of the stack already has some vertex colors baked in. In other cases, you can just disable the paint layers or whichever modifiers are adding vertex colors to the object. In that case, the active paint layer would not receive any vertex colors from below itself on the stack. As a result, it treats all base color as transparent and the layer colors are displayed in the raw (not blended with anything).
When on, the modifier will not be deleted by any Condense To Single Layer operation. Since Condense To Single Layer performs two independent actions (creating a new baked-color modifier and then deleting existing modifiers), this option allows access to only the first part of the functionality when necessary. That is, you can bake colors into a new paint layer, without being forced to have the old modifiers deleted.
Displays the Vertex Paintbox floater if it has been closed.
This rollout gives you access to the same controls found in the Assign Vertex Colors utility. They let you take the scene lighting information and bake it into the vertex channel system.
The VertexPaint modifier's Paintbox is a floating toolbox with various vertex painting tools. The Paintbox is launched automatically after the VertexPaint modifier has been applied to one or more objects. You can close the Paintbox by clicking the X button in the upper-right corner of its window. To open it again, click the Edit button in the Parameters rollout of the VertexPaint Modifier
The Adjust Color dialog lets you adjust the color of currently selected vertices. If there is no active vertex sub-object selection, it affects all vertices equally.
The VertexPaint modifier's Color Palette lets you create and maintain color palettes for use with vertex paints. You can save or load palettes as Color Clipboard (CCB) files, which are also used by the Color Clipboard utility.
The Painter Options dialog for the Skin modifier appears when you click the Painter Options button.