Learning Resources > Tutorials > Getting Started with Maya > Painting > Lesson 2: Painting in 3D
using Paint Effects >
Introduction
The Paint Effects Tool goes beyond traditional paint software by allowing you to paint directly in 3D space, either on the ground plane or on an object’s surface. When you use Paint Effects for 3D work, the paint strokes are three-dimensional and editable.
With Paint Effects, all of the hundreds of preset brushes found in the Visor under the Paint Effects tab (airbrushes, pens, markers, watercolors, plants, fire, metal, flowers, trees, and underwater etc.) can be used to create 3D objects in your scene. For example, you can use the preset plant brushes to paint a 3D tropical fern garden around a walking character in your scene.
You can animate brush strokes to create dynamic effects. For example, you can animate the ferns to shake in the wind or have them move when a character walks near them.
An electronic tablet with stylus is an ideal tool for painting with Paint Effects. With a real paint brush, pressing harder makes the brush wider and applies the paint more thickly. You can achieve the same effect with Paint Effects by specifying the effect of pressure on the stylus for each stroke and the threshold of response to pressure. You can map up to three attribute values to stylus pressure and edit them as you work.
When you use Paint Effects to paint 3D strokes, you can edit the brush and stroke attributes to create a variety of effects.
In this lesson, you begin to explore what is possible with painting in 3D using the Paint Effects Tool by learning how to: