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■ Edit, blend, and save preset brushes for later use.
Painting on the 2D canvas is useful when you need to create a texture to
be applied to a surface. For example, suppose you paint a repeating brick
pattern on the canvas and save the canvas as an image file. You can create
a material, for instance, a Blinn material, then apply the image file as a
file texture to the color of the Blinn material. You can then apply the Blinn
material to a 3D wall you’ve modeled, which creates the illusion of a brick
wall.
Painting a 2D canvas is also useful for creating a background image for a scene.
For instance, you might create lush foliage on the canvas, put it on a camera’s
image plane, then use it as the backdrop for animated jungle animals in the
foreground.
Although not covered in this lesson, you can use a tablet and stylus to paint
with pressure sensitivity. Pressure sensitivity allows you to more realistically
simulate the effects of traditional drawing media (pens, pencils, markers, etc.)
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,
Lesson 2: Painting in 3D using Paint Effects | 575