Essential Blender- P19 docx

Figure UVD.12: Selecting in non-local mode selects all nodes connected in the 3D view. This is particularly useful when your mesh is divided into many islands and you need to find which parts of one island correspond to which parts of another. Tip: Node selection in the UV Editor shares many selection functions with meshes in Edit mode. Fixing the Unwrap Although the default unwrap is usually pretty good, you will probably need to optimize it for texture painting. Areas that will be a focus of rendering and detail need to be carefully painted, and an even, proportional unwrap can only help. Pinning and Live Unwrap Transform Areas of an unwrap that you are happy with can be frozen by "pinning." Pressing the P-key pins selected nodes. Fixing portions of an unwrap that you are unhappy with is as simple as pinning a few key nodes within the bad area and moving them into a better configuration. Then, after also pinning the good areas, Blender can re-unwrap the mesh, hopefully giving better results. It uses all the pinned nodes as a starting point for its next attempt. Asking for another unwrap can be done from the 3D view with the U-key menu as before, or directly from within the UV Editor with Ctrl-E. One great thing Blender can do to make this process much more intuitive is called "Live Unwrap Transform," and can be accessed only through the UVs menu on the UV Editor's header. Once Live Unwrap Transform is enabled, there is no need to re-unwrap your meshes after pinning and adjusting. The unwrap adjusts itself in real time as you pull and push pinned nodes, giving you great visual feedback that helps to quickly optimize the unwrap. Figure UVD.13: A bad unwrap, with several nodes pinned, and one selected. Figure UVD.14: The selected, pinned nodes have been moved, causing the rest of the unwrap to adjust itself. When you have the unwrap the way you want it, be sure to turn off Live Unwrap in the UVs menu so you don't accidentally move a pinned node and ruin your work. Tip: P-key pins nodes. Alt-P unpins. Moving pinned nodes while in Live Unwrap Transform mode adjusts the unwrap in real time. Paint Tools Blender's painting tools can be used to paint onto existing images or to create new ones, and can be used either in the UV/Image Editor or directly within the 3D view. To be able to texture paint a model in the 3D view, you need to have assigned UV coordinates to the mesh's faces by unwrapping. Texture Painting mode Is accessed through the Image menu on the UV Editor header, or by changing the object mode on the 3D header to "Texture Paint". Figure UVD.15: The Image menu in the UV/Image Editor. Figure UVD.16: Texture Paint mode, with the Image Paint panel. Whether you are painting in the 3D view or in the UV/Image Editor, you must have an image selected in the UV/Image Editor (just called the Image Editor from now on, as we're done with the UV functionality). If you have an image loaded for some other reason (a texture, a background, etc.), you can select it on the Imageblock selector dropdown on the Image Editor header. Figure UVD.17: The Imageblock selector. If you would like to create a completely new image, choose "New" from the Image menu, then set a resolution in the dialogue that pops up. A new, black image is created and loaded into the Image Editor. Tip: You can paint directly on images by setting the Image Editor or object to Texture Paint mode. Pressing the C-key in Texture Painting mode in the Image Editor brings up the Image Paint palette. A nearly identical panel, called Paint, is available in the Edit buttons (F9) for use in the 3D view. Figure UVD.18: The Image Paint and Paint panels. Painting is accomplished by LMB dragging across either the image itself or the model in the 3D view. The general brush controls are: Color: Chosen by LMB clicking on the color swatch. This is the main color that is used for painting. Opacity: How strongly the painting blends with the current image. An Opacity value of 1.0 causes the painted color to completely cover the existing image. 0.50 would cause the color to be applied at only 50%. Size: Adjusts the size of the paint brush. Falloff: The hardness of the brush. Setting Falloff to 1.0 creates a hard-edged brush. Reducing it to 0.0 creates a brush with a very soft edge. Spacing: How frequently the brush "stamps" its color as you drag. Painting in Blender isn't truly continuous as it is if you were to drag a brush loaded with oil paints in the real world. The Image Editor simulates continuous painting by stamping the color every few pixels, in the shape of the brush. The Spacing value is a percentage of the Size value and determines how far apart these stamps occur. If Size is set to 45 and Spacing is set to 10, the brush will paint a new blob of color every 4.5 pixels (10% of 45). If you happen to have a pen and art tablet for your computer, you'll find that it works very well with texture painting. Clicking the little "P" icon beside any of these settings will allow them to be controlled by your pen's pressure. Airbrush: Enabling this option causes paint to continue to flow for as long as you have the LMB pressed, even if the brush is stationary. Normally, painting only occurs as the brush moves. In addition to painting with a color, it is also possible to paint with a Blender texture, giving even more detail to your painted image. Any texture that has been created in the Texture buttons (F6) can be selected in the dropdown at the bottom of the Image Paint palette. That texture is then used along with the palette color when painting. Note: See Chapter 9 for information on using the Texture buttons. Textured brushes can be created in the Texture buttons by selecting the Brush button in the Preview panel. Draw Modes The top of the Image Paint and Paint palettes control the brush mode. Draw: This is the normal painting brush that you have been using. Soften: This brush blurs the image as you use it. Smear: Dragging with this brush pulls and smears the image. Clone: The clone brush lets you paint portions of other images into the one you are working on. The clone brush is not available when painting in the 3D view. When the clone brush is selected, the texture dropdown at the bottom of the Image Paint palette is replaced by an image selector dropdown. You can select any other image that has already been loaded into Blender. When you do, that image shows up in the background at 50% opacity. Painting with the clone brush copies the portion of the image under the brush into the active image. The background image may be moved around with the RMB in order to align portions of it with different sections of your main image. Figure UVD.19: A clone image used in the background. Image File Management It is important to remember to save any images you create or alter in the Image Editor. If you don't, any changes you've made will be lost when you quit Blender. To save your changes to an image, or to save a new image for the first time, select "Save" from the Image menu in the Image Editor. Blender will let you know that an image has unsaved changes by placing an asterisk (*) beside the Image menu. Figure UVD.20: Unsaved image indicator. One Last Bit of Fun For a final cool trick, try clicking the Lock icon on the Image Editor header. If your object is visible in the 3D view while painting in the Image Editor, the Lock will show you the painting in the 3D view in real time. To be able to see it, either enable Texture Paint mode in the 3D view or set the object's Draw mode to Textured.