MATTER

Paint

 

The Paint menu cell in the Matter module lets you manage and edit textures. To access the Paint dialogue box, you must first select an object with 2D textures, then choose the Paint menu cell.

The Paint dialogue box can be accessed from the Paint menu cell or from the Paint button in the 2D Texture dialogue box.

For more information on using the parameters in this dialogue box, see the Painting Textures section in the Defining Materials and Textures User's Guide.

If you access Paint with a non-polygon mesh model, you can edit the model's textures but not its UV coordinates. All SOFTIMAGE 3D models can be displayed, but UV editing is only possible on polygon mesh objects.

 

Parameters

 

2D Clip View

This view allows you to view and edit different clips (textures or pictures), each of which may or may not already be associated with a model. You can view a database list of clips, showing icons of each clip.

A clip is the equivalent of a picture file. The clip database is a list of such pictures. The term clip is more appropriate than "picture" because you can use the clipboard to manipulate clips as clipboard contents like creating a new clip.

When you open the Paint dialogue box, the Clip view displays the current texture. If you're not sure what the current texture is, check in the Schematic window (Matter mode); the current texture has a red link.

You can load or edit clips in both RGB and Colour Index modes.

Clip Db

When you click the Clip Db button, the 2D Clip view displays a scroll box representing the database of clips associated with the selected model as well as user-defined clips.

Each clip in the list is represented by:

2D Texture Clips

The clip database initially contains the list of pictures used by the 2D textures associated with this model. For example, a model may have two global textures and three local textures (each texture is a picture), so that the clip database for this model is composed initially of five clips; one per texture.

Selecting a Clip

If you are displaying a clip, it is the current selection in the list. If you wish to select and edit another clip:

  • Double-click on its associated icon

or

  • Click on the icon and click the Clip Db button again.

Either action displays the selection in the Clip view.

 

RGBA Modes

This menu below the 2D Clip view allows you to edit your clip in both RGB and colour-indexed modes. You can work back and forth in both modes, an approach that has great flexibility for designers.

There are some dependencies and interaction between the options in this menu and the current editing mode, the palette controls, and the CI->RGB command.

RGBA, RGBA Only, Alpha Only

The RGBA (the default) and Alpha Only options both use the Alpha channel which contains transparency information.

Colour Index

Generates a colour-indexed version of the RGB image (with or without dithering) which can then be edited as a colour-indexed image. In this mode, all pixels referencing the palette foreground entry are automatically modified when you modify its colours.

Note:
You do not automatically generate a new palette by changing to colour index mode. You can generate a new palette by selecting the Generate option from the Pal. Oper. menu.

When working in Colour Index mode, certain rules and guidelines apply, which may differ from those of RGB editing mode. The following summarizes important differences in the two modes.

  • In Colour Index mode, picking a colour in the image positions the foreground or background entry (depending on whether or not you left or middle-click) in the palette, but does not modify its colour (it positions the foreground and background to the palette entry referenced by the pixel under the cursor). In RGB mode, colour picking updates the foreground or background entry in the palette.
  • A line drawn in RGB mode is antialiased, but a line drawn in Colour Index mode is not. However, when you generate a Colour Index version of the image, the RGB version is still kept. Any operations you apply to the colour-indexed version are also performed on the RBG version, and the corresponding line drawn in RGB is not antialiased. This is to avoid introducing new colours when switching back and forth between the RGB and Colour Index modes.
  • If you are in Colour Index mode and wish to apply RGB operations (such as Blur, Smear, Spray, etc.) and preserve the look and colour of the colour-indexed image, use the CI->RGB option before changing to RGB mode. This replaces the original RGB image with the current colour-indexed image. You can then return to Colour Index mode or keep working in RGB mode.
  • When you use Fill operations in Colour Index mode, the RGB image is updated identically, so that a fill line drawn in Colour Index mode is in the same location in the RGB image. In the RGB image, it is possible that different pixels are updated to preserve the consistency of the two images.

Tools

The Tools options below the 2D Clip view allow you to edit the image in the view in various ways.

For the Colour, Pen, Spray, Line, Ellipse, and Rect tools, you can draw or paint in the foreground colour by using the left mouse button, and draw or paint in the background colour using the middle mouse button.

The foreground colour is highlighted with an orange border in the colour palette; the background colour is highlighted with a green border in the colour palette.

For more information on foreground and background colours, and the colour palette, see Palette.

Zoom

Zooms in or out of the displayed clip image.

The mouse buttons are configured as follows:

  • Left-clicking pans the image.
  • Middle-clicking zooms in.
  • Right-clicking zooms out.

Note:
If the entire image is visible in the 2D Clip view, panning has no effect.

Select

When you select Select and use the mouse to select an area in the clip, you can confine the next operation to the borders of the selected area. This applies to both clipboard and other editing operations. For example, select Select and select an area. Then select Pen and paint within the selected area using the left or middle mouse button.

For clipboard operations, select Select and select the area. Then, Cut or Copy the contents of the area to the clipboard.

You can then either:

  • Paste the clipboard contents anywhere in the current clip or a different one.
  • Add the clipboard contents to the clip list using MakeClip.

For more information and procedures on clipboard operations, see Clipboard.

Note:
You can also select an area using the space bar and the mouse.

Colour

When you select the Colour option, you can select a colour from the clip using the mouse buttons.

The result depends on the editing mode you are in: you can either identify the corresponding entry in the palette in colour-index mode or update the current foreground or background entries in RGB (true colour) mode.

The mouse buttons are configured as follows:

  • Left mouse button: In Colour Index mode, left-clicking in the clip positions the foreground entry to the entry corresponding to the picked colour. In RGB mode, left-clicking updates the foreground colour in the palette.
  • Middle mouse button: In Colour Index mode, middle-clicking in the clip positions the background entry corresponding to the picked colour. In RGB mode, middle-clicking in the clip updates the background colour in the palette.

Pen

Allows you to draw free-form lines using the current brush size and the colour of your choice. This is the default editing tool.

The mouse buttons are configured as follows:

  • The left mouse button draws in the foreground colour.
  • The middle mouse button draws in the background colour.

Blur

Simulates a blurring effect by subtly blurring the image. Blur is only available in RGB mode.

Smear

Simulates the effect of smearing wet paint using the current brush size and the foreground colour. Smear is only available in RGB mode.

Spray

Simulates an airbrush by applying a random sprinkling of pixels to the image using the colour of your choice (left-click to select the foreground colour and middle-click to select the background colour). Spray is only available in RGB mode.

Line

Allows you to draw straight lines using the current brush size and the colour of your choice.

The mouse buttons are configured as follows:

  • The left mouse button draws in the foreground colour.
  • The middle mouse button draws in the background colour.

Ellipse

Allows you to draw an ellipse or a circle, contour or filled, using a combination of keys and mouse buttons.

The default is a filled ellipse. If you draw a contour circle or ellipse, the contour thickness is determined by the brush thickness.

Left mouse button uses the foreground colour.

Middle mouse button uses the background colour.

  • Left or middle-clicking and pressing Shift draws a filled circle.
  • Left or middle-clicking and pressing Shift-Ctrl draws a contour circle.

Note:
You must hold down the left or middle mouse button before pressing Shift for these two commands.

  • Left or middle-clicking draws a free-form filled ellipse.
  • Left or middle-clicking and pressing Ctrl draws a free-form contour ellipse.

Rect

Allows you to draw a rectangle or square, contour or filled, using a combination of keys and mouse buttons.

The default is a filled rectangle. If you draw a contour square or rectangle, the contour thickness is determined by the brush thickness.

Left mouse button uses the foreground colour

Middle mouse button uses the background colour

  • Left or middle-clicking and pressing Shift-Ctrl draws a contour square.
  • Left or middle-clicking and pressing Shift draws a filled square.

Note:
You must hold down the left or middle mouse button before pressing Shift for these two commands.

  • Left or middle-clicking and pressing Ctrl draws a contour rectangle.
  • Left or middle-clicking draws a filled rectangle.

Fill

There are three fill options: Flood, Horiz, and Vert. When you select an option and a pixel in the image, the pixel and its neighbouring pixels are filled with the chosen colour.

When you use filling operations in Colour Index mode, the RGB image is updated identically, so that a fill line drawn in this mode is in the same location in the RGB image.

In the RGB image, it is possible that different pixels are updated to preserve the consistency of the two images.

Neighbouring pixels refer to those directly above, below, and on each side of the selected pixels, but not those that are diagonally connected. In turn, a pixel's neighbours affect their neighbours, as long as they are all non-diagonal.

Further conditions apply, depending on whether you use the connection filling or bounded filling technique.

In the connection filling technique, only those neighbouring pixels which are of the same initial colour as the selected pixel are filled with the new colour. If you wish to fill this way, use the left mouse button to select your pixel.

For example, left-click to select a pixel of colour #1, and it is filled with foreground colour #4.

Note:
Only its neighbouring pixels which are also of colour #1 are filled with colour #4. In this case, if a neighbouring pixel is filled with colour #2, for example, is not affected.

Consider the following example, in which you select a pixel of
colour #1 (blue) and fill it with the foreground colour, #4.

Before & After

2 2 2 2 2     2 2 2 2 2
2 2 1 2 2     2 2 4 2 2
2 1 1 1 2     2 4 4 4 2
2 2 2 1 1     2 2 2 4 4
2 2 2 2 1     2 2 2 2 4

With this technique, you can select a "boundary" colour in the image, then fill an area which is constrained/bounded by that colour.

If you wish to select a boundary colour from the image, right-click on a pixel of the desired colour.

Note:
If you do not select a boundary colour with the right mouse button, white is used as the default boundary colour.

To activate the bounded filling technique, middle-click on a pixel you wish to fill.

Consider the following example. Right-click on a pixel to select colour #6 (red) as the boundary colour:

6 6 6 6 6
6 6 1 6 5
6 3 2 6 2
6 2 1 2 3
6 6 6 6 6

Now middle-click on a pixel of colour #2 (brown) to fill it with the foreground colour, #4 (black). Notice how the fill is contained or bounded by colour #6.

Before & After

6 6 6 6 6     6 6 6 6 6
6 6 1 6 5     6 6 4 6 4
6 3 2 6 2     6 4 4 6 4
6 2 1 2 3     6 4 4 4 4
6 6 6 6 6     6 6 6 6 6

Fills a region of the image, using either the connection or boundary fill technique, as previously explained.

The mouse buttons are configured as follows:

  • Left-clicking fills in the selection and its neighbours with the foreground colour, and the fill area is determined by the connection filling technique.
  • Right-clicking fills in the selection and its neighbours with the foreground colour, and the fill area is bounded by pixels of the boundary colour.
  • Middle-clicking selects the boundary colour when using the bounded filling technique. If no colour is selected, white is used as the default.

Fills a region in the image with horizontal lines, using either the connection or bounded filling technique.

The mouse buttons are configured as follows:

  • Left-clicking draws lines in the foreground colour, and the fill area is determined according to the connection filling technique.
  • Right-clicking activates the bounded filling method. The area is filled with lines of the foreground colour and bounded by pixels of the boundary colour.
  • Middle-clicking selects the boundary colour (when using the bounded filling technique). If no colour is selected, white is used by default.

Fills a region in the image with vertical lines using either the connection or bounded filling technique.

The mouse buttons are configured as follows:

  • Left-clicking draws lines in the foreground colour, and the fill area is determined according to the connection filling technique.
  • Right-clicking activates the bounded filling technique. The area is filled with lines of the foreground colour and bounded by pixels of the boundary colour.
  • Middle-clicking selects the boundary colour (when using the bounded filling technique). If no colour is selected, white is used by default.

Brush

The Brush box displays the current size of your brush, which you can change using the slider or by entering a number between 1 and 31.

The brush colour can be modified in several ways: select the colour in the palette, select a pixel in the 2D Clip view, or use the RGB sliders. You have the choice of foreground or background colours for painting.

For more information on selecting and modifying colours, see Palette.

Clipboard

You can edit an entire clip or a selected area of a clip, using the Cut, Copy, and Paste options in the Clipboard menu. You can also create a new clip from the current one using the MakeClip option.

Similarly, you can copy and paste colours within the same palette or a different one, using the corresponding option beside the palette.

You can edit these newly created clips in the 2D Clip view and save them in a file. However, they cannot be displayed in the 3D Projection view unless they are texture clips (for example, t2d1 instead of Clip in the clip database) and are currently selected.

Effects

These options allow you to apply effects to the entire clip or selected areas.

Rotate Clockwise

Rotates the image clockwise.

Rotate Counterclockwise

Rotates the image counterclockwise.

Tile

Divides the image into quadrants and exchanges their positions: top-left quadrant with bottom right and top-right quadrants with bottom left. This can be useful when editing textures that use repetition (tiling).

H Flip

Flips the entire clip or selected area horizontally.

V Flip

Flips the entire clip or selected area vertically.

PaintFX

Displays the Painterly Effects dialogue box, described on Painterly Effects, which offers 42 effects that you can apply to the clip image.

The location of the Painterly Effects Plug-ins is indicated by the environment variable SI_PAINTERLY_FX. If this variable is undefined, the Paint FX option appears dimmed.

CI->RGB

Allows you to generate an identical RGB image, when switching from Colour Index mode to RGB mode.

Select CI->RGB before returning to RGB mode.

Note:
In this case, the resulting RGB version is identical to the last colour-indexed one. Otherwise, some of the colour updates you made in the colour-indexed mode are lost and the RGB version may look different.

Snap and Grid

The Snap and Grid options are located next to the palette. By selecting the Grid option, a grid is superimposed on the top of the image.

Selecting the Snap option lets you draw on your image with the selected tool, but you follow the points of the grid that you have defined.

When you select the Grid option, the Grid Configuration dialogue box appears in which you can set grid parameters, such as cell width, height, and grid origins.

The Grid Origin menu allows you to specify the corner to be used as the grid origin (top left, bottom left, top right, bottom right, and custom). When the custom option is selected, the X and Y offsets are unghosted and you can specify any origin offset value for the grid.

Palette Operations

The following options are in the Pal. Oper. menu. They allow you to create and edit a palette, and apply dithering or undithering.

Optimize

If you have a palette that contains two or more identical entries, this option redirects the pixel references to these redundant entries to point towards the first instance of the colour in the palette (Colour Index mode only).

Cleanup

Removes all the entries that are not referenced by the colour-indexed image (Colour Index mode only).

Tip:
If you want to minimize the number of entries in the colour palette, it is recommended that you use Optimize before Cleanup.

Apply Dith

Creates a new, dithered colour-indexed image using the current palette.

Apply Undith

Creates a new, undithered colour-indexed image using the current palette.

Generate

Generates a new palette containing the colours that best represent your image.

This option should be used before switching to Colour Index mode since the colour-indexed image is generated using the colours contained in the colour palette.

Note:
If the colours of the current palette are not based on the colours of the current image (for example, if you are using the default palette), the colour-indexed version may look quite different than the original.

To generate a new palette based on the colours in the RGB image, click the Generate button in the Pal. Oper. menu. The Generate dialogue box is displayed in which you can specify palette generation parameters and maintains the closest colour conversion.

Nb of Pixels

These options apply only to the Colour Index mode.

  • Foreground displays the number of pixels of the colour-indexed image that are referencing the foreground entry.
  • Background displays the number of pixels of the colour-indexed image that are referencing the background entry.
  • Selection displays the number of pixels of the colour-indexed image that are referencing all the selected palette entries.

Reindex Image

Reindexing an image is the redirection or change of references of the image pixels toward new palette entries.

Reindexing an image only applies to colour-indexed images.

When you select the Reindex Image option, you are indicating that the references in the colour-indexed image should be updated when palette entries are moved. For example, if you swap palette entry #3 with palette entry #4, reindexing updates every pixel in the image that is referring to #3 with a value of #4 and vice versa.

The appearance of the image is not affected by swapping entries in the palette because the pixels that were painted with the colour stored in palette entry #3 are now painted with palette entry #4, which is in the new position of palette entry #3 (the same applies for palette entry #4). Basically, the palette entries have been reorganized.

If Reindex Image is not selected, the pixels are not redirected. Therefore, the pixels in the image that were painted with the colour stored at palette entry #3 are still painted with the colour stored at entry #3; however, since the content of palette entry has been exchanged with the content of palette entry #4, all of these pixels have a different colour. If the entry #3 was blue and entry #4 was red, the blue and red in the image have been swapped. These features can be used to produce interesting effects, such as image inversion.

The following operations are always affected by the Reindex Image: Swap, Invert, Sort, and Cut. The following operations are affected by the Reindex Image when there is no selection: Paste Before, Paste After, and LoadP.

In the Optimize operation, a reindexation is always performed whether or not the Reindex Image option is selected.

Size of:

Palette

Indicates the size of the palette. You can also edit the palette size with this text box.

If your palette has 256 entries and you reduce the palette to 32 entries, only 32 entries are now visible. If you enter 256 again, the first 32 entries don't change, but the remaining entries are all black. Since this is not a desirable effect, click Undo to restore the original 256-entry colour palette.

You want to return to the original palette at any time by selecting the Undo option.

Selection

Indicates the number of selected entries in the palette.

Buffer

Indicates the number of entries in the palette clipboard. The only operations that put entries in the palette clipboard are Cut and Copy.

Palette

SOFTIMAGE 3D texture clips are RGB images. When you load them in Paint, they have a default colour palette of 256 entries.

User-defined clips, when created, obtain a copy of the current clip's colour palette. You can generate a new colour palette and use it to construct the colour-indexed image when switching to colour-index mode, by selecting the Generate option.

In all editing modes, the colours of the current palette are available for painting and editing the image.

However, the following applies:

Selecting Colours

You can enter Select mode by pressing the Shift key and clicking the mouse. If you left-click in the palette and drag the cursor, it clears any entries that are currently selected and begins a new entry selection.

By dragging the cursor in the palette, all entries to be selected have a black outline surrounding them. When you release the left mouse button, the outlined entries are selected and have a green and white outline.

While you are in Select mode, you can also drag the cursor above or below the palette entries to scroll up or down the palette directly without releasing the mouse button.

If you use the middle mouse button, the current selection is kept and a new range of entries is either added to or removed from the current selection. This new range is added to the current selection if the first entry you clicked was unselected. The new range is removed from the current selection if the first entry was selected.

If you right-click in the palette, all selected palette entries are deselected.

If you click below the last palette entry, a new line of black entries is added to the palette.

To delete one or multiple entries, select the entry or entries that you want to cut and select Cut.

Release the Shift key to exit the Select mode.

Foreground Colour

The foreground colour can be used for drawing and painting on the clip. It is highlighted by a red and green outline in the colour palette.

To select a new foreground colour, click in the palette. The entry now has a red and green outline, indicating it is the current foreground colour.

  • To modify the foreground colour, you can use several methods:
  • Adjust the colour sliders. A button located to the left of the sliders toggles between the RGB, HLS, and HSV colour models.
  • Click anywhere in the Colour Wheel/Spread.
  • Use the Colour Mixer.
  • You can also modify the foreground colour by selecting Colour from the Tools options. This is not a palette feature, but a Paint feature. This allows you to pick a colour in the RGB image itself and update the foreground colour.
    • In RGB editing mode, if you click on a pixel in the 2D Clip view, the foreground colour in the palette is updated.
    • In Colour Index mode, this action selects the corresponding palette entry (helping you to identify the colour of the selected pixel) but does not update the entry.

Background Colour

When you Cut a portion of the clip, it is replaced by the background colour. In the colour palette, it has a black and green outline.

The background colour can also be used for several of the painting operations, if you perform them using the middle mouse button instead of the usual left mouse button.

To select a new background colour, middle-click on an entry in the palette. The selected entry now has a black and green outline, indicating it is the background colour.

You can modify the background colour, the same way you do for the foreground colour. This is also a Paint feature and not a Palette feature.

Note:
To update or select the background colour, remember to use the middle mouse button when picking a colour in the clip.

Lock

You can enter Lock mode by pressing the l (lower-case L) key. While you are in Lock mode the status line displays the following message:

"Palette entries locking"

In Lock mode, if you click in the palette and drag the cursor, it locks every entry that the cursor moves over. These locked entries have a black diagonal line through the entry box (for light-coloured entries) or a white line (for dark-coloured entries). You can also drag the cursor above or below the palette entries to scroll up or down the palette entries without exiting Lock mode.

If you middle-click, the entries are unlocked. If you right-click, the current lock status of the entry is toggled.

After a selection has been made, you can apply Lock to this selection to toggle the lock status of all the selected entries. To do this, click Lock or press Ctrl-l on selected entries.

Another way to change the lock status of the palette entries is to select the Lock option in the Edit menu.

Lock mode is exited when you release the l Supra key.

Palette Control Buttons

In addition to modifying the palette using the sliders and the colour wheel spread, the colour mixer, or by picking colours from the Clip view, you can also use the Grad, Inv, Swap, Sort and Edit options below the palette.

Note:
The Undo operation undoes any palette operations. For example, if you apply a colour Gradation, click Undo to undo the operation. Redo redoes the operation.

Select this option to create a colour gradation of palette entries between a start colour and an end colour.

Select a start colour and an end colour for the gradation in the same way that you pick the foreground and background entries. The foreground and background entries are used to identify the start and end colours, respectively.

While in Gradation mode, you can modify the entry selection, lock entries, toggle the locking status of entries selection, or copy the entries selection to the palette clipboard.

The gradation is executed when you select the Grad option again. The target entries for the gradation (current selection or whole palette) is determined when you select Grad the second time. You can also cancel the operation by pressing the Esc key. In both cases, Grad is exited and the foreground and background pointers are restored to their original positions before entering this mode.

This operation does not affect any locked entries.

When you select the Inv. (invert) option, the order of all the selected entries is inverted. If no palette entries are selected, the order of all palette entries is inverted.

This operation does not affect any locked entries.

After making a selection in the palette and then clicking Swap, all unlocked entries of the selection become the first selection. You are now in Swap mode. The status line displays this message:

"Click Swap to swap entries or Esc to cancel"

Now select Swap again; this selection is swapped with the first selection. An entry that appears in the first selection cannot be an entry in the second selection.

While in Swap mode, you can also lock any of the entries, toggle the locking status of the entries in the second selection, or copy the entries of the second selection to the buffer.

The two selections are swapped when you select Swap. The first selection and all the locked entries of the second selection are now deselected, so that only the unlocked entries in the second selection are left selected.

You can cancel the Swap operation by pressing the Esc key. In this case, the second selection and all the locked entries of the first selection are deselected, so that only unlocked entries of the first selection are left selected.

If nothing is selected, a swap does not occur.

You can apply Sort to the whole palette or to a selection in the palette. You can sort by RGB, HLS, or HSV.

Locked entries are not affected by this operation.

The following options in the Edit menu allow you to edit the palette.

  • Cut: Make a selection in the palette and click Cut or press Ctrl-x to cut the selection. After you cut the selection, it goes into the palette clipboard. Even if you undo this operation, the selection still remains in the clipboard.
  • Copy: After you make a selection in the palette, click Copy or press Ctrl-c to copy the selection to the palette clipboard without removing it from the palette.

When Pasting palette clipboard contents, the following rules apply:

  • Paste Before: If no entry is selected, it inserts the entries of the palette clipboard before the foreground entry, moving all the other entries forward. If the selection is not empty, it replaces the entries of the selection with the entries in the palette clipboard until the end of the selection of the palette clipboard is encountered.
  • Paste After: If no entry is selected, it inserts the entries of the palette clipboard after the foreground entry, moving all the other entries forward. If the selection is not empty, it replaces the entries of the selection with the entries in the palette clipboard until the end of the selection of the palette clipboard is encountered.

Colour Models

The RGB menu allows you to choose between the RGB, HLS, and HSV colour models. RGB is the standard Red, Green, Blue mode; HLS is Hue, Light, and Saturation; and HSV is Hue, Saturation, and Value.

System Palette

The System Palette option opens a menu in which you can choose colours from two palette types: Colour Wheel (the default) or Colour Spread.

The Colour Wheel displays a circular palette of interpolated RGB components with an associated slider to control brightness.

The Colour Spread displays a palette of 300 basic colours.

The System Palette allows you to define colours. The mouse buttons are configured as follows:

  • Left-click to select the current colour.
  • Middle-click to slowly converge from the current colour to the colour under the cursor.
  • Right-click to quickly converge from the current colour to the colour under the cursor.

The current colour is displayed in the Current Colour box in the middle of the dialogue box, and its numerical values are displayed in the Colour sliders.

The colour mixing box directly below the System Palette allows you to mix or adjust colours. It is used to mix colours or modify their intensity. By default, the colour mixing box displays a spectrum of colours ranging from black to white. You can change its colours by selecting a colour from the palette or by defining a colour using the colour sliders. Middle-click on one of the arrows below the colour mixing box. then drag the mouse to position the colour of your choice.

Note:
Middle-clicking to the left or to the right creates a new arrow on the left or right sides, respectively.

You can select the current colour from the colour mixing box in the same manner as from a system palette: left-click to pick the colour, middle-click to slowly converge from the current colour to the colour under the cursor, and right-click to quickly converge from the current colour to the colour under the cursor.

You can also add colours to the colour mixing box by selecting a colour and then middle-clicking between the arrows (causing another arrow to appear). By selecting different colours and middle-clicking, you can mix any number of colours to create new ones.

You can drag arrows with the left mouse button to edit the colour spectrum. Use the right mouse button to remove an arrow, which changes the range available for the selected colour.

The Current Colour box in the middle of the dialogue box displays the selected colour you are modifying. Its numerical values are displayed in the Colour sliders, which you can use to fine-tune or modify the current colour.

Tip:
The RGB button is a toggle that allows you to configure the sliders under HLS (hue, lightness, and saturation) and HSV (hue, saturation, and value) colour representation models. To use HLS or HSV, simply click the RGB button.

3D Projection View

At the top right, a small 3D projection view displays the image or model textures mapped to the selected object. In this view, you can orbit, dolly, zoom, and frame all using the o, p, z, and a Supra keys.

At all times, the 3D Projection view only displays textures of the polygons that refer to the current clip. Other polygons are only displayed with their material colour.

All models can be viewed and their textures edited. However, only polygon models with UV textures can have their UV coordinates modified.

User-defined clips are added to the clip database, but are not displayed in the 3D Projection view. To do so, they must be attached to a texture that is already mapped on a model.

In the 3D Projection view, you can select the polygons for editing UV texture mapping. You must first select the UV Editing Active option to do this.

Alpha Blending

When this option is selected, you can see the effect of alpha blending on the object.

Texture Display

This menu allows you to choose the texture viewing method in the 3D Projection view.

  • Off turns off texture display.
  • Fast switches the texture display off during interactive camera manipulations.
  • Full displays the texture in real-time as you manipulate the camera.

UV Editing

The UV Editing check box allows you to turn on and off UV texture outlines for selected polygons. Editing involves the use of the both the 2D Clip view and 3D Projection view, the UV texture editing area, and the editing options below the 3D Projection view.

Active

The Active option allows you to activate UV editing for the current texture. If the texture is not UV mapped, a dialogue box is displayed to confirm the texture projection conversion to UV mapping.

If the texture is cylindrically/spherically mapped, and you accept to convert in UV, the texture gets duplicated horizontally (with an optional black alpha gap used to compensate the texture projection scaling).

U, V

When a UV handle is selected (visible by its blue handle), the U and V text fields allow you to enter U and V values directly for greater precision.

Flip UV

For selected polygons, this option flips the editable UV outlines:

  • The left mouse button flips UV outlines horizontally.
  • The middle mouse button flips UV outlines vertically.

Rotate UV

For selected polygons, this option rotates editable UV outlines.

  • The left mouse button rotates UV outlines counterclockwise.
  • The middle mouse button rotates UV outlines clockwise.

Copy UV

Copies the UV texture coordinates from one polygon to another.

For information on displaying, editing, and copying UV textures, see the Editing UV Textures on Polygons section in the Defining Materials and Textures User's Guide.

Note:
The Copy UV option is available only when one polygon is selected as editable. After you select Copy UV, directly click on destination polygons to copy the material information and UV coordinates. You can only copy UV information between polygons with the same number of vertices.

Converting Cylindrical/Spherical Texture Maps into UV (Polygons)

When accepting the conversion to UV, a dialogue box is displayed where you have the option to save the texture map. When converting these types of textures, SOFTIMAGE 3D generates a new textures map that has twice the texture horizontally (or vertically if the swap_uv is on). An optional black "alpha gap" (seam) between the two textures takes into account the texture projection support's scaling, if required. The "alpha gap" is only added if the scaling in u is between 0.5 and 1.0. The new picture must be saved on disk to be used. This is done to memorize the texture information that is found under the texture wrapping.

If you do the Cylindrical/Spherical to UV conversion in the Txt_Oper->Info UV Coord. dialogue box, you must save the texture immediately. However, in the Paint dialogue box, if you select the UV Editing option and the current texture is cylindrical/spherical, you get the duplication, but the dialogue box doesn't ask you to save the new texture map immediately (only when you quit the dialogue box by accepting the changes).

In the Paint dialogue box, if you edit UV texture coordinates (such as selecting a polygon and moving its associated UV handles) after this conversion, then select Clip Db, a dialogue box is displayed and asks you to confirm that the UV coordinates are saved in the model (memorize the UV editing changes). If you choose to Ignore, the texture projection method is put back into Cylindrical/Spherical and the duplication (horizontal/vertical depending on swap UV) is discarded (you return to the original single map layout).

Note:
Any texture editing that you may have done between the original conversion to UV (when you select UV Editing initially) up to this point is preserved, but any texture modifications made outside of the original texture map (over the alpha gap or the duplicated area) are lost. This means that the polygons under the texture projection's wrapping may look different after selecting Ignore.

Painterly Effects

In addition to drawing on your clip and editing the UV mapping of a model, you can apply other effects, known as Painterly Effects.

Select the PaintFX option in the Effects menu to access the Painterly Effects dialogue box. Forty-two Painterly Effects are available, such as emboss, grain, or glow effect.

You can experiment freely, previewing the results of effects on different areas of the image, adjusting the parameters to increase or decrease the overall changes to the surface. Once satisfied, you can apply the changes to the clip and return to the Paint dialogue box to continue editing.

The location of the Painterly Effects Plug-ins is indicated by the environment variable SI_PAINTERLY_FX. If this variable is undefined, the Paint FX button appears dimmed.

Image

Displays the current state of the image in the 2D Clip view in the Paint dialogue box. Within this image, a double-edged rectangle shows you the current focus area. The contents of the rectangle are also displayed in the Before box.

Use any mouse button to move this preview rectangle around to display the area of the image on which you wish to focus.

Effect

This menu allows you to select a particular effect from among 42 found in three volumes. You can apply more than one effect on your clip.

Some effects depend on the size of the total region on which they are applied, so the results may differ according to whether you use the Preview or Apply button. Some examples are Dark Strokes, Fresco, Ripple, Sprayed Strokes, Cutout, and Ink Outlines.

Parameters

The parameters of the currently selected effect are displayed; the number and names of parameters vary according to the effect selected.

The overall effect can be adjusted by changing the parameters. For example, you can apply a ripple effect at the default settings and preview the results. If you wish to increase and modify the effect, adjust the parameter settings and preview again.

  • Default returns all of the parameters to their default settings.
  • Load and Save are unsupported, but the parameter values are maintained during a SOFTIMAGE 3D session.

Before and After Effect

These boxes allow you to preview the effect on the selected part of the image. It is a preview only and does not update the image.

  • Before Effect always displays a close-up of the area shown in the preview rectangle in Image.
  • After Effect displays the effect of the modifications on the selected rectangle when you click Preview.

Preview

Allows you to see the effect of the modified parameters on the image in the After Effect box.

Restore

Removes the effect and returns the contents of Image to its original state; the image as it appears currently in the Paint dialogue box.

Apply

Applies the effect over the whole picture displayed in Image, without saving.

Cancel

Exits the window without applying the modifications.

Exit

Applies the modifications and closes the window.

Control Buttons

Undo

Undoes the most recent action you performed on the image, the palette, or the latest UV modification. You can also use the u Supra key with the left mouse button.

Each texture's undo/redo information is preserved even when you enter and exit the clip database.

Redo

Redoes the action that you just "undid.". You can also use the u Supra key and the right mouse button.

Load

Loads a user-defined clip in the clip database.

Save

Saves the current clip as an image file.

Note:
If the environment variable SI_IMAGE_PATH is not defined, the only format that appears is "all." This variable points to the Image Library's list of DSOs. This variable is usually set to /softimage_installdir/3D/dso/sil.

LoadP

Loads an existing palette.

SaveP

Saves the palette.

Cancel

Exits the dialogue box without applying any modifications.

Accept

Allows you to save all the modified textures in the database and exits the dialogue box.

Supra Keys

The following summarizes the use of Supra keys in the Paint dialogue box.

In the Clip Database, press the Backspace key and use the left mouse button to delete a user-defined texture.

In the 2D Clip view:

Supra Key Mouse Button Result
Space bar Left, middle, or right Select an area in the image or copy operation
m Left Drag a UV handle on a texture clip, to change the UV
mapping for UV editing
z Left Pan.
  Middle Zoom in, centre towards the mouse.
  Right Zoom out.

In the 3D Projection view:

Supra Key Mouse Button Result
o Left Free camera orbit.
  Middle Vertical orbit.
  Right Horizontal orbit.
z Left Pan.
  Middle Zoom in.
  Right Zoom out.
p Left Slowest pan.
  Middle Medium speed pan.
  Right Fastest pan.
a   Frame all

In the palette:

Supra Key Mouse Button Result
l or Ctrl-l Left Lock an entry.
  Middle Unlock an entry.
  Right Toggle the locking status of an entry.
Shift Left New entry selection.
  Middle Modify entry selection.
  Right Clear entry selection.
Ctrl-x   Cut.
Ctrl-c   Copy
Ctrl-v   Paste before
Ctrl-a   Paste after.

Anywhere in the Paint dialogue box:

Supra Key Mouse Button Result
u Left Undo the last operation.
  Right Redo the last operation you undid.
n   Toggle snap to grid on and off.

 

Last updated 02-apr-1998