For certain operations, a pen and tablet work much better. The Maya tools that benefit most from this interface are known as the Artisan tools. Artisan is a paintbrush-like paradigm for directly affecting data on an object’s surface. Pushing and pulling the surface of a model, painting weight values for bone and cluster assignments, selecting points on a surface, painting vertex colors, and even painting flowers onto a hillside are all accomplished with this interface.
Using the Stamp Profile, Operation, and Sculpt Variables settings you can change the brush’s functionality. Here are the ten tools that use the Artisan interface and their functions:
Sculpt Surfaces Tool — model NURBS surfaces,
Sculpt Polygons Tool — model polygonal surfaces,
Paint Selection Tool — select objects or components such as vertices, edges and UVs, Paint Weights Tool — control the percentage of influence a deformer has over points, Script Paint Tool — open brush interface for writing your own MEL paint tool, Attribute Paint Tool — another catchall tool brush,
Paint Set Membership Tool — control point memberships in rigid skin binds,
Paint Skin Weights Tool — control joint influence in smooth skin binds,
Paint Vertex Color Tool — vertex color used in real-time video games, and Paint Textures Tool — 3D paint tool for NURBS and polygon surfaces.
Figure 5.1: Paint select
Figure 5.2: Paint unselect
Workspace Exercise — Artisan
1. First you’ll create a large polygon plane object with which to work. Click Create > Polygon Primitives > Plane. In the Inputs section of the Channel Box, set the Width and Height to 20 each and the number of Subdivisions to 30 in both directions.
2. Dock the Tool Settings to the right side of the interface by clicking Display > UI Elements > Tool Settings.
3. Selecting irregular patterns of vertices can be difficult with the normal Select Tool. The Artisan interface has a nice alternative. With the pPlane1 object selected, click Edit > Paint Selection Tool. Notice that your cursor has changed into a paintbrush.
4. Now try selecting some vertices by LMB-click-dragging across the surface. You’ve selected some vertices based on the radius of your brush and the current artisan operation setting (see Figure 5.1).
5. In the Tool Settings palette, increase the Radius (U) value to 3, and then switch the Paint Operation to Unselect.
6. Drag across the surface to remove some of the vertices from the current selection (see Figure 5.2).
7. While you still have some vertices selected, switch to the Move Tool. Translate the vertices up a few units on the Y-axis. You can see how this technique can be very useful for creating landscapes and similar environments (see Figure 5.3).
8. Undo the translation you performed on the vertices by clicking Ctrl-z on the keyboard.
Figure 5.3: Move vertices
The artisan brush that combines selection and translation called the Sculpt Polygons Tool. This tool can push or pull vertices along the surface normal direction of your model.
9. Select thepPlane1 in object mode.
10. In the Modeling Menu Set, click Edit Polygons > Sculpt Polygons Tool. In the Tool Settings pallet, click Reset Tool.
11. Try LMB-click-dragging the cursor across the surface. Notice how it indents wherever it passes (see Figure 5.4).
12. You can set your brush radius and the operation, as before, in the Tool Settings pal- let. Try a Radius of 1, and a Paint Operation of Pull. Now when you drag the cursor, you’re creating mounds on the surface (see Figure 5.5).
Figure 5.4: Sculpt push
Figure 5.5: Sculpt pull
13. The results are a bit on the rough side. Switch the Paint Operation to Smooth. Next press the Flood button a few times. Each time this button is pressed, the vertex positions are averaged, smoothing out the overall appearance of the object without adding or subtracting any geometry (see Figures 5.6 and 5.7).
Figure 5.6: Smooth operator
Figure 5.7: Paint smooth
