PaintFX is a tool which grants localized control of effects at the vertex level of control. The tool can be opened by clicking on the pFX shelf icon and shares the same window with NoiseFX.
Each MNPRX material (uber and proxy) supports PaintFX, but the effects driven by PaintFX depend on the loaded style. To use PaintFX select an object with an MNPRX material and click on the paint icon of the effect that you want to paint with.
From top to bottom, these are the different elements of the PaintFX tool.
On the top-left, you will find an eye icon which toggles the parameter view. This will allow you to observe the control parameters that you are currently painting.
On the top-right, you will find View vertices, a checkbox which allows to show the vertices underneath the brush where PaintFX are being applied to.
The next row of icons allow you to set the brush stamp to use when painting the different effects.
Paint Widgets
Each style has different effects, therefore, the paint widgets (sections) will vary depending on the currently loaded stylization. Each widget (section) handles a specific effect/behaviour within the style e.g., Lighting, Pigment turbulence, Color bleeding.
On the left side of each widget, you will find a term for the generalized behaviour of each effect. This is followed by a Brush, indicating what the behavior/effect does. By clicking on the Brush you can quickly start painting the effect with the currently defined values on selected objects. Before going into more details on painting, underneath the Brush icon, you will find three buttons, which will allow to animate PaintFX values.
This button will key the painted values of selected vertices at the current time, allowing you to animate the painted effects through keyframes.
This button will show the keyframes in the timeline of selected vertices/objects allowing you to adjust timing or delete keyframes of the painted the effects. It will also show the keyframes in Maya’s Graph Editor.
This button will remove the keyframe of painted values from selected vertices at the current time.
Keying of PaintFX requires the construction history of the vertex color sets, refer to the FAQ if you have deleted its construction history. should be done with caution, as Maya internally stores the value of each vertex on adjacent faces. This means that, if you are keying one vertex with four values (RGBA), that is shared with four adjacent faces, you will be keying 16 values—for only one vertex. This escalates exponentially when keying objects with hundreds of vertices. Therefore, try to use proxies and animate them instead, whenever possible.
Because of construction history and how Maya internally stores vertex-color data, painting effects with PaintFX on objects with a lot of vertices can substantially increase the file size of the scene. To reduce the impact in file size, we recommend deleting the Non-Deformer History (Edit->Delete by Type->Non-Deformer History) of objects whose PaintFX will not be animated.
Modifying Paint Values
To modify the painting values of each widget, you can use the radio buttons to quickly change between the two or more painting modes and adjust the vertical slider at the right of the widget to set the painting value/intensity. The painting value/intensity is specified underneath the vertical slider and can also be modified by manually entering the desired numerical value in the spin box.
By modifying a painting value, the tool will automatically change to painting mode, so there is no need to click on the painting icon anymore.
Reset and Flood
The painted values can be reset or flooded (added) on the selected objects/vertices. There are two buttons for this at the bottom of each widget. These buttons are useful when you need to assign a specific value to a lot of vertices in an object, be it to reset the PaintFX values or to add the effect evenly to the selected objects/components. Reset will put the values of the selected objects/vertices to zero (0) whereas flooding will add the numerical value set by the vertical slider or entered manually in the spin box.
Showcase
FAQ
I deleted the construction history, how can I still animate PaintFX?
Animating PaintFX requires the construction history created with the vertex color sets to keyframe the values. You will need to recover the required construction history.
- Export the PaintFX with the Import/Export Tool.
- Delete the PaintFX using the MNPRX Toolbox.
- Add history ->
Edit Mesh->Transform - Import the PaintFX back in with the Import/Export Tool. The construction history will be in place and you can now animate the PaintFX values.