Brush Tools
Brush tools let you sculpt strands by stroking over them in the viewport, much like combing real hair. Each brush performs a different kind of edit, and they share a common set of controls for size and strength. Brushing is done through the Edit Guides Operator, so your strokes are recorded as part of the procedural groom.
The brushes
- Comb - push and comb strands in the direction of the stroke; the everyday styling brush.
- Grab - grab the strands under the brush and drag them with the cursor.
- Pull - pull strand points away from the surface, straightening them.
- Length (grow and shrink) - lengthen or shorten strands as you brush.
- Cut - trim strands under the brush.
- Smooth - relax and even out strand shapes.
- Lift - raise strands away from the surface, or lower them towards it, turning them about their roots.
- Straighten - straighten strands from the root out, keeping their length.
- Blur - average each strand's shape with its neighbours, in object or surface space. Similarity limits blurring to strands that already have a similar shape, so separate parts of a groom stay apart.
- Curl - in Coil mode, wind strands into helices with a set number of coils and radius, which works on straight strands too. In Turn mode, turn the existing shape of each strand around its root-to-tip axis.
- Select - select strands for subsequent operations.
- Paint - paint values into a strand channel, for masking and driving effects.
- Create - plant new guides where you brush.
- Delete - remove strands under the brush. Strength sets the share of the brushed strands each stroke removes, the most crowded first: at full strength everything under the brush goes, at lower strengths the strands are thinned evenly, and stroking again thins further.
- Revert - restore strands toward their state before the current edits, acting like an eraser.
- User - run a custom, scriptable brush.
Brush settings
Brushes share familiar controls - chiefly size (the radius of the brush) and strength (how strongly each stroke acts) - along with options specific to individual brushes. Most brushes can mirror their strokes across the groom, follow a falloff curve, and affect only the selected strands. You can also change the brush shape, for example to a circle, square, or line; a line shape is especially useful with the Cut brush for making straight cuts.
You can adjust size and strength interactively in the viewport: hold B and drag to change the brush size, or hold S and drag to change its strength. While a brush tool is active these drag shortcuts are listed as hints along the bottom of the viewport - you can click and drag directly on a hint to make the same adjustment without touching the keyboard.
Brush modes
Brushing is one of the editing modes of the Edit Guides Operator, used together with root and strand (vertex) selection. Switch among them freely as you work: select with one tool, reshape with another. See Edit Guides Operator and Working with the Grooming Tools.
Related
- Paint Texture Tool - paint texture maps rather than strand channels.
- Surface Comb Tool - steer macro flow with sinks instead of brushing strand by strand.