Tutorial: Texture Painting

Prerequisites:
If Blender is brand new to you, there are many video tutorials available for you to learn the basics.

Interface Basics
Modeling & UV Mapping

Introduction:
Blender’s texture painting tool is extremely useful when trying to blend textures together or creating special effects. I use it a lot for terrain in games, but the applications are limitless.:wink: In this tutorial, I will demonstrate how the texture painting tool can be used in two different ways. Enjoy :yes:

Grass and Dirt:

Step 1A:
Unwrap your ground mesh into the UV Image Editor and apply the dirt texture. Like this:

Step2A:
Select the areas you want to be painted, so that you can avoid confusion when painting in the UV Image Editor. This way, you wont have to constantly switch back and forth between the UV Image Editor and the 3D Window to see the results of your painting.

Step3A:
Enable texture painting by clicking on the paintbrush in the UV Image Editor.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d63/Ven0mSeven/paintbrush.jpg

Step4A:
Open the Paint Tool. You can access the Paint Tool by clicking on View -->
Paint Tool
, or pressing the C Key.


EDIT: Don’t mind the selected faces in this screenshot, this was a mistake on my part when uploading the images.

Step5A:
Click on the Clone button and select a grass texture by clicking on the small box on the bottom left of the panel.

Step6A:
Use the Left Mouse Button to paint on the grass texture in the selected areas of the UV window.

Step7A:
Make sure you save the new texture you made by clicking on Image --> Save As.

Step8A:
Add some decorations, perhaps a few flowers and a rock = )

Simple Plasma Effect:

Step 1B:
Add a plane, and unwrap it in the UV Image Editor. Click on Image --> New. Make the dimensions 512x512.

Follow Step 3A

Follow Step 4A

Step 2B:
Select a nice dark color of your choice, and paint an interesting shape.

Step3B:
Make the brush size smaller, and go over your original shape with a lighter color.

Step4B:
Click on the Smear tool, set the Opacity to 0.5 and smear from the center of the shape outward to get a flame like effect.


Follow Step 7A

Step5B:
With the plane selected, press the F Key in the 3D Window to switch into Face Select Mode. Now, go to the Edit Buttons Panel, and select Twoside, and Add.



Step6B:
Duplicate (Shift-D) this plane and Rotate (R Key) it 90 Degrees so that it is perpendicular to the first plane.

Here’s the final result:

I hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial as much as I enjoyed writing it = )

Happy Blending! :smiley:

Very cool.

Thanks :slight_smile:

Very nice tutorial!

nice tut…

Great, thanks! I was just wondering how to do those smooth texture transitions for my terrain.

I found out that you can’t use the clone tool on a texture bigger then the tex that you are cloning.

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/7118/clonecr0.jpg

Thanks for the feedback you guys, I’m glad you all found this tutorial useful = )

Chaser:
I also encountered the same problem. My solution was simple, just tile the texture you wish to clone and scale it to the size required for the texture to be painted. If you need a detailed explanation, just PM or E-Mail me.

Aaahhh, sweet. I am going to use this like a maniacal texture painter from now on…

Awesome, Ven0m! Great job; good screens! Perfect for making pathways.

~~Stu

You can move the “little clone” texture with right-mouse button.
Place with where you want the “clone paint” to appear and just paint over…

OTO, awesome trick! Thanks for the tip!

Nice tutorials. Should prove useful:eyebrowlift:.
And by the way… why does your copy of blender look so sleek?:cool:

Go to the User Preferences Window, you can customize nearly everything to a new color scheme. Mine is green, purple, and orange (basically).

~~Stu

I didn’t know that, thanks OTO! That will make my life SO much easier…

Thanks! I’m using an experimental build of Blender from www.graphicall.org. The color theme is a custom one that I made in my spare time. If there’s enough interest, I’ll upload it for everyone = )

Here’s a direct link to the build: http://www.graphicall.org/builds/builds/showbuild.php?action=show&id=394

You have to change the “Drawtype” setting to get the glass theme to appear.

Edit:
Here’s a screenshot for reference.

great work, thanks for this

Thanks! (For tut and build:D:D)

I cant do either tut. I have the new version of blender, and I cant paint at all. My grass tex isnt in the list, and I cant do anything.

It works fine for me, there aren’t any major changes that would stop you from completing the tutorial.

Your grass texture probably isn’t in the list because you haven’t opened it in the UV Image Editor yet. I forgot to mention in the tutorial that you have to open the textures you want to use in the Image Editor before they show up on the list, sorry about that.

Also, before you start texture painting make sure you have clicked the little paintbrush mentioned in Step 3A.

If you have any more trouble, just post a blend and explain the specifics of your problem, and I will be able to help you much better. :wink:

I can try it again, but I can never paint on the EV mapping area.

Alright so I can paint, but only in a very small corver.

Attachments


OTO addressed this problem earlier in the thread (post #9). You can move the grass texture by holding down the Right Mouse Button to drag it to other areas of the image.