Path tool overview
Audio
Adjust or add audio to your project.
- Adjust the source video volume if it has audio.
- Add, remove, or replace an external audio file.
- Adjust the external audio file volume.
The Path tools allows you to define a curve with points on the surface of your mesh. Once the curve is created, the different Path tools allow you to create different effects along the curve.
Creating a path
Paths can be created on paint layers and paint effects. There are two ways to access the Path tool:
- Via the interface: navigate to the tool’s toolbar on the left-side and click the third icon from the top.
- Via a keyboard shortcut: by default the tool doesn’t have any assigned. This can be changed in the Settings menu by editing the “Select paint along path tool” shortcut.
Once the tool is selected, points can be placed by clicking on the surface of the 3D model within the 3D viewport. At least two points (or vertices) are needed to create a path.
The Path tool has different modes, which can be similar to the other paint tools available in the application:
- Paint along path: Draw a regular brush stroke along a defined path.
- Ribbon path: Draws a repeated or stretched image along a path.
- Filled path: Fill the interior of a path with a uniform color.
- Erase along path: Draw a stroke that erase/remove information along a defined path.
- Smudge along path: Draw a stroke that smudges/blurs information along a defined path.
For example, here is the path tool in Smudge mode affecting other painting information:
Editing a path
Path points (or vertices) adhere automatically to the surface of the mesh. They can be moved and adjusted at any time. It is possible to add new vertices to an existing path by clicking anywhere along the line.
- Pressing Escape or Enter will exit path edition.
- Once exited, clicking on a blank surface of the mesh will begin a new path.
- Hovering and clicking on an existing path will select it, allowing to continue or edit that path. Paths can also be re-selected via the Paths panel (see below).
Some properties are specific to a path as a whole. This is the case for options found in the Properties window. Just like with a regular stroke (see the Paint tool documentation), it is possible to define the following properties for a path:
- Brush
- Alpha
- Material
The brush section contains additional options which are only available with the Path tool:
Other properties are defined per points (vertices) on the path, such as the pressure. To edit a specific point, simply click on it (or use the rectangular selection). Then use the contextual toolbar to edit the selected points values.
Controlling tangents
There can be times where a smooth path is not ideal, either because it doesn’t follow the best the 3D model surface or because it doesn’t fit a specific look. To solve those issues, it is possible to modify the tangents of a given vertex. The tangents are the directions of a point that control how the path bend.
To switch between smooth or linear/broken tangents, simply double click on a vertex (or use the dedicated button in the contextual toolbar):
To control more precisely the orientation of the tangents, use the Custom tangents button in the contextual toolbar to override them manually:
Use the ALT keyboard shortcut to break the tangents while moving if the point wasn’t already.
Use the CTRL keyboard shorcut to scale both tangents at the same time.
Contextual toolbar
The contextual toolbar when the Path tool is selected provides several settings that allow to control the currently selected path:
Show / hide viewport interface
Display settings
Control the look of the path visual feedback in the viewport:
- Handle size: control how big the path’s points look like.
- Path width: control the thickness of the path line.
- Path color: control the color of the path line.
- Unselected path color: control the color of the non-active paths.
- Normals: If enabled, show the projection direction on eahc points of a path.
- Tangents: If enabled, show the curve direction of the control points of the path.
- Path direction: If enabled, show a little arrow at the end of the path to indicate its painting direction. This is useful to know how stamps within the stroke will be oriented.
Reverse path direction
Toggle corner / smooth
Break or align the tangent of the currently selected vertices, allowing to switch between a smooth or linear curve.
Note: Switch between the corner / smooth behavior can also be done by double-clicking on a point directly on the path.
Custom tangents
If enabled, allow to manually control the tangents of a given point on the path.
Open / close path
Open or close the current path. To close a path, one of the two end points of the current path need to be selected first.
Delete vertex
Symmetry
Enable or disable symmetry for the current path. See the symmetry documentation for more information.
Hide / ignore excluded geometry
Paths panel
Inside the viewport is the Paths panel where are listed all the paths of the currently selected paint layer / effect. It provides an easy way to select and manage paths.
With this panel, it is possible to:
- Double-click on a path to rename it.
- Delete a path by selecting it and then pressing the delete key.
- Copy/Paste/Duplicate a path with the dedicated keyboard shortcuts.
- Show or hide a path with the eye icon (which control if the path is applied to the texturing).
For convenience, it is also possible to right-click on a path to open the contextual menu which offers the same actions:
The right-click menu also open actions to copy the properties or position of a path onto another path. This allows to easily share or synchronize features across different paths:
Tool presets
When a path tool is selected, a Presets section is available at the top of the Properties panel. From here you can quickly access presets for the various path tools.
Favorite path presets
The Favorites option in the Presets section only holds presets that you’ve favorited for even faster access. To start adding favorites, select Favorites, then “Show compatible presets in assets” for a full list of available path presets.
To favorite a preset, right-click the preset in the Assets panel or in the Presets section of the Properties panel, then select “Add to favorites”.
You can also remove presets from the favorites list. Right-click a Favorited preset, then select “Remove from favorites”.
Create path presets
Like other tools, presets can be create to quickly restore brush settings / configurations. To do so, simply right-click in the Properties window and choose Create tool preset. This newly created preset will automatically switch to the Path tool when selected in the Assets window.