MattePainter for Blender
Currently Supports: Blender 3.6 LTS
MattePainter is a workflow-enhancing tool for in-scene Photobashing inside of the Blender 3D Viewport. It takes the common pipeline of overpainting in a third-party app like Photoshop and brings it into Blender with a simplified interface and a focus on speed.
Step 1: Click the Folder Button to open an image. Position and scale it to fit.
Step 2: Click "Set Shaders" and the plugin automatically sets everything up, ready for painting. (Now automatic!)
Step 3: Click "Paint" and begin painting your Transparency Mask to paint in/out your image.
Step 4: Color-Grade and adjust global opacity to match the rest of your scene.
It's that simple!
It's great for painting in clouds, fog, small details like greebles or machinery and light planes for a dense, futuristic city.
FAQ:
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How do I install the Plugin?
- Edit -> Preferences -> Add-ons -> Install. Then double click on the ZIP. You’ll now be able to find it in your addons list to activate it (click the checkbox to activate).
- Edit -> Preferences -> Add-ons -> Install. Then double click on the ZIP. You’ll now be able to find it in your addons list to activate it (click the checkbox to activate).
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HELP! My images dissappear when I click Set Shaders.
- This is intended behavior. When Blender creates a new Image Texture, it fills it with Black. Black = Transparent for Alpha Channels, so your image will be invisible. This is where we jump into Texture Paint mode with a White colour, and start painting our image in!
- This is intended behavior. When Blender creates a new Image Texture, it fills it with Black. Black = Transparent for Alpha Channels, so your image will be invisible. This is where we jump into Texture Paint mode with a White colour, and start painting our image in!
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I hit Undo and lost my painted Layer, Redo does nothing!
- This is actually a Blender limitation. Be very careful when tabbing out of Texture Paint mode and hitting Undo. Alternatively you can hit Save All to ensure your images are saved.
- This is actually a Blender limitation. Be very careful when tabbing out of Texture Paint mode and hitting Undo. Alternatively you can hit Save All to ensure your images are saved.
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There's black sections in my Cycles viewport/render.
- Increase your Cycles Layers value until they go away. By default Cycles only renders up to 8 transparency passes.
- Increase your Cycles Layers value until they go away. By default Cycles only renders up to 8 transparency passes.
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Are there Adjustment Layers?
- Not currently. It’s definitely something we’d love to implement at some point!
- Not currently. It’s definitely something we’d love to implement at some point!
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My layers aren’t Cloning properly.
- You might have some unlinked data blocks interfering with the node setup. Click “Clear Unused” and then duplicate your asset again.
- You might have some unlinked data blocks interfering with the node setup. Click “Clear Unused” and then duplicate your asset again.
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Can I Color-Pick?
- Yes, hit S while in Texture Paint mode. If you want to Color-Pick from the Screen Data (like other apps), check "Sample Merged" in the popup window.
- Yes, hit S while in Texture Paint mode. If you want to Color-Pick from the Screen Data (like other apps), check "Sample Merged" in the popup window.
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Color-Picking isn't getting the right Values.
- That's a Blender thing, set your View Transform to Standard inside the Plugin or in the Render panel.
- That's a Blender thing, set your View Transform to Standard inside the Plugin or in the Render panel.
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There's unnamed items in my Layers Panel.
- This happens when you add additional objects to the MattePainter collection. Just move them out to their own space :)
- This happens when you add additional objects to the MattePainter collection. Just move them out to their own space :)
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Can I move the Camera?
- You can, but the images won't move with it. To fix this, select all the images in your MattePainter collection, then your Camera and hit Ctrl+P. Be careful moving the camera too much since we're working with 2D Planes.
- You can, but the images won't move with it. To fix this, select all the images in your MattePainter collection, then your Camera and hit Ctrl+P. Be careful moving the camera too much since we're working with 2D Planes.
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My PNG already has alpha data, can I combine the two?
- If you combine your painted Transparency layer and the image's original Alpha channel with a MixRGB node, then put that through a Math Node set to Multiply with a value of 2 (so MixRGB x 2), it should combine them correctly.
- MattePainter doesn't handle this automatically because (as far as we know) there isn't a way to detect if the imported image is a .PNG or a .JPG.
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What is Photobashing?
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Photobashing is a common final (or near-final) step during the Digital Painting process. It involves rendering out an image from a 3D Renderer such as Blender Cycles, then bringing that image into Photoshop and "painting" images over it using transparency masks to add additional last-minute details.
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Photobashing is a common final (or near-final) step during the Digital Painting process. It involves rendering out an image from a 3D Renderer such as Blender Cycles, then bringing that image into Photoshop and "painting" images over it using transparency masks to add additional last-minute details.
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I'm having trouble positioning the image due to an off-axis Camera.
- Set your Transform mode to View and jump into the Camera View. Now your axis will be relative to the Camera (X for Horizontal, Y for Vertical, Z for Depth). We recommend working in this mode while using the Plugin.