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[THoS]

Hello there! I would like to list an idea for making skinning easier. For the longest of time, the most precise way at skinning a figure was the weight painting option. However, I don't think there is an option for painting one side at a time. Currently, you merely have to paint all the way through a model, which is inconvenient, and, many times, severely limiting. Regardless of how anyone has gotten pass this, I think the ability to paint either only the back faces or front would be a great addition. I think it could be implemented like the drag selection's back/front buttons, when it comes down to it.

The main issue is that, if you only need to paint one side to a specific model, that may not be possible, as, even if you turn it to one side, you might have to paint over some other part of the model. There's no way around this! You just have to keep turning it, and, in some situations, you will never be able to avoid painting over a part of the model, all the way on the other side! You'll have to go back around to it, again, and repaint it, wasting precious time.

Again, I'm not sure how people have managed, but I think having the more reliable weight painting able to paint only a side at a time, like in lots of other art programs, would be a magnificent addition. I like anim8or for its simplicity and 'plug'n'play' graphics manipulation. Many other programs think that, to have features, they have to make the layout as scattered and complex as possible, and manipulation as slow as possible. Not anim8or, as it keeps it feeling more like a 2D paint program, like Paint.Net, when it comes down to how graphics are manipulated, and how it implements features and effects, using simple pop up dialog boxes and hot keys, and tabs and modes, all packaged in a simple configuration. The biggest part of this ease comes in how the camera is kept its own quick and easy mode, which allows manipulation to come first, as it should always, and be right at your finger tips. Most the time, other programs are slow, due to how they map cam controls to the arrow keys themselves, and other, and thus force you to go through more to even selecting and moving vertices. Again, anim8or is more 'plug'n'play'. Thus, I would also like to have the same flexibility where I know it is still going to be possible.

Thanks, in advance!

[Steve]

THoS: that's a good idea. I guess I hadn't thought much about it but you make a very good point. Do you have any suggestions as how to add it?

One idea is to add [Front] and [Back] buttons like in the Object editor to enable which sides are painted, which is a little strange since you probably seldom want to paint only the back. Another idea is to only paint on the front side. Another idea is to use a Shift or Ctrl key to control whether you paint just the front or both the front and the back.

Let me know what you think (and thanks for the nice comments about Anim8or )

[fefe01]

Steve , your idea is pretty brilliant and I have another suggestion.This is just my idea! What about making two kinds of paint brush: the standard one which paints all sides, and another one which only paints the side on which the brush is put.

[THoS]

Thanks for the replies! And, as for how to add the option, it could be possible to have a check box in the weight paint brush editor, where you alter the actual intensity and scale of the brush.

Of course, that stated, I think something more quick and on the spot might be in order. Again, the back and front buttons might seem to be the best way to go, even if the back button will rarely be needed outside of just going back to checking or activating both. After all, I seldom use it during the modeling process, anyways. Normally, I don't even mess with those buttons, even if I need to, at times. Its just, here, I think they would be most crucial. And, I think that by going with another paint brush mode, or etc., you're adding another mode that effectively does the same thing. By adding something like the back/front buttons, its more clear that this is to do with the additional options regarding working with the mode, or more. Even though it will seldom be used, the back button, I think it is true some may, if they think its quicker than rotating the camera around.

You could go with the adding of hotkeys that change the actual parameter, but, given this is weight painting, and many are likely going to spend a lot of time in either painting mode, the time one is going to be holding down the key might be more immense than in other occasions in anim8or. Though it does make sense because you can use a hotkey to target but the selected faces when making cuts during the modeling process, this might be more tedius here, to need to keep the button down. Can't be sure, however. It may work out, but, what you could do, is do a little bit of both. Like, you could have a single button which toggles between painting just one side or the whole thing, all the way through, which also acts as sort of a "auto run toggle" for use of the hotkey. Meaning, its like when you hit tab in certain PC games to enable auto running, and when you hit shift, you walk instead of run. Then, when you hit it again, you walk by default, and run with the shift key. Something like that. This might let people choose what their personal preference is.

[Trevor]

My suggestion to vertex painting would be to only paint non-occluded surfaces - if a vertex is blocked by another triangle ignore it unless a checkbox/button/hotkey is pressed.
This allows one to paint an arm without fear that the body or legs will get painted too if any vertex is hidden behind the arm.

Trev