topic Re: paint soften edges in Maya Modeling Forum

paint soften edges

HeavyMetalFox — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 20:09:59 GMT

Hello,
Is there a way to paint edges so they are hard or soft instead of having to select each edge and apply soften or harden
I remember there is a marking menu for this, am I right?

Re: paint soften edges

artfully3d — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 17:57:00 GMT

Hi!

If you Shift+RightClick on your edge, there will be a marking menu for Soften/Hard edges

Re: paint soften edges

HeavyMetalFox — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 18:52:35 GMT

Yes, I know this tool, but its not a "paint" tool?

Re: paint soften edges

brentmc — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 10:48:28 GMT

You can use the Paint Selection Tool to select the edges and then run soften edges on the selection.

Re: paint soften edges

HeavyMetalFox — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 18:22:25 GMT

Isn't there a way to paint to "soften edge" action?

Re: paint soften edges

brentmc — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 12:30:24 GMT

Hi,

The brushes in Maya can be scripted so it is possible to make a custom soften (or harden) edges brush.

Here is a script that will do the job and I just copied the shaderPaintTool.mel example in the installed Maya scripts and adapted it to soften edges.

Save this to a file called edgeSoftenPaintTool.mel in your script path. (or paste everything except the first line into the script editor and run it)

Note: The magic sauce is the -bsc/-beforeStrokeCmd and -asc/-afterStrokeCmd flags where you can define commands that get run before and after every brush stroke.

global proc edgeSoftenPaintTool() { global string $gEdgeSoftenPaintTool; if ($gEdgeSoftenPaintTool == "") { $gEdgeSoftenPaintTool = `eval "artSelectCtx -i1 \"artSelect.png\" -ads false edgeSoftenPaintContext"`; } string $cmd; $cmd = "ArtPaintSelectTool; artSelectCtx -e"; $cmd += " -bsc \"setComponentPickMask Edge true;\""; $cmd += " -asc \"polySoftEdge -a 180 -ch 1;"; $cmd += "select -clear;\" "; $cmd += $gEdgeSoftenPaintTool; eval $cmd; setToolTo $gEdgeSoftenPaintTool; }

Re: paint soften edges

HeavyMetalFox — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 19:15:29 GMT

Thanks alot man, works like a charm 🙂
When I paint it on edges, it highlights them before applying the soften which is a bit distracting and not very smooth (even id "reselecting highlights" is turned off in the select menu)
Is there a way to paint directly without highlights things?

Re: paint soften edges

brentmc — Thu, 09 Mar 2023 10:05:23 GMT

No, it is not possible to avoid selecting the edges while painting because the script uses the paint select tool and it softens the edges after each stroke. (and clears the selection)

Re: paint soften edges

HeavyMetalFox — Thu, 09 Mar 2023 18:57:25 GMT

ok thanks alot.