Grease Pencil not working...

[Anonymous]

So since I have had 2014 installed grease pencil only worked once and I have not changed anything. It just worked all of a sudden one start up, but prior to that and since it has not worked at all. Everything opens (the menu) and when I add a frame and select a brush that all works, but when using the mouse or Wacom tab it will not paint anything. I even upgraded to the latest drivers for the Wacom, but like I said the mouse wont work either. Anyone have ideas?

[Anonymous]

So since I have had 2014 installed grease pencil only worked once and I have not changed anything. It just worked all of a sudden one start up, but prior to that and since it has not worked at all. Everything opens (the menu) and when I add a frame and select a brush that all works, but when using the mouse or Wacom tab it will not paint anything. I even upgraded to the latest drivers for the Wacom, but like I said the mouse wont work either. Anyone have ideas?

[mcclels]

Hmmmm lets see if I can take a stab at this one and see what might be throwing grease pencil off here. What are your near/far focal plane settings set to? Having those too far spaced apart can result in some oddities with the paint engine where the strokes won't get projected onto the drawing surface properly so check to see if they are as follows (the recommended setup we usually tell people):

Near Clip Plane: 0.100
Far Clip Plane 10000.000

Some other things I can think of off the top of my head:

Check the brush size & opacity (B key + M key) to make sure they haven't scaled themselves down. Brush size should stop at a relatively small but still visible value but Opacity could be the problem.

Check your Wacom pressure sensitivity settings as sometimes the defaults can require a lot of force to recognize the pen input. The pressure has a direct effect on Opacity when using a Wacom device so we map pressure to opacity and thus if there's not enough pen pressure the stroke may not show up.

Last but not least and I'm guilty of having this happen before as well but is the tool set to the Eraser brush? Try toggling the brushes or clicking on the Eraser and then clicking back to another brush (or flip your Wacom pen to the eraser side, see if the icon changes to Eraser and then flip it back to the pen side to change back to the Pen brush and try drawing).

Hopefully some of these suggestions correct the issue but if not let me know and I'll look into it more for you.

Shawn

[mcclels]

Hmmmm lets see if I can take a stab at this one and see what might be throwing grease pencil off here. What are your near/far focal plane settings set to? Having those too far spaced apart can result in some oddities with the paint engine where the strokes won't get projected onto the drawing surface properly so check to see if they are as follows (the recommended setup we usually tell people):

Near Clip Plane: 0.100
Far Clip Plane 10000.000

Some other things I can think of off the top of my head:

Check the brush size & opacity (B key + M key) to make sure they haven't scaled themselves down. Brush size should stop at a relatively small but still visible value but Opacity could be the problem.

Check your Wacom pressure sensitivity settings as sometimes the defaults can require a lot of force to recognize the pen input. The pressure has a direct effect on Opacity when using a Wacom device so we map pressure to opacity and thus if there's not enough pen pressure the stroke may not show up.

Last but not least and I'm guilty of having this happen before as well but is the tool set to the Eraser brush? Try toggling the brushes or clicking on the Eraser and then clicking back to another brush (or flip your Wacom pen to the eraser side, see if the icon changes to Eraser and then flip it back to the pen side to change back to the Pen brush and try drawing).

Hopefully some of these suggestions correct the issue but if not let me know and I'll look into it more for you.

Shawn

[Anonymous]

Thanks Shawn,
I tried all those suggestions with no luck. It is really strange since it did work once using both mouse and Wacom. Now neither of them work but the grease pencil app seems to be "working" fine.
Totally lost here.
Thanks for your help Shawn!

[Anonymous]

Thanks Shawn,
I tried all those suggestions with no luck. It is really strange since it did work once using both mouse and Wacom. Now neither of them work but the grease pencil app seems to be "working" fine.
Totally lost here.
Thanks for your help Shawn!

[ruthedaly]

I am not able to use the grease pencil suddenly now either. It doesn't draw anything in the viewport. It was working well for me for a long time. I just installed a big animation plug in this morning. Could it get broken by that? I just see this red circle move with my mouse or my wacom pen and it doesn't draw anything.

[ruthedaly]

I am not able to use the grease pencil suddenly now either. It doesn't draw anything in the viewport. It was working well for me for a long time. I just installed a big animation plug in this morning. Could it get broken by that? I just see this red circle move with my mouse or my wacom pen and it doesn't draw anything.

[Anonymous]

I was having this same problem! Have you checked the Grease Pencil box, under the show menu? That was the solution for me.

[Anonymous]

I was having this same problem! Have you checked the Grease Pencil box, under the show menu? That was the solution for me.

[Anonymous]

I have noticed that the grease pencil will also not work if your camera is parented under a scaled object. I often animate my camera in an empty group for a little extra control. If I scale the group it seems to break the grease pencil.

[Anonymous]

I have noticed that the grease pencil will also not work if your camera is parented under a scaled object. I often animate my camera in an empty group for a little extra control. If I scale the group it seems to break the grease pencil.

[Anonymous]

Hi there, 

I also am having issues with grease pencil (maya 2014). I have tried messing with all of the above settings and no luck. If I try to use it this is the result I get in all viewports and with a mouse or with my tablet. Any ideas?

[Anonymous]

Hi there, 

I also am having issues with grease pencil (maya 2014). I have tried messing with all of the above settings and no luck. If I try to use it this is the result I get in all viewports and with a mouse or with my tablet. Any ideas?

[Anonymous]

I was having this issue. and THIS ^ was the problem. Thanks for that suggestion!

[Anonymous]

I was having this issue. and THIS ^ was the problem. Thanks for that suggestion!

[Anonymous]

Hi. I'm having the same problem and still can't figure it out. In my case, small brush makes a bunch of pixelated dots.

I've checked camera option either, which has 0.100 Near Clip Scale and 10000 Far Clip Plane.. and have reset Maya setting several  times.

Anyone has ideas?

[Anonymous]

Hi. I'm having the same problem and still can't figure it out. In my case, small brush makes a bunch of pixelated dots.

I've checked camera option either, which has 0.100 Near Clip Scale and 10000 Far Clip Plane.. and have reset Maya setting several  times.

Anyone has ideas?

[Anonymous]

Hi!

I have a problem with the grease tool too...

A box with tool settings suddenly disappeared. So I can choose grease pencil in a panel toolbar, but it is impossible to add or remove frame, choose another kind of pencil and so on.... 

How can I invoke the tool settings? 

[Anonymous]

Hi!

I have a problem with the grease tool too...

A box with tool settings suddenly disappeared. So I can choose grease pencil in a panel toolbar, but it is impossible to add or remove frame, choose another kind of pencil and so on.... 

How can I invoke the tool settings? 

[Anonymous]

It could be opening off screen. If this is the case and you are using windows, you can click the grease pencil icon in your viewport panel. Without clicking anywhere else press "Windows key" + "Shift" and either left or right arrow keys.

This moves selected windows from screen to screen if you have multiple monitors. Maya doesn't seem to be very good at knowing when it's windows and panels are offscreen.

[Anonymous]

It could be opening off screen. If this is the case and you are using windows, you can click the grease pencil icon in your viewport panel. Without clicking anywhere else press "Windows key" + "Shift" and either left or right arrow keys.

This moves selected windows from screen to screen if you have multiple monitors. Maya doesn't seem to be very good at knowing when it's windows and panels are offscreen.

[Anonymous]

clic on your grease pencil button. Go to the Tool Setting tab, and clic reset tool 🙂 it worked for me

[Anonymous]

clic on your grease pencil button. Go to the Tool Setting tab, and clic reset tool 🙂 it worked for me

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

I had the same problem too. I fixed it in this way but I'm not sure it will work in every case.

1. I added grease pencil frame and made a few dots.

2. Go to greasePencilTexture1 tab in the Attribute Editor. Click on the incoming connection of Color attribute which opens greasePencilFile1 tab. Load any image in the Image Name box. The image should appear in your screen. Try the grease pencil again, it should work this time. 

3. Delete the grease pencil frame from your timeline and create again. This time it should work without the background image in it.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

I had the same problem too. I fixed it in this way but I'm not sure it will work in every case.

1. I added grease pencil frame and made a few dots.

2. Go to greasePencilTexture1 tab in the Attribute Editor. Click on the incoming connection of Color attribute which opens greasePencilFile1 tab. Load any image in the Image Name box. The image should appear in your screen. Try the grease pencil again, it should work this time. 

3. Delete the grease pencil frame from your timeline and create again. This time it should work without the background image in it.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, it worked for me, awesome 🙂

[Anonymous]

Thanks, it worked for me, awesome 🙂

[Anonymous]

Hey I too was searching for the same answer and I came to know that I had unselected GREASEPENCIL from the SHOW menu in viewport

In Viewport menu,Go to SHOW>select Greasepencil.

I hope it helps.

[Anonymous]

Hey I too was searching for the same answer and I came to know that I had unselected GREASEPENCIL from the SHOW menu in viewport

In Viewport menu,Go to SHOW>select Greasepencil.

I hope it helps.

[Anonymous]

WOW~~~~thx dude, very impressiing!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

WOW~~~~thx dude, very impressiing!!!!!!!!!!!!

[indi_pops]

This worked perfectly! I was getting the weird pixelated affect too in Maya 2015. Thaaaanks!

[indi_pops]

This worked perfectly! I was getting the weird pixelated affect too in Maya 2015. Thaaaanks!

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous thank's a lot my friend, you've been save my life 

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous thank's a lot my friend, you've been save my life 

[vanessaconradovelozo]

MANNN I can't believe this really works, I was having this trouble for so long. Haha, i love how is strange but very functional that is. THANKS!

[vanessaconradovelozo]

MANNN I can't believe this really works, I was having this trouble for so long. Haha, i love how is strange but very functional that is. THANKS!

[emilySKA2V]

I was just having this issue in 2018 and your solution worked!! Thank you! 

[emilySKA2V]

I was just having this issue in 2018 and your solution worked!! Thank you!