9

936 Chapter 8: Modifiers
Note:
A higher threshold setting will result in
welding more vertices, thus removing smaller
faces and details. If the threshold is set too high,
the mesh will begin to deform.
A threshold setting of 5.5 removes all detail, m ak ing the model
unrecognizable.
VertexPaint Modifier
Select an object. > Modify panel > Modifier List >
VertexPaint
Select an object. > Modifiers menu > Mesh Editing >
Vertex Paint
Select an object. > Utilities panel > More > Assign Ver tex
Colors > Click Assign To Selected. > Modify panel
The VertexPaint modifier lets you paint vertex
colors onto an object. You ’re not restricted to only
vertex-level painting. Using sub-object selection,
you can also control which vertices get paint ed,
face-by-face. A ll faces shar ing a vertex have the
adjacent corner shaded as well. The resulting
painted object receives a coarse gr adient across
each face.
The amount of color that 3ds Max applies to a
vertex depends on the distance of the vertex from
the position of t he paint cursor on the face. The
more you select a face, the more it changes to the
new color. The Opacity button also controls the
strength of the color. 3ds Max shades the color, so
if you have one green vertex and two white vertices
for one face, for example, you’ll see a gradient on
that face.
VertexPaint modifier also lets you paint values for
the ver tex alpha and i llumination channels. These
channels affect the transparency and shading of
vertex colors, respectively.
Tip:
Tip:
Notes a nd T ips
For best results with VertexPaint, keep the
following in mind:
• To render vertex colors, assign a Ve r tex C o lor
map (page 2–1693), as described in To re n d e r
vertex colors (page 1–938).
• If you select faces using the selection tools of the
VertexPaint modifier, you restrict your p ainting
to the selected faces, as opposed to all faces.
This allows you to sharply define the edges of
your painted selection.
• You can streamline the painting process by
using t he Brush Presets tools (page 3–690).
• Each VertexPaint modifier works internally
to itself, and cannot mo d ify existing vertex
coloring. To paint over existing coloring, use
the Condense to single layer function.
About M ap Channels and Vertex Color,
Vertex Alpha, and Vertex I llum
When using vertex paint, it is helpful to
understand how 3ds Max manages vertex color,
alpha, i llumination, and map channels. The
software stores and manages all of these different
pieces of inf ormation using the same underlying
system.
The map channels are defined as triple-value
channels (tuples) with a unique integer ID number
ranging from -2 to 99. The first five map channels
have specific and familiar usages: