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The Tools Menu

The N-Paint Tools menu contains most of the tools you'll use to create and edit full-color images in N-Paint.

In this Chapter

This chapter describes the Tools menu in general, as well as the commands section of the Tools menu. You'll use the commands section of the Tools menu to control various N-Paint elements. We'll also cover:

Canvas commands

Palette commands

Using History

Using the N-Paint grid

Manipulating colors in the palette

Manipulating the N-Paint matte

Switching between distortion, 3D Paint, and other N-Paint modes

Entering Tools Mode

(CLICK-L) on the Tools button to enter Tools mode and display the N-Paint tools menu. The appearance of this menu varies slightly depending upon whether a brush or a shape tool is currently selected. Figure 3.1 and Figure 3.2 show the configuration of the Tools menu with a brush and a shape tool selected. You can use these figures to orient yourself while you read the following chapters.

Brushes and Shape tools are described in detail in the next chapter.

Figure 3.1 The Tools menu with a brush selected

Figure 3.2 The Tools menu with a shape selected

The Commands Section

The Commands section of the Tools menu contains controls for managing N-Paint elements like images, toolboxes, and palettes. It's also where you'll set various Paint modes. The Commands section is divided into four primary areas; Element Modes, Paint Modes, Matte modes, and Canvas Operations.

Figure 3.3 The Commands section of the Tools menu (Canvas Mode)

Canvas Mode

(CLICK-L) on the Canvas Modes icon to reveal the canvas modes menu (Figure 3.3).

Paint Modes

These controls determine the current mode for N -Paint and 3D-Paint (if applicable).

Table 3.1 N-Paint modes buttons

Button Visible Description
2D

Only when N-Paint and N-Geometry are both running.

(CLICK-L) on the 2D button to use N-Paint in normal 2D mode.

Map

Only when N-Paint and N-Geometry are both running.

(CLICK-L) on Map to enter 3D Paint Map mode.

3D paint Map mode "unfolds" the geometry of a 3D object, projecting polygon boundaries onto the paint canvas.

3D

Only when N-Paint and N-Geometry are both running.

In 3D mode, you can use N-Paint tools to paint directly on an object in 3D space.

Pasteup

Always

Makes the pasteup layer active (lets you see what is currently on the pasteup layer). See the section "Pasteup Tool," on page 5-45 for more information.

Distortion

Always

Interactive distortion mode allows you to distort images interactively or create distortion maps which can be applied to an image using the Distort ink. For a complete description of this feature, see the section "Distort," on page 6-17

Matte Commands

Any canvas can have a matte associated with it; the matte is saved in the alpha channel of the image, and is used to protect areas of the canvas from being painted on. You control the behavior of any matte associated with an image with the Matte command controls, located in the center of the Commands section of the Tools menu.

Both the canvas and the backup canvas may have mattes associated with them.

Erase

Erases the matte.

Rev

Reverses the matte (causing the protected area to become unprotected and vice-versa).

Backup

Manage the backup up matte. If you (CLICK-L) on Backup, the Matte Backup Operation pop-up menu appears:

Figure 3.4 Matte Operations Pop-up menu.

Load from Backup loads the matte stored in the backup matte channel to the matte channel of the current image.

Save to Backup saves the current matte to the backup matte channel.

Swap with Backup swaps the current images matte with the matte stored in the backup matte channel. At the same time, the current images original matte is saved in the backup matte channel.

Display

(CLICK-L) on the Display button to open a pop-up menu that lets you define the color and opacity of the matte

Figure 3.5 The Matte Display modes pop-up menu.

Set Color lets you specify the color to be used for the matte.

Set Opacity lets you specify the opacity to be used for the display of the matte.

Make Transparent specifies that you want to use the normal matte mode, where the matte functions as a transparent overlay.

Make Opaque specifies that you want to preview the matte in black-and-white, temporarily hiding the image. (Note that any image editing, while not visible if Make Opaque is chosen, still affects the image.)

Matte Display and Use Modes

You can control whether the matte will influence the manner in which your painting is applied to the canvas. You control matte behavior using the six matte mode toggles, located at the bottom of the Matte Modes Section of the menu.

Figure 3.6 The Matte Modes section of the menu

(CLICK-L) on a button to toggle that option. Options which are toggled on are shaded orange, while unselected options are grey or blue. Table 3.2 summarizes each of these commands.

Table 3.2 N-Paint Matte modes

Button Description
Off

Turns the matte off. Matte can still be viewed.

All

Image editing changes affect both the canvas and the matte. If, for example, you apply a Blur ink to the whole canvas while All is selected, both the canvas and the matte are blurred. If you add to the matte with All mode, the brush (or shape) paints onto the matte with the selected ink characteristics (opacity, softness, etc.).

All mode is useful if you are creating an object from scratch and want the matte to match it exactly.

Add

Any editing is done to the matte only. To add to the matte, select either white or red from a color palette and paint with Add turned on. To erase from the matte, select black from a color palette and paint.

Use

Makes the matte active as a mask. Image editing affects only those areas not covered by the matte.

Open

Like All, image editing changes with Open selected affect both the canvas and the matte. However, with Open, only the "shape" of the operation is drawn to the matte (the alpha channel is not drawn upon with any ink).

Note that if you are adding to the matte in open mode with any tool, both the opacity and softness determine the degree to which the matte is affected.

View

Toggles the visibility (display) of the matte on and off.

Canvas and Image Operations

The Current Image

The name of the current image, as well as its dimensions in pixels, is displayed on the top row of this section in a magenta edit field (and at the top of the N-Paint Canvas window). (CLICK-L) on the image name to display a pop-up menu of canvas operations.

(CLICK-L) on Open to load an image from disk to the canvas.

(CLICK-L) on Select to select an element from among those loaded into memory.

(CLICK-L) on Save to save an element to disk.

Loading, manipulating, and saving images is described in detail in "Working with N-Paint Elements," on page 4-2.

Erase

(CLICK-L) to erase the canvas using the displayed color.

(SHIFT-L) erases the canvas using the displayed color and erases the matte completely.

Undo & Redo

Enter interactive unpaint mode. Unpaint allows you to undo a limited amount of painting or shape operations. Once in unpaint mode, you can unpaint or repaint recent modifications.

Figure 3.8 The UnDo menu.

(CLICK-L) on Undo to unpaint the last paint applied to the canvas.

(CLICK-L) on Redo to repaint (undo your unpaint changes).

These commands are incremental. For example, if you draw a long line with a round brush, unpaint removes only a small portion of that line each time you (CLICK-L) on it.

The amount of memory you've set aside for unpaint determines the amount of painting you can undo. See the section "Unpaint Parameters," on page 2-5 for more information.

Backup Canvas Commands

You can store a copy of the current image on the backup canvas. Then you can load the image onto the current canvas, or use it as a safeguard against undesired changes in the current image.

Load

(CLICK-L) to load the RGB channels of the backup canvas to the canvas.

(SHIFT-L) to load the RGBA channels of the backup canvas to the canvas.

Save

(CLICK-L) to save the RGB channels of the canvas to the backup canvas.

(SHIFT-L) to save the RGBA channels of the canvas to the backup canvas.

Swap

(CLICK-L) swaps the RGB channels of the canvas and the backup canvas.

(SHIFT-L) swaps the RGBA channels of the canvas and the backup canvas.

Palette Commands

(CLICK-L) on the Palette icon to reveal the palette operations menu. Options on these menus let you select and edit colors for various purposes when you're using Paint.

Figure 3.9 Color palette

Manipulating Palettes

Palettes can be saved and manipulated like any other N-Paint element. The name of the current palette is displayed in the magenta current palette filename field atop the color palette itself.

(CLICK-M) on this field to select a palette from among those already loaded into memory.

(CLICK-L) on this field to load, save, delete, or perform other file operations on palettes. The Palette operations pop-up menu appears.

Figure 3.10 Palette Operations pop-up menu.

See the "Working with Palettes and Toolboxes," on page 4-8 for more information about managing palettes.

Paging Controls

A palette may have more than one page of colors; if so, use the paging controls to flip through the pages.

Colors in Palette

The colors on the current page of the selected palette are displayed in the upper right portion of the display.

Current Color

The currently selected color. (CLICK-L) on a color in the palette to make it the current color.

Sliders

The sliders at the bottom of the Color section allow you to specify colors based on the intensity, hue, and/or saturation components of a color. (DRAG-L) on the appropriate slider to change the current color.

Working with Palettes

Use the following mouse clicks to modify a color palette:

(CLICK-L) on a filled square makes it the current color.

(CLICK-L) on an empty square to fill it with the current color.

(CLICK-M) on any blank square between two populated squares to auto-fill the intervening squares with a graduated palette between the two. If you click on a filled square, the entire row is auto-filled with interpolated colors (the colors that bound the empty squares are the endpoints of the interpolation):

Figure 3.11 Generating graduated palettes

(CLICK-R) on a filled square to delete the selected color.

(SHIFT-L) fills the current row with one of the four default palette rows. (SHIFT-L) repeatedly to cycle through the four default palette rows.

History

Expert mode only

The entries under the history function are a summary of all the shape operations that have been applied to the canvas.

Figure 3.12 History of geometric shapes

If you (CLICK-L) on one of the shape operations listed, the outline for that shape is displayed on the canvas and the parameters for the operation are displayed on the tools menu. The shape can then be manipulated and/or reapplied to the canvas.

Grid Commands

The grid menu lets you display a grid overlay over the canvas. By defining the parameters in this menu, you can cause the grid to constrain mouse movement along grid lines or simply display the grid. (CLICK-L) on the Grid button to display the grid parameters.

Figure 3.13 Grid parameters

Direction controls how the mouse behaves with respect to the grid. A (CLICK-L) on the Direction button produces the Direction pop-up menu:

Figure 3.14 Grid Direction pop-up menu

Intersect constrains the mouse so that tools can only be positioned at the intersections of grid lines.
Horizontal constrains mouse movement along the horizontal grid lines.
Vertical constrains mouse movement along the vertical grid lines.

X Spacing specifies the number of pixels between vertical lines in the grid.

Y Spacing specifies the number of pixels between horizontal lines in the grid.

X Offset lets you specify the point of origin for the vertical lines in the grid. This is useful, for example, if you want to align the grid with an object or a text baseline.

Y Offset is the same as Grid X Offset (described above) except for horizontal lines.

Thickness is the thickness of the grid lines, expressed in pixels.

Grid Color lets you select a color for the overlay; choose a color from the palette which is displayed when you click on the color box.

Grid Active activates the grid (note that the grid can be active even if it is not visible-visibility is controlled by the Draw/Undraw command described below. The grid can also be toggled on and off using the hot key "T".

Set Position lets you graphically specify a start position for the grid. The current X and Y variables are still used to draw the grid.

Set Size/Position lets you graphically define the grid by drawing a rectangle over the canvas.

Draw/Undraw turns the display of the grid on and off. You should also use this button to turn off the display of the 12 Field Chart or the Video Safe chart.

12 Field Chart displays a 12-field chart overlay on the canvas.

Video Safe displays a video safe overlay on the canvas. A Video Save overlay shows which part of the canvas will be visible on a standard TV display.

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