New Features
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This document contains a list of the new features that have been added since the tutorial file was written. Once you have had a look through the tutorial read through this list to see what else is available. Perhaps the most important feature is the inclusion of Lightwave 3D .lwo file support.

Here's a quick list of the features covered:

* Save All Maps
* Lightwave File Import
* Continuous Dab Spacing.
* Brush Booster.
* Smudge paint type.
* Smudge & Paint paint type.
* Procedural Marble paint type.
* Procedural Clouds paint type.
* 'Spread' paint type.
* Scale & Rotate Floaters.
* Set Clone Source on Ctrl-Click.
* Contrast & Brightness Adjustment.


Save All Maps
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In the File Menu you will find a 'Save All Maps' option. If you want to save all of the maps you have been painting to disk, select this option. Locate the directory in which you wish to save the first and all images will be saved to that directory with their original names. If you have added maps to a scene, you will be prompted for names for these new images.


The Lightwave File Reader
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4D Paint Rembrandt 1.60 supports Lightwave 3D files in the *.lwo format. To load a .lwo file select 'Open' from the File menu and make sure the object type you are trying to open is '*.lwo'.

Ideally,  the *.lwo file should be in the same directory as all the bitmaps associated with the surface definitions. This allows 4D Paint to easily find all the maps. (Tip:  In the map paths section of your 4D Paint preferences add the path . (single dot) to the paths, so 4D Paint always looks in the current directory for maps). If a bitmap associated with a surface isnt found 4D Paint will ask you to locate the map and give you the option of adding the directory to the list of map-paths.

The .lwo file will be imported as a single object but surface definitions will remain intact and viewed by 4D Paint as separate materials. The mapping associated with the surface definition from Lightwave will be used inside 4D Paint and preserved. Therefore it is critical that objects be mapped carefully inside Lightwave. The *.lwo importer supports the three main surface types: Planar Image Map, Cylindrical Image Map and Spherical Image Map in any orientation.

Painting and layer management inside 4D Paint works exactly the same as with any other type of scene. Refer to the 4D Paint help files and manual for details.

Completed maps can either be saved individually from the 2D view of the render layer map (double click the Render layer in the list of layers for each channel type) or all render maps can be saved into a common directory. Choose 'Save All Maps' from the File menu. 4D Paint will prompt you to enter names for images if you have created new channel maps during the process of painting.

To use the updated maps inside Lightwave you will need either to re-load them in to the images menu, or reload the project file before rendering. (Lightwave caches images, so they have to be reloaded manually from disk).


Limitations Of The Lightwave File Reader
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Only polygonal mesh objects can be painted. Particle systems, nurbs surfaces and meta-objects cannot be painted. To be paintable an object must have one or more surfaces applied and the surfaces must have one of the three supported map types applied. Surfaces with procedural texture definitions (such as spots or noise) will not be paintable. Scene files are not supported, objects can only be loaded individually via *.lwo object files. Surface names should be unique within the first 14 characters: eg Defiant Left Engine Detail & Defiant Left Engine Registration my not be applied in the corrrect places as 4D Paint doesnt see them as unique. Text geometry may not import exactly correctly into 4D Paint,  however the maps will be applied correctly and will be paintable.


Continuous Dab Spacing
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This feature allows you to force 4D Paint to draw smooth strokes.

In Version 1.1 of 4D Paint when you painted a line quickly the stroke would break up in to a number of 'dabs' (individual applications of the Brush Head). Using the Continuous Dab Spacing feature you can tell 4D Paint that instead of drawing one dab at a time to paint a stroke it should draw as many dabs as it can while the mouse is moving and connect those with other dabs. This provides perfectly smooth strokes no matter what speed the mouse is moved.

To activate this feature, edit your current Brush and in the 'Dab Spacing' section select 'Continuous'. The X slider beneath is used to define how far apart the extra dabs generated will be. A rule of thumb with this setting is that to create a smooth stroke set the X value to less than half the width of the Brush. The default Brush for example works well in Continuous mode with its X spacing set to 4.

The 15Brush.dat file contains a number of brushes that have been adjusted to use Continuous Dab Spacing.


Brush Booster
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The Brush Booster allows you to increase the size of a brush head. When you have a Brush selected in the Brush Tool window and you do not have a Bitmap Paint selected the Brush Booster appears. It appears as a slider that allows you to select 1, 2, 3 or 4 times. This recalculates the Brush Head to the size defined.

Bitmap brush heads are scaled up to the correct size and supersampled to smooth the result. Defined Brush Heads are recalculated at the correct size to maintain smoothing.

Using the brush Booster your Brush Heads can be increased up to 121 x 121 pixels in size.


Smudge Paint Type
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The Smudge Paint smudges anything it passes over. It can be defined to smudge any of the map types available. The strength slider that appears in the Paint Edit box when you select the Smudge paint type can be adjusted to alter the amount of smudging applied.

Smudging works best when used with a Brush set to Continuous Dab Spacing.


Smudge & Paint Paint Type
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The Smudge & Paint paint type paints a single dab of whatever map types it is set to then smudges that. This allows paint to be slowly applied to an area and spread around with a single tool.

Smudging works best when used with a Brush set to Continuous Dab Spacing.


Procedural Marble Paint Type
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The Procedural Marble paint paints a marbled pattern of the foreground colour with veins of the background colour. Using the Size and Density sliders that appear in the Paint Edit box when this type of Paint is selected you can control the type of marble applied.

The Procedural Marble paint will paint the same marble pattern every time you apply it until you reset the randomiser. This means that you can paint over the same area again and again with different colours without the pattern changing. To reset the randomiser hold down the Control key and paint a dab of the marble paint.

The Procedural Marble paint is completely scalable. Because the pattern you see painted is defined by an algorithm even when set to the highest size it can it will apply itself perfectly smoothly with no jagged edges.

This paint looks great in the Bump Map. For more contrast in the bumps set the foreground colour to white and the background colour to black.


Procedural Clouds Paint Type
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The Procedural Clouds paint type paints clouds of the foreground colour and transparency. This paint is best used on a layer above the base layer. Using the Size and Density sliders that appear in the Paint Edit box when you select this paint you can edit the appearance of the clouds that are painted.

The Procedural Clouds paint will paint the same clouds pattern every time you apply it until you reset the randomiser. This means that you can paint over the same area again and again with different colours without the pattern changing. To reset the randomiser hold down the Control key and paint a dab of the clouds paint.

This paint is completely scalable. Because the pattern is defined by a mathematical function it will not lose smoothness when scaled up for painting.

One interesting thing to do is to set the Colour intensity to 0 and paint this paint on to a layer above the Base layer. With intensity set to 0 no colour will be applied but the colour already on that layer will be made transparent in parts and become cloud-like itself.


Spread Paint Type
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The Spread Paint samples the colour underneath its first dab and paints that colour for the duration of a stroke. This allows you to spread a colour already on the object without needing to sample it to the foreground colour. This also works in the bump map and can be used for smoothing areas out without the need to use the colour picker to adjust the current bump intensity


Scale & Rotate Floaters
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The Selection Tool now allows you to scale and rotate floaters that you move from or paste to the surface of an object.

Once you have a floater you can scale it (or select the 'Scale Y' check box and scale the X and Y dimensions of the floater independantly) and rotate it using the spin buttons and edit boxes in the selection window.

When you are finished, press the 'Drop Floater' button and the floater is scaled and rotated with supersampling to create a smooth result.


Set Clone Source On Ctrl-Click
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When using the Clone Tool you can change the source for the clone operation by holding down the Control key and clicking the new area to be the source.


Contrast And Brightness Adjustment
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From the Image menu in the Bitmap Views you can now edit the Contrast and Brightness of an image. Select the 'Process'  submenu and 'Brightness / Contrast' from there.


Problems
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If you have any problems feel free to contact us.

In the US contact 4D Vision via the tech support pages on their web site: http://www.4dvision.com

Internationally, contact 4D Vision Asia:
Email: matt@4dpaint.com
Web: http://www.4dpaint.com