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Paint Cluster Weights Tool
With the Paint Cluster Weights Tool, you can use a Maya Artisan brush to paint cluster weights on your deformed geometry.
See also What are cluster deformers?, Set cluster deformers, and Painting cluster weights.
The Paint Cluster Weights Tool menu item is located under the Deform menu in the Animation menu set (Edit Deformers > Paint Cluster Weights Tool).
Paint Cluster Weights Tool settings
Lets you specify the settings for the Paint Cluster Weights Tool in the Tool Settings editor. In the Paint Attributes section there are some attributes unique to the Paint Cluster Weights Tool. These unique attributes are described below along with some of the common attributes, and how they apply to this tool. For descriptions of all other attributes in all other sections, see Artisan Tool Settings editor in the Artisan guide.
Paint Attributes section
These are descriptions of the attributes in the Paint Attributes section.
clustern.weights
jointClustern.weightsDisplays the name of the cluster selected to paint and the attribute you are painting (weights). To select another cluster to paint, click this button and select the appropriate cluster weights name. By default, the tool selects the first cluster it detects on the surface (for example, cluster1.weights, or jointCluster3.weights).
Filter: cluster
Sets a filter so that only cluster nodes display on the menu for the button above this one. You are painting clusters with the Paint Cluster Weights Tool, so you do not need to change this filter.
Paint Operation
Select which paint operation you want to perform on the selected cluster.
Replace
Your brush stroke replaces the vertex weight with the weight set for the brush.
Add
Your brush stroke adds the vertex weight to the weight set for the brush.
Scale
Your brush stroke scales the vertex weight by the weight factor set for the brush.
Smooth
Your brush stroke averages the weights of adjacent vertices to produce a smoother transition between weights.
Value
Set the weight value to apply when you perform any of the painting operations.
Min/Max Value
Set the minimum and maximum possible paint values. By default, you can paint values between 0 and 1. Setting the Min/Max Values you can extend or narrow the range of values.
Negative values are useful for subtracting weight. For example, if you set Min Value to -1, Value to -0.5, and select Add for the operation, you would subtract 0.5 from the weight of vertices you paint.
Positive values are used as multipliers.
Clamp
Select whether you want to clamp the values within a specified range, regardless of the Value set when you paint.
Lower
Turn this on to clamp the lower value to the Clamp Value specified below. For example, if you clamp Lower and set the lower Clamp Value to 0.5, the values you paint will never be less than 0.5, even if you set the Value to 0.25.
Upper
Turn this on to clamp the upper value to the Clamp Value specified below. For example, if you clamp Upper, set the upper Clamp Value to 0.75, and set Value to 1, the values you paint will never be greater than 0.75.
Clamp Values
Set the Lower and Upper values for clamping.
Flood
Click Flood to apply the brush settings to all the weights on the selected cluster. The result depends on the brush settings defined when you perform the flood.
Vector Index
If you are painting a three channel attribute (RGB or XYZ), select the channel you want to paint. Cluster weight is a single channel attribute, therefore you do not need to change this setting.