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Getting Started with Maya

> Painting

>  Lesson 1:  Painting in 2D using Paint Effects

Modifying the colors of a preset brush

In the following steps, you alter leaf and bud colors of a preset brush; fern.mel.

Tip When using the fern.mel brush, if any of the sliders do not appear, or appear cut off on the right, you need to increase the screen display resolution setting on your monitor to 1280 X 1024.

To change the color of a brush

1. In the Visor (Brush > Get Brush), click the fern.mel preset brush in the plants folder.
2. Paint on the canvas to see the default display.

Because fern.mel uses tubes, ferns grow along the path of your stroke.

3. Resize the brush to a Global Scale of about 0.5 (Brush > Edit Template Brush) and paint on the canvas.
4. On the toolbar, click the L1 color box (Leaf Color 1), select a shade of blue from the Color Chooser, and leave the Color Chooser open.

L1 sets the color of the tips of the leaves.

5. Click the L2 color box (Leaf Color 2) and select a shade of red from the Color Chooser.

L2 sets the color of the base of the leaves.

6. Click the B color box (Bud Color) and select a shade of yellow from the Color Chooser. B sets the color of the flower buds.
7. Paint on the canvas and observe how the changes you’ve made to the settings affect the final paint effect.

Tip You can change the path width of fern.mel without changing the width of the leaves and stems. Select Brush > Edit Template Brush to display the Brush Settings window, then in the Brush Profile section, change the value of Brush Width. Similarly, you can alter the path width for any other preset strokes with tubes.

8. Clear the canvas (Canvas > Clear).