Special thanks to Fred Moreau for for his great script: Max Freehand Tools. Grass and Stone ink was a plugin brush to MFHT. When 3ds max 5 comes out with the Painter interface, I started to hack the codes to make it compatible with Painter Interface.

A. Introduction
Advanced Painter is a modular object distribution tool with brush based interface. The script comes with 5 inks (in alphabetical order, not usefulness):

Grass: to create simple grasses.
Hair: used to create simple hair/fur (or as guide hair for Shag:Hair).
Randomizer, a variation of Scatterer used to randomly distribute a selection of objects.
Stone: to create simple stones and peebles.
Spaghetti: spaghetties, noodles, wires and other long things maker.
Scatterer: a generic but powerful object scattering tool.
Toothpaste: the fun but not-so-useful toothpaste generator.

 

3rd Party scripters can take advantage of this system as Advanced Painter's modularity allows scripters to focus on the main UI and core functions, rather than basic things like creating paint button, storing parameters, etc. Refer to the history section for Advanced Painter's commands reference. The mzp package also installs an example ink and a template ink which helps you to write a new Ink Defintion. They can be found in [maxroot]\scripts\AdvPainter\ folder.

Advnaced Painter 1.5 replaces Nature Painter 1.2. Check the history section for more details on the recent changes.

B. Installation
1) Extract advPainter_1.6.0.mzp

2) Start Max. MaxScript>Run Script ... and choose the extraced file. A dialog box will inform you that installation is successful.

3) Install Advanced Painter action item (found under 'Painter' category) to your toolbar, main menu bar, or quadmenu. Please refer your 3ds max documentation for more information on action item installation.

NOTE: Advanced Painter 1.6.0 requires 3ds max 9 - 2009.

Uninstalling Advanced Painter: During setup, the the following files are copied. If you wish to uninstall Advanced Painter just delete them yourself.

[maxroot]\stdplugs\stdscripts\Functions_AdvPainter.ms
[maxroot]\UI\macroscripts\Macro_AdvPainter.mcr
[maxroot]\scripts\AdvPainter\Ink_Grass.ms
[maxroot]\scripts\AdvPainter\Ink_Hair.ms
[maxroot]\scripts\AdvPainter\Ink_Randomizer.ms
[maxroot]\scripts\AdvPainter\Ink_Scatterer.ms
[maxroot]\scripts\AdvPainter\Ink_Spaghetti.ms
[maxroot]\scripts\AdvPainter\Ink_Stone.ms
[maxroot]\scripts\AdvPainter\Ink_Toothpaste.ms
[maxroot]\scripts\AdvPainter\Ink_Example.txt
[maxroot]\scripts\AdvPainter\Ink_Template.txt
[maxroot]\scripts\AdvPainter\scatterer_i.bmp
[maxroot]\scripts\AdvPainter\scatterer_a.bmp

C. Reference

0) Main UI

Inks Drop Down List
Lists all available inks

Paint
Starts/ends the paint session.

Menu Button
Pops Advanced Painter's Menu

Advanced Painter Menu

Brush Settings: Opens Painter Interface's Options dialog

Only Paint on Selection: When active, Advanced uses the current selection as canvas. When inactive Advanced Painter uses its own nodelist as canvas. You add objects to Advanced Painter's nodelist by using Make Selection Paintable command.

Make Selection Paintable: Sets the current selection as paintable by adding them to Advanced Painter's nodelist

Reset Nodelist: Resets Advanced Painter's nodelist array.

Help: Opens this manual.

1) Grass Ink

Number of Strands
specifies the number of stands on each plant.

Base Radius
the radius of each strand.

Base Segments
number of sides of each strand.

Min/Max Height
during strand creation the script produces a random number to specify strand's height. The random number is between the Minimum and Maximum Height values.

Height Segments
number of segments along each strand's height. Generally you will need higher value if you specify high bending angle.

Orientation Start/End
Similar to the Maximum/Minimum Height spinner, Orientation Start and End specifies the range of random orientation.

Min/Max Bend
Similar to the Maximum/Minimum Height spinner, Minimum/Maximum Bend specifies the range of each strand's bending.

Custom Material (default: off)
When this checkbox is on the material specified on the material button is assigned to every grass strands.

Reverse Direction (default: off)
When this checkbox is on each grass strands are placed in reversed direction

Strand Direction (default: Normal)
Specifies the up direction of each grass strands. Normal places each strands in the same direction as the surface normal, while the rest places each strands along in the same direction as the specified axis

2) Scatterer - object scattering tool

Source Object List [new]
This list contains objects that has been added to source list. Unchecking the checkboxes will skips the specified object from being cloned. This is a useful when you have several objects to scatter. Instead of picking new object when you need to change the source object, you can simply add all objects to the source list, and unchecking objects that you dont want to be cloned.

TIP: It is very importat to set up every source object's pivot position and orientation before painting. Scatterer always orient clone's local z axis parallel to the current surface normal (or world x or y or z axis, depends on your setting). Another important issue is sometimes you need to scatter several objects with specific position relative to each other (ie.: you have a butterfly which consists of the body, the left wing and the right wing). Scatterer will ignore their configuration as it only regards source object's pivot position. You will have to align each pivot to a common position and direction.

Pick button [new]
Pick object from the scene to be added to the source list

Add Sel button [new]
Add selected object to the source list

Remove button [new]
Remove selected object in the list.

Clear button [new]
Clears the source list.

Up/Down button [new]
Moves selected object in the list up or down to change its index. This is used when you are using the new npScatterSrcIdx variable in your PostClone script as the index become important.

Align Up-Direction
Specifies the up direction of each clones. When Reverse is active the direction is reversed.

Align to Stroke
Specifies whether each clone is aligned to stroke direction. When Reverse is active the direction is reversed.

Minimum Distance
Specifies how distant each sequentially generated clones. Value of 10.0 means every clone is at least 10.0 units away.

Min/Max Offset (X, Y, and Z ) [new]
Specifies the range for the random offsets on each axis.

Min/Max Orientation (X, Y, and Z)
During cloning process this ink calculates 3 random numbers to specify cloned object's orientation on X, Y and Z axis. The random number is in the range of the Minimum and Maximum Orientation values.

PostClone Script
This checkbutton toggles the PostClone feature. Check the tutorial in the following section for more information on PostClone feature.

3) Spaghetti

Radius
Specifies the radius of the spaghetti

Color
specifies the color of the spaghetti

4) Stone Ink - instant stones

Min/Max Size
during stone creation the script produces a random number to specify stone's radius. The random number is in the range of the Minimum and Maximum Size values.

Segments
specifies number of segments for each stones.

Noise Strength Low/High
Similar to the Maximum/Minimum Size spinner, Noise Strength Low/High specifies therange of random turbulence for each stone.

Separation ratio
Specifies how distant each sequentially generated stones. Value of 1.2 means each stones are 1.2 stones away. Higher value produces rare distribution.

Material (default: off)
When this checkbox is on, the material specified on the material button is assigned to every stones.

5) Toothpaste - toothpaste like geometry

Radius
Specifies the radius of the paste

Minimal Distance
Specifies how distant each cross section are apart. Smaller result yields a more detailed shape.

NOTE: For best result, it is recomended to turn on 'Remove Interior Patches' in the Surface modifier's settings, and switch interpolation setting in Cross Section modifier to smooth. These options are not exposed to maxscript, so I cannot make it automatic.

6) Hair - simple hair/fur generator.

This is simply a script to try ideas and I wont be a replacement to real hair/fur plug in (unless you have access to PRMan or maybe mental ray or other renderer with curve primitive then you can write a script to convert the splines to curve primitive). However this script is quite handy to create guide hairs for shag hair. If you used my script called HairStylist's Tools, you will find this ink far more advanced as it adds wavyness, bending and droopyness parameters.

Segments
The number of segments of each hair. Try to set this value to optimum value as high value often produces the exact same result as smaller value, but consumes more memory. Generally you will want to set this value to around 3-5 if you hair is not wavy. For wavy hairs it depends largely to its frequency and amplitude.

Thickness
Hair Thickness

Length Min/Max
Specifies the range of each hair's length

Align to X/Y
Tells the ink to align each hair's to either X or Y axis.

Bias
Specifies the how hair's thickness will vay along its length. Smaller bias value makes you hair looks thinner while higher bias makes you hair looks more solid and thicker.

Base/Tip Color
Bass and Tip color

Edit
Opens the material editor and puts the current hair material in slot 1.

Create New
Create a new hair material. This is used when you want to change hair shading for future hairs but you dont want previously created hairs to be affected.

Amplitude
Specifies the amplitude of the wavy effect

Frequency
Specifies how wavy each hair is. Higher value makes your hair looks more wavy.

Bending Min/Max
Specifes the range of bending angle of each hair.

Droopyness Min/Max
Specifies how heavy each hair is. Value of 0 means your hair is very light and not affected by gravity . Value of 1 means you hair is very heavy.

7) Randomizer - this is the variant of Scatterer ink.

Randomizer has identical ui as Scatterer.

 

D. Tutorial

Scatterer Basics
In this part we will cover the basic operation of Nature Painter's Scatterer Ink.

1) Open the tutorial file: Nature Painter_ScatterTut01.max.
The Scene contains a teapot and a plane with a fern material assigned. If you examine the plane, you can see the pivot has been moved and rotated so the local z axis is parallel to plane's length. When using the Scatterer Ink it is very important to orient object's local z axis to proper direction beforehand. Also, a Bend modifer has been added to the Plane01.

2) Start Advanced Painter, and from the Inks drop down list, switch to Scatterer ink.

3) Press the Pick button and pick Plane01 or alternatively select Teapot01 and press Add Sel. Leave the rest to default.

4) Select Teapot01 and press the Paint button. Start stroking your cursor on the Teapot. You can see that instances of the plane object placed along your brush stroke.

Now we are going to make the object distribution denser.

5) Set the Minimum Distance spinner to around 1.0 and start stroking again. Plane01 instances are tightly placed along your brush stroke.

::Minimum Distance specifies how distant each sequentially generated clones.

To add some randomness, we are going to play with Min/Max Orientation values.

6) Delete Plane01 clones or just press Undo. Set Minimal Orientation Z to -100 and Maximum Orientation Z to 100. Start stroking again. Now, Plane01 clones are scattered on the teapot with random orientation.

:: Min/Max Orientation specifies the range of random rotation that will be applied during stroking.

While the Min/Max Orientation is designed to create randomness, it is also useful to orient clone to specific direction during stroking.

7) Set Min/Max Orientation to -80 and -100 and start stroking on the teapot. As a result, the clones are now scattered with different orientation.

 

Scatterer and PostClone Script
The PostClone Script feature lets you perform any maxscript operation after cloning. This gives you unlimited freedom and makes the Scatterer Ink a very powerful tool.

1) Open the tutorial file: Nature Painter_ScatterTut01.max.
The Scene contains a teapot and a plane with a fern material assigned. If you examine the plane, you can see the pivot has been moved and rotated so the local z axis is parallel to plane's length. When using the Scatterer Ink it is very important to orient object's local x axis to proper direction beforehand. Also, a Bend modifier has been added to the Plane01.

2) Start NaturePainter, and from the Inks drop down list, switch to Scatterer ink.

3) Press the Pick button and pick Plane01 or alternatively select Teapot01 and press Add Sel. Set Minimal Orientation Z to -90 and Maximum Orientation Zn to 90. Leave the rest to default.

4) Activate the PostClone feature by checking its checkbox.

5) Type in the following command:

npScatterObj.bend.angle = random 40 120

Switch Cloning Method to 'Copy' and start Stroking on the teapot. Plane01 clones are scattered along the stroke and assigned with random Bend angle.

During each cloning process, the clone are referenced to a global variable called npScatterObj. Using this variable you can do anything via simple scripting. The above script generates a random number between 40 and 120 and then assigns it to the angle parameter of the Bend modifier.

Remember that when using PostClone Script, it would be useless if you dont set Cloning Method to Copy.

6) Hide the Teapot, create a moderately sized Plane and Set Min/Max Orientation to 0.0. Replace the PostClone Script with the following commands:

ang = abs((sin(npScatterObjIdx*10))*2)+0.3; scale npScatterObj [1, 1, ang]

7) Select the new plane and start stroking. You can see that now the clones are distributed evenly with sinual scaling along the z axis. This script utilizes the npScatterObjIdx variable which is actually the index of the current clone.

:: The PostClone field is not multiline. If your script getting too long you can put them in a separate function and put the function's command into the PostClone field.
:: If there is any error on your script the paint mode will be stopped.

8) Try this script: _npos= 10*sin(npScatterObjIdx*20); move npScatterObj [0, _npos, 0]

:: npScatterObj : current clone
:: npScatterObjIdx : current clone's index
:: npScatterSrcIdx [new] : specifies the source object in the source list which is being cloned. This is useful if you have more than one object in the source list and you want a uniqe script for each source.

 

Scattering Multiple Objects
In this part we will cover the new feature in Scatterer 1.5.1 which allows you to scatter several objects at the same time.

1) Open NaturePainter_ScatterTut02.max. Examine the scane, we have a plane, a blue butterfly and a purple butterfly. Each butterfly consists of the body and the wings.

2) Open Advanced Painter and switch to Scatterer ink. Marquee select the blue butterfly and press Add Sel button. The source listbox should list blue butterfly's components: the body and wings.

3) Select the plane, press Paint and start painting on the plane. The butterfly is scattered along the stroke but not properly placed. This is because each object's pivot is not positioned and oriented properly. If you select the blue butterfly and check its components' pivot (you can do this via the Hierarchy Panel) you can see that both wings' pivot are centered to itself and their z axis are facing to different directions. It is very important to place to place and orient object pivot before painting.

4) Select the purple butterfly and examine its component's pivot. Notice how each wings has its pivot aligned to the body and the z axis points upwards. This butterfly has been set up to work properly with Scatterer.

5) We are going to replace the blue butterfly with purple butterfly from the source list. Marquee select the purple butterfly and press Add Sel. The purple butterfly components should be listed in the source list (as well as the blue butterfly's components). Since we dont want the blue butterfly to be scattered, uncheck blue butterfly's components off the list. Now press Paint and start painting on the Plane. The butterfly should be properly placed and oriented, but we need to align them to stroke direction. Set Align to Stroke to Y and Min Distance to 20.0. Start painting again to see the result.

6) Butterflies doesnt walk on the ground, we have to make them float in the air and add a bit of randomness. To do this set Min Offset Z to 40; Max Offset Z to 80; Min Orientation Z to -30 and Max Orientation Z to 30. Start painting on the Plane.

You should have the butterflies flying on the air and faces to a slightly random direction.

7) We are going to use PostClone Script to vary each butterfly's wings orientaion. Make sure the purple butterfly's body is the fourth object in the list. If it is not use the up and down button to set the index. Then, enable PostClone script and use the following command:

if (npScatterSrcIdx == 5) or (npScatterSrcIdx == 6) then in coordsys local rotate npScatterObj (eulerangles 0 (random -20 20) 0)

The script basically adds a random orientation to each wings. Since we have multiple objects we used npScatterSrcIdx variable to check wheter the currenttly scattered object is a wing. npScatterSrcIdx reflects the index shown in the source list.

 

E. History
Advanced Painter 1.5.1

• The Scatterer Ink now supports multiple sources. This new feature also introduces several new things: npScatterSrcIdx variable for PostClone Script: this new global variable holds the index of the currently cloned object; source object listview; pick button; add selection button, remove button; clear button; and move up/down buttons.
• New offset values in the scatterer ink. Originally you can do this via PostClone script, but due to the introduction multiple source feature, PostClone Script become impractical for this basic effect.
• Added the Hair ink. This is a very simple hair maker and probably not very useful for production when used directly. However you can use this to generate guide hair for Shag Hair.
• Added the Randomizer Ink as requested by Yiannis Koumoutzelis. This ink is a quick hack of the Scatterer ink which instead scatters every object in the list, it randomly picks an object in the list. The rest is identical to Scatterer.
• Few bug fixes.
  

Advanced Painter 1.5

• Converted Nature Painter 1.5 into a modular system where each ink is simply a plugin (called inkDef) to the system. This allows simpler ink creation and management. 3rd party scripter can take advantage of this new system as they can concentrate more on the core code than the UI. Please note that all ink defintion should be locaed in [maxroot]\scripts\AdvPainter folder.
• Added several functions to AdvPainter functions library (there are more functions, but I only listed functions that are useful for 3rd party scripter) :
  
  <void>advPainter.open() -- opens the Advanced Painter Panel
  <void>advPainter.register <inkDef>thisInk -- registers thisInk to AdvPainter_inks array
  <void>advPainter.unregister <inkDef>thisInk -- unregister thisInk from AdvPainter_inks array
  <void>advPainter.switch <inkDef>thisInk -- switch to thisInk and update the panel.
  <void>advPainter.startPaint() -- starts the paint session and perform the neccessary setup beforehand.
  <void>advPainter.error [<string>msg] -- stops the paint mode, restore the undo buffer, then pops a generic message in Advanced Painter Panel's status area. If msg is specified the content of msg will be used instead.
  <void>advPainter.popmsg <string>msg -- pops the specified msg to Advanced Painter status area.
  <void>advPainter.evaluateInks -- evaluates all ink definition in [maxroot]\scripts\AdvPainter folder. Normally this should only done once during startup.
  
  Also, there are several useful global variables:
  
  advPainter_inks : array containing registered inks
  advPainter_currentInk : current inkDef as listed in the Advanced Painter panel.
  advPainter_current : the index of current ink
  advPainter_rlt : Advanced Painter's panel rollout definition.
  
  You can access the 'Paint' button by using this syntax advPainter_rlt.apPaint and the status area by using this syntax: advPainter_rlt.apStatus.
  
  
• Added the inkDef structure:
  
  inkDef string>name <array>fns <array>params <rollout>rlt <int>version
  
  name specifies the name of the ink which will be listed on the Inks drop down list. Each names must be unique.
  fns is a 5 elements array contains functions for startStroke, paintStroke, endStroke, cancelStroke, and systemEnd which will be directed to thePainterInterface.scriptFunctions when Paint button is pressed.
  params is an array to hold the parameters of the Ink
  rlt specifies the UI for the Ink.
  version is a 4 digit integer to store ink's version. When inkDef is registered using advpainter regsiter() function, the system check wheter the ink with the specified name has already exist in AdvPainter_Inks array. If it is, the system checks again whether the new inkDef version is higher than the one registered in AdvPainter_inks array. If the new inkDef is higher, theysystem will replace the old inkDef with the new one.
  
  
• Changed Scatterer ink's paintStroke function to use 3x4 transform matrix instead of setting each transform values individually. This should improve performance to certain level. This changes also introduces align to stroke feature which orient clone's x or y axis to stroke direction.
• Added align to stroke feature which orient clone's x or y axis to stroke direction. By default this mode is off. When Reverse option is active, the orientation will be reversed.
• Added X, Y, and Z Max/Min Orientation parameter which lets user to produce random rotation on all 3 axis. Previously Scatterer ink only do this on local z axis.
• Added the Paste ink. This ink produces toothpaste like shape out of lofted circles.
• Added the PostClone Script feature to Scatterer ink. This addition introduces 2 new global variable which is useful when using the PostClone Script feature. They are:
  - npScatterObj <node> : current clone
  - npScatterObjIdx <integer> : current clone's index
• New status area on Advanced Painter rollout. This area tells user if ther is something wrong with the current ink or PostClone script as well as other simpler error.
• Replaces the Options button with Advanced Painter's menu.
• Now you can paint on non-selected object, by making objects paintable and turning off 'Only Paint on Selection'.
• Added more error handling.

Nature Painter 1.1

• New Scatterer ink which lets you to scatter objects using brush based interface.
• New 'Strand Direction' and 'Invert Direction' options in Grass Painter as requested by Keith Chamberlain. When 'Z' is active every grass strands are forced to face the positive Z axis direction regardles the direction of surface normals. Its useful when you are painting on bumpy surface.
• Grass and Stone (and Scatterers) ink now supports undo. The undo system utilizes the new theHold interface which was introduced in 3ds max 5.1.
• Fixed a few minor bugs.

Nature Painter 1.0

• First public release.
• Converted my MaxFreeHandTools (by Fred Moreau's) brush definition to Painterinterface's ink definition.

F. Bugs

If you find this tool useful, please contribute to Advanced Painter development by submitting any bugs you have encountered to my email. Please include detailed steps to reproduce the error as well as sample scene (if necessary, and please zip it) to this email: herman-saksono@telkom.net. If you encounter Assertion Failure, please record the Assertion Error Information, and include it to the email. Don’t save your scene if Assertion Failure has occured.