Light Painter is a whole new add-on

Author

Spencer Magnusson
December 12, 2023

Light Painter has a big update! Check out the updated promo video:

Let me give you the rundown.

Live Preview

The live preview only really existed on the lamp adjust. You had to wait for the tool to finish before seeing the result. Now, all Light Painter tools update as the user interacts with them.

The intent is to push all the tweaking from the final stage (in the redo panel) to within the tool’s actual usage. But what about the parameters users want to adjust while using the tool, like the lamp axis and offset?

Keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts now enable artists to update parameters as they use Light Painter. I also mapped the keys to be similar to Blender’s keymap for other tools:

  • G to adjust the lamp’s offset, just like you would to grab other objects.

  • F to adjust the lamp’s radius or size, while Shift+F change’s the lamp’s strength or emission value, similar to how sculpting brushes use F and Shift+F for its brush size and strength.

Some keys go into a tweak mode. In these modes, drag your cursor left or right to adjust the given parameter’s value. For example, G allows you to adjust the lamp’s offset distance. You can hold Shift and Ctrl to be more precise or snap to different values, just like you would with Blender’s transform tools.

All key commands are displayed in the 3D view header. They aren’t customizable yet - unfortunately Blender prevents that with modal tools. But that will be in the backlog as a future feature.

Other Changes

  • Any parameters that don’t make sense as keyboard shortcuts are now available in the toolshelf or tool property panels. This includes lamp color and the sun/sky paint occlusion settings.

  • Speaking of, Sky Paint tool has been split into two: Sun paint tool only adds sun lamp, and Sky Paint only adds/updates the sky texture. Easier to implement as separate tools. And figured most people know which type they want to use beforehand, eh?

  • Sky textures now have parameters to adjust their sun disc intensity and size.

Check it out on GitHub!