The Paint Vertex Colors tool adds color values to the vertices of a mesh (including nanite meshes). The painted values are stored in the R, G, B, and A channels. You can use the tool for many workflows, such as:
Editing imported vertex colors
Creating textures (using the Vertex Color node)
Making masks
To visualize vertex colors outside of the tool, from the Viewport toolbar, click Show > Advance > Vertex Colors. However, the visibility feature does not work on Nanite-enabled meshes.
Asset and Instance Vertex Colors
The Paint Vertex Colors tool is similar to the Mesh Paint Mode. However, the tool only adds vertex colors to the static mesh asset and does not create unique vertex colors for static mesh instances. Instances of a static mesh asset share the same vertex data, making the Paint Vertex Colors tool available for Nanite geometry. To learn more about Nanite and its supported features, see Nanite Virtualized Geometry.
To perform instance vertex painting (vertex colors stored on the component in the level), use the Mesh Paint Mode. To learn more, see Mesh Paint Mode.
| Color Type | Description |
|---|---|
Asset Vertex Colors | Vertex colors stored on the asset. All instances of the asset share the same data set. Usable on nanite meshes. |
Instance Vertex Colors | Unique vertex colors are created per instance of an asset. Usable in the Mesh Paint Mode only. You cannot use it for Nanite-enabled meshes as per-component vertex colors are not supported. |
Although instance color vertex data is not available, you can establish unique vertex colors for an asset using the following:
Storing data in individual R, G, B, or A channels
Setting PolyGroup layers
Accessing the Tool
You can access the Paint Vertex Colors tool from the Attributes category in Modeling Mode. To learn more about Modeling Mode and how to access it, see Modeling Mode Overview.
Using Paint Vertex Colors
You paint vertex colors using the brush options in the Action section.
| Action | Description |
|---|---|
Paint Vertices | Paint vertices of hit triangles with a smooth falloff. You can adjust additional settings, such as brush size and flow, in the Brush section. |
Paint Triangles | Fill any painted triangles by setting all three vertices to the same color. You can adjust additional settings, such as brush size and flow, in the Brush section. |
Flood Fill Connected | Fill any triangles connected to the brushed triangles. You can adjust additional settings, such as brush size and flow, in the Brush section. |
Flood Fill Groups | Fill any PolyGroups connected to the brushed triangles. You can adjust additional settings, such as brush size and flow, in the Brush section. |
Poly Lasso | Paint any triangles inside polygonal or freehand Lassos drawn in the viewport. |
The Secondary Brush provides additional operations for your Action selection.
| Secondary Brush | Description |
|---|---|
Erase | Paint the color set in the Erase Color property. The default value is (1, 1, 1, 1). |
Soften | Blend any split color values at painted vertices. |
Smooth | Blend vertex colors with nearby vertex colors. |
For greater painting control, such as bounding to UV seams and painting front-facing vertices, use the Filters section.
The Paint Color and Blend Mode sections control how your colors appear. You can also use the Channel Filters section to visualize your colors and store values in individual channels.
The tool consists of Quick Actions and Utility sections to help create an efficient vertex painting workflow. These sections consist of the following properties.
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
Paint all | Fill all vertex colors with the value set in Paint Color. Current values set in Channel Filter apply. |
Erase all | Fill all vertex colors with the value set in Erase Color. Current values set in Channel Filter apply. |
Fill black | Fill all vertex colors with the value (0,0,0,1). Current values set in Channel Filter apply. |
Fill white | Fill all vertex colors with the value (1,1,1,1). Current values set in Channel Filter apply. |
BlendAll | Average the current color values at each vertex with split colors, so there are no split vertices or seams in the color value. |
Fill Channels | Set all selected channels to a fixed value. |
Invert Channels | Invert channel values. |
Copy Channel to Channel | Copy a color value from a source channel to all selected channels. |
Swap Channel | Switch values between two channels. |
Copy Weight Map | Copy values from a weight map into vertex color channels. |
Copy to other LODs | Copy current values to any LODs defined on the mesh. |
Copy to High Res LOD | Copy current values to a specific LOD defined on the mesh. |
Once you are done using the tool, you can accept or cancel the changes in the Tool Confirmation panel.
You can use the Bake Vertex Colors tool to copy your vertex color data to another static mesh. However, the more the vertex positions differ, the less accurate the vertex colors will be.
Hotkeys
| Hotkey | Description |
|---|---|
Shift + G | Pull color value at the cursor location. |
Shift + Click | Erase color. Click and hold to continuously erase. Use the Erase Color property to set the color that appears when erasing. |
[ or S | Decreases the size of the brush by 0.025 with each key press. Holding the Shift key will decrease the size by 0.005 each key press. |
] or D | Increases the size of the brush by 0.025 with each key press. Holding the Shift key will increase the size by 0.005 each key press. |
F | Zooms into the location of the brush. |
Enter | Accept tool changes. |
ESC | To cancel the changes and exit the tool. |
