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mptk_logo The Mattepainting Toolkit for Maya.
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Features.

Click to show complete list of features.

New in this Release

• Completely redesigned UI to simplify the projection workflow.

• Viewport OpenGL implementation of projections, including gamma conversion for linear workflow.

• Preview thumbnails of projections in the UI.

• Click on a thumbnail preview to automatically launch your preferred image editing software and load the texture.

• Quickly make shader assignments and swap node connections without navigating the Hypershade.

• Drag/drop interactive reordering of projection priority.

• Applied object list quickly adds/removes/selects which geometry is assigned to which projection group.

• Easily toggle shadow occlusion on and off.

• Passthrough projection toggle enables/disables projections without removing them from a projection group.

• Color correct projections in Maya without directly editing the file textures.

• Tabbed layout allows for quick editing of multiple projection groups.

• Select projections, cameras, and mattes within the interface to avoid hunting for them in the scene.

• Batch update filter settings for all files in a projection group.

• Speed improvements.

• Unlimited custom mattes can be added to projections.

• Adding a new file projection detects alpha channels and automatically allows the user to add it to the matte list.

• Multiple channel (R, G, B, or A) support for mattes.

• Shadow occlusion now respects transparency maps.

• gs_projCamMix allows up to 20 mattes to be output to another shading node.

• miLabel exclude option allows geometry to be held out of a projection based on an int value.

• Distance threshold allows geometry to be held out of a projection based on its distance to the projection camera.

• gs_const shader added for ease of use and alpha channel support.

Fixes

• Lights are no longer necessary to create shadow occlusion areas; shadow occlusion is calculated by the shader.

• gs_projCamMix array naming/numbering mismatch has been fixed.

• Projections now default to film gate instead of resolution gate.

• Hypershade swatches bug that crashed Maya is fixed.

• Facing ratio function modified to generate masks that return either 1.0 or 0.0 based on angle threshold.

• Shadow occlusion no longer improperly introduces light into the scene.

Deprecations

• HUD deprecated due to new 2011 pan/zoom camera features.

• gs_shadow deprecated due to new occlusion masking algorithm.

• Shelf tabs deprecated due to new UI.

• Maya Software renderer no longer supported.


Interactive Modeling

• OpenGL projection mapping for high resolution texture display in the viewport.

The following screen capture demonstrates how The Mattepainting Toolkit can be used to model a human head. Artists are no longer confined to looking through a locked camera at an image plane; with the Mattepainting Toolkit, high resolution textures are mapped directly onto polygonal meshes in the viewport.


Coverage Maps

• Coverage Maps are renders that help artists visualize which areas of an animated shot camera are seen from a projection camera.

The following screen capture is from the first release of the Mattepainting Toolkit, but the feature still applies in the current version.

Comparison to Maya's Default Projection Tools

• Viewport gamma correction allows artists to work in a linear color pipeline while viewing a monitor gamma in the viewport.

• Textures projected with the Mattepainting Toolkit do not suffer quality degradation based on geometry scale.


Advanced Projection Blending

• Blend projections based on incident angle, so that the priority is given to the camera best positioned to project the highest resolution.

• Use feathered mask dilation to easily erase edge halos around geometry.

• Apply custom painted masks to quickly patch problem areas.

The following screen capture is from the first release of the Mattepainting Toolkit, but the feature still applies in the current version.