The Mattepainting Toolkit is a suite of tools designed for visual effects artists using camera projected textures to build full CG environments for feature films, games, and architectural visualizations.

New Release! (5.17.13) Maya 2014 build available. V-Ray RT support. See the complete change log.

Viewport Layering Layer multiple projections per shader in the viewport.
V-Ray Rendering The Mattepainting Toolkit for Maya now supports rendering with V-Ray.
Photosynth Import Import cameras and a point cloud of spatial data from Structure From Motion (SFM) datasets.
Animated Sequences OpenGL updating of image sequences as projections on geometry.

Overview.

The Glyph Software Mattepainting Toolkit (gs_mptk) is a plugin suite for Autodesk Maya that helps artists build 2.5D and 3D environments from multiple camera projections. It developed from a need to more efficiently model and render scenes that rely heavily on projected mattepaintings.

The UI

All shader connections and attributes relevant to camera projections are maintained through a custom UI, so artists can focus on building 3D environments, not re-wiring shading networks and digging through the Hypershade for a specific file.

Building Virtual Sets

The Mattepainting Toolkit uses an OpenGL implementation for shader feedback within Maya's viewport. This allows artists to project paintings, photos, and image sequences directly onto geometry, liberating them from the constraints of Maya's image planes.

The Tools

The Mattepainting Toolkit for Maya includes:

• Two Mental Ray shaders: gs_projCamMix and gs_const. gs_projCamMix blends camera-projected textures together based on parameters such as occlusion masking, world space distance, and backface culling. A complete list of blending features can be found in the Features section and in the documentation. gs_const is a constant shader with transparency settings designed specifically for the needs of mattepainters, and is intended to be used with gs_projCamMix.

• Two V-Ray shaders that perform the same function as the Mental Ray shaders described above.

• A Maya UI interface (shown above) for managing a multitude of projections and projection parameters, as well as an arbitrary number of custom mattes and object associations.

• An OpenGL viewport implementation that allows images to be projected onto models in high resolution within Maya's viewport. sRGB viewport gamma conversion is supported for linear color space images. Check out this video for a demonstration.

• Photosynth, Bundler, or other SFM data can be imported into Maya from .out or .ply files. The Mattepainting Toolkit Import function will reconstruct cameras and a point cloud of spatial data.

• Coverage maps rendering to isolate areas visible to a shot (render) camera from a projection perspective. Very useful for concentrating paint work.

Please check out the Features and Examples for more detailed information.

Change Log