written by: Rafal "baq" Michalowski

Hi everyone,

In this tutorial I'm gonna show ya some PaintFX stuff. We'll create new PaintFX brush to achieve an effect little similar to Matrix green bubbles or sumthin' . This is tutorial for beginner Maya user so don't worry his ain't very complicated.

Create New Project. File -Project -New.

Create Nurbs Plane. Click: Create-Nurbs Primitives-Plane. We use nurbs surfaces coz PaintFX works only with this type of geometry.

Next we got two ways for startin' with PaintFX. We can create curve on surface or we can make surface paintable and draw directly on it. I prefer the first method coz it gives me more precise control. So first make surface live. Select NURBS PLANE and click big red magnet on Status Line, this is a Make Live button.

Select: Create-CV Curve Tool and click option box near it. In option box menu click Reset Tool. We need 3 degree curve coz it's very smooth and right for this kind od effect.

Now your cursor change the look and you can draw cv curve directly on surface. Draw sumthin' about 7 spans. I think it's enough.If not we'll later correct it. After ya finish to draw curve hit enter and uncheck LiveSurface button.

Click: Window-General Editors-Visor. In Visor go to Airbrush folder and select defaultPaint.mel.

Select curve on surface and click:PaintEffects-Curve Utilities-Attach Brush To Curves.Now if you do quick render it should look like this one.

It's time to customize brush. Select curve on surface. Open Hypergraph. Click: Window Hypergraph. In Hypergraph click: Output and Input Connections to see connections for curve. Select stroke and open Attribute  Editor.

If ya wanna see render prewiev of your brush do this. Change layout to four view. Move mouse over one of ortographics view and press the 8 button on your keybord. This will change the view to PaintFX window.

In PaintFX window right click and select Paint-Scene, Resolution-50%, Shading Shaded, Stroke Refresh-Rendered. Remember that ya can move in PaintFX window like in PerspectiveView but if ya wanna select sumthin' ya should hold down the control button.

So, open Attribute Editor for stroke go to Brush node. You can enter name for brush I called it: NewMatrixStuff but you can also leave this with default name. Go to Tubes tab and check: Tubes. This will add tubes to brush. You'll see this in PaintFX indow.

Set like here on picture:

Change the StampValue.

Next, set like here.

We need create now texture. For this task Photoshop is the best. Just create somethin' like here on pic.

Set like here.

change the Glow attribute value.

Change Tube  DirectionSet values like here on screen.

Change the Turbulence attribute values to somethin' like on pic.

Change the Gaps and Flow Animation values.

The important thing to remember here is that number of CV's on your curve is very important. If CV curve got more CV's the PaintFX brush will get more density. Try to play with attribute's values to achieve satisfy resultat. Final result should be similar to that on pic.

Now it's time to save created brush to Visor. First select stroke and click: Paint Effects Save Brush Preset. In SaveBrushPreset window set stuff like on pic. When ya set all click: Save Brush Preset. You'll can find new brush in Visor.

Next we create animation using created PaintFX brush. Iwanted to achieve effect little similar to Matrix green stuff. First we need to create curve and then attach PaintFX brush to that curve. We need somethin' to look like this on pic.

Click: Create---CV_Curve_Tool, and click the option box near it.

In option box select : 1Linear, coz we ain't need smooth curve

. Close the option box. My technique for achieve this type of

curve is little crazy but it works fine. Draw curve with Shift button.

Just look at screen to see better how do it.

If ya think that curve is good enough press Enter. Now go to

Visor, select brush you created. Next select created curve

and click: Paint_Effects---Curve_Utilities---Attach_Brush_To_Curve.

Now, scene is little to heavy to smooth zoom and move camera

so we need hide stroke with brush. Open Hypergraph, select created curve, show Input and Output connections for it, select stroke, right click on it and select: hide. You can also select stroke and

click: Display---Hide---Hide_Selection.

If ya wanna render PaintFX do this steps. Click: Render_Globals

and set like here in screen.

This is the end of tutorial. I just wanted to show ya that using

PaintFX anybody can make very interesting effects. Now I give

ya free hand to animate this stuff. You can animate camera

moving. Very simple method is select camera which ya wanna

animate and just move camera and insert keys but it's depend

on you. Just do it for fun.

Thanx for reading

Baq