How to use Paint Mask with Photoshop CS4

Sometime when painting texture maps on a 3D object you want to be able to see which area you can paint and which area you can’t.

Paint Mask Render Option let you see the paintable area directly on your 3D object. Make sure your 3D scene Anti-Alias is set on Daft, higher settings smooth the meshes making it harder to view the paintable area. The paintable area will be in white, but the red and blue are not paintable.

You can make a selection on the paintable area by using the Paint Mask Render, to go:
3D menu / Select Paintable Area

This will select the paintable area of your 3D object. If you want, you can hind the selection CRT-H and start painting inside the selected area. Just be aware when you move or rotate the 3D object the selection will stay at the same location.

However, the Paint Mask is great for beginners, when you start becoming more experience at texture map painting. You don’t need to use this tool at all.

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