Adding Vector Shaders

There is a method for quickly setting up default vector shaders and channels, with vector layers in the Layers palette. This method is accessible from two locations in the UI and is described fully in the Adding Vector Shaders section.

This shader setup creates two default shaders in the Shaders palette for creating flow maps and normal maps. The Vector (Screen Space) shader is for viewing vector (colors) in tangent space, while the Vector (World Space) shader is for viewing vector (colors) in world space. These shaders come with channels already plugged into the shader component inputs by default to get you started.

To create vector brush default shaders, follow these steps:

Open the Shaders palette to manage newly-created shaders.

Create a default vector shader by either:

• clicking the icon on the Vector Painting toolbar, or

• navigating to Python | Examples > Setup Vector Brush.

Clicking the icon or script automatically creates two shaders in the Shaders palette, three channels in the
Channels palette, and the necessary layers for each channel in the Layers palette.

The default created shaders are Vector (World Space) and Vector (Screen Space), and each of these have the newly-created channels set to the corresponding shader component inputs.

During shader setup, the following three channels are created in the Channels palette:

• Vector (Paint),

• Vector (World Space), and

• Vector (Screen Space).

Note: Running the script changes the Painting Mode to Paint Flow Vectors and switches the paint tool to Vector Painting, if this is not already selected.

If you prefer, you can create the shaders and channels manually. To do this:

Create the channels you want to use for your vector painting and add the Vector, Tangent To Screen, or Tangent To World adjustments and procedurals in the Layers palette.

Create your shaders and assign your vector channels to the Diffuse Color and Vector shader inputs. For example, the default vector shaders assign the Vector (Screen Space) channel to the Diffuse Color input and the Vector (paint) channel to the Vector input.

Once you’ve set up the shaders, go back to the Vector (Paint) channel and begin painting your normal or flow maps in the Vector layer.