Hey Everyone, today we are going to see some practical tips and hacks to create a scene using 3D primitives in Clip Studio Paint. If you don’t know the basics to manipulate 3D objects, please check the links below. You can also jump right to the section you are interested. So without further ado, let’s begin.

 

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1. Custom 3D workflow

The first step is to customize your 3D workflow. So, it is a good idea to create a workspace just for 3D primitive and objects. You can return to your regular workspace later.

 

You need to identify the palettes and tools you will use most. In my case the first one is the (1) Material folder with the Primitive objects. Other important palette is the (2) Tool Property, when you use the Object, Operation sub tool. Here you can see and change many of the options that will affect to 3D primitives. Try to maximize its size as much as you can.

 

You can use Pop-up palettes to save time from scrolling to much.

 

To add Pop-up palettes to your quick access menu, right click and go to Pop up palettes, select the one you want to add and click on the Add button. If you prefer you can do the same in the Command Bar.

 

 

 

For more customization click on the wrench icon and select what options are going to be visible with the eye next to the option. I personally like to see Snap to 3D, Rotation step, Pivot point and Whole Rotation. That way I don’t need to open the Sub Tool Detail palette every time I need these options. Also, I like to double check the snapping option from the palette and not just the icon in the object manipulator.

 

2. Custom 3D Shapes

You can modify the height, width and depth with the square handles. Or change the object scale with the Sphere with triangles. You can modify the number of divisions form the General Primitive section. And decide if you want to show or hide the Wire-frame. You can also change the color from Object Color or from the Color Palette.

 

Once you have customized the 3D primitive you can save it as 3D material, click on the Sphere with a plus icon in the object launcher. Name the Primitive, select a folder and add tags to the material. You can repeat the process and create a library of custom 3D primitives to save time.

 

 

You can get different shapes changing the division in the sphere, pyramid and prism 3D primitives.

 

 

3. Follow Camera

You can add images to a Plane. From 3D primitive texture. Click on Material and search the image you want to use. For example a fire with transparency background. The Alpha will change to Semi-transparent. In this mode you can control the opacity of the 3D Plane.

 

 

Uncheck Apply light source and Cast Shadows. And under General primitive select Follow Camera On. Now the 3D plane will always be shown at the front as looking to the camera.

 

You can also apply the image material dragging it from the folder material. Select Follow Camera Only Horizontal and try different camera presets to see how it works. Once you have found a good angle you can Duplicate the camera and lock it and use other camera to keep editing or trying new angles. You can have multiple cameras in a 3D layer.

 

 

4. Texture and Tiling

To create walls and columns You can add textures from 3D primitive texture, click on Material and select a texture. You can also apply a texture to multiple selected objects.

 

From Tiling you can change the Scale Ratio of the texture to match the look between different objects. You can also manipulate the position of the tiling and uncheck Keep aspect ratio if you want to. Although this option can be useful when you resize for example a wall made from a cube and need to adjust the texture.

 

 

5. Open 3D Shapes

To create an open or hollow primitive. Go to 3D primitive Texture and click on Export Map and save the map as a clip studio file. Open the Map and select the background color. Delete or use a mask to hide the top and the bottom circles of the cylinder and save the file. Then select Open file or click the empty Texture square and select the map we just have created.

 

To clean up the object hide the UV Map layer in the Cylinder Map file, save it and Reload the texture on the 3D object. Now you can change the height, width and depth as a regular 3D primitive. However if you want to change the color of the primitive, the gray color background will remain. To fix that reduce the (1) opacity of the Gray in the Background Color layer and save the map file again. Then reload the map and change (2) Alpha to Remove with Threshold. Move the slider of the threshold until the object shows again. Then you can (3) select any color that you want.

 

 

Open Primitives can help to visualize shapes that are not so obvious when you use the regular 3D primitives. You can create open or hollow primitives with the cube, sphere, pyramid or prism. You can improve the process using colors and numbers in your UV maps. We are going to see how later in this tutorial.

 

 

6.Object List

You can see all your 3d primitives from the Object List. Instead of the Sub Tool Detail you can use the Tool Property palette to quickly expand and see all the objects in the 3d Layer.

 

You can (1) hide and (2) lock primitives. Or make them not able to be (3) selected on the canvas. You can also change the name to organize better your 3d objects.

 

 

You can (4) select multiple objects with SHIFT or CTRL. You can cut a selected group and paste them at the bottom of the Object list. That way it will be easier to make the selection of the primitives again.

 

You can also (5) Duplicate one or multiple objects with one click. In a similar way you can (6) Delete all the selected primitives at once.

 

 

7. Pivot Point

If you try to rotate multiple objects. By default they will rotate over their local pivot point. You can change this behavior from Pivot point for multiple objects.

 

 

Select the first option and change the Rotation step to 90 degrees you can always change it back. You can move the group using Snapping to align the objects.

 

 

Now you can try Midpoint of multiple objects to place 3D primitives around and object. You can easily create Staircases, roofs and combine different shapes in a symmetrical way.

 

 

8. Aligned Copy-Paste

You can copy and paste a 3D object and move it in any axis. If you Paste the object again it will place the primitive leaving the same distance used when you move the pasted object. You can repeat this process as many times as you want with one or multiple objects.

 

 

You can also paste and move the 3d primitive in more than just one axis. And with the help of the snapping option you can create a staircase in literally seconds.

 

 

9. Custom UV Maps

You can use colors and numbers in your UV maps. To visualize the different areas when you create custom 3d primitives or apply textures.

 

 

Go to 3D primitive Texture and click on (1) Export Map and save the map as a clip studio file. Open the Map and check the Image resolution from the Edit menu. You can (2) increase the size if you want to have more space for details.

 

 

You can use the Grid Settings to make divisions. Keep in mind that the maximum value for Gap is 1000 pixels. Then you can use Snap to grid to make and fill selections with different colors. Save the file and select Open file or click the empty Texture square and select the map we just have created.

 

 

Uncheck Apply light source and Cast Shadows. So you can easily visualize the different areas with colors. Then you can proceed to add numbers and divide the map into more sections.

 

 

You can repeat the process with all the other 3D primitives. Always considering the numbers of divisions in the wire-frame.

 

 

10. Lights & Effects

You can use 3D primitives to create effects, lights and reflections. First you need to open the 3d primitive with the UV map applied, with colors and numbers. Uncheck Apply light source and Cast Shadows.

 

Then identify the planes or faces you are going to use. For this example the 3 over red and the 4 over purple.

 

 

Paint or place the light in one side and the reflection in the other. You can also use a dark background to visualize the effect with more contrast.

 

Now reload the texture and check the position or any other problem that need to be fix.

 

 

If everything is correct. Hide the layers leaving only the light and reflection visible. Proceed to Save and Reload the map file again. Now you have a light effect inside a 3D primitive cube. Remember when Alpha is set to Semi-transparent you can also control the Opacity of the object.

 

 

Now you may find overlapping issues when you place the light into a scene using snapping to 3D models.

 

 

To fix that, move the object with the arrow to identify the axis with the problem. Then undo and from the Tool Property change 0.1 the value in the Position of the axis with the small arrows, in this case the Y axis.

 

 

You can repeat this process to create, doors, windows or try different effects with other shapes and images.

 

 

Summary & Outro

So, I hope you have found some useful tips or hacks in this tutorial. Remember, start customizing your workspace to improve your workflow, create a library of custom primitives and create your 3d scenes using the different tools we have seen in this tutorial. That’s all for this article. This is Ed saying until the next one.