Video version:
(2025/04/23 video updated to reflect changes in CSP 4.0.3 and clarify some details)
Text version:
Clip Studio Paint 4 introduces the ability to paint directly on 3D figures and primitives, a game-changer for comic, webtoon, manga, and animation artists.
It’s great for creating:
⭐ Custom guides for character-specific features, accessories and outfit patterns to help you maintain consistency in comics, as well as anatomy guides.
⭐ Ready-to-use models like hands, props, and backgrounds.
This tutorial offers practical tips to help you get started and make the most of this feature.
🧩 In case you’re unfamiliar with the basics of working with 3D, check out these official articles:
🟧 Understanding painting on 3D models
When painting on 3D models, brush strokes are projected from the camera’s view. The more curved the surface, the more distorted the strokes become:
To avoid distortion, keep turning the model and paint on surfaces facing the camera:
🟧 Tips on painting on 3D figure
Let’s go through practical tips and tricks for painting efficiently on a 3D figure.
⚠️ As of now you can only paint on 3D drawing figures ver. 2 included in CSP - male and female, and body shapes derived from them:
⚠️ While you can adjust the proportions of the figure afterwards (the texture stretches along), you can’t switch from male to female body type and vice versa:
Drag and drop a chosen body shape from the Material palette:
⚠️ Keep in mind that for changing the pose or adjusting the camera you need to switch to the Operation Object tool.
🟨 Camera settings 🟨
In the Object Launcher, reset the pose 1️⃣, center the object 2️⃣, and set the camera angle 3️⃣ to the front view 4️⃣.
In the Sub Tool Detail palette > Camera tab, set Perspective to 1 to avoid distortion:
🟨 Turn off lights 🟨
Under Light Source, uncheck Apply light source and Cast shadows. If left on, the Eyedropper tool will pick colors affected by lighting, not just the painted color.
🟨 Symmetrical ruler 🟨
There’s no auto-mirror function yet, but we can work around it to some degree.
1️⃣ Select the Symmetrical Ruler, set the Number of lines to 2 and check Line symmetry.
2️⃣ On a new layer drag the ruler vertically through the axis of the model while holding Shift.
3️⃣ Right-click on the ruler icon in the Layer palette and select Show in all layers.
✌️ Keeping the ruler separate from the 3D layer makes it easy to turn on and off (visibility of the ruler layer), use the ruler for other layers, and avoids mixing it up with 3D perspective rulers that you may need later.
🟨 Color palette 🟨
Since tonal corrections don’t work on 3D model textures, prepare swatches for skin, clothing, and detail colors in advance.
🟨 Tools that can be used on 3D models 🟨
The following tools work the same or similar way on 3D models as on raster layers:
✅Brushes
✅Eyedropper
✅Marquee
✅Lasso select
✅Auto select
🟨 Brushes 🟨
Most brushes, including decoration brushes, work fine, even those using blend modes like Multiply or Overlay.
🚫 However, brushes using Color Mixing or Color Jitter on Brush tip color behave as if those functions are off. (Randomize per stroke works, though.)
Blurring brushes act like regular brushes.
Erasing brushes don’t create transparency—they only remove your applied colors, revealing the default texture.
Hitting Delete while painting clears the painted colors.
🟨 Tools that can’t be used on 3D models 🟨
Currently (but hopefully they’ll be supported in future updates):
🚫 Lasso Fill
🚫 Fill
🚫 Gradient
🚫 Liquify
🚫 Direct Draw tools
🚫 Tonal correction
🚫 Transformation
🚫 Layers (of the texture, like skin and clothes on separate layers)
🟨 Change poses and camera angles while painting 🟨
Rotate the model using camera presets while painting, especially to alternate between front and back views when using the symmetrical ruler:
⚠️ For side views or other angles, turn the ruler off to avoid mirrored strokes showing up in the wrong place.
To draw on hidden areas like the inner arm, adjust the pose accordingly. If using the symmetry ruler, you can use the Mirror Pose function under the Pose tab:
🟨 Practical example: Hands 🟨
Want to use 3D hands in your comic without redrawing them in every panel?
If you paint the hands in the default pose, you’ll end up painting over the body too. Instead, adjust the pose so both hands are isolated side by side.
Pose one arm palm-down in front of the figure, straighten and spread the fingers, and mirror the pose:
The camera presets don’t include top and bottom views, but you can easily create them in the Sub Tool Detail palette, Camera tab.
Duplicate the current view, move the camera above the figure, set X in Camera position to 0 to align the axis for symmetry, and rename the camera to “Top.”
Create the bottom view the same way.
If any parts go off canvas, don’t move the camera—use the Move Layer tool with Shift to reposition instead.
Place the symmetry ruler through the figure’s axis on a new layer.
Paint with soft brush strokes and sample colors for better blending. For translucent skin, use Overlay or Soft Light modes.
🧩 Check out my Painting Skin tutorial for more on this method:
🖌️ You can use these brushes with various blending modes, perfect for quick rendering of skin:
💡 Quick tip: Skin color zones💡
Like faces, hands have color zones: backs are golden; knuckles, joints, and fingertips are reddish; wrists and the thumb base have bluish tones.
After painting the top view 1️⃣, switch to bottom view 2️⃣ for the palms. Use the front view 3️⃣ to blend boundaries and finish the fingertips:
To paint the sides, turn off the symmetry ruler, then smooth sharp transitions between top and bottom colors on each hand.
✌️ You can download the figure with painted hands in the Assets for free:
🟨 Tight clothes and mob scenes 🟨
Direct use of painted 3D figures isn’t limited only to hands. You can paint tight outfits for dancers or superheroes…
… Or create simple characters for crowd scenes. Paint one base figure, then duplicate it into the scene with different poses, recolor clothing, and add details like hair or accessories. This way you can easily create background street mob, festival crowd, army of aliens or even a horde of zombies!
🧩 For more info on turning 3D figures and objects into illustrations without tracing and shading check my tutorial Turn 3D Models into Artwork without Tracing or Shading in CSP PRO & EX:
🟨 Drawing guides 🟨
The basic use of customized 3D figures is drawing guides. To aid in consistency of your comic characters, you can draw character-specific features like accessory placement, tattoos, fabric patterns, etc. on your character’s body shape.
⚠️ However, keep in mind the limitations of the 3D figure. For example, the head is very simplified—use it for general guides like the hairline, simple accessories or facial hair…
⚠️ … But be careful with important facial features like eyes. Eyes drawn from the front will be off when seen from the side!
Hopefully we’ll be able to paint on the 3D head models soon ^_^
🟨 Anatomy references 🟨
Painted 3D figures can also be turned into anatomy references!
Not sure about muscles? Prepare a painted model with defined muscle groups:
💡 Quick tip: Use contrasting colors for guides 💡
Whether you’re painting guides for clothes or anatomy, use a bright contrasting color palette, so that the texture is clearly visible even with lowered layer opacity. Black and dark colors are harder to distinguish and make the 3D volume harder to read.
🟨 Register as material 🟨
After painting, register your figure as a body type material…
… Or set up lighting and outlines and save the entire 3D layer as a 3D image material for direct use in comics and other works by dropping the layer into the Material palette:
✌️ Both painted 3D figures and 3D primitives as 3D image materials (or Body shape for figures and 3D primitive materials for primitives) have a great advantage for sharing in the Assets: others can modify and repaint them as they need, as opposed to standard 3D objects, giving us the opportunity to not only build on assets, but also to learn by observing how interesting materials can be done!
⚠️ When publishing a 3D Image material with figures to Assets, you need to put it in a Material collection together with the Body shape material used in it, otherwise it will get deleted.
🟧 Painting on 3D primitives
Painting on primitives is similar to figures, with two differences:
1️⃣ You can adjust the number of divisions of primitives to get various shapes:
2️⃣ Their adjustable base color is kept separate from the drawing. You can also export and edit their textures separately, allowing the use of all tools and transparency.
🟨 Practical example: House 🟨
A house can be built using a cube and a prism with the number of X divisions set to 3.
Change base colors and paint elements like windows or doors. Each primitive is painted separately, use the Operation Object tool to switch between them.
Uncheck Show wireframe when you don’t need it anymore:
For more control, export the texture file…
… And paint details unwrapped. Hide the grid layer before saving or it will show on the model.
Then reassign the texture file by clicking the File button or texture thumbnail in Sub Tool Detail palette.
The drawing is still present over the assigned texture, so switch to any brush tool and hit Delete to clear it.
🟨 Lanterns 🟨
Get creative! Deform a prism or sphere to make unique lantern shapes:
Change base color and paint patterns:
In the exported texture clear top and bottom areas from base color layer and texture for transparency.
Drag the grid layer to the bottom, change the blending mode to Normal, lock the transparency and turn it into strings.
Reassign the texture file, set Alpha to Semi-transparent.
Switch to any brush tool, hit Delete to clear the drawing, and the primitive becomes a glowing lantern on strings!
🟨 Umbrella 🟨
Use a flattened pyramid with added divisions.
You can use the Symmetrical ruler to paint a pattern directly or on the exported texture map.
In the exported texture file clear the bottom area from the base layer to create an open base and hide the grid layer.
🟨 Props and accessories 🟨
Combine shapes creatively!
Like a cap from a sphere and a prism…
… A straw hat from a sphere and polygon, or sandals for the 3D characters using two flattened prisms.
✌️ Apply the transparency trick where needed.
🟨 Background planes 🟨
The planar 3D primitives, the plane and polygon, can serve as quick background elements.
Draw trees, bushes, or fences on them. Hide base color layer and grid in the exported texture file and add details:
Reassign the texture file. Duplicate and rotate the elements as you need.
To keep the planar primitives from being affected by the camera angle, set Follow camera in the Primitive tab to On or Horizontal only, depending on your scenes.
🟧 Recap (valid for CSP 4.0)
Supported tools and features
✅ Brushes of all settings, ⚠️ except Brush Tip Color Jitter and Color mixing
✅ Eyedropper
✅ Marquee
✅ Lasso select
✅ Auto select
Unsupported tools and features
🚫 Lasso Fill
🚫 Fill
🚫 Gradient
🚫 Liquify
🚫 Direct Draw tools
🚫 Tonal correction
🚫 Transformation
🚫 Layers (of the texture, like skin and clothes on separate layers)
Tips for efficiency
🔸 Prepare color palette
🔸 Turn off lights for color picking
🔸 Symmetrical ruler
🔸 Use default and custom camera presets
🔸 3D figures:
🔸 🔸 Change poses for comfortable painting
🔸 3D primitives:
🔸 🔸 Take advantage of all possible shapes to create props
🔸 🔸 Use the option to export texture to refine it separately and add transparency to the object
Possible uses of painted 3D figures
🔸 Drawing guides
🔸 🔸 3D figures
🔸 🔸 🔸 Features, accessories and outfit patterns for character consistency in comics, webtoons, etc.
🔸 🔸 🔸 Anatomy guides
🔸 🔸 3D primitives
🔸 🔸 🔸 Quick sketch of detail placement for further refining in exported texture
🔸 🔸 🔸 Mock ups of props and background structures like buildings with guides for windows, etc.
🔸 Ready-to-use models
🔸 🔸 3D figures
🔸 🔸 🔸 Body parts, like hands and feet
🔸 🔸 🔸 Characters in tight outfits
🔸 🔸 🔸 Base characters for crowd scenes
🔸 🔸 3D primitives
🔸 🔸 🔸 Various props and background elements
Limitations
⚠️ Only 3D figures (version 2) and 3D primitives are supported
⚠️ You can’t copy and paste the texture on another model
⚠️ Switching between male and female body types not supported
⚠️ No real 3D mirroring option (can be solved with the Symmetrical ruler to some degree)
⚠️ The 3D figures have simplified features – be careful when using them for important details like eyes
🟧 Conclusion
Painting on 3D models in Clip Studio Paint 4 presents us with creative, time-saving ways to build both guides and final assets. With a little setup and imagination, you can bring new depth and efficiency to your projects!
🎁🎁🎁 Bonus materials
Since it’s been a year since I started posting tutorials here, to celebrate this little anniversary I decided to share the materials I created and presented in this tutorial in the Assets!
Feel free to use them for learning, as a base for your own painting or just have fun with them! 🥳
🌟⭐✨ If you enjoyed this tip, it will make me happy if you give a like so that I know I’m doing things right, eventually leave a comment on where I could improve :) ✨⭐🌟
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