Paint Mode: Color Fill Tools #99769

New Issue

NOTE: This design is still under discussion and is incomplete.

Issue

Currently there are different implementations of filling a solid color while in a mode:

Fill Tool (Texture Painting)
Fill operator (Vertex Paint Mode)
Color Filter (Sculpt Mode)

This needs to be reworked for consistency and to ensure more convenient and efficient workflows.

Requirements

There are certain broader features that will be required, no matter how the design of color filling looks like:

Fill everything that is not masked
Gradual Fill (Not full strength)
Fill via gestures (Box, Lasso, Line, Polyline)
Fill entire UV-islands, mesh-islands, face sets
Fill faces instead of pixels

There is also the common use of gradients and expand. This should be further notes down in #99770.

Goal

Key Problem

There are many different ways to give all of these tools to the user.
What we should avoid is to have a large set of tools or tool settings scattered throughout the UI.
This is already an observable problem with the existing gesture and filter tools in sculpt mode:

None of the tools have shortcuts
Picking the tool, tool-type and adjusting the settings is time consuming
Each tool has their own disconnected settings

Conclusion

We should aim for a more systematic approach.
All of the requirements need to be easy to understand and access.
That is easier to accomplish if there are fewer tools that are not specifically just for a single purpose.

Proposal

Instead of adding a lot of new tools/brushes and settings for filling in colors, we can rely on the current and planned masking features.

Mask -> Fill

Filling should be as instant as possible. But first you need to define what to fill.
Blender often has a strong design of "Selecting -> Operation". By strengthening the masking features via #97955 we could rely on this for color filling operations too.

Fill Operator

The most important part as a baseline is a simple operator that immediately fills in everything that is unmasked.
Currently this is implemented in Vertex Paint Mode with the shortcut Shift + K.
This could get a more convenient shortcut on the left of the keyboard.

It needs to be always clear what color will be used for the operator.
The easiest answer would be the primary color of the currently used tool/brush.
If the current brush/tool doesn’t have a primary color, then the primary color of the scene color should be used.
In that case it becomes very important that this color is somehow exposed. Otherwise there will be too much unnecessary switching between masking and painting tools.

Auto-Masking

This way of targeting specific areas is useful for any brush or tool. It already proved itself essential in Sculpt Mode.
The aim should be to use auto-masking for the fill operator as well.

It will be vital to add auto-masking support to the image editor for painting. Topology auto-masking in this case could mask UV islands instead.

Open question:

Is a “UV-island” auto-masking in the 3D Viewport needed or is it more convenient to initialise face sets from UV seams?
This could save us space in the auto-masking pie menu.

Masking Modes

We also need to allow filling by faces instead of pixels.

We are already aiming to implement three masking modes in Paint Mode (#97955) and an inverted masking approach (#97903) that could also cover this use case.
With this feature it would be as easy as pressing 2 on the keyboard and using any masking tool/operator to mask faces.
The fill operator can then fill all unmasked areas, or they can be painted in more detail with any painting tool.

Gradual Filling

For this the Color Filter, fill type should still be used.
But the fill operator could also get a strength input in the adjust last operation panel.

NOTE: This design is still under discussion and is incomplete. # Issue Currently there are different implementations of filling a solid color while in a mode: - Fill Tool (Texture Painting) - Fill operator (Vertex Paint Mode) - Color Filter (Sculpt Mode) This needs to be reworked for consistency and to ensure more convenient and efficient workflows. # Requirements There are certain broader features that will be required, no matter how the design of color filling looks like: - Fill everything that is not masked - Gradual Fill (Not full strength) - Fill via gestures (Box, Lasso, Line, Polyline) - Fill entire UV-islands, mesh-islands, face sets - Fill faces instead of pixels There is also the common use of gradients and expand. This should be further notes down in #99770. # Goal ### Key Problem There are many different ways to give all of these tools to the user. What we should avoid is to have a large set of tools or tool settings scattered throughout the UI. This is already an observable problem with the existing gesture and filter tools in sculpt mode: - None of the tools have shortcuts - Picking the tool, tool-type and adjusting the settings is time consuming - Each tool has their own disconnected settings ### Conclusion We should aim for a more systematic approach. All of the requirements need to be easy to understand and access. That is easier to accomplish if there are fewer tools that are not specifically just for a single purpose. # Proposal Instead of adding a lot of new tools/brushes and settings for filling in colors, we can rely on the current and planned masking features. ### Mask -> Fill Filling should be as instant as possible. But first you need to define what to fill. Blender often has a strong design of "Selecting -> Operation". By strengthening the masking features via #97955 we could rely on this for color filling operations too. ### Fill Operator The most important part as a baseline is a simple operator that immediately fills in everything that is unmasked. Currently this is implemented in Vertex Paint Mode with the shortcut `Shift + K`. This could get a more convenient shortcut on the left of the keyboard. It needs to be always clear what color will be used for the operator. The easiest answer would be the primary color of the currently used tool/brush. If the current brush/tool doesn’t have a primary color, then the primary color of the scene color should be used. In that case it becomes very important that this color is somehow exposed. Otherwise there will be too much unnecessary switching between masking and painting tools. ### Auto-Masking This way of targeting specific areas is useful for any brush or tool. It already proved itself essential in Sculpt Mode. The aim should be to use auto-masking for the fill operator as well. It will be vital to add auto-masking support to the image editor for painting. Topology auto-masking in this case could mask UV islands instead. Open question: - Is a “UV-island” auto-masking in the 3D Viewport needed or is it more convenient to initialise face sets from UV seams? This could save us space in the auto-masking pie menu. ### Masking Modes We also need to allow filling by faces instead of pixels. We are already aiming to implement three masking modes in Paint Mode (#97955) and an inverted masking approach (#97903) that could also cover this use case. With this feature it would be as easy as pressing `2` on the keyboard and using any masking tool/operator to mask faces. The fill operator can then fill all unmasked areas, or they can be painted in more detail with any painting tool. ### Gradual Filling For this the Color Filter, fill type should still be used. But the fill operator could also get a strength input in the adjust last operation panel.

Changed status from 'Needs Triage' to: 'Confirmed'

Added subscribers: @JulienKaspar, @JosephEagar, @Jeroen-Bakker, @DanielBystedt, @Limarest

Notes from recent module meeting:

Current design idea of unified filling operators and toolset

Key idea is to rely on Mask -> Fill as a workflow and make this as fast & intuitive as possible

The amount of color fill tools should be minimal and accessible as a result

Gesture tools would still be nice

Polyline is still missing and desperately needed

In general, color filling gesture tools will be optional

Expand should be more important for filling areas too

Expand needs to be come less unwieldy and less complex first

Performance issues also need to be solved

But the operator is great for filling face sets, mesh islands

Notes from recent module meeting: > - Current design idea of unified filling operators and toolset > - Key idea is to rely on Mask -> Fill as a workflow and make this as fast & intuitive as possible > - The amount of color fill tools should be minimal and accessible as a result > - Gesture tools would still be nice > - Polyline is still missing and desperately needed > - In general, color filling gesture tools will be optional > - Expand should be more important for filling areas too > - Expand needs to be come less unwieldy and less complex first > - Performance issues also need to be solved > - But the operator is great for filling face sets, mesh islands

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Paint Mode: Color Fill Tools #99769