Sculpt 2.0 geometry node

Interactively reshape a surface using brushes that push, pull, flatten, smooth, or otherwise deform the mesh similarly to how one would sculpt a clay model.

On this page	How to Performance Tips How Sculpt Works Parameters Operation Brush Stroke Mask Symmetry Edits
Since	20.5

How to ¶

To...	Do this
Resize the brush	Hold `⌃ Ctrl` + `⇧ Shift` and drag with or use the scroll wheel on the mouse.
Adjust the strength and falloff of the brush	Hold `⌃ Ctrl` + `⇧ Shift` and drag horizontally with to adjust strength, or drag vertically to adjust falloff.
Invert the effect of a brush	Hold `⌃ Ctrl` while drawing a stroke.
Temporarily activate the smooth brush	Hold `⇧ Shift` while drawing a stroke.
Switch brushes	Use the keys 0-9 to switch to the most popular brushes, or access a radial menu of all brushes using C.
Undo a brush stroke	Press `⌃ Ctrl` + `Z`.
Sculpt with a specified mask	The sculpt node looks for a point attribute named “mask” to use when Use Mask Attribute is selected. Its value should be 1.0 in areas where you would like the brush to have an effect, and to 0.0 in areas where the brush should have no effect. By default, the mask is set to 1.0 everywhere.

Performance Tips ¶

For the best performance, set the viewport shading mode to either MatCap Shaded or Smooth Shaded, and remove any materials from the model.
For high poly models, the OpenGL viewport is currently significantly faster than the Vulkan viewport.
Use Mask Attribute can have a minor impact on performance, so it’s best to keep this off if you don’t need it.

How Sculpt Works ¶

This node stores the sculpted edits in an internal Sculpt Stash with a minimal set of attributes. The stash is created when the user starts sculpting and can be erased with Erase Edits/Mask. The attributes of the output are split between the input geometry, which stores user-defined attributes and groups. The sculpt stash stores attributes like positions and mask values.

The complete output can easily be provided if the input and sculpt stash topologies match, but if the topologies do not match then the sculpt stash cannot easily be applied to the input. In this case, the originally sculpted geometry (created from the sculpt stash) is outputted, and attributes from the new input are transferred to the output via an Attribute Transfer. The output can forcibly be updated by checking Force Output to Update, but beware that this may not produce expected results.

This node also allows the output sculpted model to deform with changes to the input. This is done automatically as long as the input and sculpt stash topologies match.

Parameters ¶

Operation ¶

Brush

Clay

Adds a bulbous shape of clay under the brush head, extruding the surface and filling in any finer details.

Clay Strips

Similar to Clay, but uses square-shaped stamps aligned to the brush direction to add strips of clay under the brush head.

Inflate

Pushes points in their normal direction, giving surfaces an inflated look.

Move

Moves the points initially under the brush head tangentially along the view plane.

Flatten

Brings points under the brush head towards a common plane.

Crease

Creates a sharp fold in the mesh centered at the brush head.

Pinch

Brings points under the brush head towards the center of the brush head.

Relax

The opposite of Pinch. Smooths out the topology of the mesh without affecting its shape by moving points along the surface.

Smooth

Smooths the mesh by bringing points towards the average position of their neighbors.

Smooth Approximate

Experimental brush similar to smooth that scales better on denser meshes. Currently a little slow, and may cause mesh tearing.

Erase

Blends points under the brush towards their positions in the original input geometry, effectively erasing any edits made while in the state.

Alpha

Places a stamp of given texture under the brush head. Stamp is aligned to stroke direction.

Paint Mask

Paints the area where the above brushes should not influence when Use Mask Attribute is on.

Grab – Shot Sculpt

Grabs the area under the brush head and simulates the displacement of the surface as if it were a simple elastic material.

Scale – Shot Sculpt

Similar to Grab – Shot Sculpt, but scales the area under the brush head instead.

Pinch – Shot Sculpt

Similar to Grab – Shot Sculpt, but pinches the area under the brush head instead.

Twist – Shot Sculpt

Similar to Grab – Shot Sculpt, but scales the area under the brush head instead.

Adapt

Moves vertices towards areas of higher curvature, which can help fix up geometric aliasing artifacts on low-res surfaces (for example, a sharp Crease on a low-res mesh).

Alpha

Alpha Image File

When Alpha brush is selected, set the image file to use for the brush.

Shot Sculpt

Poisson Ratio

When a Shot Sculpt brush is on, controls how much the material should move in the direction perpendicular to the load (like how much a rod narrows as it is stretched). See the Wikipedia page for more info.

Elastic Shear Modulus

When a Shot Sculpt brush is on, controls how responsive the material should be to shear stresses. See the Wikipedia page for more info.

Stroke

Dots

Places evenly-spaced stamps along the mouse’s drag path. Spacing can be specified using the Spacing parameter.

Spray

Randomly sprays a number of smaller sub-stamps under the brush region. Similarly to Dots, the distribution of sub-stamp clusters can also be specified using the Spacing parameter.

Linear Spray

Sprays lines of sub-stamps under the brush region. Each line of sub-stamps is aligned with the stroke direction.

Drag Dot

Places a single stamp under the cursor each frame. Unlike Linear Spray, this stroke type does not add stamps between the last and current mouse positions.

Drag Rect

Places a singular stamp with a radius determined by the mouse drag’s length and orientation aligned with the mouse drag’s direction.

Spray

Count

The number of sub-stamps to generate for each full stamp.

Radius

The radius of each sub-stamp.

Random Radius

When on, randomizes the radius of each sub-stamp, such that the sub-stamp radiuses range from 0 to Radius.

Linear Spray

Count

The number of sub-stamp lines to spray.

Radius

The radius of each sub-stamp in each line.

Random Radius

When on, randomizes the radius of each sub-stamp, such that the sub-stamp radiuses range from 0 to Radius.

Length

The number of stamps in each line of sub-stamps.

Allow Overflow

Allows sub-stamp lines to overflow outside the full stamp radius.

Brush ¶

Radius

The radius of the brush head.

Strength

How strong the effect of the stroke operation should be.

Spacing

The spacing between stamps if Dots, Spray, or Linear Spray is used.

Falloff

Controls the brush’s effect on points near the edge of the stamp. Lower values produce a sharp profile near the edge, while higher values produce a softer edge.

Radius Pressure

Controls how much influence the pressure input from a stylus should have on the brush’s radius. A value of zero means no influence, value of one means total influence.

Strength Pressure

Controls how much influence the pressure input from a stylus should have on the brush’s strength. A value of zero means no influence, value of one means total influence.

Falloff Pressure

Controls how much influence the pressure input from a stylus should have on the brush’s falloff. A value of zero means no influence, value of one means total influence.

Show Maximum Radius

When sculpting on a tablet with the radius influenced by stylus pressure, the brush visualizer displays the max radius possible.

Show Brush During Stroke

Displays the brush visualizer during the stroke.

Show Falloff

Displays the falloff radius on the brush visualizer.

Stroke ¶

Lazy Mouse

Makes the brush follow behind the mouse’s current position by the given Distance, creating a smoothing effect on the stroke shape.

Distance

When Lazy Mouse is on, controls how far the brush is behind the cursor.

Speed

When Lazy Mouse is on, controls how fast the brush moves to keep up with the delayed mouse position.

Mask ¶

Facing

All Faces

Makes the brush affect all points under the brush head, whether they are facing towards it or not.

Front-Facing Only

Makes the brush only affect points facing towards the brush head.

Back-Facing Only

Makes the brush only affect points facing away from the brush head.

Mask Disconnected

Prevents the stroke from affecting parts of the mesh that are topologically disconnected from the hit point. This can be useful for moving an eyelid without affecting the eyeball.

Use Mask Attribute

Allow the affect of a stroke to be reduced using the mask point attribute on the input mesh. A value of 0.0 means the brush will have no affect, and a value of 1.0 means the brush will have full affect. This attribute can also be painted using the Paint Mask and Erase Mask brush operations.

Color

The color used to visualize where the mask is active.

Symmetry ¶

Mirror Strokes

Whether to mirror the stroke across the plane defined by Origin and Direction.

Origin

When Mirror Strokes is on, specifies the origin of the plane to mirror the strokes across.

Direction

When Mirror Strokes is on, specifies the normal direction of the plane to mirror the strokes across.

Distance

When Mirror Strokes is on, specifies the offset away from the specified plane to use when mirroring the stroke.

Edits ¶

Force Output to Update

Forces the output to update with the input, reguardless of whether the input topology has changed since the sculpting was performed.

Reset Sculpt

Resets any edits to point positions.

Reset Mask

Resets any edits to the mask.

Geometry File

Where the internal sculpt stash is stored. When off, the stash is stored in the hip file.

Move Stash to New File

Moves the sculpt stash to a new external file. If the sculpt stash was stored internally, this moves the internal stash data to the external geometry file.

Load Stash from File

Loads a sculpt stash for editing from the given Geometry File.

How to ¶

Performance Tips ¶

How Sculpt Works ¶

Parameters ¶

Operation ¶

Brush ¶

Stroke ¶

Mask ¶

Symmetry ¶

Edits ¶

Geometry nodes