How do you go about exposing the paint handle of a paint node inside of a digital asset?

I have a DA on which I want to allow the user to paint some vertex colors as part of the workflow. I set the pain node as an editable node in the type properties window. However, I was wondering if there is a way for a user to go into paint mode without actually having to dive into the digital asset and select the node itself.

I have been able to expose manipulators such as the xform ones, but I was not sure how to go about exposing the paint handle

Thank you in advance!

Take a look at this thread:

http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=18863 [sidefx.com]

Thank you! That totally did the trick!

One other quick question… When using this method, it looks like I am able to paint on the visible version of the mesh in the network up to a certain point…. then it will not let me paint onto the mesh, and instead, it shows a templated version of the mesh for me to paint on. Is there anything in particular that may cause this behavior?

ah looks like I answered my own question:

- If your visible node is a null, you must make sure that Cache Input is on to allow for painting while that node is visible

- Merge nodes change the topology of the mesh. As a result, Houdini shows the template mesh for painting (makes sense, and a nice feature!)

Is it possible to set the DA up in such a way that you can have the paint interface (or a limited version of it) in the digital asset itself without automatically diving into the DA for the paint node?

Hey Kim, not that I have seen ): I think part of the reason why those manipulators are not available for promotion is because, differently from parameter based manipulator, the paint manip and the edit manip modify attributes in the mesh instead of parameters. When promoting a manipulator in a digital asset, you are in reality promoting the parameters the manipulator modifies, then creating a new manipulator on your digital asset node, then connecting the manipulator handles to the promoted parameters.

One thing that you can do to hide the dive even more (via python), is to make a paint button that does the following (to a modified parameter interface on a paint node):

- locks the focus of the parameter window to your current digital asset
- dives in and selects the node
- pops the paint node parameters up in a floating panel

After that the user paints, and when they are done, they can close the paint window and go back to object mode. For a plus, you can also add a button to the paint parameter interface (labeled “Done Painting!”) that will basically set everything back the way it was (back to the DA level, and removes the focus pin on the parameter window of the DA)

This is of course an RFE it would be nice if you could simply create manipulators on a digital asset that modify the attributes of a node other than itself (or somehow, behind the scenes, have the painting changes or edit changes be represented parametrically)

+1

I sent an RFE last year about a composable handle system, that would also easily allow you to modify internal node parameters.

Don't think a revamp of the handle system is in the foreseeable future though.

Hi Gianni,

Thanks!! That makes it indeed a lot cleaner. But it is kind of a workaround that could be made simpler to use.

I'll post it as an RFE like you said.