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10. 2D View and stencils

10.1 Painting on the UV sheet

The 2D view button in the viewport header splits the view and lays the mesh out as its UV sheet, so you can paint straight on it. Swap 2D / 3D exchanges the views. X removes the helpers when you are done (close the split separately by dragging its border).

10.2 Placing an image on the sheet: the mapping gizmo

An Image sublayer (and every image texture of a Material layer) can be moved, scaled and rotated on the model with a gizmo drawn in the 2D view, instead of typing offsets and scales into the mapping node.

  1. Open the 2D view (2D view in the viewport header, chapter 3.3).
  2. In the main panel, turn on the mapping for what you want to place: Mapping on a layer row maps every image texture of that layer together (one global mapping), Custom Mapping next to a channel's image maps that image alone. A small gizmo button appears beside the toggle; press it and the handles show up over the image in the 2D view. Press it again to hide them.
  3. Drag the handles:
  4. the centre handle moves the image;
  5. a corner handle scales it, the opposite corner stays where it is; hold Shift while dragging a corner for a uniform scale about the centre;
  6. an edge handle scales one axis only, the opposite edge stays where it is and the dragged edge follows the mouse;
  7. the ring rotates the image around its centre, as a rigid picture (no shearing); hold Ctrl while rotating to snap the angle in 5-degree steps (Blender's own step).

Every drag is one undo step (Ctrl+Z takes it back). Right-click or Esc during a drag cancels that drag and restores the values; Esc with no drag running hides the gizmo. The values you drag are the mapping node's own (Offset X / Y, Scale, Aspect Ratio, Rotation), so the inputs shown under the toggle update live and can still be typed.

The snap step and the snap key are settings: OP Settings tab > 2D View Mapping Gizmo (the step in degrees, default 5; the modifier key, default Ctrl).

Figure 10-1. custom ui of gizmo.

10.3 Stencils and brush buttons

Drag an image from Blender's own File Browser onto the Properties editor to use it as a brush stencil, fitted to the brush aspect. Start Buttons in the viewport's editor menus (Texture Paint mode) puts two on-screen buttons, Brush and Erase, into the viewport: they flip the brush between Mix and Erase Alpha, the arrow keys nudge them, and Stop Buttons removes them.