Blue Pencil is a plugin for Maya that brings 2D drawing to the 3D viewport. It is a multi-purpose tool that is useful for, but not limited to:
Draw, sketch, paint and animate. Create thumbnails, block shots, track motion curves and review scenes. With Blue Pencil, the creative possibilites are endless.
Plan and communicate ideas quickly. Make notes directly on a work in progress instead of having to do it in a separate place. All Blue Pencil data is stored directly in the Maya scene file.
Designed to be easy and intuitive, Blue Pencil provides a familiar toolset with many of the features found in popular paint programs. Drawing tools include the pencil, brush, eraser and eyedropper. Configurable options include color, line thickness, opacity and hardness.
Wacom tablets support allows for pressure-sensitive control of line thickness (pencil) and opacity (brush). The 'eraser' end of the stylus can be used to erase drawings.
Undo/redo is supported natively by Maya for all drawing operations allowing artists the freedom to test new ideas and modify existing scenes without worry.
Blue Pencil layers add an extra level of flexibily to drawing. The foreground layer is keyable for drawings that change over time. The backgound layer is static and can be drawn to at any time. Finally, the canvas layer, which is also static, can display a solid color or an imported reference image.
Sketch out new ideas, create thumbnails and generate pencil tests directly in Maya. Animators familiar with the Maya workflow will immediately feel comfortable with Blue Pencil.
Block out shots with responsive drawing and real-time playback, Blue Pencil removes the need for playblasting. Display neighboring frames with the lightbox (onion-skinning) feature and quickly navigate keyframes with Maya's timeline hotkeys
Blue Pencil makes it easy to adjust the timing of drawings. The keyframes are visible in the timeline/graph editor and can be retimed using the same methods as regular keys. For advanced retiming operations Blue Pencil includes a custom retiming tool.
As a native C++ plugin, Blue Pencil is fast, clean and integrates seamlessly into Maya's dependency graph. It does not require any 3rd party libraries, supporting scripts, hacks, or complex setup steps.
The Blue Pencil node is non-renderable. Drawings are displayed in playblasts if they are visible in the viewport but they will not be included in rendered images.
Additionally, Blue Pencil provides a robust set of MEL commands allowing for the creation of custom tools and utility scripts or for integration into a production pipeline.
Blue Pencil is available for Maya 2011 SP1, 2012, 2013 and 2014 on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.
Download the latest release (v1.52):
* Supported versions and system requirements
* Older versions of Blue Pencil are available here
Blue Pencil 1.5 includes a demo version that allows users to experience many of the features available in the plug-in.
Complete installation instructions and the end-user license agreement are available in the online documentation.
Click the PayPal button below to purchase a license for only $49 USD. An email containing your license will be sent upon confirmation of payment.
* For multi-seat and studio licenses, please contact me directly.
** Please allow up to 24 hours for the email to arrive (in most cases it should be almost instantaneous).
