This is a small add-on that makes it easy to create vector displacement map (aka VDM) brushes in Blender. A VDM is baked and a brush created in one click.
Located in 3D Viewport ‣ Sidebar ‣ Tool
.
Use the Create Sculpting Plane
button for an optimal starting setup for sculpting your own VDM brush.
Use the Render and Create VDM Brush
button to bake the displacement of the plane into a new brush. The brush will be added with all relevant options and a vector displacement map is saved near the blender file as an Open EXR file (or a ‘tmp’ folder if the blender file wasn’t saved). New brushes can be found as Draw brushes in sculpt mode (first tool to select in sculpt mode).
Note: The add-on won’t create any preview images for these brushes.
While sculpting, make sure to mask the borders of the plane for a better result. (Auto-Masking: Mesh Boundary
)
Use the Displacement Eraser
brush to move vertices back to their original grid position.
If your VDM brush gets cut off at the corners, you can increase the size inside the texture panel of the brush settings to 1.1 or 1.2 for each axis.
You don't need to use the 'Sculpting Plane' as a starting point. You can use a grid with a lower subdivision and then add a multires modifier yourself. Just make sure to use Keep Corners
as Boundary Smooth
option before subdividing.
Note: The baking material depends on a grid that is 2 by 2 meters (default size).
This extension was part of Blender 4.1 bundled add-ons.
This extension requests the following permission:
Add-on saves textures to disk
make life easy... thanks for sharing...
A must=have addon if you intend to use and create VDM brushes!