A typical work-flow for surface modeling using CySlice is: (1) Source the polymesh, often via 3D surface scanning, medical volumetric scanning or through object librarys. Some of these sources will also provide color per vertex (CPV) data. (2) Using CyEat, edit the polymesh to fill holes, smooth out artifacts, or sculpt in missing details. (3) Using CySlice, build a network and export the NURBS/SUBD/Poly surface and texture maps. (4) Add to or edit the color maps using 2D or 3D paint boxes. One drawback to this approach is that the painting can only proceed once the surface is finalized. Another is that, if multiple surfaces are pulled off the one polymesh (e.g. maybe you have a detailed surface for close-ups, and a very simple one for distance shots), each needs to be painted separately. Figure 22. 3D Paint Controls New in v3.3 is the 3D Paint tool (see Figure 22), which enables the following work-flow: (1) Source the polymesh. (2) Using CyEat, edit the polymesh. (3) Using the CySlice 3D Paint tool, add to or edit the polymesh CPV data. (4) Using CySlice, build and export the surface and texture maps. In this work-flow, the painting and surfacing can operate in parallel. And once the painting is complete, all exported surfaces will be identical in appearance as maps are extracted from the one color source. A drawback to this second approach is that the color resolution is only as good as the polymesh vertex density. If you need high detail maps in a particular area, you'll need to increase the vertex density, either via the global Loop Subdivide or localized Reduce/Multiply tools. A combination of the two work-flows might be most appropriate. That is, use the CySlice 3D Paint tool to fill in the CPV data for the long and mid range shots, then add specific close-up details to the extracted color maps once the surface is finalized. Display Settings Figure 23. Recommended Display Settings To see the CPV information in a polymesh, enable Color in the main window Display panel (see Figure 23). Figure 24. Lighting On and Off By default CySlice renders the polymesh with a light shining over the right shoulder (see left side of Figure 24). This creates dark and light regions over the surface depending on surface orientation, partially obscuring the underlying surface color. To clearly see only the surface color (see right side of Figure 24), turn the lighting Off. Color Tools Figure 25. Color Tools The Clear button can be used to clear (to white) the polymesh color. The Recolor button copies a representation of surface shading into the color. This is generally used to located surface features in the color only paintbox displays. And the Gamma button is used to globally lighten (values less than 1) or darken (values greater than 1) the color information.