Quick Start

Paint colour, mask, flow and direction maps directly in the Unity editor - on a 2D canvas, on your mesh, or both side by side - and export each mode to the format it needs.

Supported Unity baseline: Unity 2022.3 LTS or newer, including Unity 6.

What you can do

The editor with the 2D canvas on the left and the painted mesh preview on the right.

• standalone EQPaintingLabAsset
• standalone editor window
• custom inspector entry point
• texture list management
• persistent texture bytes stored on the asset
• fixed left sidebar for settings and asset controls
• center focus workspace for painting and previewing
• 2D paint canvas
• paint, erase, smooth, fill, and clear tools
• mirror and radial symmetry modes
• custom brush-tip texture masking
• angle, size, scatter, and opacity jitter controls
• channel preview modes
• decoded vector previews when viewing the full packed texture: animated Flow motion and static Direction-field arrows
• viewport legend badges that label the active decoded Flow or Direction preview
• manual undo and redo inside the editor window
• export active texture or all textures into Assets/EQPaintingLab/Generated
• mode-specific export profiles for Color, Mask, Flow, and Direction workflows
• recommended export format warnings when a mode is forced to a less suitable format
• non-destructive export post processing with Smooth, Blur, Alpha Edge Padding, and viewport preview
• first 3D mesh preview using the assigned preview mesh
• direct UV-space painting on the preview mesh
• projection-aware 3D painting that samples the visible mesh under the brush footprint and paints local UV dabs across seams
• UV Channel selector for choosing which preview mesh UV set drives 3D painting, texture preview, and shell overlays
• Show UV Shell overlay that draws the selected preview mesh UV shell over both the 2D canvas and 3D preview
• 3D Paint Mode control for switching between ProjectionAware and the older UVSpace behavior
• Projection Seam Angle control for deciding how far projection painting can wrap around surface angle changes
• viewport modes for 2D, Split, and 3D
• persisted workspace mode, split divider, swap order, foldouts, scroll, last asset, and 3D camera framing
• live brush cursor ghost-stamp preview with brush-tip masking and jitter bounds
• preview and reset/fill utility actions

How to open

1. Create an asset from Create/EQ Painting Lab/Painting Asset
2. Select it in the Project window
3. Click Open in EQPaintingLab

You can also open the window from:

• Tools/EQLabs/EQ Painting Lab/Open Editor

Workflow

• create or open an asset
• create a starter texture
• manage texture slots
• paint directly in the active texture canvas or switch to split mode to watch the mesh at the same time
• use mouse wheel over the canvas to resize the brush
• use Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y (macOS: Cmd+Z and Cmd+Y, or Cmd+Shift+Z) in the window for paint snapshots
• choose Mirror X, Mirror Y, Mirror XY, or Radial symmetry from the Brush section
• assign a readable Brush Tip texture to shape the stamp
• use Angle Jitter, Size Jitter, Scatter, and Opacity Jitter to break up repeated stamps
• preview the active texture or isolate a single channel
• in Flow mode, keep Channel Preview on All to see animated motion bands; switch to R, G, B, or A when you need to inspect packed data directly
• in Direction mode, keep Channel Preview on All to see static arrows aligned to the direction field; switch to B to inspect the painted/valid mask
• the viewport header badge names the decoded vector preview when Flow or Direction is shown in All
• use the Vector Preview toggle in the 3D viewport header to turn the decoded Flow/Direction preview shader on or off
• switch the focus workspace between 2D, Split, and 3D
• drag the split divider and use Swap to favor canvas-first or mesh-first review
• reopen the window or Unity and continue with the last saved workspace layout
• export the active texture or all textures from the Export section
• leave Export Format on Auto for the safest mode-specific output: Color and Mask use PNG, while Flow and Direction use EXR
• use Post Process before export when a painted mask, color map, flow map, or direction map needs a softer generated output; increase Process Radius for wider blur and Process Passes for more buildup without modifying the saved painting asset
• enable Alpha Edge Padding for transparent color textures that need RGB bleed around visible pixels to reduce edge fringes in mips or UV borders
• keep Preview Processed Export enabled to see the generated result in the 2D and 3D preview panes before writing files
• assign a mesh in Preview Mesh to inspect the active texture in 3D
• choose UV Channel to target UV0, UV1, UV2, or UV3 on the preview mesh
• enable Show UV Shell to inspect the selected UV island boundaries while painting on either the canvas or 3D preview
• left-click on visible mesh triangles to paint through the selected UV channel
• use ProjectionAware 3D paint mode when painting across visible UV seams or duplicated seam vertices
• use UVSpace 3D paint mode when you want the lighter direct UV stamp behavior; strokes now step in screen space and raycast each sample, so they no longer bridge through unrelated texture regions when the cursor crosses a UV island boundary or a U=0/1 seam
• older assets are migrated to ProjectionAware the next time they are opened so they default to the wider-footprint seam-painting path
• save texture bytes back onto the asset

For mesh painting:

• the 3D preview pane is verified rendering under the Built-in Render Pipeline, URP 17.3.0 and HDRP 17.3.0, on Unity 6000.3.14f1. The preview shader is a Built-in CG shader with a single SubShader and no SRP subshaders; it renders in those SRPs via its Unlit/Texture fallback. Other pipeline versions and other editor versions are not verified. 2D painting and all exported textures work with every pipeline.
• the preview mesh must be readable
• the preview mesh must have valid data in the selected UV channel
• Show UV Shell is an editor-only guide and does not write into texture pixels or exported files
• the 2D overlay draws UV island boundaries and seam edges directly in texture space
• the 3D overlay draws the same shell edges on front-facing preview mesh surfaces so seam placement is visible while orbiting
• right mouse drag orbits and mouse wheel zooms the preview camera
• projection-aware painting raycasts screen-space brush samples against the visible mesh and writes local UV dabs only where the preview surface is actually hit
• lower Projection Seam Angle values keep paint on surfaces facing the hit normal; higher values let paint wrap farther around corners
• projection-aware strokes do not interpolate through UV space, which prevents cylinder-style 0/1 seams from creating long texture-space bridge strokes
• projection-aware primary strokes can cross visible seams, while mirrored symmetry clones still use texture-space stamping
• if 3D Paint Mode shows UVSpace, the tool exposes a one-click button to switch back to ProjectionAware for the wider screen-footprint seam-painting behavior

For brush tips:

• the brush-tip texture must have Read/Write enabled in its import settings
• the tip currently acts as a mask on top of the brush falloff
• Brush Shape controls the footprint independently from the assigned tip: Circle masks to a round dab, while Square samples the full square tip
• enable Invert Brush Tip when the useful stamp shape is dark on a light/white background; the grayscale mask is flipped while alpha is preserved
• opaque grayscale brush tips are supported and now shape the stamp correctly
• if a brush tip is unreadable, EQPaintingLab now builds a temporary readable copy automatically
• use Fix Brush Tip Import Settings in the Brush section if the assigned tip is not readable
• the canvas and mesh cursor now shows a live ghost preview of the current stamp mask before paint is applied

For jitter:

• Angle Jitter: 0-360 degrees of random stamp rotation
• Size Jitter: 0-100% random stamp scale variation
• Scatter: 0-100% lateral offset away from the stroke path
• Opacity Jitter: 0-100% random stamp strength variation
• Spacing remains the stamp cadence control and already works with the new jitter system
• the cursor shows a light outer bound when size jitter or scatter can push stamps outside the main brush footprint

For export:

• Color: recommended as sRGB PNG with transparency handling
• Mask: recommended as linear PNG for grayscale, alpha, or packed mask data
• Flow: recommended as linear EXR for motion direction in R/G and accumulated strength in B
• Direction: recommended as linear EXR for direction-field R/G data and the B painted/valid mask
• exported file names include the active paint-mode suffix, such as _Color, _Mask, _Flow, or _Direction
• preview motion, arrows, and colors are editor-only visualization; exported Flow files keep packed R/G direction plus B strength, while Direction files keep packed R/G direction plus the B painted/valid mask

Export hygiene

• generated exports are written under Assets/EQPaintingLab/Generated
• keep exported textures organized by painting asset name
• use Export Active for one texture or Export All for every texture slot in the current painting asset
• imported export textures are configured without mipmaps and with uncompressed import settings