Mask

Masking to control which areas of the mesh are influenced by sculpting.

Brush

To edit the mask, select the Mask Brush from the Brush panel.

Editing

Reference

Mode: Sculpt Mode
Menu: Mask

Masks can be edited across the entire model. Using A opens a pie menu to choose different operations.

Invert Mask

Reference

Mode: Sculpt Mode
Menu: Mask ‣ Invert Mask
Shortcut: Ctrl-I

Inverts an existing mask.

Fill Mask

Reference

Mode: Sculpt Mode
Menu: Mask ‣ Invert Mask

Fills the whole mask with a value of 1.

Clear Mask

Reference

Mode: Sculpt Mode
Menu: Mask ‣ Invert Mask
Shortcut: Alt-M

Fills the mask with a value of 0. To completely remove the mask data, see Clear Sculpt-Mask Data.

Box Mask

Reference

Mode: Sculpt Mode
Menu: Mask ‣ Box Mask
Shortcut: B

Works like the Box Select tool, it creates a rectangular mask region. Hold Shift to clear the mask of the selected region.

Lasso Mask

Reference

Mode: Sculpt Mode
Menu: Mask ‣ Lasso Mask
Shortcut: Shift-Ctrl-LMB

Can be used to create a free-form mask, similar to the Lasso Select tool.

Tip

To clear the mask of areas with the Lasso Mask tool, first invert the mask, apply the Lasso Mask, and then invert the mask back.

Mask Filters

Reference

Mode: Sculpt Mode
Menu: Mask ‣ Mask Filters

Mask filters are operations that are applied to the whole paint mask.

Type

Smooth/Sharpen Mask: Changes the crispness of the mask edge.
Grow/Shrink Mask: Changes the size of the mask.
Increase/Decrease Contrast: Changes the contrast of the mask.

Iterations

The number of times that the filter is going to be applied.

Auto Iteration Count

Use an automatic number of iterations based on the number of vertices of the sculpt.

Expand Mask by Topology

Reference

Mode: Sculpt Mode
Menu: Mask ‣ Expand Mask by Topology
Shortcut: Shift-A

Creates a mask radiating outwards from the active vertex in a uniform manner.

Note

This operator is meant to be used interactively through the shortcut.

Shortcuts

Invert: F Flips between expanding a positive mask (value of one) or a negative mask (value of zero). In the case of face sets, this option flips between including areas inside the masked area or areas outside the masked area.
Toggle Preserve State: E Accumulates the new mask on top of the previous one instead of replacing it. For Face Sets, this creates Face Sets boundaries instead of replacing the existing Face Set.
Toggle Gradient: G Enables linear gradient, creates a linear gradient of values from the origin to the current active vertex.
Geodesic Recursive Step: R Generate a new Geodesic falloff from the boundary of the enabled vertices of the current falloff.
Topology Recursive Step: Alt-R Generate a new topology flood fill falloff from the boundary of the enabled vertices of the current falloff.
Move Origin: Spacebar Moves the initial vertex used for calculating the falloff.
Geodesic Falloff: 1 Uses a falloff based on the Geodesic distances from the edge boundary to the active vertex.
Topology Falloff: 2 Uses a falloff based on a flood fill using edges.
Diagonals Falloff: 3 Uses a falloff based on a flood fill using polygon diagonals and edges.
Spherical Falloff: 4 Uses a falloff based on the Euclidean distances from the edge boundary to the active vertex.
Snap Expanded to Face Sets: Ctrl Isolates the expanded region to the boundary of the face set under the cursor.
Loop Count Increase: W Increase the number of loops or iterations the operator is run; using four loops will split the mask into four parts.
Loop Count Decrease: Q Decrease the number of loops or iterations the operator is run; using four loops will split the mask into four parts.
Toggle Brush Gradient: B Similar to linear gradient but uses the current brush Falloff to define the shape of the falloff.
Texture Distortion Increase: Y Increases the falloff distance when using a texture to distort the mask shape.
Texture Distortion Decrease: T Decreases the falloff distance when using a texture to distort the mask shape.

Usage

Textures

Textures can be used to affect the “strength” of the mask. This feature can be combined with loops and recursion to create really unique looking masks. To enable textures, you first need to create/select a texture to use, this is done by in the Properties editor’s Texture Properties. Next select the texture in the Texture Brush Settings, while there make sure to enable 3D Mapping. Now, you can use Y and T to increase or decrease the affect the texture has on the edge of the mask.

Expand Mask by Normals

Reference

Mode: Sculpt Mode
Menu: Mask ‣ Expand Mask by Normals
Shortcut: Shift-Alt-A

Creates a mask radiating outwards from the active vertex while following the curvature of the mesh. This operator uses the same internal operator as Expand Mask by Topology meaning all the shortcuts and functionality works the same as that tool.

Note

This operator is meant to be used interactively through the shortcut.

Mask Extract

Reference

Mode: Sculpt Mode
Menu: Mask ‣ Mask Extract

Creates a duplicate mesh object based on masked geometry.

Threshold: Minimum mask value to consider the vertex valid to extract a face from the original mesh.
Add Boundary Loop: Creates and extra boundary loop on the edges of the geometry, making it ready for adding a Subdivision Surface modifier later.
Smooth Iterations: Smooth iterations applied to the extracted mesh.
Project to Sculpt: Project the extracted mesh on to the original sculpt object.
Extract as Solid: Adds a Solidify Modifier to the newly created mesh object.

Mask Slice

Reference

Mode: Sculpt Mode
Menu: Mask ‣ Mask Slice

Removes the masked vertices from the mesh.

Threshold: Minimum mask value to consider the vertex valid to extract a face from the original mesh.
Fill Holes: Fills concave holes with geometry that might have resulted from the Mask Slice operation.
Slice to New Object: Create a new object from the masked geometry.

Dirty Mask

Reference

Mode: Sculpt Mode
Menu: Mask ‣ Dirty Mask

Generates a mask based on the geometry cavity and pointiness.

Random Mask

Reference

Mode: Sculpt Mode
Menu: Mask ‣ Random Mask

Generates a mask with random values for the entire object based on different mesh data.

Per Vertex: Assigns a random mask value for each vertex.
Per Face Set: Assigns a random mask value for each Face Set.
Per Loose Mask: Assigns a random mask value for each disjoint part of the mesh.

Display Settings

Reference

Mode: Sculpt Mode
Popover: Viewport Overlays – Sculpt ‣ Mask

The mask display can be toggled as a viewport overlay. In the overlay popover, the opacity of the mask overlay can be adjusted to make it more or less visible on the mesh.

Clear Sculpt-Mask Data

Reference

Mode: Object/Edit Mode
Menu: Properties ‣ Object Data ‣ Geometry Data ‣ Clear Sculpt-Mask Data

Completely frees the mask data layer from the mesh. While not a huge benefit, this can speed-up sculpting if the mask is no longer being used.