Doc:2.6/Manual/3D interaction/Sketching

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Viewport Sketching

The Grease Pencil is a tool that allows you to draw sketches and annotations in the 3D view and UV/Image editor windows using freehand strokes. It is a tool that can be linked back to traditional 2D paper and pencil workflows where rough “guideline” sketches were often used for planning and quickly communicating ideas. In digital fields, a similar workflow was used by drawing on monitors with wax crayons and pencils. It is often useful to be able to directly scribble on to a work in progress instead of having to do so in a separate place (i.e. another part of the window, or even in a different application altogether).

The name “Grease Pencil” is derived in homage to the wax crayons/pencils that early CG Animators used to draw arcs and other planning notes on their CRT’s with.

In addition to uses for animators in planning their poses and motion curves, Grease Pencil can also be useful in a number of scenarios, including but not limited to:

• Planning topology and/or layout of models.
• Director’s shot review tool.
• “Whiteboard” and assignment review tool for educators.

The Grease Pencil in action.

The next few pages explain how to use this tool:

• Drawing sketches.
• Layers and Animation.
• Converting sketches to geometry.