grease pencil as an alternative to other illustrating software

[Harris Clook]

Hi @Paul (Sorry I’m not sure what your tag is)!

Per my Q title, can grease pencil be used as an alternative to using other illustration software?

One example for why I might want to use it is to create stickers or decals that I could then apply to my 3d models.

I don’t have access to the adobe suite anymore (where I’m somewhat familiar with it). I could continue to use Krita as I had done so to create stickers in my pothead and noodlehead models, but I’d like to keep pursuing Blender and what it has to offer, and I’m hoping grease pencil can tick all my boxes.

Perhaps to elaborate on the above example, and forgive the lack of proper terms, but can I produce an illustration in grease pencil, maybe a poster of sorts, and then paste it up onto a modelled surface, like a billboard. Or, can I produce an illustration that has an alpha value so it could be used as a sticker that wraps around something?

Would it be a matter of saving the grease pencil illustration as a png (or what have you), and then import it via images as planes to turn it into a mesh and manipulating it to wrap around the geometry? Or can grease pencil do all of that internally within the 3d space?

I’ll start watching this course, and I’m sure I’ll find my answers soon – but I’m intrigued nonetheless!

[Dwayne Savage]

I believe the answer is yes to all the examples you gave. The only part you left out was grease pencil’s ability to draw directly onto the surface of 3D objects. Paul mentioned in another post that grease pencil also has baking capabilities which I’ve added to my list of things to look up. As an illustration software, Blender can do that. Just note that it doesn’t follow your traditional illustration software workflow. Plus it’s designed to be a 2D animation system that works with the 3D animation system. 

[Martin Bergwerf]

…and you can Add a Shrinkwrap Modifier to your GP Object and place your drawing on any 3D Object…

And if you ask a question under a Lesson, the Instructor automatically gets a Notification, so no need to Tag them in that case.

[Dwayne Savage]

Wow! Thanks for the info @spikeyxxx. So, GP can be used as a decal. Yeah GP and drawing in general are next on my list after I finish CORE. Just got Physics and sculpting left on those. 

[Paul Caggegi]

Hi @Yeehawcowboyletsgo – lots of answers above already! Short answer – yes you can. Here is the slightly longer, more complicated one:

While Grease Pencil *can* be used to draw directly onto a surface, it is not like texture painting. In fact, a grease pencil object has dimension. So you’re gonna get some unwanted results.

The advantage of using Grease Pencil is that it is more like vector drawing: you can render at any resolution you like without quality loss, but once that render is baked, it is a bitmap – just like anything else you’d render out of a 2D drawing application. So yes, I would use it in a similar way, but I’d render out the product and use it as a texture after.

The alternative to what you are suggesting is to simply use the texture painting options inside of Blender – this will allow you to do what you’re thinking dynamically, and directly.

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