Masking

A mask protects part of the clay from every brush, paint included, the way masking tape protects paint. Masked clay is drawn darker.

Paint a mask

Press 0 for the Mask brush and stroke over the clay. Hold Ctrl, or use the pen’s eraser, to unmask.

In the Tool tab:

Action	Does
Mask all	Masks the whole object
Invert	Swaps masked and unmasked
Clear	Removes the mask
Show mask	Turns the darkening on and off

Tip

Mask what you want to keep, then Invert, and sculpt freely on the rest. The transform tool also moves only the unmasked (or only the masked) clay.

Mask by shape

Mask cavities and Mask peaks replace the mask with the object’s hollows or its ridges.

• Feature size sets how big a hollow or ridge has to be to count.
• Sensitivity sets how many are caught.

Use Mask cavities before painting grime into wrinkles, or Mask peaks before polishing only the high points.

Extract a shell

With a mask painted, Extract duplicates the object as a shell of a chosen thickness standing on the masked surface, edged by the mask’s blur. Use it for straps, clothing, armour and plates. Extract works on clay objects.

New in 4.0

Mask cavities, Mask peaks and Extract are new in 4.0, and work on detail meshes too (Extract on clay only).