The original author of 'Tattoo' did not write this. These are notes on the program put together by TheOuterLinux (https://theouterlinux.gitlab.io) WHY TATTOO? =========== I like Blender (~2.5 to 2.79b) but it has gotten "bloated" and "aimless," as if the application is only for the programmers themselves or for those that work for multi-million-dollar animation studios. Most of us do not have the kind of resources needed to adequately run modern Blender or the time to understand the insane terminology and the "Node Hell" that appears to be required just to add/paint a texture. Some of us just want to use Blender to quickly make a video game character or a simple "crate" object rather than a Pixar-quality movie. So, it makes sense to have a light-weight program dedicated to just painting on textures; there appears to be plenty for modern Mac and Windows but most of them cost money, top-notch hardware, VERY greedy telemetry, and care more about sculpting than painting. Meanwhile, Tattoo is free, 32-bit, and runs just fine both on Windows XP and WINE, which is good news for GNU/Linux users. And according to the website, contrary to what the software says, registration is no longer required for textures to be safe for commercial use, not that it appears to have anything in place to stop anyone. WHY YOU SHOULD AVOID TATTOO =========================== Tattoo's menu text is VERY hard to read without having to utilize mouse-over to help see things better. Tattoo also has limited model file-format support. It claims to load 3DS, X, LWO, and B3D, but it seams as though only OBJ works; this is most likely due to file-format updates since 2004, which was when this program has its last update. For exampled, he included B3D file in the "examples" folder does load but B3D exported via Blender does not. TIPS ==== Save often; a "Memory Access Violation" error could pop-up after playing with settings. Speaking of which, you may want to toggle-off the "Smooth over UV seams" setting within the Configuration Options. I am not sure why, but appears to do the opposite of what it says; meaning, if you want to avoid "lines" at the seams via painting or blurring, you want this setting to be off. I am honestly not sure what is going on with that setting; this program is amazing for what it is, but it does have a few "quirks." OBSERVATIONS ============ If you created an OBJ model with only materials and no textures, it appears as though Tattoo will create a bunch of *.PNG files in the same directory as the loaded OBJ before displaying it. These PNGs it creates are based on material names; it does not seem to matter if an MTL file is present of not. If an MTL file is present, this program does not care how "shiny" a material is supposed to be. It only seems to care about regular texture (diffuse) maps. It has no features for things like Specularity, Normal, and so forth maps. If a model has multiple materials with a texture for each, you do not need to toggle between any of them to paint; the program will just let you paint over the whole thing regardless. You can "paintbucket" based on separate objects; for example: if a model has hair and that hair is a separate object, you can select a color and then use SHIFT+CTRL+LCLICK to paint the entire object the selected color; in other words, this is object based, not material based. Models with lots of faces may result in a crash. 125K faces may load eventually and have a little bit of lag but will most likely crash. Keep your models low-poly, such as 3K-5K. These are the sort of models you would find within an Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo 3DS, GameCube, or PlayStation 2 and perhaps a Nintendo Switch or PlayStation Vita to some extent. This program's final update was ~2004. The software's website claims that Tattoo has 3DS, X, LWO, and B3D support. However, anything other than loading an OBJ seems to crash the program. This is most likely due to model format version changes since 2004 while OBJ seems to have, more or less, stayed the same. It has a feature to move a light around the model and change its color, but it is very limited. KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS ================== The program itself can tell you the keyboard shortcuts but the developer seems to have programmed it in a way that all text is pure white with a black background or outline; the text is VERY hard to read. AVOID!!! BUGGY!!! CONFUSING!!! ------------------------------ F5; Something to do with a Texture Guide; SPACE toggles views between this and the model F7; honestly, not sure; supposed to be the same as F6 but it is not F8; projection painting toggle ENTER; drops all selected triangles; triangles can be selected but I have no idea why Navigation ---------- Move = Numpad arrows (4,8,6,2) Rotate = arrows Zoom = a/z Change pivot point = ' (single-quote) Rest pivot point = SHIFT+' (or ") You can assign the current view of the model to a "hot key" by using CTRL+[0-9] and then press a number to quickly use that view. Brushes ------- Opacity = PAGEUP/PAGEDOWN Constrain brush to X/Y (for line drawing) = Hold down HOME or END Solid Brush = Q Spray Brush = W Triangle Brush (for painting faces) = E Set brush settings more accurately = F4 ; ignore loss of texture; it's only temporary Increase/decrease brush size = +/- on Numpad Paint the entire model the current color = SHIFT+CTLR+LCLICK Views ----- Wireframe toggle = F1 (MENU ITEMS WILL "WIREFRAME" TOO IF ON) Wireframe color cycle = F6 Cycle background color = F2 Brush outline toggle = F3 Toggle shaded light = F12 Whoops ------ Undo = CRTL+z MOUSE SHORTCUTS =============== Move = Hold down "x" and move mouse Rotate = Hold down "c" and move mouse Zoom = Hold down "v" and move mouse