The Idea of Manual Mode

Geo-Scatter manual mode was born out of a simple idea: We wanted to create an alternative distribution workflow for artists who do not necessarily need a fully procedural solution, but would rather want a more direct, "physical" approach.

In Manual mode, you are painting instances like you would when painting a landscape on a canvas, with a set of various brushes to choose from, that will add, alter or remove matter.

Generating the Points

Unlike all other distribution methods, manual mode will not generate points with the help of an algorithm, instead, the points are directly encoded within a newly created mesh. Painting with a manual distribution brush will define new points in space, with specific rotation, scale, and instance attributes.

Once the points are defined and encoded, they will be processed in the scatter engine.

Graphic Tablet Support

As the main goal of this mode is emulating a painting workflow, graphic tablet support was a matter of course.

Therefore, for most brushes, you will find options in the header that enable pen pressure sensitivity for scale/density/radius/etcetera.

Header's Options

Active tool options are located in 3d viewport header. They are arranged in popup menus. For example, Spray brush has three menus.

Rotation and Scale menus will define how the newly created instances are rotated and scaled. The third menu, Stroke, is for direct brush behavior, such as brush radius, how many points are created per interval action, if point count is driven by pressure, and so on.

Gesture Gizmo

Just like native Blender, each brush has its own gesture gizmos that are called with the help of shortcuts, these brushes are adjusted with visual 'gizmo' feedback as well.

For example, most brushes have their Radius adjustable by pressing the F key, moving the mouse cursor will change the radius value, and releasing the F key confirms the new radius.

All available gesture shortcuts are written in lower-left corner of the viewport for convenience.

Shortcuts

Each brush can be called with keyboard shortcuts that can be customized in the addon preference. Please check out the addon preference to overview the various shortcuts at your disposal.

Dot Brush

Create a single instance per LMB. Instance initial rotation and scale can be set in header menus. Useful for adding specific instances in specific places.

Pose Brush

Create a single instance interactively, LMB to set instance location, then drag while holding LMB in the direction where you want instance +Y axis to be pointing to, while the distance from the initial mouse location sets the instance scale.

Path Brush

Creates instances along mouse trail at given a distance interval. Extra options in the rotation menu can force instance Y alignment to mouse direction.

Chain Brush

the chain brush is similar to the path brush with the specificity that it will always guarantee an alignment with the last created point.

Line Brush

The line brush will distribute instances at regular interface along a line. A divergence option will be available to randomize the spread along the line.

Spatter Brush

Similar to the path brush, with an added randomness offset per stroke.

Spray Brush

This brush behaves like a real aerial spray, the nozzle is represented by the cross cursor, spraying instances into the radius area.

Spray Align Brush

The Align Spray brush is a variation of the spray brush, with the added specificity of aligning your instances toward the stroke direction.

Lasso Fill Brush

The lasso fill brush is useful to distribute a chosen density of instances inside the drawn area.

Clone Brush

With the clone brush, you'll first need to sample an area with the sample shortcut, then each click will copy the points locations/rotations/scales and instancing IDs to the locations of your brushstrokes. Note that this brush will work best if you are using manual mode instancing ID.

Eraser Brush

Removes instances inside brush radius at a given probability rate.

Dilute Brush

Removes instances inside the brush radius at a given probability rate, until reaching a minimal distance between points.

Lasso Eraser Brush

Removes instances inside the area radius of a drawn lasso.

Surface Move Brush

The surface move brush alters instances locations. On LMB it grabs instances within the chosen radius and moves them along your surface(s) at a new location. The normal adjustment can be turned off if needed.

Surface Rotate

The surface move brush also has an extra ability: Use the MOUSE_WHEEL to rotate the positions of instances inside the brush radius.

Surface Scale

Additionally, with the surface move brush, you can use the CTRL+MOUSE_WHEEL to rescale the positions of instances inside the brush radius.

Free Move Brush

Freely move the points inside your brush radius in 3D space. Note that the points will be disconnected to their surface(s) and might become unreachable by some brushes.

Drop Down Brush

Drop down detached points to the surface(s) below.

Manipulator

Translate/Rotate/Rescale the selected point. First select the object to manipulate, then use the shortcut to swap to your regular transform gizmo.

Attract Brush

The attract brush will attract or repulse your distribution depending if you are using the CTRL shortcut while clicking.

Push Brush

The push brush will push your instances along your surface depending on your stroke direction. If you hold CTRL while clicking, the brush will use a straight line shape to push your instances around instead of a circle.

Split Brush

The split brush is ideal for creating a path in your distribution as it will push your instances to the brush stroke sides. If you hold CTRL it will do the opposite.

Turbulence Brush

The turbulence brush will randomly move your instances along their surfaces.

Relax Brush

The relax brush will smooth the position of the points creating a more uniform looking distribution with equally distance neighbors.

Normal Alignment Brush

Will align the instance Z axis toward the direction of your brush. This brush is working in 2d screen space, therefore all instances under the cursor will be affected.

Tangent Alignment Brush

Will align the instance Y axis toward the direction of your brush. This brush works in 2d screen space, therefore all instances under the cursor will be affected.

Rotation Settings Brush

This brush will set rotation properties to instances within a given radius. It may come in handy when resetting instances rotation back to precise values is needed.

Note that it is possible to quickly apply the settings of this brush to all points in the points menu.

Random Rotation Brush

Add a randomized tilt to your instances within the brush radius in a continuous and uniform way.

Spin Brush

The 'Spin' Brush will slowly spin instances around the chosen Z axis.

Scale Settings Brush

This brush will set scale properties to instances within the given radius. It may come in handy when resetting rotation back to precise values is needed, or to add a random scale.

Note that it is possible to quickly apply the settings of this brush to all points in the point menu.

Grow/Shrink Brush

Scales instances within a given radius at a defined increment. You can add (grow) or subtract (shrink) instances scale. Hold CTRL to switch from add/subtract mode.

Instance Index Brush

Re-assign instances to their scattered points based on the selected instances of the list in the instancing control popover menu (located in the topleft header). Note that this brush is only useful when the instancing method is set to "Manual Indexing" in the Tweak > Instancing panel.

Example: Mixing manual points with the procedural random scale feature.

Example: A procedural grass distribution with affinities set to our manually distributed trees.