Simple Settings

The full smear nodegroup has two options for what settings are displayed, simple and advanced. There is some overlap but every setting will still be explained individually for each node group.

The simple settings are all that many people will need for many animations.

All of the capabilities are technically the same as the advanced controls, just with less control for the user which can be a good thing for fast results.

full_smear_simple_settings

Object/Collection Settings¶

Every Auto Smear nodegroup has these settings, and they determine what will get smears. In almost all cases the user does not have to worry about these settings as they will be handled by the addon.

Use Vertex Group/Vertex Group¶

Use Vertex Group will enable the use of the Vertex Group Setting, when you check it you will see that setting stop being greyed out.

To use a vertex group, make sure you have a vertex group on the object that is being smeared, and then in the geometry nodes settings, type the exact name of the vertex group.

The menu won't auto-populate with vertex groups but as long as you type the exact name (case-sensitive) it will work.

On Twos/Offset Timing¶

Use these settings if you are animating on twos.

Checking On Twos will make the smears update every even frame.
Checking Offset Timing will offset the smear timing so that they update on every odd frame.

Speed Threshold¶

The minimum distance the mesh needs to travel to smear.

Smear Settings¶

Unchecking this panel will make smears not appear.

Max Age¶

How long the smears will last (in frames).

Density¶

The density of smears, independent of mesh resolution.

Seed¶

The seed of the distributions

Radius¶

The max radius of the smears

Resolution¶

The approximate length between the points on the smears.

Smears have a minimum of 3 points per spline.

Opacity¶

The opacity of the grease pencil smears

Color method¶

Solid Color/Attribute (Default): Uses one solid color for the smears or a vertex color attribute.
Image Texture: Uses an image texture to color the smears. Requires an image texture and UV Map to be provided.

Color Blur Iterations¶

How much to blur the vertex color/image texture provided. Useful for getting rid of small bright/dark areas in the provided color.

Duplicate Settings¶

Unchecking this panel will make duplicates not appear.

Max Age¶

How long the duplicates will last (in frames).

Min Surface Area¶

The minimum surface area that a duplicate needs to have to appear