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Welcome to the Vertex Color Toolkit documentation. This comprehensive Blender addon provides professional-grade tools for creating, editing, and managing vertex colors directly in Blender.
Vertex colors are a powerful way to add detail, variation, and data to your 3D models without relying on UV maps or textures. They're especially valuable for game development, procedural workflows, and technical visualization.
Follow these steps to install and set up the Vertex Color Toolkit in Blender.
You can also install by manually extracting the ZIP contents to your Blender addons folder, typically located at: C:\Users\[YourUsername]\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\[Version]\scripts\addons\ on Windows or /Users/[YourUsername]/Library/Application Support/Blender/[Version]/scripts/addons/ on Mac.
The Vertex Color Toolkit appears in Blender's N-panel under the VCTool tab. The interface is organized into several key sections:
The Target Apply feature lets you control which color channels your operations affect:
This selective application allows you to build up complex vertex color data by working on individual channels separately.
The Vertex Color Toolkit provides several view modes to help you visualize vertex colors:
Viewing individual channels in grayscale is particularly useful when storing non-color data like masks, height maps, or roughness information in specific channels.
Channel protection allows you to prevent changes to specific color channels while editing others:
Channel protection is essential for multi-channel workflows. For example, store ambient occlusion in the red channel, metalness in green, and roughness in blue—then protect the channels you don't want to modify while working on a specific map.
Fill operations allow you to quickly set vertex colors across your entire model or selected vertices:
The toolkit provides convenient quick actions:
To apply fill operations to only part of your mesh, enter Edit Mode and select the desired vertices before using the fill tools. Make sure to check the "Selected Vertices Only" option in the tool settings.
The Vertex Color Toolkit offers a range of specialized tools for creating and manipulating vertex colors.
The hierarchical gradient tool creates color transitions based on mesh topology, ideal for plants, trees, and organic structures:
Important: The tool automatically switches to RGB view mode when applying gradients. You must be in RGB view mode (not R, G, or B individual channels) for proper gradient application and export.
Each level represents a stage in the hierarchy (e.g., trunk → branches → twigs → leaves):
Bake ambient occlusion directly to vertex colors:
Baked AO is perfect for adding subtle shadowing details or creating masks for wear effects in game assets. It's often best stored in a single channel (like Red) to preserve other channels for different data.
Note: Cycles render engine is recommended for best results but not strictly required.
Generate curvature maps to highlight edges and surface details:
Curvature maps are excellent for creating edge highlights, dirt masks, and wear effects. Try storing curvature in the Green channel while keeping AO in Red for a comprehensive material mask setup.
Note: Cycles render engine is recommended for best results but not strictly required.
Create procedural edge wear effects ideal for weathered materials:
Edge wear is perfect for creating realistic worn metal, chipped paint, or weathered wood. Combine with ambient occlusion for more realistic results.
Add procedural noise patterns to vertex colors:
Noise is excellent for adding subtle variation to surfaces, creating dirt/grime maps, or generating procedural textures directly in vertex colors.
Create a directional gradient based on object or world space:
Linear gradients are perfect for height-based coloring (like snow caps on mountains), directional effects, or simple top-to-bottom transitions.
Create circular/spherical gradient patterns:
Radial gradients are great for spotlight effects, creating glows, or defining areas of influence around specific points.
Create masks based on view or normal direction:
Projection masks are ideal for creating effects like snow on top surfaces, dirt on bottom surfaces, or moss on north-facing walls.
Perform operations on and between color channels to manage your data effectively:
The Channel Manager is one of the most powerful tools for creating complex vertex color data. For example, you can:
Ensure your vertex colors export correctly to other applications with the "Prepare for Export" feature:
When working with individual color channels (R, G, or B view modes), your vertex colors will not export correctly to other applications. The "Prepare for Export" button automatically:
Important: Always ensure you're in RGB view mode before exporting your mesh or applying a hierarchical gradient. The tool will attempt to switch automatically, but it's good practice to verify before export.
If you need assistance with the Vertex Color Toolkit, have feature suggestions, or want to report bugs, please contact us:
Email: [email protected]