How to Paint Color and Bitmap Textures onto Hair in Ornatrix Cinema 4D v4

What Is the Paint Brush Tool in Ornatrix Cinema 4D v4?

The Paint Brush tool in Ornatrix Cinema 4D v4 lets you paint color and bitmap textures directly onto hair strands inside the viewport. Instead of relying on shader-based color alone, you can build strand-level data channels that carry color information through your grooming pipeline - including export to Unreal Engine.

This tutorial covers the full workflow: setting up Strand Channels, painting with solid colors, using the Flood fill option, loading PNG texture maps, and preparing a groom_color channel for production export.

What You Will Learn

• How to add Edit Guides and select the Paint Brush from the Tools panel
• Creating a Per Vertex RGBA Strand Channel for color data storage
• Painting solid colors onto hair and using the Flood option for full coverage
• Loading custom PNG texture maps via the Browse button
• Positioning, rotating, and scaling bitmap textures in the viewport
• Controlling texture tiling across the groom
• Naming and preparing a groom_color channel for Unreal Engine export

Setting Up Strand Channels

Before painting, you need a channel to hold the color data. In Ornatrix v4 for Cinema 4D, you start by adding an Edit Guides modifier and opening the Paint Brush from the Tools panel. From there, create a Per Vertex RGBA Strand Channel. This channel acts as the container for all painted color and texture information and can be named as groom_color for downstream export workflows.

Painting Solid Colors and Using Flood

With the channel set up, you can paint directly onto hair strands in the viewport using the Paint Brush. For quick base coverage, the Flood option applies your selected color to all visible strands at once. This is useful for establishing a uniform base before adding texture variation or per-strand detail on top.

Applying Bitmap Textures in the Viewport

The Paint Brush in Ornatrix v4 supports bitmap painting alongside solid color. Use the Browse button to load a PNG texture map, then position it directly on the hair surface using viewport controls for move, rotate, and scale. The Tile Texture option lets you adjust how the map repeats across the groom, giving you precise control over the look before you commit the data to the channel.

Exporting Groom Color Data to Unreal Engine

The Per Vertex RGBA channel you create during painting can be configured as a named groom_color data channel, compatible with Unreal Engine groom export. This workflow is useful for production pipelines where color or texture variation needs to travel with the hair geometry rather than being applied entirely at the shader level.

Watch the Full Tutorial

The complete walkthrough is under three minutes. All steps are demonstrated in Ornatrix Cinema 4D v4 with no filler.

Watch: Paint Color and Bitmap Textures onto Hair - Ornatrix Cinema 4D v4

Tutorial by CharlyTutors (Andrew Krivulya). Subscribe for more Ornatrix, Cinema 4D, and character pipeline tutorials.

Have questions? Leave a comment below or join the Ornatrix Discord community for grooming workflow discussions and production advice.

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