PSOFT Pencil+ 4 for 3ds Max

PSOFT Pencil+ 4 Features

PSOFT Pencil+ 4 for 3ds Max is a non-photorealistic rendering plugin which can reproduce the appearance of pen-and-ink and color pencils drawings as well as animation cels.

Materials with high level of expressiveness
Fast and beautiful line drawing

Unique modifiers
Powerful render elements output

Materials with a high level of expressiveness.

Pencil+ 4 can reproduce the flat look of cel shading and the texture of pencil sketches. It provides fine control over shading and enables unique presentations where only specific materials are drawn to the foreground. It makes it possible to create revolutionary artistic textures.

New in Pencil+ 4 Material
Nitrous Shader

Pencil+ 4 Materials can be displayed in real-time in the Nitrous viewport. Highlights and zones can be reviewed with a quality close to the rendering result.

New in Pencil+ 4 Material
Material Penetration

With material penetration, materials hidden behind objects can penetrate those objects to be rendered as if they were in front.

New in Pencil+ 4 Material
Light Intensity Control

Light intensity can be modified for individual materials, providing more detailed control over highlights and shading.

New in Pencil+ 4 Line
Improved Usability

The user interface is more user-friendly and the affinity with 3ds Max is increased.

Enhanced gradation bar editing
Support for gamma / LUT correction
Adjustable line set list height
Display of data in lists
Switch the display language of the user interface

Material Functionality

Gradation Bar
Edit material colors intuitively using the gradation bar.

Highlight
Make highlights curve along or expand and contract into a crescent along the shape of the object.

Highlight Design
Control the shape of highlights visually.

Line Related Functions
Configure line drawing for individual materials.

Gradation Offset
Control gradations using maps. Use this to display darker colors at specific locations.

Light Color
Make the color of lights and ambient lighting affect materials.

Shadow Blend
Set the color of shadows separately from the zone gradation colors.

Stroke Map
Create hatching and rough strokes like those in hand-drawn pictures.

Fast and beautiful line drawing.

Pencil+ 4 Line functionality can be used to create a wide range of richly expressive lines such as uniform lines, lines jutting out of objects, rough sketch lines or lines with width modulation like those found in Japanese manga.

New in Pencil+ 4 Line
Multithreaded Rendering

The Pencil+ 4 Line rendering engine now supports multithreading and multiple platforms. It can quickly draw lines even for complex scenes with thousands of overlapping objects.

New in Pencil+ 4 Line
Line External Reference

You can use external references for Line settings.

New in Pencil+ 4 Line
Extended Line Settings

New edge detection settings were added.

"Selected Edge" draws lines on selected polygons and edges.
"Open Edge" draws lines on open edges of polygons.
"Merge Group" draws on multiple grouped objects as though they were a single object.
"Self-Intersection" draws lines where an object intersects itself.
Reduction settings can now be copied as instances.

Selected Edge

Open Edge

Merge Group

Self-Intersection

Instance of Size Reduction Settings

Line Functionality

Visible Lines
Draw lines using simple settings.

Hidden Lines
Draw edges at the back of objects as in perspective projections.

Brush Details
Create lines that look as though they were hand-drawn such as lines with width modulation, dotted lines, wavy lines, etc.

Brush Settings Instance Copy
Copy brush settings as instances.

Reduction Settings
Vary line width and transparency based on the distance to the camera. You can also use the distance to a specified object.

Reflection / Refraction Map
Draw lines for 3ds Max Reflection / Refraction Maps.

Curve Rendering
Spline and NURBS curves can be drawn as outlines, making it easy to add lines to 3D models using curves.

Unique modifiers.

Create exaggerated perspectives as if they were hand-drawn or perform shading computation using an object with a different shape.

Pencil+ 4 Perspective Deform
Deform the perspective based on the distance to the camera to create perspectives that look as if they were hand-drawn.

Pencil+ 4 Perspective Deform Demo
The red bounding box shows the shape before perspective deformation.

Pencil+ 4 Normal Copy
Use an object with a different shape to perform shading computations that do not match the shape of the current object's shape.

Powerful render elements output.

Output materials and lines to separate files for compositing. You can also output lines to EPS format.

Material Render Elements Output
Output Pencil+ 4 Materials to render elements. Freely combine reflections, stroke maps and zone alphas to create the output.

Line Render Elements Output
Output Pencil+ 4 Lines to render elements. Freely combine line sets and edge types to create the output.

Line Z Depth Output
The Z depth of lines can be output. A common use is to add depth of field in post-processing using compositing software.

Pencil+ 4 File Output
Output Pencil+ 4 Lines to EPS format. We recommend resolution-independent vector images for visualization purposes such as in the fields of architecture, manufacturing and product design, as well as for web contents, interactive application interfaces, etc.
Sample Files

PLD File Output
Output PLD files containing Pencil+ 4 Line data. The PLD file format makes it possible to edit Pencil+ 4 Lines in After Effects. Pencil+ 4 Line for After Effects is required. (Pencil+ 4 Line for After Effects is sold separately and is only available in Japanese.)
Pencil+ 4 Line for After Effects (Page in Japanese)

Utilities

We offer utility plugins that improve Pencil+ 4 usability.

Pencil+ 4 Spreadsheet
Batch edit the parameters of Pencil+ 4 Materials and Pencil+ 4 Lines. Pencil+ 4 Spreadsheet provides convenient features such as grid view filters and support for basic arithmetic operations.
Download Page

Pencil+ 4 Converter
Convert your data created with Pencil+ 3 to Pencil+ 4.
Download Page

PSOFT Pencil+ 4 Bridge
for 3ds Max Planned for Release
Pencil+ 4 Bridge for 3ds Max / Maya / Unity / Blender is a utility used to write Pencil+ 4 Material (*1) and Pencil+ 4 Line settings to file and read them back. The data is managed as a file separate from the scene file, so it can easily be applied to another scene. Thanks to the Bridge, Pencil+ 4 settings can be shared between host applications for greater convenience.
*1 Pencil+ 4 Bridge for Unity can only write and read Pencil+ 4 Line settings.
Download Page

Pencil+ 3 (Ver4 Bundle)
This is a Pencil+ 3 plugin that can be run with a Pencil+ 4 license. Useful for converting files created with Pencil+ 3.
Download Page

Main Features

* There are differences in the implemented functionality between Pencil+ 4 products based on the host application.
Please look at the following charts for details.

Material

Cel shading
Stroke maps for hatching
Highlight design
Configurable light color influence
Shadow blend
Configurable light intensity influence New
Material penetration New
Nitrous viewport display New
Line reflection / refraction
Configurable line drawing detection
Line color substitution

Line

Visible line drawing
Hidden line drawing
Advanced line settings
Detailed brush settings
Line animation
Distance-based reduction Update
Line size map
New edge detection settings
- Outline
- Open edge New
- Object
- Intersection
- Smoothing boundary
- Material ID boundary
- Selected edge New
- Normal angle
- Wireframe Update
Support for external reference objects and scenes New
Pencil+ 4 Line Renderer New

Modifiers

Perspective deformation modifier
Normal copy modifier
Edge selection modifier New

File Output

Zone render elements output
Line render elements output
Line Z depth outputNew
Line output to EPS format
PLD file output New

Operating Environment

Host Application:	Autodesk 3ds Max 2022 / 2023 / 2024 / 2025 * Operates with the scanline renderer.
	Supports network rendering with Backburner. There is no limit on the number of computers used for rendering.
Hardware:	Requirements identical to those of the host's version of Autodesk 3ds Max.
License:	Standalone License Network License Information about the license is here.
	Release Notes

Demo Version Purchase

PSOFT Pencil+ 4 Features

Materials with a high level of expressiveness.

New in Pencil+ 4 Material Nitrous Shader

New in Pencil+ 4 Material Material Penetration

New in Pencil+ 4 Material Light Intensity Control

New in Pencil+ 4 Line Improved Usability

Material Functionality

Gradation Bar

Highlight

Highlight Design

Line Related Functions

Gradation Offset

Light Color

Shadow Blend

Stroke Map

Fast and beautiful line drawing.

New in Pencil+ 4 Line Multithreaded Rendering

New in Pencil+ 4 Line Line External Reference

New in Pencil+ 4 Line Extended Line Settings

Selected Edge

Open Edge

Merge Group

Self-Intersection

Instance of Size Reduction Settings

Line Functionality

Visible Lines

Hidden Lines

Brush Details

Brush Settings Instance Copy

Reduction Settings

Reflection / Refraction Map

Curve Rendering

Unique modifiers.

Pencil+ 4 Perspective Deform

Pencil+ 4 Perspective Deform Demo

Pencil+ 4 Normal Copy

Powerful render elements output.

Material Render Elements Output

Line Render Elements Output

Line Z Depth Output

Pencil+ 4 File Output

PLD File Output

Utilities

Pencil+ 4 Spreadsheet

Pencil+ 4 Converter

PSOFT Pencil+ 4 Bridge for 3ds Max Planned for Release

Pencil+ 3 (Ver4 Bundle)

Main Features

Material

Line

Modifiers

File Output

Operating Environment

PSOFT Pencil+ Case Studies Gallery

for Windows

for Mac

for MODO

for Maya

for 3ds Max

for Blender

for iOS / iPadOS / Windows / Android / Huawei

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