A surface painting module is present in Anatomist. This tool allows to draw textures on a mesh, using several drawing tools. This module has been primarily developed in the specific aim of drawing sulcal constraints to build a 2D coordinates system on the brain (see the Cortical Surface toolbox in BrainVisa), but can be used in a general way to draw any texture values.
A demonstration video is available here: Surface Paint movie.
Load a mesh:
data_for_anatomist/subject01/subject01_Lwhite.mesh.Select it and click on
.Click on the Ok button on the new popup window. The options in this window are useful only to build a 2D coordinates system on the cortical surface.
A new 3D window containing the mesh opens.
A new control
should be available in the 3D window. Select it.Several new icons and parameters are now available in the 3D window to allow drawing on the surface.
To draw, click on the
icon and maintain left mouse button while moving the mouse on the mesh.The drawing will be saved in a texture file which associates a value to each point of the mesh. You can change the current texture value in the text field labelled Texture value. The colors associated to each texture value depends on the color palette of the texture. To change it, select the object TexConstraint in Anatomist main window and use the contextual menu Color -> Palette
To erase a drawing, click on the
icon and maintain left mouse button while moving the mouse on the mesh.It is possible to fill a closed region using the magic wand icon
, then clicking on the region to fill and validate the selection with 
icon.When the drawing is finished, save it in a texture file using the
icon. Select the location, type a file name. It is possible to save in tex (*.tex) or gifti (*.gii) formats.
It is also possible to draw according anatomical constraints. For example, following the depth of the sulci or the top of the gyri.
To do so, select a constraint by choosing an icon among
for unconstrained path, for drawing paths following the sulci or 
for drawing paths following the gyri.Then draw on the mesh by clicking on a first point that will be the beginning of the path and a second that will be the end of the path, the tool will automatically compute a path between the 2 points according to the selected constraint.
To really write the computed path, you have to validate it using the
icon.If you want to remove the computed path, you can use the
icon.
Load the mesh:
data_for_anatomist/subject01/subject01_Lwhite.mesh.Load the previously saved texture file.
Do a FusionTexSurfMethod fusion between the mesh and the texture.
Select the fusion object in Anatomist main window and click on the
icon.A new 3D window containing the mesh opens.
The new control
should be available in the 3D window. Select it.You can now go on with the drawing on the surface of the mesh.
Note
When visualizing such a texture on a mesh, it is better to check the option RGB space interpolation (label textures) in the texturing params of the texture object (Contextual menu -> Color -> Texturing). This way, the interpolation is done on the RGB colors of the palette, not on the value of the texture.
More functionalities are available in the SurfPaint module but will not be discussed here in the tutorial. Please refer to the complete manual to get more information.