: Copy this file into your 3ds Max installation's plugins folder, typically located at C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max [Year]\plugins .
Use cases
: The Pencil+ 4 Material offers advanced cel shading that replicates the flat look of traditional animation and the textured feel of pencil sketches.
If your pipeline relies on 3ds Max 2015, 2016, 2017, or 2018, and you are running a high-end Windows workstation ("Win Top"), Psoft Pencil 4 is not just a tool—it is a productivity multiplier. It eliminates the tedious cycle of UV mapping, exporting to external painters, and re-importing.
Background and purpose pSoft (often associated with or similar in function to other NPR tools) developed Pencil to address a common need in animation, architectural visualization, concept art, and technical illustration: producing controllable outline and stroke rendering directly from 3D geometry. While 3D renderers excel at photorealism, many projects require stylized visuals—comic book looks, technical diagrams, storybook illustration, or sketch-like turntables—that are cumbersome to create purely by hand. Pencil bridges that gap by letting users define stroke styles, vary line thickness, produce hatchings, and control visibility based on topology, smoothing groups, material IDs, or camera-facing angles.
: From uniform manga-style lines to rough, hand-drawn sketch strokes, the line engine provides granular control over width modulation based on camera distance or object intersection. Key Features for Toon Shading Gradation Bar