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Power Paste

by 3d illusions·Workflow

Images © 3d illusions. Used for product review; image policy.

Why we like it

Power Paste earns its place in the superhive library by turning a multi-step clipboard-to-Blender process into a couple of shortcuts, with pasting behaviour that adapts to the editor under the mouse. The displacement pre-processing mode is a notable touch for anyone working with height and bump maps.

What is Power Paste?

Power Paste is a Blender addon for bringing clipboard images directly into a scene. Ctrl+Alt+V pastes an image with alpha, while Ctrl+Shift+Alt+V pastes with height and displacement compatibility. The addon creates the Blender elements relevant to whichever editor you paste into.

Clipboard images and downloaded material packs are often 8-bit, and that limited dynamic range can produce visible steps when used for displacement and bump maps. The secondary paste mode processes the image as it pastes, to avoid these stepping artefacts.

Pasting works across the viewport, where images arrive as renderable planes with materials automatically created and assigned; the geometry node and shader editors, with nodes placed at the mouse cursor; the compositor; and image editors directly. You can paste an image as an empty that orients to the 3D cursor for reference setup, paste into pre-configured particle systems to generate landscapes, and copy a compositor viewer node's output to paste back as a texture node.

Who is Power Paste best for?

Power Paste is best for blender artists who frequently move clipboard images into scenes for textures, reference images, or displacement and height maps.

How much does Power Paste cost?

Power Paste is completely free to download and use.

Key features

  • Two paste shortcuts: Ctrl+Alt+V for images with alpha, Ctrl+Shift+Alt+V for height and displacement compatibility
  • Height and displacement map pre-processing to avoid stepping artefacts from 8-bit images
  • Pastes into the viewport as renderable image planes with materials automatically created and assigned
  • Pastes as an empty that automatically orients to the 3D cursor for reference images
  • Pastes into the geometry node editor, shader editor, and compositor, with nodes placed at the mouse cursor
  • Pastes into pre-configured particle systems to generate landscapes
  • Copies a compositor viewer node's output and pastes it back as a texture node

Tags

#Blender#clipboard images#texture nodes#displacement maps#height maps#reference images#workflow

Frequently asked questions

Does Power Paste process height and displacement maps?

Power Paste includes a secondary paste mode triggered with Ctrl+Shift+Alt+V that both pastes the image and processes it for height and displacement use. Clipboard images and downloaded material packs are often 8-bit, and that limited dynamic range can produce visible steps between pixels when used for displacement and bump maps. The pre-processing step is built to avoid these stepping artefacts and produce smoother transitions. For a plain image with alpha, you use Ctrl+Alt+V instead.

Which Blender editors can Power Paste paste into?

Power Paste works across several Blender editors and creates the elements relevant to whichever one you paste into. You can paste into the viewport as renderable image planes with materials automatically created and assigned, into the geometry node and shader editors with nodes placed at the mouse cursor, into the compositor, and directly into image editors. It can also paste an image as an empty that automatically orients to the 3D cursor for reference setup, and into pre-configured particle systems to generate landscapes.

How do I install and use Power Paste?

Power Paste is documented by its developer, 3d illusions, with detailed installation and usage instructions available on the documentation tab of the product page. In use, the two core shortcuts are Ctrl+Alt+V for an image with alpha and Ctrl+Shift+Alt+V for height and displacement compatibility. Where the paste lands depends on which editor your mouse is over, and the addon creates the Blender elements relevant to that editor. A demo video is also available.

Is Power Paste free to use?

Power Paste is listed as free here. For current licensing terms and any usage rights, check the developer's page, since terms can change over time. The addon is made by 3d illusions, the same developer behind other Blender addons, and it ships with documentation covering installation and usage. If you want to confirm what's included before adding it to your workflow, the developer's page is the best source.

Alternatives to Power Paste

Also in Workflow for Blender.

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