Professional Vertex Color Tools for Blender

Paint, bake, randomize, debug, and manage vertex color workflows directly inside Blender.

Octopus Vertex Color is a production-ready toolkit for game artists, environment artists, technical artists, and stylized asset creators who rely on vertex colors for masks, shaders, blending, variation, packed PBR data, baked lighting, and procedural effects.

Whether you're building assets for Unreal Engine, Unity, Godot, or a custom engine, Octopus Vertex Color helps you create and manage complex vertex color data faster, cleaner, and with fewer clicks.

Why Octopus Vertex Color?

Blender's Color Attributes system is powerful, but production workflows often involve repetitive setup, channel management, baking, debugging, and organization.

Octopus Vertex Color brings everything together into a single artist-friendly workflow.

Create, Paint, Bake, and Manage Vertex Colors

• Manage multiple color attributes

• Paint and edit RGBA channels independently

• Create reusable mask presets

• Sample and inspect vertex color values

• Bake textures into vertex colors

• Bake ambient occlusion

• Generate Substance Painter ID maps

• Add procedural variation

• Create directional gradients

• Bake simple lighting directly into vertex colors

All from a single, clean sidebar panel.

Key Features

Color Attribute Management

Quickly create and organize color attributes without digging through Blender menus.

Includes

• Create color attributes

• Duplicate color attributes

• Rename color attributes

• Delete color attributes

• Organize multiple color layers

• Automatically keep the active color set visible and render-active

Perfect for complex shader workflows that rely on multiple vertex color channels.

Fast Vertex Painting

Paint directly onto:

• Selected vertices

• Selected faces

• Entire meshes

• Multiple selected objects

Choose exactly which RGBA channels are affected so you can update mask data without overwriting existing information.

Gradient Generator

Generate directional gradients instantly.

Axis Presets

• +X

• -X

• +Y

• -Y

• +Z

• -Z

Perfect for:

• Height masks

• Material blending

• Terrain effects

• Stylized shading

• Procedural shader inputs

Advanced RGBA Channel Editing

Work directly with individual color channels.

Tools

• Fill White

• Fill Black

• Fill Grey

• Fill Alpha 0

• Fill Alpha 1

• Fill custom channel values

• Swap channels

• Invert channels

• Selective channel operations

Object Mode fill tools affect the entire selected mesh, preventing stale component selections from limiting the result.

Ideal for packed-mask workflows used in modern game engines.

Fill Presets

Save commonly used RGBA values as reusable presets.

Store Values For

• Metallic masks

• Roughness masks

• Wear masks

• Dirt masks

• Shader controls

• Custom material parameters

Production Features

• Named presets

• Partial-channel application

• Non-destructive updates

• JSON export

• JSON import

• Team sharing support

Unchecked channels remain untouched, allowing presets to update only the data you want.

Perfect for studio-approved mask values and standardized shader parameters.

Debug Tools

Inspect vertex color data with precision.

Includes

• Sample Vertex Color Value

• High-precision RGBA display

• Active object display

• Active color set display

• Sampled element count

Use it to:

• Verify packed mask values

• Validate exported data

• Confirm preset results

• Inspect exact stored float values

Color Favorites

Save favorite colors and reuse them across Blender sessions.

Build personal color libraries and quickly access commonly used palette values.

Randomization Tools

Add instant variation to assets and environments.

Randomize By

• Object

• Mesh element

• Connected component

• UV island

Perfect for:

• Modular environments

• Foliage

• Props

• Stylized assets

• Procedural workflows

Baking Tools

Texture Bake

Bake texture information directly into vertex colors using the active UV map.

Supported Sources

• Base Color texture

• Active Image Texture node

• First Image Texture found in the material

Sampling Modes

• Bilinear

• Nearest

Optional

• Texture Alpha → Vertex Color Alpha

Perfect for:

• Low-poly assets

• Mobile games

• Stylized workflows

• Texture-free assets

• Lightweight shaders

Ambient Occlusion Bake

Bake ray-traced ambient occlusion directly into vertex colors.

Output Options

• RGB

• Single channel

• Multiple selected channels

Ideal for lightweight rendering and texture-free workflows.

ID Map Bake

Generate clean, unique, non-repeating ID colors for:

• Objects

• Connected mesh components

• UV islands

Perfect for:

• Substance Painter

• Material assignment workflows

• Asset texturing pipelines

Lighting Bake

Bake simple scene lighting directly into vertex colors.

Modes

• Ambient + Direct

• Direct Only

• Ambient Only

Perfect for:

• Stylized games

• Mobile assets

• Vertex-lit environments

• Lightweight rendering

• Fast look development

Workflow Helpers

View Presets

Quickly switch viewport modes.

Presets

• Vertex Color Preview

• Material Preview

• Flat Lighting

• Studio Lighting

Color Set Presets

Save and load color attribute configurations for consistent project setups and faster iteration.

Example Workflows

• Bake textures into vertex color data

• Pack multiple shader masks into RGBA channels

• Reuse approved metallic and roughness values

• Share presets across a team using JSON

• Inspect exact RGBA values for debugging

• Generate Substance Painter ID maps

• Add variation to modular environment assets

• Bake ambient occlusion without textures

• Create directional blend masks

• Build lightweight stylized lighting

• Manage multiple color attributes across large projects

Who Is This For?

Octopus Vertex Color is built for:

• Game Artists

• Environment Artists

• Technical Artists

• Prop Artists

• Stylized Asset Creators

• Unreal Engine Artists

• Unity Artists

• Godot Artists

• Custom Engine Pipelines

Compatibility

• Blender 5.0+

• Tested with Blender 5.1

• Uses Blender Color Attributes

• No external dependencies

Installation

1. Download the ZIP file.

2. Open Edit → Preferences → Add-ons.

3. Click Install from Disk.

4. Select the downloaded ZIP file.

5. Enable Octopus Vertex Color.

After installation, open the Octopus Vtx tab in the 3D Viewport sidebar.

Included

• Octopus Vertex Color Add-on

• Color Attribute Management Tools

• Vertex Painting Tools

• Gradient Generator

• RGBA Channel Editing

• Fill Preset System

• JSON Import / Export

• Debug Sampling Tools

• Color Favorites

• Randomization Tools

• Texture Baking

• Ambient Occlusion Baking

• ID Map Baking

• Lighting Baking

• View Presets

• Color Set Presets

• Built-in Octopus Icon Set

Changelog

Version 1.4.0

• Added  non-destructive shader-based Channel Preview for viewing R, G, B, or A vertex color channels as grayscale

Version 1.3.1

• Fixed selected face painting on Corner color attributes so face fills stay sharp and do not bleed into adjacent faces

Version 1.3.0

• Added Debug panel with Sample Vertex Color Value

• Added high-precision RGBA display

• Added object, color set, and sampled element reporting

• Fixed Fill Preset JSON export precision

• Fixed Object Mode Fill operations to affect entire meshes

Version 1.2.1

• Fixed render color attribute synchronization

• Improved viewport and render consistency with multiple color attributes

Version 1.2.0

• Added Fill Presets

• Added reusable RGBA preset rows

• Added partial-channel preset application

• Added JSON import/export

• Improved Object Mode fill behavior

Version 1.1.0

• Added Texture Bake

• Added Base Color texture sampling

• Added Active Image texture sampling

• Added First Image texture sampling

• Added Bilinear and Nearest sampling modes

• Added optional alpha baking