PIC2LAYERS GUIDES
What Is Filament Painting?
A beginner’s explanation of layered color prints, filament changes and what a preview can tell you.
The idea behind filament painting
A filament painting is a flat or shallow 3D print that uses stacked filament layers to form an image. Rather than painting the finished plastic, you change the filament as the print rises. Some areas of lower colors remain visible while upper colors cover other areas. The result depends on the geometry, the layer order and the way light passes through the specific material.
Color order and layer height
The bottom color forms a foundation. Later colors cover selected regions, so a band placed near the top can hide details underneath. A dark-to-light sequence is one starting point, but it is not a universal rule. A translucent white filament, for instance, can behave differently from an opaque one. Thinner print layers create more steps for transitions but take longer to print. In Pic2Layers you choose the print layer height and thickness per color band; the geometry is rounded to complete print layers.
How this differs from ordinary multicolor printing
Many multicolor models distribute different colors across a single layer. A filament painting uses changes by height in a shallow image. That can be printed with an automatic material system or, for suitable designs, with manual filament swaps. You still need to check your slicer’s preview and material mapping. Pic2Layers exports 3MF parts by color or STL plus a change guide; it does not promise identical behavior in every slicer.
Choosing an image and testing materials
An image with a clear subject and strong contrast is easier to translate than one dominated by tiny gradients. A small test print can tell you whether the selected filaments obscure too much of the layer below. The solid-color preview is useful for inspecting geometry and order, but it is not a calibrated transmission-distance simulation. For the steps in the app, see how Pic2Layers works. For image selection, read the image-to-print guide.