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Painting seams across multiple materials?

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Hazardous polycounter lvl 12
Hey Guys,

Finally breaking out of strictly using photoshop for painting textures and going to try out some 3d painting for an upcoming challenge.

Did a quick search for painting out seams across multiple materials, but didnt come up with anything. Was wondering what approach other people are using to combat this.

For clarity sake, lets say I have 2 meshes an arm and hand, with the seam running around the wrist. Also, both mesh chunks have their own seperate set of texture maps.

Do any of the 3d paint programs allow me to load up both materials, view both of them simultaneously, create a new layer, paint across the seams and export this new layer out to BOTH corresponding psd's or tga's

Anyone else got some workarounds to achieve the same goal?

Cheers!

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  • b1ll
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    b1ll polycounter lvl 18
    uh, yeh, bodypaint

    Hit me up later , ill tell u all aboot it
  • Hazardous
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    Hazardous polycounter lvl 12
    As soon as I get home from work! You better be online! Thanks dude!
  • ghib
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    If you hate using bodypaint (terrible viewport nav?) 3DCoat can also do this.
  • Bal
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    Bal polycounter lvl 17
    Yeah I use 3D-Coat for all my seam fixing (with the projection-painting via photoshop sometimes), but Bodypaint does it fine as well.
    What I like in 3D-Coat, is that I can then just hit ctrl-p to send all my paint layers to photoshop, and just drag-drop the fixed seam layer on my original PSD, no need to bother saving and opening files.
  • warby
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    warby polycounter lvl 18
    if this model is for "realtime" use id highly dicourage you to use 2 different materials becasue it will splt your model into 2 or more drawcalls and if this character casts or recieved dynamic shadowso r appears in reflections/refractions the negative performance impact will multiply significantly !
    you rather should just make a larger texture atlast. the only reason why should ever have more than one material on your model is becasue there is distinctly different behaviours of different parts thatcant be achieved with the same material for example:

    a waterfall model = opaque rocks + transparent refracting scrolling water

    a sweetoooth like clown = opaque body + animated additive fire hair

    but this does not seam to apply to your example of a "hand to arm"-transition that stuff should definitly be on the same texture/material/shader and in that case just use the known seam removable procedures.
  • Mark Dygert
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    I haven't tried it across multiple maps but it might. It works great across UV seams.

    3dsmax 2011 > Tools > Viewport Canvas
    [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shEl4iMebxM[/ame]
  • Hazardous
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    Hazardous polycounter lvl 12
    Thanks guys!

    Total n00b at 3d painting programmes here!

    Ghib, Bal: Thanks man I will give this a shot and see which one I prefer!

    Warby: Well aware of the drawcall issues ;) But that cant be helped I'm afraid, try suggesting those kinds of things to a client whose spent the last 18 months working on an entire game pipeline built around multiple draw call characters and see how it goes down with the engineering team :) I'm not here to change their pipeline, just fix the nasty seams across multiple materials.

    Mark: Damn, thanks man I will try that one too!!
  • Firebert
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    Firebert polycounter lvl 15
    EGADS! Mark, i love you! I had no idea... must leave work... must go try! *drool*

    Sorry Haz... no help from me other than render texture projection, save file, paint seam fix, save, reproject, Convert to File Texture out of Maya... but I know you dislike Maya like I dislike vegemite... sooooooooooo... yeah, no help... sorriez
  • Mark Dygert
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    There are three main drawbacks to viewport canvas which I'm hopeful they'll fix in 2012.

    1) It doesn't play nice with psd's.
    Layer folders, adjustment layers get converted over to standard layers. Which kind of sucks when you reopen the psd in photoshop. I normally viewport paint (on a copy of my model) with another "dummy" psd and drag those layers over to my actual photoshop psd if I'm in and out of photoshop. Photoshop doesn't realize the psd has been updated so you have to reopen the file, another drawback to working in and out of photoshop.

    2) It won't display 100% self illuminated materials.

    It will always default to a shaded standard material while painting then switch back when you exit painting mode.

    3) It lacks an eye dropper.

    But you can leave the color picker open.

    But those things really aren't deal breakers for me. I've textured a few things 100% inside of max using nothing but viewport canvas.
    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2336353/AirCompressor04c.jpg
    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2336353/CossackChipper01.jpg
    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2336353/SovietStumpThumper.jpg
    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2336353/LighthouseWIP.jpg
    Granted they where props and models for TF2 which isn't exactly all that diffuse demanding, and I still suck at painting diffuse maps, hence the job as a tech animator, but I was surprised at what I could get done and how fast it went. I dream of people with more talent taking it farther than I can.

    Paint bucket fill on UV shells was great.
    2D paint mode while seeing it in realtime on the model, was awesome.
    Clone stamp, alpha brushes, dodge burn and sharpen are all great tools.

    But what I like most of all, is how easy it is to manipulate the brush.
    Brush Opacity: Alt + Shift + LMB drag
    Brush Radius: Ctrl + Shift + LMB drag
    Brush Hard/Softness: Ctrl + Alt + LMB drag

    BTW if you didn't know, these are standard to most brush based tools in 3dsmax, such as the push, pull, relax brushes in Graphite. The Weight painting brush in the Skin Modifier ect...
  • Hazardous
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    Hazardous polycounter lvl 12
    Firebert: Vegemite is the breakfast of kings dude!

    Mark: *bows down* Dude mad props for that info - going to give this a shot!! it may serve my needs perfectly without any extra software at all!
  • oglu
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    oglu polycount lvl 666
    load two texures into mud and paint them...
    you have to name them correct to the uv space they are in...
    texturename_u1_v1.tga
    texturename_u2_v1.tga

    im painting here three different textures... this is also working with layer...
    you are able to hide them (blue) to prevent them from painting...
    [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ro_Ruhu-SGs[/ame]
  • oXYnary
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    oXYnary polycounter lvl 18
    There are three main drawbacks to viewport canvas which I'm hopeful they'll fix in 2012.

    I'm in and out of photoshop. Photoshop doesn't realize the psd has been updated so you have to reopen the file, another drawback to working in and out of photoshop.

    Cant you just hit revert file? (f12 I believe)
  • Firebert
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    Firebert polycounter lvl 15
    1) It doesn't play nice with psd's.
    Layer folders, adjustment layers get converted over to standard layers. Which kind of sucks when you reopen the psd in photoshop. I normally viewport paint (on a copy of my model) with another "dummy" psd and drag those layers over to my actual photoshop psd if I'm in and out of photoshop. Photoshop doesn't realize the psd has been updated so you have to reopen the file, another drawback to working in and out of photoshop

    I'm assuming you are referring to levels, hue/sat, curves, etc. as adjustment layers? Sucks it doesn't update though. Similar drawbacks from working out of Mud. Has a strict number/naming order that only allows you to create layers within Mud. Does viewport canvas save out individual texture files for each individual layer like Mud does?
  • Mark Dygert
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    Hey oXY, that works really well, thanks for the tip I didn't know that was hot key'ed.

    Firebert, yep those are the layers I'm talking about, I think I ran into some wonkiness with layer masks also. And it does let you paint on separate maps for diffuse, spec, bump ect. I painted the 2D bump for the lighthouse in viewport canvas. It displays the map your painting on while you're painting it, so its not quite like Mud where you see the sum of all the parts at the same time. I mostly use it for blocking in diffuse work and fixing seams. I haven't used it on too many assets for other things but I imagine its going to be helpful.
  • stop619
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    stop619 polycounter lvl 8
    Once the PSD issues are workout, I really see VP canvas as a great tool. Painting edge wear/scratches is where it has proved really useful, especially where UV shells are split for smoothing groups and not necessarily near each other in the unwrap.

    There are some great PS scratch brushes out there and I'm trying to nail down getting VP canvas brushes to act the same way with the randomize settings. I've done a tutorial on getting PS brushes shapes into VP canvas () but getting randomize setting down hasn’t worked that great for me. The good thing is once you get setting dialed in the way you like, you can save as preset and recall at will...and distribute to the community.
  • Mark Dygert
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    Hey stop619, that's pretty cool! I haven't messed around with the brushes that much mostly because I thought they sucked worse than they do. Thanks for the video thats helpful.

    Do you know how to reset the brush to the default round brush? Maybe I'm missing something simple but after loading in some brushes and switching to some presets it seems to be stuck. Resetting all the settings seem to work but that seems kind of extreme.
  • stop619
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    stop619 polycounter lvl 8
    Mark: Thanks, glad you found the video useful. If you want to revert to the basic brush, go to the Brush Images rollout and uncheck 'use' for the color brush. Remember to recheck when you switch to a custom brush.
  • frankrs
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    you can do it in ZBrush as well, you just have to hide out/isolate the sections that have certain the maps and then generate them separately.
  • Bigjohn
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    Bigjohn polycounter lvl 11
    Do you guys know if it's possible to do any kind of projection painting with the 2011 viewport canvas? Either in max ala Bodypaint, or the screenshot-into-photoshop method would be awesome.
  • cptSwing
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    cptSwing polycounter lvl 11
    Woohoo thread revival!

    ...

    Paint bucket fill on UV shells was great.

    ...

    Maybe i'm being my usual retarded self, but please do tell me where i can find the UV shell fill. I'm already loving the Element fill for quickly churning out masks, but a UV shell fill would kick ass :)
  • Mark Dygert
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    I don't have max open right now, but open up the 2D view and try paint bucket fill there.
  • cptSwing
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    cptSwing polycounter lvl 11
    huh, it just fills the complete texture in 2D View here (2012)

    i've added a comment in the appropriate autodesk suggestion thread, maybe you guys can spare a vote or two (hey, it's flagged as "under consideration" already!)

    EDIT: http://3dsmaxfeedback.autodesk.com/forums/80695-publicgeneralfeaturerequests/suggestions/1491185-viewport-canvas-bodypaint-replacement?ref=title
  • Mark Dygert
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    Did a few tests and if I had a lot of padding between the UV shells it the bucket needed to be on a layer that had each shell filled with a solid color. Which is something I do when setting up a new material, I render a template and output wires and solid layers.

    So yea voted for it!

    Also, it would be awesome if viewport canvas would display normal maps when painting on the diffuse layer. I have to rip a channel out of the normal map and use it as a barely visible layer in the diffuse PSD just to get a guide... lame.
  • Froyok
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    Froyok greentooth
    I'm the only one which use directly the 3D painting mode inside Photoshop for fixing my UV seams ?

    AVnaw.jpg
  • cptSwing
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    cptSwing polycounter lvl 11
    Did a few tests and if I had a lot of padding between the UV shells it the bucket needed to be on a layer that had each shell filled with a solid color. Which is something I do when setting up a new material, I render a template and output wires and solid layers.

    So yea voted for it!

    Also, it would be awesome if viewport canvas would display normal maps when painting on the diffuse layer. I have to rip a channel out of the normal map and use it as a barely visible layer in the diffuse PSD just to get a guide... lame.


    ahh, i didn't try it with an imported mask. but then i can just as well do it in the "real" 2D view called Photoshop :)

    it'd be great if they could beef up VC a little. it needs just a push or two to be fairly competitive. And i agree, better realtime-viz would be one of those steps (see also the relevant autodesk suggestion thing: http://3dsmaxfeedback.autodesk.com/forums/80695-publicgeneralfeaturerequests/suggestions/2381502-viewport-canvas-enable-normal-bump-map?ref=title
  • xvampire
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    xvampire polycounter lvl 14
    I tried 3d pixel paint in UDK :-3 but im not sure how visible it is for multiple materials

    http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y90/arriev/udkpaint.jpg
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