Retargeting in Blender 2.66?

melviso

Currently learning Blender and loving it.I don't know if the latest Blender has retargeting.
I noticed an addon from this vid:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VhbSrau-0c&feature=player_embedded"]Blender Motion Capture Addon - Tutorial 1 - Basic Retargeting - YouTube[/ame]
But from the comments section,it seems the addon has some issues?From the date of the video,I am wondering if this addon works with the newer versions of Blender or the newer versions of Blender already has this feature?

melviso

Seems like I am getting a little frustrated with Blender due to the lack of documentation.Learning a whole new app takes a lot of time and energy.I really don't have the time especially since Blender's documentation hasn't been updated for like 2 yrs or so if I am correct.

Will still try to learn it but will be going back to expensive Maya for now.
Btw,I have noticed whenever I save a maya file in a different directory,the textures file associated with the maya file gets saved over the place.Isn't there a way to keep the texture files in one folder?

ivanzu

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual

xrg

I've never used that add-on, so I don't know. The author of that video is the developer of it, so you could message him about it. He'd be the one that knows the most about it.

melviso

Thanks guys.Downloaded 2.4 pdf documentation of Blender.Some things are outdated but its better than nothing.I have been working on this-

I am beyond surprised at its painting capabilities and tools.Way better than Mudbox.Details on his shirt and troussers are bump maps painted directly in blender.Still needs more work especially the hands,will smothen out the stripes on his shirt.Should have painted at 2048 res.Can't wait to see what other great tools Blender has.The realtime glsl materials are great in Blender as well.
Btw,is there a way to hide selected faces in texture mode while painting?I noticed u can hide selected faces in solid mode with masking face selection turned on and pressing the H key but switching to texture mode brings the hidden faces back.

Dataday

melviso wrote: »

Thanks guys.Downloaded 2.4 pdf documentation of Blender.Some things are outdated but its better than nothing.I have been working on this-

I am beyond surprised at its painting capabilities and tools.Way better than Mudbox.Details on his shirt and troussers are bump maps painted directly in blender.Still needs more work especially the hands,will smothen out the stripes on his shirt.Should have painted at 2048 res.Can't wait to see what other great tools Blender has.The realtime glsl materials are great in Blender as well.
Btw,is there a way to hide selected faces in texture mode while painting?I noticed u can hide selected faces in solid mode with masking face selection turned on and pressing the H key but switching to texture mode brings the hidden faces back.

You are joking right? Look, I am a big fan of Blender, and as much as I use autodesk products...I'm not a fan of autodesk... so when I say that there is no way in hell that Blender's painting capabilities are better than Mudbox, I am not speaking from any AD bias.

That said, Mudbox actually has some of the best painting capabilities out of all the major 3d apps, and Autodesk did that intentionally. It cannot compete equally with the sculpting, so it finds its niche with strong painting capabilities. In fact some studios get it just for that aspect alone.

Blender's painting is actually pretty darned bad, and why its the next target for improvement for the 2.67 update.

xrg

melviso wrote: »

Btw,is there a way to hide selected faces in texture mode while painting?I noticed u can hide selected faces in solid mode with masking face selection turned on and pressing the H key but switching to texture mode brings the hidden faces back.

The easiest way is probably just hitting alt+b and dragging out a selection (alt+b again will clear it).

Otherwise you can hide them with the masking option:

Click this button to turn on masking:


Every face will be selected by default so hit a to deselect:


Hit C for circle select, and select the faces you want to hide. MMB deselects, hit Esc or Enter when you have everything selected that you want:


Hit h key to hide the faces:


Since you're in mask mode, you'll have to reselect the other faces in order to paint on them. Simply just hit a to select all. If you want the hidden faces back, just hit alt+h.

melviso

@xrg
Thanks.I tried what u posted and it seems it only works in multitexture mode.The problem is I am using glsl render mode.If u change ur render to glsl mode,u can't select or hide faces with the masking,and u need the glsl render mode to see the bump maps u are painting.

@Dataday
Nope.I am not joking.I prefer Blender's painting tools to mudbox.Just added this detail to my clothing while painting bump maps in Blender-

Very clean and precise.Just think of how long its gonna take u to sculpt all that in zbrush.I love how intuitive u can paint detail directly.I can bet u can't paint bump maps like this in mudbox.

Dataday

So all you are doing is bump map painting then? Lets assume you just stop at painting bump maps... in Mudbox you create a bump map layer (far easier than setting up a texture to paint on in Blender) and paint away, getting sharp or blurry details obviously depends on your brush. Simple as that. In Zbrush, the same can be done as well and the brush system they have is also top notch. Blender? Not so much. Again, I love Blender and use it from time to time, but the texture painting is not one of its strong points...not yet.

If you are enjoying using it though, go for it...I just want to point out that it is a bit of a stretch to say is better than mudbox at this point and time.

melviso

Finished painting bump maps since.





Painting color maps next.

@Dataday
Nope,will be painting all my textures in Blender.U can create layers exactly the same way in Blender.There is an addon in the user preferences window in Blender called Paint:Texture Paint Layer Manager.If activated,u get a layer section in the properties window when u hit N.Here u can create color,bump,specular,specular color,specular hardness,alpha,translucency,emit,diffuse,and ambient map layers quickly and paint them.Also a save paint layers feature that saves all the textures to the directory u saved them to.
I have tried painting bump maps in mudbox,its a little problemactic especially blending bump values to get smoothness.Some faces don't paint.U have to smooth ur mesh to paint certain areas.

I know u can flatten uvs to paint in mudbox but in Blender u can divide ur Blender interface into two windows.Have ur 3d view of ur model with texture paint mode on one window and the UV image editor in the other.The UV image editor has a paint mode that enables u to paint on ur flat images while the changes updates in 3d view and vice versa.That eliminates ur need to use two screens with photoshop on one and maya/3dmax on the other and u don't need to save to see the results.That alone blows mudbox out of the water.I was actually surprised when I found out.

One thing I am digging right now is the fact that I do not need to export my meshes in order to paint.It eliminates the numerous problems u get when exporting to mudbox or exporting.
As for the brushes in Blender,I struggled with it at first but then realised the initial settings are wrong at least for me.Play around with the settings until u find one that works for u.As for painting with alpha,there's a work around to it.If they are adding more stuff in this area.Thats just awesome.