3D Painting Software with layers similar to Forzas Car Designer?

Three65

Hello everyone,
     Can someone tell me if there is a 3D painting software out there that will allow you to do projection painting in layers so that you can see it on the model before committing the design to the UV's?  The best way I can explain what I am looking for is something that is similar to the design editor in the Forza game series that you use to design with.  You are able to see the shape on the model, scale it, rotate it, skew it...etc. You are also able to move the layers forward or backwards.  Then once you have your design the way you want it "flatten/merge" it into your UVs. I know you can projection paint with some programs but what I am really looking to do is to be able to copy a flat design say a race stripe, paste it into the painting software move it around on the model to find the best fit scale or rotate if I need to and save out the UVs.

battlecow

3D coat, Mudbox, Mari 

Three65

Thank you, I will look into 3D coat. I wasn't aware you could copy graphics from one program and paste them into 3D Coat then be able to move them around.

Three65

Anyone know if its possible to be able to preview this on the model and movie it around without having to paint it first, One thing about painting with projection is you have to have the camera correctly aiming at where you want to paint the image. What I am looking to do is be able to see the projection on the surface first. Be able to move it around rotate it and scale it then paint it on. Projection painting could still work it just seems like a lot of trial and error in adjusting the camera the painting then looking to see if I got the image where I wanted it. Where as if you could see the actual preview of the image on the model and move,scale,rotate it where you wanted it then paint it would work better.

Internet Friend

Perhaps look into decal projection in your modeling application. In Blender you could use a UV Project modifier where an Empty acts as the "projector" and you add your decal layers to the material of the target. Once it's set up you'd render to texture.

battlecow

Well you'll want to use MARI then , you can move the projected paint around before baking it.

2bytes

Maya has a projection node that you can move as you like,  I am sure Max does as well.  Works great for simple things like logo or stencils that you want to see in realtime on your model and bake aftwards,  but its not really a texturing solution.

PolyHertz

3D-Coat lets you change UVs at any time during the painting process. Keep in mind though that you may lose some quality doing this as it's essentially projection baking the paint from one copy of the mesh (pre-UV changes) to another (post-UV changes). From my experience the quality loss is rather insignificant so long as you don't change the UVs repeatedly, or rescale the UV island sizes too dramatically.

3D-Coat can also copy-paste paint from Photoshop right into a paint buffer (via Transform/Copy tool), but it doesn't respect transparency for this sort of operation.

Synaesthesia

It's worth noting that Quixel SUITE will be incorporating projection painting shortly, with no need to bake the paint unless you like the result.  

Three65

Awesome, thanks for all the replies guys. I am currently using 3DS max so I will have to do some research into seeing if max has something like Maya does. Mari is great but I am not sure if I am ready to throw down that kind of money on software for texturing yet for what I am doing. I have looked into Quixel and it looks amazing too I must say so it is for sure in the running. Do you have any kind of time frame when you will be incorporating this into your software? I love the thought of being able to use layers and move my designs around my model to see how they will look before I commit to baking them into my textures.