Low Poly texture painting directly onto model

purehilarity

I'm struggling with how to do this effectively. I want to paint alpha maps for example and I'm struggling with a good technique to do that. Currently I'm just painting the model black/white to use as the alpha later, but in Zbrush it's really hard to preview what I'm actually doing this way. Is there any more efficient program for this? Where I can get a more accurate feedback and not have to subdivide like Zbrush??  Also even at like 2 million polys I can end up with not very smooth textures doing them in Zbrush, not enough polys to get a really crisp line.

I have Substance Painter but the paint tools in that program feel really crappy too and it has no automask by topology features or anything that are the advantages in Zbrush. You can make an ID map but the workflow just seems bad in both of these programs to me.

Do most of you do it two dimensionally in photoshop?

Cheers

Steppenwolf

Do you have an example of what you're trying to do? I paint my alpha maps in Photoshop.

purehilarity

I just don't really understand how you get things to look right by painting them unwrapped and then sort of guessing where it will end up once it's on the model. I realize you can put the UV's on top, but even then it's really approximated and hard to guage. I'm trying to pating hair strands to match a cartoon character so it has to be really exact in placement or it will look off model. I've placed a plane there to paint the strand onto but just struggling with the disconnection in seeing what I'm painting in the way it will look in the end with transparency and all. 

musashidan

What's wrong with the paint tools in SP? If you have access to it then you should defo use that. 
You could even make a custom hair strand alpha brush.

cryrid

purehilarity said:

I just don't really understand how you get things to look right by painting them unwrapped and then sort of guessing where it will end up once it's on the model.  

It helps when you have other baked maps to work with, such as AO and color maps. 
Otherwise Photoshop can paint directly on 3d models, if you're comfortable with its 3d camera controls.
If not there is also projection painting, which both Photoshop and Zbrush can do. With projection painting you basically set up whatever view/angle of the model you want, and it will treat it as if it were a screenshot. You can then paint directly on top of that, flatten it down, and it will automatically project the result onto the model's UVs. Personally I always liked the Zbrush Projection Master + Zapplink-to-Photoshop combo for this. 

musashidan

cryrid said:

purehilarity said:

I just don't really understand how you get things to look right by painting them unwrapped and then sort of guessing where it will end up once it's on the model.  

It helps when you have other baked maps to work with, such as AO and color maps. 
Otherwise Photoshop can paint directly on 3d models, if you're comfortable with its 3d camera controls.
If not there is also projection painting, which both Photoshop and Zbrush can do. With projection painting you basically set up whatever view/angle of the model you want, and it will treat it as if it were a screenshot. You can then paint directly on top of that, flatten it down, and it will automatically project the result onto the model's UVs. Personally I always liked the Zbrush Projection Master + Zapplink-to-Photoshop combo for this. 

I think OP is looking for an alternative to ZB as having to sub D for poly painting doesn't suit.

slosh

Mudbox...

cryrid

musashidan said:

I think OP is looking for an alternative to ZB as having to sub D for poly painting doesn't suit.

The method I suggested does not require subdivisions or polypaint. It can be used on a basic cube in zbrush so long as it has UVs

Steppenwolf

purehilarity said:

I just don't really understand how you get things to look right by painting them unwrapped and then sort of guessing where it will end up once it's on the model. I realize you can put the UV's on top, but even then it's really approximated and hard to guage. I'm trying to pating hair strands to match a cartoon character so it has to be really exact in placement or it will look off model. I've placed a plane there to paint the strand onto but just struggling with the disconnection in seeing what I'm painting in the way it will look in the end with transparency and all. 

Can you show us your uv's and what you got so far? Two things would make it easier for you to work in 2D. Number one you can paint your texture (or that part of it) first before you model and unwrap. Number two rectify and straighten your uv strips so you have a good base to paint on that isn't all over the place with distortions and different angles.

Moosebish

If you take your model into zbrush and subdivide it with smooth turned off, you can polypaint it at an extremely high polycount. Once you're done, export it and bake it to your original low poly.

musashidan

cryrid said:

musashidan said:

I think OP is looking for an alternative to ZB as having to sub D for poly painting doesn't suit.

The method I suggested does not require subdivisions or polypaint. It can be used on a basic cube in zbrush so long as it has UVs

@cryrid Sorry mate, missed the projection master bit.