Texturing Across Seams, in photoshop or equivalent software.

jaker3278

Hi i have a quick question.  How do you texture across uv borders? i want the texture to flow from one to the other and around corners. The example i have is lining up camouflage on a military model. I want to be able to do it in photoshop. Iv seen that you can paint textures onto the 3d model in Mari, but this isnt quite what i wanted as i really need to do it in photoshop.

Thanks in advance.  

PolyHertz

You could set up two different sets of UVs with different seams, and then bake the map from one down to the other and blend them.

jaker3278

im not following you sorry. Take a diffuse map for example. i want to be able to paint across uv shells so that it lines up correctly, any ways to do this? 

Scruples

That's one of the main points of 3d texturing is being able to paint across seams, use the 3d painting feature in Photoshop, just import an .obj and your texture and have a go.

AtticusMars

I believe polyhertz was describing this: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/130217/completely_eliminate_texture_seams_.php

Its an old, old method. Personally these days I would use your modeling softwares 3d paint feature, I believe pretty much every package has it now (in Max it is called viewport canvas)

PolyHertz

Yep, Atticusmars is correct. The method is ancient, but before 3D painting software became common it was the most often used way to deal with seams. If you absolutely want to avoid painting in 3D it's still your best bet.

I have no idea why you'd want to avoid 3D Painting apps though, especially given that basically every 3D app has their own built in atp, and many of the rest are free (Mari, which you listed, is by faaaar the most expensive of the paid options).

musashidan

Doing this in PS in 2d would be a nightmare, particularly camo. As mentioned several times already, 3D painting is the way to go.

jaker3278

thanks for the advice everyone, The reason i said photoshop is that i want to photo texture the model, the 3d painting packages iv seen do just that let you paint. And the reason i said mari is because its the only one i have seen with 3d photo texturing. I have a limited knowledge of this area, if you could recommend a 3d photo texturing package that would be great. 

musashidan

All(or at least majority) the 3d painting tools can do it in one form or another, usually by way of stenciling through projection painting. Even Zbrush can do it through the Spotlight tool(and the PS ZApplink plugin)

Mari is a unique case as it uses a 2d 'projection plane' that stores information in a paint buffer that gets baked down.

Do you have access to a 3d painting package/toolset?

jaker3278

i have max, mudbox and zbrush. okay so i could project stencils and then finish it in  photoshop once i have lined the textures up ( Camo pattern for instance) 

musashidan

jaker3278 said:

i have max, mudbox and zbrush. okay so i could project stencils and then finish it in  photoshop once i have lined the textures up ( Camo pattern for instance) 

After all that you tell us you have 3 X 3d painting options....:) 

Yes, definitely. Once you have your camo painted seamlessly in, say, Mudbox, you can work away in PS knowing that the pattern is seamless. Just curious why you would choose to do all this in 2d in PS when you have a powerful 3d painting solution like MB at your disposal?

jaker3278

well i have never used any of them for painting, and hardly knew that they had the capability. I had the idea that i wanted to do phototextures and didnt know any work flow to get it seamless.  Okay i will use mudbox and then continue working on them in photoshop. cheers.