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I was thinking about this as I made a stool model yesterday, since I was told once upon a time always to UV map as you go along. And that's what I've done. And yes there is the temptation to not revisit something that's already mapped, especially if you've spent ages unpicking the knots the mapper tends to throw at you.
So, while there were a couple of things that I did map because I wanted to duplicate them (the feet and the support bars for the foot rail), by and large I didn't. And it was quite refreshing as a result.
Of course, today I have to map it . . .
On a different but related note, it's interesting to see how my workflow has changed as a result of adding Substance Painter into the pipeline. Now I don't assign shading domains until after painting, because of the way Painter creates separate map sets for each domain. When you've laid out everything on one UV, it's a pain to recombine them into a single texture sheet. (It's different when I've mapped things to multiple texture sheets though, since I do want the domains to separate them) Also I'll export an "exploded" version of the model to make things easier. For example with the stool, I'll move the seat assembly apart from the base assembly, because the final prop will be rigged to slide up and down. and I don't want an AO shadow to appear halway along the shaft. Windows and glass panels sometimes need extra handling for the AO map.
And just as some operations break the UV, some (generaly I think, the same) operations don't respect shading domains.
Tell me is that also true for Carrara... does it's 3D Paint create multiple texture sheets? Thanks TangoAlpha for pointing out AO shadows... I've got something else to look forward to. :) Hmm... would you just have an up/down morph for the top or would you have another or the same to to affect the shaft. I can understand why you would remove the top.
I don't know about Carrara's internal 3d Paint.
What I'll do is split the top into a separate vertex object and parent it with a slider constraint. I'll also parent the casters (not shown above, because they were already made for another model - don't keep reinventing the wheel!
In DS I'll import the whole thing as a single obj and rig it. This is my first pass at the UV map:
In Carrara's 3D Paint (which is pretty darned cool - but takes some practice*) we select which domain (otherwise known as Material Zone - both are synonymous) we'll be painting on - then we select which shader channel we're painting into.
Once we get to this point (couple simple clicks) we're presented with a new stack with only one source. We click a button to "Add Layer" to paint on - then we paint or stamp down image maps in layers whose opacity can each be controlled separately, much like we'd do in PhotoShop, PaintShop Pro, or similar.
Because of this whole layering structure, I advice that, when asked, choose PSD file as the saving extension - because other types don't support layers, and Carrara is fine with psd. This makes it so we can save, close, reopen, and continue working.
Here are your painting tools (sorry for the old hand-written on image)
If you look at her Right Lower Eyelid, you'll see my Brush icon, which shows the size and the direction, which updates nicely as we paint.
Here are some standard Brushes to choose from. Notice in the dialog box that I also have GKDantas' Ron's Scratches and Ringo's Brushes as well
...and we can Displace Easily - this example being (possibly) exaggerated
Carrara ships with some nice brushes, so I hope nobody feels that they might have to wait on getting some new brushes before trying this feature.
The other sets doo add a lot of cool new brushes... 'tis true! Carrara's native brushes are really nice though.
The Gars Man has found a bit of a Bummer when he came back into his UV Layout session.
Turns out it's not so bad. We just need to know how to deal with it - as he demonstrates in this four minute short update ;)
3DPaint looks kewl... I'll have to find some time to play with it... get my bearings and all. :)
Absolutely.
I wanted to show where the Tools are (the hand-drawn crappy image) because it's really cool to be able to use a Line tool - set the width and color and click down the beginning and ending. Really cool stuff.
Just know that we really need good (not just decent - almost good) UV Mapping for this to be a workable option - and it can still be a little hit-and-miss - depending upon what we're wanting to do with it.
The more we practice, the better it gets. But it's still not a perfect solution. It's no Substance Painter, that's for sure.
PhilW's advice in Advanced Carrara Techniques is really good when it comes to this - where we can use this tool as a great means to prep for editing maps in an image editor. He goes in a lot more depth, so I hope he doesn't mind the tiny spoiler.
I also have some fun going the other way as well - using this tool to finish off what I've started on my 2D maps. Like the example image above, getting that dark eyeliner can be tricky using just the maps. In here we can get the brush right inside the lids.
Painting special bumps, highlights, other individual defining features... it's really neat.
I'm really glad that, after watching Phil's tutorials, I decided to stop ignoring this tool. It's a lot more fun than I had origianlly thought. Another topic came up about Displacement Brush modeling. While we don't change polygon count on our surfaces in Carrara, we can alter the Sub-D level to add higher resolution to the mesh when we're painting displacement in the model room tools (even in the Assemble Room) - whereas we can also paint displacement using the 3D Paint tool, then using the Displacement tab in the shader to dtermine the resolution of displacement.
It's really nice that Carrara has both! Displacement on the Mesh level and Displacement on the Shader level - so we can actually use either or both!
I finally took the offer which is even better now. I also paid via PayPal in hopes that I can get the discount. I was wondering how it worked out with you getting a refund for the diff... did you get it OK?
Garstor has added more tutorials to his UV Layout series and has created a nice playlist to keep them in good order:
Using Headus UV Layout
If you like his stuff, please consider subscribing, maybe even dropping him a comment to show some support. He's doing a really great job and putting a lot of time and effort into making these things good. He's already got me totally sold on the software if I ever get that heavy into UV Editing. Bravo Gars Man!!!
For our new Silo owners, here's what looks like a pretty cool UV Unwrapping tutorial for Silo
She has more Silo tutorials on her channel and, from a glance, it looks like Jessica is one heckuvan artist!
Thanks Dart... I'll have to check it out along with others that are mentioned by Nevercenter. Had to treat myself to Silo... always nice having an extra program in my toolbox.
Just finished Carrara Modeling Tutorials - by mmoir which shows UVmapping in Carrara along with modeling, shading and scene setup for each project.
Another good place to find out about UVmapping/UnWrapping in Carrara is No one asked me - Diomede posts screenshots on whatever by diomede starting Here.
Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year! .... to you and Rosie.
You Too!!!
Yeah... I want to grab Silo too... when I can. One day, I suppose
Usually I make my UV unwrapping in the same program where I model, in Blender 3d. It’s free and powerful software.
But the model, that I finished yesterday, was completely done with Carrara: from scratch to UV mapping and texturing. I am not so familiar with Carrara as with Blender, for comparison, and it was kind of challenge. Today I uploaded a video with the process of modeling chair in Carrara:
Hi Dart :)
there's an offer on the silo site ,. code "merrysilo" ... 40 $
Vyusur :) Nice model and tut .
3DAGE, thank you very much!
Hi - any info on Silo? Is that better / faster / different from options available in Carrara?
Can you bring a DAZ model in, play with it, and bring back into Carrara without losing functionality? or would this be mostly for original models we create?
Can geometry shift be saved as morphs or is this just for setting the original geometry?
If it's a useful tool would certainly consider picking up fro $40!
Thanks for any additional info you can share.
Vyusur, I'm blown away. :)
Must watch again... I'm still on that learning curve which you certainly seem to have no problem with. Won't be able to resist linking the vid to my modeling thread.
Mosk, While I can't answer all those questions... $40 is quite a bargain for a good modeler which I do know that Silo is.
Certainly a good price but doubt I'll have time to play with it and test it before flash sale runs out - so hoping someone with some experience can answer questions.
If UV Mapping / unwrapping is much better and can make round trip from Carrara to Silo and back, that would be worth a lot as well.
May try to download and do quick test but would love feedback from any current users.
Thank you so much, wgdjohn, for watching and for the comment! I am glad, that you like it!
I can post my link to the modeling thread too.
I’ve found this post by Erez Zukerman about Silo
http://www.pcworld.com/article/259590/silo_is_a_no_nonsense_3d_modeler.html
Yeah - thanks - I saw that too (after posting my initial question) - but still not clear on whether or not this would be useful in the workflow - or if Carrara's pro modeling features allow for pretty much the same. I've always struggled with UV in Carrara - though want to try again having seen a recent video that made things seem a bit simpler.
Vyusur, Saw your post and thank you very much.
Mosk, FifthElement uses Silo and one of his models was loaded into Carrara and morphs were added... it could have been fully rigged also.
No. It's a dedicated modeler, and that's what (they claim) makes it so great. It's not for rendering or texturing... just modeling - which includes UV Unwrapping.
Absolutely!!!
Saw that. Santa's tapped out :(
HI Mosk :)
UV's are contained in the model,. so if you saved out an OBJ,. (or any other 3d format) and opened that in any 3D program,. it would have the uv's.
there should be no problems transfering models and / or UV's to Carrara from Silo.
Silo looks like it has "live update" on uv unwrapping, there's a few tutorial videos on the site and youtube,. looks like you can pull the mesh around the uv layout and it auto updates,. some nice modelling features too,. like,.. snap to surface.
hope it helps :)
Unfortunately, that is not the case, I mentioned this plenty of times, ocassionaly Carrara reads UVs from Silo wrong (few stray vertices, for no apparent reason at all), while Blender, Vue, Substance Painter and Lightwave import the same mesh just fine
Wow. That's just plain odd, isn't it? wt?
OBJ importer in Carrara is most likely a very old code, so I do not find it odd, I had problems with OBJ files from other software as well, sometimes I just rearange islands in Silo's UV space and Cararra gets it right