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Happy Halloween.
My month of tutorials in Maine is over. Checked out of the hotel. Will be driving to DC for the Washington Nationals World Series Victory parade.
#Nattitude.
May be a week or so before I am settled somewhere again.
@Diomede, It's great seeing what you've been up to of late. I actually need to go back through October and read all of the thoughts and experiences you've posted regarding those tutorials. I really like that you're sharing these. At first I thought I was getting close, then realize I was reading your posts from October of 2018. I think you've improved on your grasp of lighting and shaders since then. I think it would be wonderful if you could share more tutorial experiences. Have a pleasant trip!
Thank you, Wanderer, for stopping in. Appreciate the comments. Can feel sort of lonely in my thread sometimes.
After my stay in Maine, I'm making my way to Texas. Stopped in DC to see friends and celebrate the Nats win. Now I'm in South Carolina eating lunch, and expect to make it to Alabama tonight.
When I get settled again, I am going to order my new computer. When I get all set up I hope to start another "month of..." series of posts. It may not have meant much to the rest of the forums, but it really helped me to commit to making daily progress. The next series of "month of..." should focus on USING all this software that I've been trying to learn.
Great to see you reactivate your own thread. Stay motivated. I'll be checking in to see what you are up to even if I don't comment every time.
Life on the road is getting tiresome. Making sure to spend at least an hour each day on something 3D related. Last couple of days I've put together some assets for a Bryce scene, of which I am a total beginner when it comes to the materials lab and render options. I modeled a craps table and die, which I am offering as freebies in my freebie thread. In Daz Studio format, but easy to get to Bryce (the bridge) or Carrara (just copy to content folder and load like a Studio prop). Hoping to see somene throw th dice in Carrara using native physics, or in Daz Studio uing DForce with adjusted settings.
Started on a freebie outfit for Vyusur's Leon character. Experimenting with workflow from October tutorials. Making quick sample mesh using box modeling, then exporting to 3DCoat for detail, retopology, normal map creation, and UVMapping. Here is the sample low resolution mesh in my box modeler.
Following with interest!
Looks great! I'd love to see what you are doing in 3D coat.
Thank you for stopping in, xmasrose. I've run into a minor obstacle in 3D Coat. I've managed to get the pants mesh to 3D Coat, and started the retopology process. Unfortunately, I am missing a simple step. I think what you are supposed to do is first paint the density areas, then paint some edge flow strokes, then instruct 3D Coat to create the new topology.
I painted the density map to give more polygons around the joints of the thighs to the hip, and in the crotch.
I painted some desired edge flows in the same areas.
I clicked to create the retopo mesh but nothing seemd to happen. I'm missing something simple.
Fixed? No.
Really not sure why 3D Coat did not perform the retopology yesterday when I hit next. Restarted today, and double-checked my workflow. Does NOT seem to be OK. Here is a free youtube tutorial on the same subject.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69MgsoJNNhU
I am not getting the progress bar at all. Howver, there is an "FPS" number counter in the lower left of the interface. That number is changing like I would expect a progress bar to change. Is it just that my computer system sucks too bad for 3D Coat as well?
Aaargh.
Will be upgrading, but depressed until then. Substance Painter was giving me bad resource warnings also.
Aaargh.
1) 3D Coat ups and downs. I've been using it successfully to UVMap. I just have not gottentthe auto-retopology to work.
2) Project to make an outfit for the stand-alone Leon child figure. I've made some baseline low-res meshes for the outfit. I had hoped to use 3D Coat to add more detail, do retopology, and then create normal maps. No luck while my computer resources suck. But here is the baseline outfit.
Looks good!
Years ago I tried the autoretopo in the light version of 3D coat. It worked the first time but later I could not get it to do anything. RL got in my way and I never tried again. I am hoping you find the reason why.
Thanks for the info. Makes me wonder if my installed version is correct. I've been using it for UVMapping. I've tested other functions whle following some tutorials, but generally only once each.
More questions to take up in the 3D Coat help corner of the internet.
Tulipe, while I am waiting for a response in the 3D Coat forums, I did some tests. Although auto-retopology seems to be missing a step, I was still able to import a test mesh as a reference mesh and then start to manually do retopology. Makes me think that the problem for me is not some sort of hccup in activating the full program.
OK. Interesting.
I need to download the latest version of 3D coat. Still have 4.7 installed.
Aaargh. 3D Coat forum did not address my auto-retopology issue. I am spoiled by how helpful the Carrara forum is. The response that I got merely told me to use the import for manual retopology. I did, and then I tried several ways to initiate auto-retopology (from the menus, by right clicking the scene area and navigating a popup menu, by...) Nothing seemed to work. Waiting now for support.
My version is 4.8
I bet my 3D Coat issue turns out to be something very simple, such as clicking a validate button somewhere. That sort of thing still haunts me in Hexagon. If anyone besides xmasrose is following along, I posted a more detailed request for help at the following link.
https://3dcoat.com/forum/index.php?/topic/23987-auto-retopo-not-work-on-imported-mesh/
Baby steps!
3D Coat has moe than one way to do auto-retopology. One is called instant meshes. A second is called Autopo. I was able to get the (Instant Meshes) method to generate a lower poly mesh. Yay! Unfortunately, this method does not offer the options to suggest edge flow or mesh density.
Update regarding 3D Coat forum. There is a person there trying to be very helpful. If I said anything negative in a previous post, please attribute it to frustration.
Here is a test of using the (instant mesh) option. I used a test object with over 4,000 polygons. The instant mesh provided an auto-retopology with about 50 polygons.
Still hoping to get the fancier retopo option going.
It is not me!!!!!
The very helpful person on the 3D Coat forum could not retopo my test model.
Message on their forum.
While I'm waiting for 3D Coat to check out problems with auto-retopolog, I threw together some low heel boots for G3F in Daz Studio format. See my freebie thread. Will supplement with some heel mrphs eventually.
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/5083981/#Comment_5083981
Bought my new computer and am now trying to install software that I have digital access to. Seeing a lot of screens asking for my username / password. What was that again?
Downloading stuff purchased through the Daz store.
Hey @Diomede, I wish I had anything at all to offer, but I'm still quite a noob when it comes to modeling. Having said that, it looks like you're making really good progress. I would've stopped in sooner, but I've been busy with a few things and learning new skills.
Anway, thanks for sharing your work. I will try to stop in more often.
Thanks for stopping in and commenting, Wanderer. You are doing great stuff with Flowscape. I attended a webinar on it but have not tried much. At the moment, I am re-installing programs and content on my new machine. Will be a few more days before I have stuff sort of the way I like it.
NP... thanks for the feedback. It's a lot of fun to play with, but I find it's capable of producing some stunning images with very little effort.
Looking forward to seeing what you're up to next.
New Computer can run Substance Painter!
Future freebies will have shaders. But here is an old Claymation style figure that I am using as a test dummy.
Upgraded and Installed Current Poser 11
Not sure how much I will use it. We'll see.
On the Road Again
This time I am in the San Antonio area. Looking for a possible place to live in the UTSA / Medica Cente area, or in the northeastern suburbs. I used to teach at what is now called Texas State University in San Marcos. Always liked the area.
I don't have my new machine with me and already miss it. But I do have my laptop and am committed to continue with some tutorials at least part of each day. t
Today, a basic Studio tutorial because I find it hard to not think of shaders the way Carrara does it.
Progress with 3D Coat Retopology
I'm back to my desktop after more travels. Liked what I saw in San Antonio area, but disappointed in how car-centric the communities are. Oh well. Visited Pennsylvania over Thanksgiving. Toured a pretzel factory museum and chocolatier in Lancaster County.
Back to 3D Coat.
TEST and Promising Results
I believe that the step I was missing was converting my models to voxels before trying to apply retopology. I'm having some minor issues with scaling but I think those can be relatively easily dealt with. In this test, I created a low poly random shape in my modeler, and exported to OBJ (Daz Studio full scene scale). I opened 3D Coat, entered the sculpting room, imported my test obj, an d converted to voxels. I then tested out some of the sculpting brushes. I entered the retopo room. I then made sure the voxel sculpt was selected and right clicked to bring up the retopology menu. I applied the autopology and accepted the defaults for now. Staying in the retopology room, I used the UV tools. Still in retopology room, I created some seams, unwrapped, and packed the islands. I then exported the retopology object as an obj. I loaded in my modeler to see if the scale was preserved and if the UV map was applied. Happy with these very preliminary results.
Baby Steps - Four Armed Man to 3D Coat for Retopology
I had modeled a 4 armed man. Now that I have the basics of a work flow, here is a test of sending the 4 armed man to 3D Coat using very close to default settings for everything. Same workflow as my test above, except that I also enabled symmetry once I had the mode in the voxel room. I am very happy with this first test as a proof of concept. In future tests, I will use the tools to add density to the face, control some of the edge flow, and try to prevent the fingers and toes from merging.
Marvelous Designer Clothing and Daz Studio in 20 Screenshots
Test of Workflow - Crappy Pants for Vyusur's Leon character
I bought Marvelous Designer (MD). Big step, but glad I did it. Will take a while to get used to sewing concepts, but learning the basic workflow is relatively painless. The current version of MD has presets to import a Daz Studio figure as an avatar (mannequin) and to export the clothing.
Here is the simplest workflow. I'm not going to try to edit the pants for fit, or add details such as pockets or collars. This is just a trip from Daz to MD, make cloth, and back.
- Started a new Daz Studio scene. Load any Daz figure (or prop if you want to drape a tablecloth on a table). I loaded Vyusur's Leon figure.
- I used the resolution set to high resolution. This will improve the smoothness of results in MD.
- Use file export and then check that the OBJ export preset is Daz Studio.
- Start a new MD scene. Use the file menu to import the Daz Studio figure obj. There is a preset choice for Daz Studio! Wonderful.
- Aside - MD can use something called arrangement points. If you import a G8F figure, you will have the option to use MD's presets for G8F. I didn't see such presets for Leon. Not worrying about it. Useful, but not necessary.
- Leon loads in MD. Can see properties on right side.