How to change UV/Surfaces/Textures on an item? [SOLVED]

bigD3d

Hello all,

i'm new to some of the nuts/bolts of Daz and 3D modeling in general, so please forgive me if I use the wrong terminology. 

What i'm trying to do is take an existing piece of clothing I bought on the Daz store, which has limited choices for textures and surface selections, and make modifications which would allow me to have more surface choices and use some shaders i've bought on those new surface choices.

Using a more simple example of a sphere that has a UV map with a top and bottom section, a surface called 'ball' and has one texture file. What i'd like to do is change it so the ball would instead have equal slices vertically around it, and so that each slice could have it's own new texture applied to it.

So here's where the *assumptions* come in. I started down a path first assuming I needed a new UV map to do this. I used GoZ and pulled the clothing into ZBrush and following various tutorials and youtube vids managed to polygroup the clothing into the new areas and make a new UV map. That map exported back into Daz and I see it on the surfaces UV Map drop down. I verified my UV map imported correctly by changing from Perspecive View to UV Map view as well.

But for some reason I just expected that the import would take each UV 'island' and make a default surface name for it, like 'default1', 'default2', etc. and i'd only need to go somewhere and change that name to something more meaningful. And I also assumed that if I changed the UV on the surface tab back to the original then the original surface names would come back.

So...

1 - Where's the relationship between the figure and the UV and the named surfaces? Can you even change the surfaces in Daz or do I have to use some other tool or do something else in Zbrush when making the UV? Again, I assumed my polygroups to UV in ZBrush would translate to a one to one surface choice after coming back to Daz.

2 - I think I need to save the clothing as a new figure/product and make the new changes there? Assuming again here you can't have one figure with two UVs, and each UV with seperate surface choices...

Finally, I understand that *technically* I could just go use some paint tool and make a new texture with the existing UVs and surfaces - but i'm not trying to learn how to do that. I want something where I can load the figure and using Daz's shaders select which textures to use real time and change them as needed at will.

thanks for any insight and assistance!

 

 

 

Richard Haseltine

1. UVs are a way to relate the 3D model to the 2D plane that a texture occupies, they have no direct link to the division of the model into surface groups. The Geemtry Editor can be used to select polygons and (via the right-click menu) assign them to a new surface group.

2. A single model can have multiple UV sets, imported from an OBJ via the Load UV Set... command in the Surfaces pane option menu (the lined button in the top corner, or right-click the tab). For new groups you would need to save an override - either a new figure/prop asset or save a character preset and use that to load the item in future (which would keep other aspects linked to the original asset).

bigD3d

Richard,

thank you for the helpful info.

So if I understand correctly, if my new surface groups will fit nicely within the seems of the original UV map then I only need to use the Geometry Editor to select polygons and create the new groups? But if I have a situation where say one surface has the UV seem right down the middle, then creating and using the new UV would be needed so I wouldn't have to worry about both sides of the texture lining up?

As to selecting the polygons that I want to make into the surfaces, is there a way to use the UV map I already made to select the polygons ( since I already spent the time tediously clicking and selecting them all in ZBrush)? 

Lastly, when making the new surfaces with the Geometry tool, what happens to the surfaces that are there already? Do I need to somehow remove them? If not, what happens (if anything) if my new surface overlaps the polygons of an original surface?

thanks again

Catherine3678ab

bigD3d said:

Richard,

thank you for the helpful info.

So if I understand correctly, if my new surface groups will fit nicely within the seems of the original UV map then I only need to use the Geometry Editor to select polygons and create the new groups? But if I have a situation where say one surface has the UV seem right down the middle, then creating and using the new UV would be needed so I wouldn't have to worry about both sides of the texture lining up?

As to selecting the polygons that I want to make into the surfaces, is there a way to use the UV map I already made to select the polygons ( since I already spent the time tediously clicking and selecting them all in ZBrush)? 

Lastly, when making the new surfaces with the Geometry tool, what happens to the surfaces that are there already? Do I need to somehow remove them? If not, what happens (if anything) if my new surface overlaps the polygons of an original surface?

thanks again

Whether or not you can use the UV map you've made depends upon a few factors. The mesh had to have been at base resolution [by having the figure at base resolution too as 'fit to' clothing takes on a more refined shape with the high resolution figures. [and for anybody trying to do this with the Genesis 8 figures, also remove the eyelashes]. So you can try and maybe it works but if it doesn't at least know why it may not have.

Concept is to export out the .obj from D/S, work on it, then bring it back in this way:

Edit > Object > Geometry > Load UV Set
Select the .obj and carefully name the UVset
NO changes can have been made to the number of dot/faces/lines [same idea as if making morphs] IF it doesn't 'take' D/S will let you know.

IF it does 'take' it will then be listed as an available UVset on the Surfaces Panel.

IF you like the result, BEFORE saving any mat files etc., SAVE the New UVset {same idea as for saving morphs, check ONLY the one item just made}. Then one can save out new mat files. Be aware that if/when jumping through the older mat files and the new mat files, the uvsets may need to be manually reset {and then older mat files possibly remade}

 

bigD3d

Thanks for that info as well, definately good to know!

Richard Haseltine

DS can't read a polygon selection from a map, but if you paint the different islands different colours and apply it as the base/diffuse colour to the model you could use it (in Wire Texture Shaded prview mode) to guide your manual selection of polygons. You can thenhide/show the surfaces using the eye icon next to their name n the Tool Settinsg pane and make sure there are no stray polygons of other colours left in each.

bigD3d

thanks Richard, that's a great idea. Played around with the Geometry editor over the weekend - I had no idea this even existed! This opens up a whole new range of possibilities :)