Modeling for Daz

larsmidnatt

Kharma said:

larsmidnatt said:

Kharma said:

Followed your steps and exported my base forms and now I don't get the Silo not responding error so far...I am curious to know when would you want to export the base and include materials or groups?  What would you include those options for?

Not for making morphs really. But if you were retexturing something it would be useful.

So if you were morphing a character into a new shape these are not necessary but if you are making a new skin for a character these would be required?

Yes. If you wanted to do a skin from scratch you would still at least need the groups. Groups by themselves don't have any textures, just are zones for textures to be applied. But if you wanted to modify an existing texture than you would want the textures too and collecting maps is a good option for that. It will put all the (standard) texture maps in a folder next to the OBJ file. This will get your diffuse map, but not stuff like normal or subsurface textures etc.

The write groups settings may vary a bit depending on the program you may want to use and your workflow. I always use existing groups because it seems to work. I have tried some of the other settings and they must be for very specific reasons.

For G3F you may need to collapse UV tiles if you are using a software that doesn't like the UDIM or whatever standard G3F uses for textures.

Kharma

I am afraid that is all a bit over my head, i thought if you were making a new texture for a character you would just use the texture templates in a graphics program.  I am not sure what part the groups and collectings maps are for...I certainly have alot to learn. I do see when I exported G2F with groups and materials there is now an mtl file with the obj but I have no idea how to use it or what program it is for.  I am not sure what the UDIM is or how to collapse UV tiles,  but the graphic software I have is PSP X6 and PS CS2.

larsmidnatt

Well if you are using PS, then none of this matters. Like you said, you can take the templates and go into photoshop.

However when you use a 3D painting program, you bring in the 3D model, and often textures into that program to paint on. So having the OBJ and the textures in one folder makes life a bit easier than hunting down templates. Collecting the textures is optional even then.

Groups are just a way to name surfaces or material groups in the OBJ. Won't matter if you don't paint in a 3D painting app though.

The MTL can be ignored. Its basically a file that works with the OBJ. When OBJ is loaded programs see if there is an MTL file with the same name. If so, it loads the materials referenced in it, kinda sorta.

You don't need to worry about UDIM or collapsing UV if you are working in Photoshop.

 

Hope that helps.

Kharma

@larsmidnatt    Thanks for all that info, it really answers alot of questions I had.  The ones that pop up when you are trying to work something out ..what's that for?  where did that come from?  How do I use that?  LoL, I have learned alot in this thread :)

larsmidnatt

glad I could help :)

jestmart

Groups are vertex groups and have nothing to do with texures and material zones.  The program you are importing to mat have options to turn material zones to groups and vice versa.

larsmidnatt

jestmart said:

Groups are vertex groups and have nothing to do with texures and material zones.  The program you are importing to mat have options to turn material zones to groups and vice versa.

Thanks for clarifying but what you said kinda negates the "have nothing to do with" statement. From my experience the group setting you choose has direct impact on how many material zones you end up with in the next software package and how they are named.

I didn't go to great lengths demonstrating the impact because I don't think it matters for kharma right now.