New Material Zone to UV Layout

Grafitaleblu

Hi,

When adding material zones to outfits using the Geometry Editor in Daz Studio, is it possible to get UV layouts, from the new created material zones?

I tried:
1.  Adding new material zone to dress using GE in DS.
2.  Exporting dress to .obj.
3.  Importing .obj into Blender.
4.  From Blender, exporting UV layout, via UV > Exporting UV Layout.

I see the newly created mat-zone in the object browser, but I can't see the newly created mat-zone in the UVMap pane, just the original dress UV layout.

Thank-you,

-b

 

felis

Creating a new material zone, won't change the UV. The new material will use the existing UV. So the UV is shared among all materials.

But there shouldn't really be a problem by that, unless you have some specific requirements for the new zone.

If you select your new material zone, and switch viewport to UV, you can see where the new material has its UV.

Grafitaleblu

felis said:

Creating a new material zone, won't change the UV. The new material will use the existing UV. So the UV is shared among all materials.

But there shouldn't really be a problem by that, unless you have some specific requirements for the new zone.

If you select your new material zone, and switch viewport to UV, you can see where the new material has its UV.

Thank-you for that.  I think I have just realized that UV Maps, and material zones, while related, are two different things.

Gordig

Grafitaleblu said:

felis said:

Creating a new material zone, won't change the UV. The new material will use the existing UV. So the UV is shared among all materials.

But there shouldn't really be a problem by that, unless you have some specific requirements for the new zone.

If you select your new material zone, and switch viewport to UV, you can see where the new material has its UV.

Thank-you for that.  I think I have just realized that UV Maps, and material zones, while related, but are two different things.

UV mapping is how the program knows how to apply a 2D image map onto a 3D object. A material zone is just a selection of polygons to which you can apply a shader.

Grafitaleblu

Gordig said:

Grafitaleblu said:

felis said:

Creating a new material zone, won't change the UV. The new material will use the existing UV. So the UV is shared among all materials.

But there shouldn't really be a problem by that, unless you have some specific requirements for the new zone.

If you select your new material zone, and switch viewport to UV, you can see where the new material has its UV.

Thank-you for that.  I think I have just realized that UV Maps, and material zones, while related, but are two different things.

UV mapping is how the program knows how to apply a 2D image map onto a 3D object. A material zone is just a selection of polygons to which you can apply a shader.

I appreciate that.  I see multiple material areas in uv file map files in products, and was wondering if I could do the same via the Daz Geometry Editor, but I believe that is achieved differently.

Gordig

You'd need a modeling program to change UVs. Hexagon and Blender are free, but any modeling program you might have access to should be able to do it as well.

Richard Haseltine

Are you wanting to colourise the different Surface groups?

Grafitaleblu

Gordig said:

You'd need a modeling program to change UVs. Hexagon and Blender are free, but any modeling program you might have access to should be able to do it as well.

Thank-you G.  I only have Hexagon and Blender.

Grafitaleblu

Richard Haseltine said:

Are you wanting to colourise the different Surface groups?

I am trying to create materials for a free dress, to learn how it's done.  Specifically, I am trying to create materials for an Adam Waithe/Most Digital Creations freebie dress that doesn't come with any materials. 

Richard Haseltine

But it is UV Mapped, you are just wanting to break it up into sub-surfaces?

Grafitaleblu

Richard Haseltine said:

But it is UV Mapped, you are just wanting to break it up into sub-surfaces?

Ah, I don't believe I have my terminology straight.  I want to give the top of the dress a different color than the skirt part of the dress, with perhaps different materials.  Is that what it is?

Richard Haseltine

Yes, you want to assign a new Surface to it - select the areas you want, or some of it, with the Geometry Editor, right-click>Geometry Assiggnment>Create Surface from Selected (and then, if you did only part of the area, select the enxt part and use the option under Geometry Assignment to assign seelcted to a surface, then pick the one for the top until you are done). Once you have the Surface you can use the Editor tab of the Surfaces pane to select and adjust it.

Grafitaleblu

Richard Haseltine said:

Yes, you want to assign a new Surface to it - select the areas you want, or some of it, with the Geometry Editor, right-click>Geometry Assiggnment>Create Surface from Selected (and then, if you did only part of the area, select the enxt part and use the option under Geometry Assignment to assign seelcted to a surface, then pick the one for the top until you are done). Once you have the Surface you can use the Editor tab of the Surfaces pane to select and adjust it.

I was able to use the Geometry Editor to create the skirt surface from the first part of the steps you outlined, however, the top edge of the skirt was rather ragged.  I haven't tried the adjusting the Surface part.  I hope that I can smooth out the top edge doing that, and will give that a try.  Thank-you!

Grafitaleblu

Richard Haseltine said:

Yes, you want to assign a new Surface to it - select the areas you want, or some of it, with the Geometry Editor, right-click>Geometry Assiggnment>Create Surface from Selected (and then, if you did only part of the area, select the enxt part and use the option under Geometry Assignment to assign seelcted to a surface, then pick the one for the top until you are done). Once you have the Surface you can use the Editor tab of the Surfaces pane to select and adjust it.

I see what you saying.  I am familiar with this part but my skirt surface looks like the attached screen-shot.  Is there a way for me to smooth out the skirt top?

Gordig

That looks like a topology issue to me, meaning that there isn't a clean line between the top of the dress and the skirt section. Short of remeshing it (which would destroy the rigging and any morphs it may have) there isn't much you can do apart from creating a texture map with both colors you want.

fred9803

First, it's great to see people experimenting with DS tools that few people use... respect.

It looks like the dress has only one material zone so I would approach it differently. Open the dress texture map in a photo program and draw a selection box around where you want to add the new texture. You can then change the colour or paint (clone) on a pattern from another image. Re-save to a different name. Bear in mind it can get complicated if there is a front and back texture to the dress, and as the dress is designed to wrap, a straight line at the waist may come out looking weird and need further tweaking, like a curve rather than a straight line. I hope this helps. Cheers.

Grafitaleblu

Gordig said:

That looks like a topology issue to me, meaning that there isn't a clean line between the top of the dress and the skirt section. Short of remeshing it (which would destroy the rigging and any morphs it may have) there isn't much you can do apart from creating a texture map with both colors you want.

That validates my suspicion.  Yes, I have started to play with the texture map...Thank-you for your help.

Grafitaleblu

fred9803 said:

First, it's great to see people experimenting with DS tools that few people use... respect.

It looks like the dress has only one material zone so I would approach it differently. Open the dress texture map in a photo program and draw a selection box around where you want to add the new texture. You can then change the colour or paint (clone) on a pattern from another image. Re-save to a different name. Bear in mind it can get complicated if there is a front and back texture to the dress, and as the dress is designed to wrap, a straight line at the waist may come out looking weird and need further tweaking, like a curve rather than a straight line. I hope this helps. Cheers.

I started out with playing with the texture map, but my eyes got big when I saw how people were adding new material zones to outfits on youtube.  Needless to say, I have come full circle, learning a little more about the Geometry Editor in process, but still have a lot to learn.  I appreciate your input.  Best!