Looking for a 3d Paint App
JQP
Posts: 512
I gave up trying to use Maxon Bodypaint for 3D Painting purposes because of the workflow. It Just seemed to be too big and complex an application for my purposes. Required too much work to set it up the way I need. So now I'm shopping for a new 3D paint app. Here are my needs:
1. Simple workflow with Daz Studio content. When I import something I've exported from DS, I want it to be relatively easy to get it set up in the Paint app. I'm flexible as to how "relatively easy" works; if it takes a bit of initial setup, but there's a great tutorial or video showing EXACTLY how to do that with exported DS content, I'm okay with that. If it just knows how to handle DS content without giving me a bunch of work I have to do, I'm fine with that, too. Whatever, I just don't want to have to learn how to do a bunch of complicated stuff on my own with an app that feels like a space shuttle or a nuclear power plant control room. If I had my preference, it would be something designed to work well with DS, but we can't always get exactly what we want.
2. At least a minimal selection of painting tools. My needs are actually very simple here. I don't need to do a lot of what most people think of when they think of texturing. I'm using DS for reference for traditional, hand-drawn superhero comic, and I need 3d Paint pretty much exclusively for superhero/supervillain costumes. All I need is to get the lines right. Think what a penciller does when he's penciling a comic; he doesn't care about color, or texture, or shaders, or wrinkles, or any of that realistic stuff (okay, maybe wrinkles). He just needs to make sure the stripe down the side of the suit is placed correctly, superguy's logo is right, the glove seam is placed where it should be, etc. That's all I care about. So, very simple needs. The idea is that I lay in the broad strokes in a 3d Paint app, then bring it into Photoshop and clean it up and make it nice and neat (and usually copy/paste/flip for symmetrical uniforms), then I bring it into Daz Studio to use to make the comic. BUT, there is one tool I found myself using over and over in Bodypaint: the lasso selection tool. It worked a lot like the selection tools in Photoshop. I really need something like that in my Paint app. I might be able to get along without it, but I'd really like to have it, it makes it easier for the way I like to work.
I fired up Sculptris and was delighted with how easy it was to just import the OBJ I exported from DS, and start painting. Exporting the texture took about 5 seconds to figure out, I slapped it on the figure in DS, and bam, it works. Beautifully simple, love it. Except, I'm not seeing any selection tools. If Sculptris had Photoshop-style selection tools, I'd have found my Paint app. But it doesn't seem to.
I'm playing with 3D Coat right now, but I don't see anything like Photoshop's selection tools, meaning, I'd just as soon use Sculptris.
So, which app should I try next?
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Comments
(Was having problems getting the forum to display my post correctly. Fixed it)
3D Coat and Mari Indie mayb be worth a look - if you are wanting to texture humans then you want soemthing that can handle multiple map sets.
Try 3d coat,, I think it mostly much your usage. you can test it as free one month I believe.
it was some how difficult To Import daz figure mesh with UDIM UV to paint room correctly for me,, but after all, I seems get manage it now.
And,, If you need, you can import all map, (without opacity map, though there is way to apply it in 3d coat,,some how tricky ) to 3d coat,, then add new layer for 3d painting,, as if you work in photo shop,, or Gimp too.
(but if you plan sculpt mesh , then bake it on daz figure to add detail normal or displcacement,, ,, I think Z-brush seems more easy for the purpose,
at current I can only use 3d coat as 3d paitnt for daz figures,,,)
Thanks for the replies all, but I think I'm going to give BodyPaint another go. I saw a forum post somewhere that mentioned using FBX instead of OBJ, so I tried that. It gives a much nicer structure in BP when imported; has the textures already loaded and the proper material groups set up. It didn't take much fiddling to get everything set up for painting. All I had to do is 1) go to Window>Customization>Modeling, select the big triangle sticking up out of the ground in the viewport, then set bone display to "none" in the Object Properties menu, 2) Go back into BP view mode and turn off the visibility of the hip in the Object hierarchy to hid G3F's skeleton, and 3) run the paint setup wizard in material mode, with recalculate UVs turned off. Piece of cake, really.
A couple of refinements to my previous post: the "big triangles" seem to be the root bones for the figures. And you don't have to use modeling mode to select them; the same properties window can be found top right in the default Bodypaint UI. And it's best to select them via the bone hierarchy window, since they can be obscured by geometry around them in the viewport window, making them impossible to select.
Another tip for anyone who wants to use BP: never assume BP has saved your textures. Saving is weird in BP and I can never really figure out what the developers were thinking. Best to manually save each texture before you close the app.
Is 3d-Coat a do-it-all application or would one need something else for modelling, sculpting, etc.? I ask because I read that SickleYield uses Blender for modelling and 3D-Coat for 3D painting.
I had a trail version of 3D-Coat but it lapsed before I got around to playing with it so I will not qualify for another demo.
EDIT: Actually, I was allowed to install another Demo. It recognised that I had previously installed an earlier version (version 3) so I'm guessing it allows another demo of a new version.
3D Coat doesn't have a polygon modeller, but you can build models from primitives sculpted the ZBrush way or with voxels and then retopologise and UV map. So not truly all-in-one, but it wold be possible to complete a model from first to last in it.
Ah - thanks Richard. I've looked at 3D-Coat many times and been tempted to buy the Education License (more of a hobbyist license as no proof of educational status is required) but I never picked up that there is no ploygon modeller. I thought that what they call Surface Mode did that. In fact their description suggests that it does:
Or am I still misunderstanding something very basic?
I'm not sure - I haven't had much tiem to work with the recent versions of 3D Coat, but I dion't believe - even from that description - that it has a full polygon modelling toolset, though it can work on polygons once they exist.
That description makes their "surface mode" sound like zbrush-style sculpting with dynamic topology.
Has anybody tried Quixel suite plug-in for PS? Supposed to be really easy, automated great for PBR textures. I'm downloading the trial today, fairly inexpensive less than 100 bucks.
I think you are correct. I've downloaded the demo and it doesn't appear to have the kind of polygon tools that Blender has. I'm not knowledgeable enough about modelling to be sure but it seems to be a sculpting program rather than a modeller.
The other half and I both use and love Quixel. I believe a few vendors here can vouch for it as well iirc. It is geared towards objects without overlapping UVs; however, with a bit of tweaking there are ways around that, and it doesn't support UDIMs currently.
Does Quixel work with PS CC please ?
It does. I used the latest trial with CC 2015. It's a little quirky to me, but I was really impressed with the normal maps that NDO produced from photographed textures.
Thank you :)
I'll pick those both up soon I hope.
Quixel have a 40% off sale on at the moment in case others were interested. My timing was spot on, picked it up today.
Quixel is desigend as plug in for CS? that means,, I must need to use CS (then adobe clouds) for Quixel?
I do not care about clooud, but simply thnk about cost. if I join creative cloud, I may get it. but
if it only work well with CS I can not,,, ( or most of 3d hobbist will be CC member ,, after all ^^;?)