obj model losing textures upon import
dbdigital2
Posts: 270
Has anyone ever had the problem of a obj model losing all textures upon import? In this case the original file is a Bryce object that I exported to obj then tried to import into Carrara only to be textureless. If I take the same file and import it into Daz Studio no problem Am I missing something?
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Yes. It's a shader translation issue that you're missing.
Go into the Texture room (in Carrara) and have a look at the shaders that were produced
Make sure that the color maps are in the color channel, but not multiplied by anything. If they're multiplied, just drag the source which is the correct texture map and drag it directly onto the color channel.
If it contains a bump map, you may have to add that if it didn't come over in the translation.
Specular maps never come over in a translation, so those (if any) will go into the Highlight channel
===================================
Try that and see if it helps ;)
If not, let us know what's up from there and we'll get it working!!!
Thanks Dart. I will take a look. It is interesting that the same model imports fine in Studio. I also found that if I export from Studio as COLLDA, and import that into Carrara it doesn't lose the textures. The materials still need a little tweaking but they aren't missing. Just further proof that Studio and Carrara are very very different (not that we needed any lol). Thanks again for the help, while doing the two conversion worked, the less conversions the better. :)
Ok I did check and as I thought there aren't any textures at all. All texture maps were changed to a plain grey color. Even more odd when i tried to apply the textures (bmp) Carrara threw up an error and refused. Tried with a few others (the exported obj had about 38 texture, bump and transparency files files in bmp format) and eventually the whole program crashed. The plot thickens.
Yeah, I was only guessing.
So it's an obj import issue then, eh?
I don't really do a whole lot of obj imports into Carrara. I've done a few several years back, but now I export obj more than import, and Daz Studio does a fine job of working with my exports. But even that, I haven't done that for a while now, but am about to be doing it a lot again - very soon here.
I seem to recall Carrara having obj issues in a few regards. I'm very glad that DS can at least provide a working work-around, but it's still odd - and a bummer.
Thanks for checking that.
Hmmm... juust finished reading the Plot thickening... very odd indeed.
But they work okay in the collada version?
Yes, the mesh looked 'ok' and textures were present in the collada version (saved from Daz Studio). Direct COLLADA export from Bryce crashes.
I tried a few other formats that carrara can import:
3ds -crashes in Bryce so I never got far enough to try it in Carrara
fbx- crashed bryce
Autocad (dxf) the mesh looked better but not all the textures made it.
Lightwave .lws files carrara can't import in Carrara by the looks
cob format comes darn close but transparency is about 80% or so making it look like a ghost lol. But the mesh looks good. Might be able to fix this one.
ifni-d .ids export crashed bryce
ray dreams rds format -mesh looks better then obj but textures are gone
It is interesting. Are there are plugins for carrara that might improve the imports?
For the subset of file transfers that are from Bryce to Carrara, perhaps this Cripeman video will help. It is focused on terrains, but might work for other objects. The textures transfer.
The only one I can think of is DCG's Ground Control, but that doesn't look like it would help. But I still haven't used Bryce, so I don't know - Sorry :(
Oh man!!!
I was just looking at Sparrowhawke's site (to see if he had one that might help) and was reminded of all sorts of experimental plugins he offers - one of which being a "Thicken" modifier: Deformer that can add an offset to the surface of any mesh, also to displace and scale it - either for adding a thicker second layer or to indent/offset a surface.
I have many uses for this - namely for adding refraction to glass which is part of a figure with single layer mesh (which is just about all of them!)
But there are many others. I have to dig in and try these things. I've had them installed for a while now - just a matter of getting around to playing with them! I mean... how many times have I dreamt of using the belt and tracks modifiers?!!!
Sparrowhawke3D Plugin Class IDs
Sorry for the OT... got excited there
I just went through that list... I am having trouble with a texture for an fbx landscape/terrain I imported. I have see this type of texture before, but cannot recall where. Maybe it was on a animal model.
How to I get it to map properly? I tried planar on all faces, turning 90 degrees, etc. Can't seem to figure it out. There's a tiled roof of a building at the edge. I can see the red-tiled roof in the image, but how to get the texture to lay in the right place?
Probably because there is likely a proper name for this kind of texture and I don't know it so cannot google it! Any ideas, anyone? I have reduced the file... it was 8000 px not 2000 px.
Not a lot of trouble-shooting info there... sorry.
But you might try opening the model in the vertex modeler and go into the UV tab to see what's going on. Select the display mode to show the texture and you should be able to see how the mesh is mapped, if at all.
It should have come in mapped properly.
Looks to me like it's set up to be a perspective shot - which would make it optimized for only one point of view - but I could be wrong on that. Why else would the texture map be set at a descending perspective like that though... hmmm.
is it maybe wrapped, ticking or unticking in the UV view in Vertex room might help as well as rotation tiling etc,
it looks atlased too, or baked.
saying where it is from may help too, not all game exporters are equal, I found that with the Witcher 2 extracter, I had to import my meshes as all seperate meshes by domain in Carrara options to get the mapping correct, likewise Skyrim mesh had to be a certain build of nifscope to get it right.
Wendy to the rescue! Thanks Girl!
Silene ,. what was the texture exported from ? .. and what was the UV setup in that pogram.
it looks like a "ptex" version,. rathr than a regular texture map.
it's definitely blocky and set out in an unusual way, so i'd doubt that you would be able to click an option and have it working.
I think you need to examine the source program output,. and see if there are other options for texture map export.
Thank you Dart, Andy and Wendy!
Some pics below, but.....
I got it free from here: https://sketchfab.com/models/f870c612477148f3a2d33ef72a7287c4?utm_source=triggered-emails&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=model-downloaded
There are no notes or instructions or comments by the artist. This is his website. http://geovant.es/ (I used Google to translate the page). I am assuming it was scanned via drone. There's a lot of that on the sketchfab site.
PTEX... oh my. I am so out of my depth here! http://blog.digitaltutors.com/understanding-ptex-is-it-the-future-of-texturing/
How Does Ptex Work?
Ptex works by applying the texture to each face of the mesh, creating high resolution detail without needing UV coordinates. This means Ptex stores a separate texture per quad face. A Ptex map for your 3D model can literally take just a few seconds to create, as opposed to the traditional UV mapping method which could take hours. If you’re familiar with UVs you know that having seams on your model is a very common occurrence and could present visible artifacts, so you would need to plan out where you can hide the seams on your model. With Ptex there are no seams, even under close examination.
No joy in Zbrush either... Mudbox? $500? No thanks.... oh well... guess I will have to try to find another model without ptex.
Silene
ETA http://ptex.us/index.html ; Information and Documentation
Whew! After a lot of testing I found a way to import the models I mentioned from Bryce. If I ungroup (click on the model then click the U button on the right) then hold ctrl and click again a menu will come up with the different sections that are now possible to select. Select one, go into the materials lab/editor and on the far right (in the A B C or D texture channels), click the tiny circle to the left of the texture name to open the texture source editor.
From the texture source editor, click the little copy link below the texture box on the left. Now open a paint program such as Photoshop or anything that can accept pasted textures and paste. You will get the texture in its full resolution (in my case 2000x2000), save that with the original name to a folder you can find later (a good place is where you are saving the exported object in the first place). Repeat this for each section of the model and textures, making note where each texture went. You may need to ungroup further if there are subsections of the model that have unique textures. Most of the time, only a handful of textures are used but repeated several times. At least with the objects I am converting/exporting.
Now either regroup or better yet reload the object/model and export it under the file menu as autocad dxf format.
Open Carrara and import the dxf file you just made (leave 3d face separation as layers and colors NOT grouped). It will import in a few seconds untextured, but the various groups/sections of the original model will be intact. Now you can apply the textures you saved out earlier. There are likely to be more sections than in Bryce so you may need to apply the texture more than once and it might need a little adjusting to look the same. But this is a LOT easier than having to repaint the whole thing. The names for each part may have slightly different names but it should give you the general idea of what goes where.
If you find you don't have a texture, go back to the original model in Bryce and grab it out of the texture source editor using the method above. Or to check if you aren't sure which texture goes where. One nice thing about Bryce, on a modern machine you can keep it running and hop between Carrara and Bryce as needed. This method should also work for say Blender or another modeler.
These are the Carrara import dxf settings I used:
Autoposition ON
Disable Auto Scaling OFF
Smoothing Angle 30
Show Backfaces
import and extrude 2d objects OFF
3d face separation: Layers and colors
Import only 3d face entities OFF
coordinate system to use: WORLD
In summary:
-Load model into Bryce
-Click on model and click U to ungroup
-Hold control and click model to get a menu of ungrouped items and pickone
-Go into materials lab and go in the source editor for each texture in each materials, click copy on the left texture
-Click paste in any good image editing program (Photoshop etc) save it with the original texture name and make note where it came from.
-Repeat the previous two steps for each sub group. And some of them you may need to ungroup further to find all the textures.
-Reload the model and export it as AutoCad dxf format
-Open Carrara and import dxf model
-For each section/subgroup of the object apply the textures you saved out earlier.
-Save in the format you want.
Of course these might need to be adjusting (smoothing in particular) depending on the model. This method isn't as easy as export to obj -> import into Daz Studio -> export as Collada -> import into Carrara, but you get a much more detailed model for your efforts.
I also posted this in the Bryce forums. Suprised no one mentioned this method when I asked there.
Whew!!! ;)
I'm glad I have a much simpler workflow! LOL
...and I repeat! LOL
I think it's either 3D Coat or Modo that has Ptex
Instead of UV Mapping, each pixel has it's own home - so the end-result texture looks like noise. Not something I'd want to use unless I was always using it.
Edit: I think it's a special new Pixar development for texturing 3D models - likely painting the models with a Cintiq, or like-monitor/paint pad, directly, so there's never a need to unwrap - omitting a large step in the whole process.
Again, great for folks whom are working that way, not so much for those whom don't! LOL
No kidding! Thankfully it is only Bryce that seems to be a pain in the backside with regard to proper exporting. Lower resolution models with Bryce ->Obj->Daz Studio->Collada->Carrara in general are fine at a distance. Bryce exports all textures as 512 x512 which is somewhat of a head scratcher. Never could understand why they would export such a lower quality model without at least giving the option.
Here's a quick paint example of Ptex,. output from 3DCoat
confusing and impossible to remap / edit,.. in anything that doesn't support Ptex.
You could mail the creator of that landscape and ask for a simpler mapped version, or make your own textures
I might do that, Andy... it's a good model for an immediate scene I need to do.
Silene
Thanks for your efforts and clear explanation! We had a discussion here in the Carrara forum a few weeks ago (related to Phillip Drawbridge models) about how best to get Bryce stuff into Carrara. It seemed like nobody had done it much, which surprised me as well. There is insane Bryce content which I would love to put in Carrara. So, thanks again.
Welcome, and sorry I missed the party. ;) One update though, you can possibly avoid the needing to ungroup if you use the selection tool in the very bottom right of the interface window. It looks like a little down arrow. Someone mentioned this in the Bryce forum today, but at the time of my testing it wasn't working for me. Might have been a momentary glitch, as it is working fine now and I can select all the bits I couldn't before.
I had a look at the Bryce thread. Are you talking specufically about exporting models from Bryce that were not originally created in Bryce? If so, then this may be different from what I was hoping.
In my partticular case yes. However, in my research, if you convert the object created in Bryce to a Mesh, the above method should work as well. I haven't done a lot of testing, but a couple of little tests seemed to work fine. If the object has a lot of textures blended, it could take a while to copy them all out to bmp's and move to Carrara. But seeing how you can mix/blend them in the texture room smilar to Bryce, it might take a bit but you should be able to get a look close to the original object.
OK, thanks. Considering that I have never even opened Bryce, the conversion path is starting to look a bit steep.
But when I have more time (need to continue getting better in Carrara), I will give it a go.