Exporting/Unwrapping UV maps including the textures

Cameron Balloons Ltd.

Hi everyone,

I have been reading a lot tutorials and blogs about UV mapping for Carrara but none of them solved my problem.

The problem I have at the moment is that I have created a nice shape using spline modelling and got the artwork on. Now I want to convert this model into a vertex model and export a UV mapping file without losing the artwork I have put on.

Can I export a UV map that includes existing texture???

Thanks

Bobo

EDIT: " Yes, I mean with Carrara."

Richard Haseltine

Carrara?

Cameron Balloons Ltd.

Yes, for Carrara. Thanks.

Mattymanx

You might want to ask a forum Admin to move you thread to here - http://www.daz3d.com/forums/categories/66/

That way it will be quickly seen and addressed by the other Carrara users.

Chohole

Standing by to move the thread, if you agree. Carrara people do tend to stay mostly in the Carrara forum.

Cameron Balloons Ltd.

Thanks you very much. Yes, I agree to move the post. Cheers!

Chohole

There you go, you are now in the Carrara forum. I hope you get some assistance here.

Design Acrobat

1tatford said:

Hi everyone,

I have been reading a lot tutorials and blogs about UV mapping for Carrara but none of them solved my problem.

The problem I have at the moment is that I have created a nice shape using spline modelling and got the artwork on. Now I want to convert this model into a vertex model and export a UV mapping file without losing the artwork I have put on.

Can I export a UV map that includes existing texture???

Thanks

Bobo

EDIT: " Yes, I mean with Carrara."

After you convert to vertex modeler, if you look at the object in the Model room you will notice a lot of triangle polygons.

You can untriangulate and/or merge coplanar faces to get some regular 4 sided polygons hopefully. Hard to say since I don't know what your model looks like.

You can actually export a spline object into the OBJ format, but not sure how the texture coordinates would behave in another software.

Cameron Balloons Ltd.

Thank for your quick reply.

I know what you are talking about but its not quite the solution I am looking for. I work as a hot air balloon designer and the problem at hand is that when I make a nice design of a balloon and I give it to our engineers, they are scrapping the model and only use it as a reference. Then they come back to us with a unwrapped balloon in 2D panels and then I have to put the artwork on again.

So, what I need is to have the artwork and the vortex lines together.

One way would be to make the model then make it a vortex then export the UV maps and then try to recreate the original artwork in Photoshop.

The other way would be to build the model in the vortex modeller and only use UV maps.

Both options are not ideal because spline models can be easily manipulated compared to vortex models.

Has anyone a better idea???

The Pencil Neck

I'm not the best one to answer your question but I want to make sure I understand it.

You created something in the Spline Modeler. And then you textured it. Now you want to export that texture so that it can be read by someone else. Is that right?

Normally, a UV map just maps the points on a surface to a 2-D representation. A UV Map doesn't include any information about the texture itself and a UV Map, afaik, is useless without information about the object that has been mapped.

So, the question I have is: what exactly do you have to give to these engineers? It seems to me like they'd be wanting the textured OBJ. I would expect that you just need to export your textured model to an OBJ format and then give them that so it can be loaded into whatever software they're using. OR you have to give them the OBJ, the UV Map, and your Texture graphics.

When you textured your model, did you create graphics for it, did you use the Painter, or are you using shaders?

Design Acrobat

Deleted as it wasn't what was needed.

Design Acrobat

Deleted as it wasn't what was needed.

WendyLuvsCatz

are you applying the artwork as a texture map or using Carrara 3D paint?

I do not know how to do spline models but painted one and exported as obj, opened in Hexagon with texture.
converting to vertex it kept the same texture uv mapped

Design Acrobat

Deleted as it wasn't what was needed.

WendyLuvsCatz

well if the OP is using the the texture room to map it, it will be a procedural shader so will not export correctly
needs to be mapped on vertex object in modelling room
if a balloon a spherical projection would prob work best for example

edited to add not only don't I do spline modelling, utterly no idea how to uv map a spline object either or if you can
can do vertex objects or converted to

Design Acrobat

Deleted as it wasn't what was needed.

Cameron Balloons Ltd.

Ok, thank you for your replies.

I don't have the issues with wrapping standard balloons. We have a way of working that is quite efficient because the panels are already designed and I built all models around that. We have a custom map with all details on it that fits perfectly.

The problem starts when I start deviating from our standard shapes (engineers have to design). Here is an example below. Yes I did this car from scratch only using the spline modeler. It isn't just photoshoped.

Now the engineer will create panels or basically points that are carefully calculated to hold the loads. He is creating a vertex model, point by point as close as possible to my model if possible. Then they would give the model back to me with the alterations including the textures. Now I would have to somehow export the panels so that I can print the panels. The panel should be the least distorted as possible. It could be panel by panel. It doesn't really matter.

How can I export those panels?

If anyone needs professional help with designing hot air balloons or baskets, just ask.

[EDIT] - Picture has been removed.

3DAGE

HI 1tatford :)

If I understand you correctly,... what you need is "Baker", which is a plugin for carrara,. and it's pretty cheap.
It allows you to take a model with textures applied to it,. and export a set of "texture maps" including diffuse (colours) bump, shininess etc..

you can get this plugin from www.Inagoni.com

http://www.inagoni.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.3

In Carrara, Spline models and Text are given shading domains and UV mapping automatically, depending on their shape,.
Working with "Vertex" models allows you to apply different shading domains and different UV mapping types to those domains, and you can also "customise" the UV wire-frame, to Fit to an existing texture map.

You can convert your Spline model to a Vertex model in carrara,
this usually creates a load of triangles which can be a PITA to work with.
it's often better to use the vertex modelling tools to "draw" lines on the surface of your "converted spline model" to rebuild the model as quads.

The UV Map "wire-frame" for the model can be exported from the vertex modeller,. but it's important to understand that the UV coordinates for the model, are different and independent of any textures or shaders you later apply to that model,.
The models UV coordinates simply tell the program where and how to apply the shader / texture maps to the surfaces.

If you want to export a UV Wire-frame, sometimes called a (UV Template), or a (UV-Map). then you can do that without using any plug-ins.

This gives you a black and white wire-frame image, which you can take into Photoshop and use as a guide to place the images or textures you want to apply to the 3D model.

You would then export this new "texture map" (after hiding the UV template layer)
then apply that "texture map" as a shader,. to the model in carrara.

Hope that makes sense :)

Design Acrobat

1tatford said:

Ok, thank you for your replies.

I don't have the issues with wrapping standard balloons. We have a way of working that is quite efficient because the panels are already designed and I built all models around that. We have a custom map with all details on it that fits perfectly.

The problem starts when I start deviating from our standard shapes (engineers have to design). Here is an example below. Yes I did this car from scratch only using the spline modeler. It isn't just photoshoped.

Now the engineer will create panels or basically points that are carefully calculated to hold the loads. He is creating a vertex model, point by point as close as possible to my model if possible. Then they would give the model back to me with the alterations including the textures. Now I would have to somehow export the panels so that I can print the panels. The panel should be the least distorted as possible. It could be panel by panel. It doesn't really matter.

How can I export those panels?

If anyone needs professional help with designing hot air balloons or baskets, just ask.

My bad for derailing your thread on the subject. I'll study carefully what you are requesting in the future.

evilproducer

1tatford said:

Ok, thank you for your replies.

I don't have the issues with wrapping standard balloons. We have a way of working that is quite efficient because the panels are already designed and I built all models around that. We have a custom map with all details on it that fits perfectly.

The problem starts when I start deviating from our standard shapes (engineers have to design). Here is an example below. Yes I did this car from scratch only using the spline modeler. It isn't just photoshoped.

Now the engineer will create panels or basically points that are carefully calculated to hold the loads. He is creating a vertex model, point by point as close as possible to my model if possible. Then they would give the model back to me with the alterations including the textures. Now I would have to somehow export the panels so that I can print the panels. The panel should be the least distorted as possible. It could be panel by panel. It doesn't really matter.

How can I export those panels?

If anyone needs professional help with designing hot air balloons or baskets, just ask.

At the risk of derailing the thread....

You did that in the Spline modeler? Carrara's Spline modeler? I am in awe and kneel before you! I'm serious! That is awesome!

Cameron Balloons Ltd.

3DAGE said:

HI 1tatford :)

If I understand you correctly,... what you need is "Baker", which is a plugin for carrara,. and it's pretty cheap.
It allows you to take a model with textures applied to it,. and export a set of "texture maps" including diffuse (colours) bump, shininess etc..

you can get this plugin from www.Inagoni.com

http://www.inagoni.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.3

In Carrara, Spline models and Text are given shading domains and UV mapping automatically, depending on their shape,.
Working with "Vertex" models allows you to apply different shading domains and different UV mapping types to those domains, and you can also "customise" the UV wire-frame, to Fit to an existing texture map.

You can convert your Spline model to a Vertex model in carrara,
this usually creates a load of triangles which can be a PITA to work with.
it's often better to use the vertex modelling tools to "draw" lines on the surface of your "converted spline model" to rebuild the model as quads.

The UV Map "wire-frame" for the model can be exported from the vertex modeller,. but it's important to understand that the UV coordinates for the model, are different and independent of any textures or shaders you later apply to that model,.
The models UV coordinates simply tell the program where and how to apply the shader / texture maps to the surfaces.

If you want to export a UV Wire-frame, sometimes called a (UV Template), or a (UV-Map). then you can do that without using any plug-ins.

This gives you a black and white wire-frame image, which you can take into Photoshop and use as a guide to place the images or textures you want to apply to the 3D model.

You would then export this new "texture map" (after hiding the UV template layer)
then apply that "texture map" as a shader,. to the model in carrara.

Hope that makes sense :)

YES YES YES !!! Thank you soooo much 3DAGE, that is (if it works) the sort of thing I was looking for. Although I still need to convert the spline object into vertex but its probably the closest thing to what I am looking for.

As I understand correctly I can export my texture maps but they first need to have a UV map (seams) as reference. Then once the texture map is exported I can then export the UV map and they should be the same and overlay-able. Is this correct?

lorddayradon

I know this is an old thread, new to carrara though.  This plugin/site seems to be a dead link now.  Any ideas on how/where I can pick it up if it still works with 8.5 pro.  Or is there an alternative to this, built in?.  Here is the info on my project to find a solution.

 

-OBJ made in Blender

-UV Unwrapped all parts (10disconnected) of single object in a single map

-7  material zones

-created/assigned procedural shaders to each material zone in carrara.

Problem,  exporting back as OBJ,  When I select export texture maps I get nothing that I can then apply a texture map to the diffuse channel in Daz studio.  Selecting exporting procedurals,  I get the 2048 maps for each shader,  But even if I shrink/rotate those squares to try and puzzle piece them back together into my single UV map it will take days to make it work and will never look the same.

For eg:  2 leafs, each a disconnected geometry.  each leaf (front/back) uses up  10% horizontal  and one uses 100% verticle the other uses about 40% verticle of a 4096x4096 UV map.  The shader texture is 2048x2048   Not easy to make that fit both leaves.

 

 

3DAGE said:

HI 1tatford :)

If I understand you correctly,... what you need is "Baker", which is a plugin for carrara,. and it's pretty cheap.
It allows you to take a model with textures applied to it,. and export a set of "texture maps" including diffuse (colours) bump, shininess etc..

you can get this plugin from www.Inagoni.com

http://www.inagoni.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.3

 

WendyLuvsCatz

Sadly Inagoni has closed

but you can apply your shader to a plane and render that

this was my workaround before I had baker

 

 

chickenman

this might help

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/4140661/#Comment_4140661