applying tiled textures to a surface controlled by an opacity map? [SOLVED}

gabu

The opacity map supplied by Fixmypcmike for removing the hood of the hooded cloak works fine when the cloak's surfaces are a single texture.

However, if I want to apply a tiled texture (from Ye Olde Cloth) the opacity map applies to each individual tile rather than the overall surface area and the cloak hood reappears.

How would I be able to remove the hood under these circumstances?

I have the same problem with other items of clothing where I have used an opacity map to make minor changes so the problem is not specific to the cloak.

Thanks

WendyLuvsCatz

are you adding this map to the opacity channel after applying the material?

another way is explained in this post http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewreply/480925/ ie creating a new material zone for just the hood using polygon selecter.

gabu

Yes.

If it is there before I apply the material it gets removed when the tiles texture is applied so I have to manually put it back.

WendyLuvsCatz

yes you need to manually put it back, the material overwrites all the channels in the shading.

gabu

the technique in that post you pointed to works

however, it is a bit crude for chopping off the hood using the rectangle selection of the example where the cloak is already fitted to the figure

ideally, for the cloak, it would need to be laid out flat and the hood area carefuly selected with the tool before fitting to the figure

I am wondering if the area selection would best be done in another program - but which one? Can you suggest any where it would be easy to just do this? Here I am thinking ahead to other items of clothing where I have used this opacity map technique for altering the shape

WendyLuvsCatz

I create new shading domains and re-uv map stuff in Carrara all the time, you can then in surfaces import the new uv obj
most modelling programs do it, many people use uvmapper, lithunwrap, I think or Wings3D, Blender, Hexagon etc, I just use Carrara as that is my preferred program of choice and never learnt to do it elsewhere.
try searching posts on uv mapping for more info as my own personal way an expensive and unnessesary way if you do not use Carrara for most things as I do, there are many free programs that will do this just as well and most likely more easily too.

gabu

thanks for the suggestions

I can see that I need to get deeper into the technical side of 'things'

but it was only a matter of time before I had to anyway as I want to eventually create my own clothes etc

WendyLuvsCatz

many people model clothes in Blender (which is very confusing to use) or Wings3D which is fairly simple but limited
both are free and many tutorials on web
you can use the transfer utility in Daz studio to fit it to Genesis, there are many forum threads on this,
check out this one http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/2174/

Bejaymac

The surface channels are all linked to the image tiling, so find a 3rd party shader that isn't linked or better yet learn to use the Shader Mixer.

gabu

Are there any 'generic' shaders which don't have that link?

Can you suggest any good introductory tutorials on the shader mixer?

I have just bought Ye Olde Cloth so was not aware of the potential problems with using it in this situation but it is such a wonderful texture library that I don't wan't to give it up.

Of course there is another way of solving/avoiding the problem - if I wanted, for instance to use a 4x4 tiling of a YOC texture on a surface, I create a super tile made up of the required 4x4 grid of that texture tile and use it as a 1x1 tile on the surface.

gabu

problem solved!

this new tiler shader does the trick