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Tutorial: Converting Textures from Gen2 to Gen3

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  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001

    Yeah...Blender is being finicky...double check your image map assignments.  Try assigning the new, blank maps to G3F in Edit mode/Image Editor and not the texture box.

  • ChangelingChickChangelingChick Posts: 3,209

    I thought I had done that but obviously not, because now it's working :D Thanks so much!

  • DraagonStormDraagonStorm Posts: 748

    I am not a blender user in any way, shape or form.... But I really 'need' to be able to do this for something I'm working on :)

    Logically, I can follow the instructions, but I don't know the Blender interface, so don't know where things are, or how to do the steps. For example this part of the instructions:

     

    Add Sub-d modifiers to both figures, but don't apply them. (It will make the projection more accurate without the added memory of a heavier mesh as you scroll around)

    Now comes the first tedious part, but it will save us exponentially more tedium later on. We need to consolidate the material zones. Blender doesn't let you select and edit mutliple materials simultaneously, and if we manually add the textures for the shoulders, forearms, hands, legs feet, etc, for every texture we will get carpal tunnel. We need to rearrange the materials so that there is one per texture. the easiest way is to:

    • Select your figure and go into edit mode
    • use the material tab to select all the materials that share a texture, and assign the selection to just one of the materials
    • for instance: with gen 2 select the shoulders, forearms, hands, legs feet, etc, and assign them all to the legs material (and rename the legs material limbs for clarity)
    • Essentially you want to rearrange the materials like the templates in the material panel in Studio.
    • Once you have consolidated your materials exit edit mode and delete the materials that are now extraneous, (to make sure I don't accidentally delete materials with vertices assigned while in edit mode I stick _keep/-keep on the end of the name of any material that has vertices assigned. I use the -/_ to differentiate the materials for gen2 and gen3, as materials must have unique names even when on different objects)

    Make sure to save your file, because the good news is once you have done this for both gen 2 and 3 you will never have to do this again. If you want a different UV map you can just export a base res gen2/3 with the uv you want and use the script I linked above to copy the uvs to your modified version.

    I don't know how to "Add Sub-d modifiers to both figures".

    Or "use the material tab to select all the materials that share a texture, and assign the selection to just one of the materials" I have the list of materials on the right... But for the life of me can't figure out how to select mulitple materials, let alone assign them to one material...

    Stuff like that.

    Is there, or can some one do a video (or know of videos) that would show me exactly where and what to do for these steps in this tutorial? I'm using version 2.75

    Thank You!

  • ScavengerScavenger Posts: 2,670

    Hmm Interesting...I'lm bookmarking this to check out later when I'm done with all my other problems :/

  • XtraDimensionalXtraDimensional Posts: 509

    I can maybe do a video, but it'll have to wait until after my really busy week at work, so I won't feel bad if someone else gets to it first.

  • DraagonStormDraagonStorm Posts: 748
    Hanabi said:

    I can maybe do a video, but it'll have to wait until after my really busy week at work, so I won't feel bad if someone else gets to it first.

    I would be very appreciative!

  • XtraDimensionalXtraDimensional Posts: 509

    I'll see if I can squeeze it into my schedule tomorrow night. <3

  • ChangelingChickChangelingChick Posts: 3,209

    I wrote a more detailed set of instructions (mainly so I wouldn't forget how to do it later) specifically about the Blender interface. Once my kids are asleep I'll upload it. 

  • ChangelingChickChangelingChick Posts: 3,209

    Here's what I wrote up. I wrote it specifically for a friend of mine, so... excuse the humor in parts. I intend to expand it with more screenshots eventually, but this might help in the meantime.

    http://the-freehold.com/2015/09/03/texture-conversion-using-daz-studio-and-blender/

  • Ghosty12Ghosty12 Posts: 2,058

    While this is cool to see the fact there is a lot to do to convert and the amount of characters I would want to convert, I think I will stay with what I have with G2..

  • KeryaKerya Posts: 10,943
    ChangelingChick said:

    Here's what I wrote up. I wrote it specifically for a friend of mine, so... excuse the humor in parts. I intend to expand it with more screenshots eventually, but this might help in the meantime.

    http://the-freehold.com/2015/09/03/texture-conversion-using-daz-studio-and-blender/

    Thank you! I am doing better, much better, with pdfs instead of videos!

  • ZarconDeeGrissomZarconDeeGrissom Posts: 5,412
    DraagonStorm said:
    Hanabi said:

    I can maybe do a video, but it'll have to wait until after my really busy week at work, so I won't feel bad if someone else gets to it first.

    I would be very appreciative!

    I'll second that, as the other Blender vids are on sites with nonworking pause buttons. I tried a few times to follow along with the Blender vids, and by the time the pause vid thing stops the vid, the guy has moved on to clicking a dozen other things. And the interface is laid out completely deferent from what I had, so there is no chance for me to find whatever 'that' was he clicked five things ago before the web-video-player actually paused the vid.

    It also doesn't help, that I do not have a working 'scroll wheel' on my track-ball (any of them for that matter). So some of the stuff he's doing, I can't do, lol.

  • KeryaKerya Posts: 10,943

    https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro

    http://issuu.com/mollywhittenburg/docs/blender_for_dummies

     

  • RogerbeeRogerbee Posts: 4,460
    edited September 2015

    Downloaded the one from Issuu, will read it sometime. Are there any good ones for working with Daz assets in Blender!?

    CHEERS!

    Post edited by Rogerbee on
  • ZarconDeeGrissomZarconDeeGrissom Posts: 5,412
    Kerya said:

    https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro

    http://issuu.com/mollywhittenburg/docs/blender_for_dummies

    Thank you. Much better then...

    http://cgcookie.com/course/blender-basics/

    That reminds me, I should look to see if GIMP has been fixed (resize/rotate layer thing blocking everything else). It's been a while.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,211

    I found this

     

    https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini14.0/nodes/sop/attribtransfer

    i don't know if you can use it in Houdini Apprentice

    may need to re-install and try it one day if they ever get G3F working in Carrara.

  • XtraDimensionalXtraDimensional Posts: 509

    Ugh, I know this sounds like such an excuse, but I've come down with an upper respiratory bug and I have a horrible sore throat that's affecting my voice. If I feel well enough to get out of bed at some point today or tomorrow, I will make a nice gravelly-voiced tut video. If not, it will have to wait until my dulcet tones have returned.

  • DraagonStormDraagonStorm Posts: 748
    ChangelingChick said:

    Here's what I wrote up. I wrote it specifically for a friend of mine, so... excuse the humor in parts. I intend to expand it with more screenshots eventually, but this might help in the meantime.

    http://the-freehold.com/2015/09/03/texture-conversion-using-daz-studio-and-blender/

    This worked perfect. And the humor was just were needed :)  Thank you so much for doing this!!!!!!

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    Hanabi said:

    Ugh, I know this sounds like such an excuse, but I've come down with an upper respiratory bug and I have a horrible sore throat that's affecting my voice. If I feel well enough to get out of bed at some point today or tomorrow, I will make a nice gravelly-voiced tut video. If not, it will have to wait until my dulcet tones have returned.

    Just say you got Rod Stewart as a voice coach and you'll be fine...

  • ChangelingChickChangelingChick Posts: 3,209
    DraagonStorm said:
    ChangelingChick said:

    Here's what I wrote up. I wrote it specifically for a friend of mine, so... excuse the humor in parts. I intend to expand it with more screenshots eventually, but this might help in the meantime.

    http://the-freehold.com/2015/09/03/texture-conversion-using-daz-studio-and-blender/

    This worked perfect. And the humor was just were needed :)  Thank you so much for doing this!!!!!!

    Glad to hear it :D I also have used this method to get the seams on the gens texture to match up. The interior portion is a train wreck because the meshes don't match BUT the seams are the part that seem to give people issue, and this will give you a very nice transition for them without losing detail in the area. Just be sure to avoid the edges when you paint the interior portion. 

  • cosmo71cosmo71 Posts: 3,609

    well blender, I also have no clue how this programm works, have done one or two things with it (really little things) and also these have cost me a lot of time. So I guess I have to wait until a converter comes out one day, hopefully, so I convert my v4 texture to G3F

  • RedzRedz Posts: 1,459
    edited September 2015

    Gah, I've followed your wonderful tutorials to the letter (or so I thought) but the baked textures are coming out as a horrid garbled mess. Any idea where I could be going wrong?

    This is the torso for example :(

    Blanktorso.jpg
    500 x 500 - 77K
    Post edited by Redz on
  • ChangelingChickChangelingChick Posts: 3,209

    I do actually! It looks like you are using 1 blank image for every mat zone on your g3f. You need to have 1 blank image with its own unique name for every mat region on the g3f. If, on the other hand, you combined *all* the mat zones into one on the g3f, you'll need to redo that part with just the only the matzones that use the same template (lips, face, ears and eyesocket as one, arms and fingernails as another, etc) and then assign each area its own blank image.

  • RedzRedz Posts: 1,459

    Thanks Changeling. I have separate material groups on each model to correspond with the G2F textures layout and I do have separate blank images for each material zone. Perhaps I'm not assigning them correctly in blender. Will try again. Thanks. :)

  • ChangelingChickChangelingChick Posts: 3,209

    There's also a possibility that the poses/shapes don't match. You might want to also check that you didn't move them off kilter with one another.

  • RedzRedz Posts: 1,459

    Maybe this is a really silly question, but when regrouping the textures for G2F and G3F should I be grouping them both in the same way (G2 or G3 layout), or differently, according to their Daz texture groupings? Or does it matter? Thanks. 

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001

    Use the texture groupings, if for no other reason, it's easier to keep track of everything that way.

    Also, double check your bake from-to settings in Blender.

  • j cadej cade Posts: 2,310
    edited September 2015

    Group them according to each figure's original texture groupings (i.e. the gen2 figure will have torso, face, limbs and the gen 3 figure will have torso, head, arms, legs)

     

     

     

    The black lines from the projected textures could indicate that your exported gen2 figure also did not have the same uvs as the texture that you are trying to convert. Which makes this the perfect opportunity to clear up something I mentioned in passing but didn't actually explain because I forgot/am kind of terrible at explaining things:

    Towards the start of the tutorial I said "Unless you're only planning on converting 1 uv set you'll also want to install this http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/UV/Copy_Paste_UVs" But didn't explain anything about it because evidently I like to be mysterious (I totally forgot to).

     

    Much like in daz studio objects in blender can have multiple uvs (there is a hard limit though for some reason its either 7 or 9)

    Suppose you've set up your gen 2 figure with all the consolidated material zones and converted some textures, and everything has gone great but so far you've only converted the default uvs, and you really want to convert Lillith's texture

    Your modified gen 2 figure has the base uvs and you don't want to set up another figure the same way.

    Install the add-on linked above

    • To do this download the add-on
    • In blender go to file>user preferences
      • Select the add-ons tab 
      • At the bottom of the page hit install from file
      • find the .zip you downloaded and select it
      • in the search bar on the right type uv and set the supported level to "community" to make sure the add-on is actually enabled (there should be a check mark next to it)
      • hit save preferences so you don't have to do this again

    in DAZStudio export a gen2 figure (at base resolution) and with the uvs you want (in the surfaces tab select the whole figure and set the uv set to whatever the texture you are trying to convert has)

    For ease of use I store this new object file in the same place all my other base meshes go with a name like gen2_lilithUVs  (For the rest of the tutorial this object is going to be referred to as gen2_alt*UVs to differentiate it from the gen 2 figure you have already modified

    *other than exporting at base resolution it doesn't matter what the object looks like*

     

    In blender, import gen2_alt*UVs into your scene with your previously modified gen 2 figure.

    • select gen2_alt*UVs
    • go into edit mode
    • make sure all the vertices are selected
    • hit "U"
    • there should be an option at the bottom of the list "copy/paste UVs"
      • If there isn't this option the add-on was probably not installed correctly
    • scroll to that and then select "copy uvs"
    •  
    • go back to object mode and select your original gen 2 figure (the one set up to transfer textures)
    • go to the object data tab (click the icon with the 3 vertices next to the wrench) (side note I literally had no Idea what this tab was actually called before writing this up)
    • You should see something labled "UV maps" in this tab
    • Under UV maps hit the + on the right to create a new UV map
      • label it something useful like "lilithUVs" so you don't come back later and have a bunch of unnamed UVs you don't know what to do with
      • Also hit the camera icon next to your new UVs so that they are the ones actually used when you bake your textures
    • With your new Uvs selected (they should be highlighted, if they aren't click on them) go into edit mode
    • Once again hit U>copy/paste UVs>paste UVs
    • Your new uv map should now match the uvs from gen2_alt*UVs
    • you can now delete the gen2_alt*UVs object

    Carry on with adding all your textures as you would normally (for instance if you did add the lillith Uvs to your textyre converting object now would be the optimum time to add all the lilith textures and convert them)

    @ChangelingChick Do you mind if I place a link to your improved version of the tutorial on the original post? So future people who read this thread don't get intimidated mb my directions and not read through the thread and find your clearer directions. (also if you want to read through this mess and translate it into English, I and the rest of the world would be much obliged)

    Post edited by j cade on
  • RedzRedz Posts: 1,459

    thanks to everyone for the input. I got it to work, finally! *happy dance* And my next request would have been a simple explanation about transferring alternate UVs. So your post is very timely indeed :D 

  • j cadej cade Posts: 2,310

    Woo!   Hopefully you can follow this one without too much in the way of headaches. Explaining things is really not my forte (in the original draft of my directions I went on this whole tangent about thinking of the baking method as tentacles flying out from each pixel of color to the new mesh, which is genuinely how I eventually figured out how to do it). 

    Also the forum does weird things to the fonts of bullet points which is not helping me to be able to read through to make sure I didn't accidently tell everyone to burn their computer down in honor of cthulhu.

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