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The random deleting of seams is really really really ticking me off. 80% of my time has been hunting down and redoing seams.
Working on my model (UV mapping) in Blender which is absolutely free program. IMO, Blender is the most convenient UV editor and texture painter.
I find Blender incredibly hard to use, but if I can't keep Carrara from bugging maybe I'll just slam my hand in the door a bunch until I learn it.
Am I doing something wrong, or is 'propensity to deleting/losing seams' just how it goes with Carrara?
Uvmapping takes practice, no matter which program you use. However, some programs have more uvmapping tools than others. I regularly model and uvmap my own toonish figures and props for the Carrara monthly challenges. Uvmapping in Carrara works for me. Although I did used to have problems similar to what you are describing, that is not the case anymore. Hard for me to say if before I was mistaking doing it wrong for Carrara losing the seams. Or, it could be that because I am doing fewer revisions now, there are fewer opportunities for Carrara to lose the seams.
I use Carrara for almost all of my modeling and uvmapping because I am so familar with it. Although I am a happy advocate of Carrara, if you are going to be frustrated no matter which program you use to uvmap, might as well be one with more tools. The only thing I would say againt that approach, is that by doing everything in one program I can iteratively make changes to mesh, uvmap, 3dpaint, displacement maps, etc.
It's losing one or more seams 90% of the time, which is just... weird. I suppose I could remove all the seams and start over, but I have no idea why. I mean, I almost have it right where I want it, if it would stop dropping the seams.
Is there a way to separate connected polygons in UV map after unwrapping? I tried 'detach polygons' but that didn't seem to do anything.
And it's definitely Carrara. I hit unwrap while staring at a seam and parts of the seam just... vanish.
I lost my seems in many different programs: in Silo, Hexagon, rarely in Carrara and never in Blender. I love Carrara for it's lights, for it's rigging, for some functions that reminds me 3d max and many other things, but I find Blender extremely fast, easy and stable soft.
Every time I try to use Blender I'm filled with rage in about 10 minutes. Like, I have yet to figure out the camera controls.
Because like most things for 3d, it seems, all the instructions either cost money or are in long videos which I can't stand.
Will, there are many simple and pretty short video tuts for beginners on Youtube. For example:
I'm in the same case with C4D that I use as bridge with Realflow!
I never tested Blender, but with all that I read in this forum, I'm very happy with Carrara, but all depend of your needs...
Finally got it to unwrap without bugging out, so rendering my first 'clumsily textured' test. Basic colors, need to add a lot of details and bump/displacement.
And then rigging. Hoo boy.
Here's simple paint job so far. Heh.
There are some weird spots in the uv map, but it worked out pretty well. Just took several hours to keep trying stuff until it stopped bugging.
(With a quick break to try unwrapping in Hexagon and Blender before remembering how much I really don't like those programs. Pan stopped working in Hexagon for no GD reason I could figure out, and I still have yet to manage to grasp camera movement in Blender, let alone anything else)
I'm not sure I can help much with your UV mapping woes, and I don't know what that creature is, but I wouldn't want to meet one in a dark alley!
When I was very young, I wished I could 'make creatures' as an adult. I was disappointed that geneticists didn't really do that.
Well, now, finally...
Monster in the closet? Looks good.
Is your ultimate goal to use the figure in Studio? The reason that I ask is that it should affect how you model and group the figure during the production process. In Carrara, you can rig without creating polygon groups. Not so in Studio. In Studio, the figure setup process matches bone hiearchy to polygon groups. It can be helpful to model your mesh relatively low poly and with smoothing on. When you have it the way you want, create your shading domains and uvmaps. Also use the NAME function to create polygon groups for each bodypart. Only after the groups and uvs are created do I convert the smoothing to a denser mesh. It is much more difficult to group and uvmap a mesh with a lot of polygons than one with fewer. Not saying that I don't have to go back and redo stuff anyway, but it is good to start out on the right foot.
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Oh, you can up the density after setting stuff up? Good to know!
and this is for Studio. I've done some experiments with rigging to work out some kinks.
Don't want to give you a false sense of security. Chances are that you will be going back and adjusting something anyway. But yes, if you uvmap the low density/smoothed version, then convert the smoothed version to extra vertexes, the uvmap is preserved but made more dense. Same for shader domains.
Is there a way to turn higher density meshes into displacement maps, in Carrara?
I'm thinking primarily of human figures, and the lack of access to HD. Hrm.
The shader room has a tab for displacement maps. There is an example at the following post. It is a statuette with and without the displacement map applied. It also has a screenshot of the displacement tab in the shader room. The example came from a tutorial handbook.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/2053351/#Comment_2053351
Right, I was hoping more for some process to generate displacement maps rather than painting it myself. Heh.
I've updated links to threads on page 1. Added Somewhat New to Carrara Questions - While a lot of things are covered... Modeling is also mentioned more than once. Modeling a room starts there.
Not sure if this is what you want, but as another option, you can export Displacement Maps from the Vertex room if you use the Displacement painting tool. You can find in under File>Export Displacement Map.
I love your Crawler creature!
Are there menu equivalants for all the Key functions? I watched a much more recent video and appears there are. Could it be true that Will had a full head of hair before trying to learn Blender. :)
I watched the full tutorial... it an older one, 2012. Don't get me wrong I've nothing against the program since I've never tried it. Seeing the incredible work you have done with Blender... it is quite capable.
I think it's very good. Sounds like you will be taking it out to dinner soon. :)
John, it doesn't matter that the video is of 2012, there are both menu and keyboard shortcuts for every function. And the shortcuts are shown in the opened menu, like on the pic.
Thanks. Makes much more sense now.
In the Vetex Modeller,. if you have a mesh with Smoothing levels applied to it,.(or a high detailed mesh) you can paint displacement using the brushes (you can also create your own custom brushes) , Carrara comes with a selection of brushes.
Modelling / Painting displacement in this way, creates a displacement map which can be exported from the vertex modeller (FILE /Export Displacement Map)
NOTE: If your model stays in Carrara,. you don't need to export this map,. it'll be saved with the model when you drag it to your Browser (My Objects).
I think he was asking something different 3DAge, like projecting/baking, for example, detail from scanned (high poly) object to low poly proxy (with proper UVs), sort of like like Xnormal software does, I do not think Cararra can do that
Can you take the displacement painted object and bake it into real polygons? (kinda like the convert button on smoothing). Then that mesh could be taken into Xnormal or Surface painter for the hires version.
Or perhaps there's a way to convert displacement maps to normal maps?
I haven't played with displacement painting , but Looking at Diomedes image above, there's at least one project on my whiteboard could benefit from it.
I agree with FifthElement though, I don't think Carrara can do the procedure Will was originhally asking for.