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Just now read the above... I do have diff domains for every side of one side boad and one bottom board... the reason they look poor is the bottom is using the same texture/settings as the sides. Haven't figured out why the skinny edges, top/bottom of boards looks very poor... got in a rush to finish so left it as is for my entry... should have gotten it done in time to allow for problems.
Thanks, Wgdjohn. As said before, I hope by the end of this to offer any general conclusions I come to for tackling such a model as this. I think it was said that ten thousand hours or some such is needed to become proficient at 3d work. That would see me doing half a model and two renders!
I put a couple of other images in a new post on the Hexagon thread. I just posted here because the completion of all the mechanical stuff is a landmark and I showed the model here before. I hope it doesn't offend that I've turned up again with this when I've missed out on all sorts of incredible works here and elswhere in the forum.
Drop in anytime... congrats on the landmark.
Just on a basic load there are big poke through issues when I tried it on a basic G2 and also on a George morphed G2 if that helps any
Aiko 6 with background by A_Sunbeam - strange-worlds
Aiko 6 with George morph. Pokeaway 2 used to fix poke through on the arms, still some on the hands.
Thanks for the feedback,. I don't have the George figure,. i've bought very few characters since genesis,.
I'm not seeing any poke through on the base G2 female T pose,. maybe it's a carrara autofit issue,. maybe it's the mesh density,. (it's quite low right now)
I'll mess around with some different vesions, and test more with alternative body shapes.
thanks again :)
I see what I did.... I just read your post asking for G2 so I just loaded up G2M
just looked at your image to see in fact it was for G2F - which loads no problems....
Been off studying content with UVMaps... can't say I'm now super smart... hah... just a tiny bit less ignorant perhaps. On my travels I first visited Tangy Apple Orchard looking at how Tim set up the UVMaps for a crate and a ladder... both are mapped very nice and tidy of course. I did get a bit confused that there was only 1 domain name for a multipart polymesh... finally had to look at some other Carrara content to make sure I wasn't going nuts... whew good thing I did. If I understand it right it is the UVMap which determines what parts/faces of a polymesh get assigned to different places on a texturemap.
That's why a texture map is designed from a UVMap... to get the textures in the correct order and direction of course.
Not I need to re-examine Shader Domains... to find out when I don't want more than one. I do like options to later change a shader to reflect look different without needing to change the texture map.
Hi John :)
Yes :)
some models use different shading domains,. but some of those domains use the same texture map,. just with different settings,. to get a shininer, bumpier,...different look.
EG: Most figures use the same Face texture ,. for the Lips,. and the face,. but the lips have a different shading domain and that shader can be adjused to make it more glossy without effecting the rest of the face,.
Same thing applies to fingernails / toenails ,. eyes etc
Normally you'll want to create different shading domains to make UV unwrapping easier,. and to make texturing easier,.
things like a figure (human/animal/insect etc) are easier to unwrap if you have differnt domains to simplify unwrapping,.
take the arms/legs,. which are essentially cylindrical ,. and those are easier to flatten when they're not attached to the torso.,.
other areas like the head, or eyes, where you'd want to have more detail in the texture maps,. it makes sense to make those separate domains,. so that you can maximise the space on the texture maps.
Thanks for verifying I'm not on the wrong track... by more detail for certain areas this could have larger texture maps for specific domains? If I understand correctly they, those areas, would be proportional in size to other areas... just squeeze a larger tmap into it's area... no that can't be right... Perhaps I'm wrong... and maybe you mean they both use same sized tmaps but one with much more detail in some areas?
If you think about the texture maps on a Daz figure, the head and torso texture maps tend to be the same size (4096x4096 for example) but the head is rather smaller than the torso, so when applied, the head map will give finer detail, and that is where you normally want it.
Got it... thanks Andy and Phil.
I messed around with a simple cube to test with. I set up with texture domains first, UnWrapped it, Exported and painted diff colors on all sides. Strange thing is there are white curved hightlight/looking lines on sides... apparantly I've done something wrong... they also appear in a black scene with only the camera and one light. I would'nt think that it would have anything to do with mapping method but as always I can be wrong.
Is there an easy way to scale all selections at the same time... or do I need to scale one at a time. I did scale these all at once but I could't go larger without one or more getting out of size... seemed to want to wrap back upon itself. I found it easier to start out with snapToGrid on then turn it off and line up closer with move tool for any that did not snap nicely, in correct position.
In the UV mapper,. there's a set of "layout" options .
In the situation where you wanted to have a more detailed texture on one face of this cube,.
you'd set one face to a new domain,. then you can simply scale that face to the full extent of the UV area.
you'd have a shading domain which covers 5 faces,. and another shading domain which covers the remaining face.
The single face domain will have a larger possible texture area than each of the other five faces. (with the same size of texture map) since it's using more of the available uv space.
In the "Operations" tab of the UV mapper,. you can select this single face domain,. and use "fit to UV's" to maximize the uv grid.
In the "Display" area of the UV mapper,. you can either "view all" shading domain layouts,..or a single shading domain layout.
Sometimes you'll want to expand the edges of your texture colour (with a "same colour" border) to accommodate edge bleed,. but your example cube has strange diagonal corner bit's :) which don't appear to be that,.
not sure what's causing that :(
Andy, Thanks for all the help. :)
Regarding those strange diagonal white coloured lines... had to think what else I might have changed. Since it's a default cube I've gotten into the habit of turning Creased edges OFF in order to stiffen them myself. Below is the pic with Creasing ON.
Now I can get back to reading what the manual has to say and playing around with some of my objects with more domains
That will help a lot!
Places here where UV Mapping and UnWrapping are discussed or linked to.
In Links:
Earlier in this hear thread:
I've spent the past few days just locating all the places where it starts up and divided those places into as "part (#)"... since a lot goes on between the parts.
So what took me so long to divide it up?? It's hard, for me, to not become distracted by all the other advice and examples and videos.
BTW: I am adding another video by mmoir which needs to be here for all to see. It's now listed under YouTube Videos on page 1.
[edit] I've gone nuts and added even more links today.
Crazy John's Objects: A Holey Sphere
Inspired by generate mesh around vertex lines to make 3D lines like pipes thread and Stezza's instructions... I did stray a bit though.
What I did as Stezza did what to create a simple default sphere... before his next step I change smoothing to 1 and converted which made it a bit smoother in appearance and of course a few more polys to work with. Then, as instructed I used extract around with the entire object selected and started selecting the main or rather larger polys and emptied all of them. Then as instructed again I added thickness... however I first used -.03 then .03 which gave me line segments between the outer and inner faces. Turning smoothing up to 2 this time to create what you see... however I did not want to convert it again resulting on an enormous amount of polys. Oh... I also emptied the end polys after the extrude abound... just to make it even more different looking.
Now I need to find something to do with it. How about I create a morph to open an end up to stuff some garlic bulbs in. :)
Question(s): What is the difference if any between a Morph and a Morph Target? Could it be that what or rather where on an object I create a morph becomes the morph target?
A Morph Target is the morphed shape of the mesh. A Morph is the action to move the shape from the base shape to the morphed shape. It's a subtle distinction and could probably be used interchangeably in some circumstances. Quite often Morph Target is used where you are saving a morphed shape as an external object. For example, I could create some Morph Target shapes in Carrara and save them as OBJs, in order to create Morphs for a figure in Daz Studio.
Great... much as I understood it but you have made it much more clear. If I have it correct when I speak of creating a Morph I'm actually creating the Morph Target... then the Morph slider which adjusts the Morph from it's original shape/position to it's Target, the full morph amount.
DAZ Studio if I understand right can read/understand Morphs created in Carrara. I don't get/understand fully why I'd need to save a DAZ character/figure that I added a morph to as an object. Would everything be retained if loading an OBJ and importing via the Transfer utilitly in DS. Please excuse my Carrara to DS illiteracy.
A video by Vyusur showing how to create a Rock in Carrara using Create Organic. A must see even for those familiar with create organic.
wgdjohn - if you are creating morphs for a Daz figure, let's say G2F, which will be usable in Daz Studio, you can't create the morph directly in Carrara - but you can create the Morph Target. Zero the figure in Daz Studio, set the Resolution Level to Base (Important!) and Export as an OBJ. Import that into Carrara and use the Vertex Modeller to adjust the mesh, making sure that you only move the existing points around, you must not add or subtract any geometry. Once you have the shape that you want, Export that from Carrara, again as an OBJ, and it is useful to name the file with the name of the morph that you want the user to see when the morph is created in DS. So you have now created the Morph Target, but you have yet to create the Morph. If you are creating multiple shapes, it can be useful to create a specific folder and have all of your new Morph Targets in there.
Back in DS, load G2F and then run Morph Loader Pro (MLP). This allows you to create multiple morphs at once. Navigate to the folder you created in MLP and select all of the Morph Target files that you created in the previous step. Ensure that the scaling is set appropriately (if you exported the original OBJ with Carrara scaling then you need to Import into Morph Loader Pro with Carrara scaling). There are some other options and settings, but from memory you don't really need them - one involves naming the Morphs which will be created, but if your files are named with your Morph name, this is the automatic choice. Click OK and Morph Loader Pro loads the Morph Targets and creates the Morphs - you will get a little report which hopefully should say that X number of new morphs have been added. If you get any errors, the most likely cause is that the number of vertices do not match.
Your new morphs will be in their own section, I think it is called Morph Loader Pro, or Morphs - you'll spot it! You can now test the morphs, and use the Settings option in each morph to specify a range for them, and you can change where they appear in the list. (There are tutorials that will show you this stuff).
Once you are happy with everything, don't forget to save them using Save As/Support Asset/Morph Asset. You need to enter a Vendor Name and a Product Name, even if you are not planning to sell these, choose some appropriate names. You can select to save just these new morphs, it presents you with a list.
Once you are done, whenever you load the figure (G2F in our example) again, the morphs will be available to you to use, mix and match with the default morphs and any morphs you have purchased for the figure. And if you think they are good enough and interesting enough, and having gone to all this trouble, why not offer them as a product to Daz - or another vendor site, or as a freebie.
P.S. In retrospect, I am sure that there are tutorials that I could have pointed you to rather than writing all this out! Of course the Carrara part can be done in most 3D modelling packages.
Not that important but can save one step. Just load Genesis, G2F, or G2M normally in Carrara from the content browser. In the vertex modeler, turn off subdivsion (turn smoothing to zero). Edit shape to make your morph. Save as an obj at the preset for Daz Studio Morphs. In Daz Studio, when it comes time to load the morph, use the obj preset for Carrara. That will keep the proportions correct. Same thing but you don't have to export the figure as an obj from Daz Studio and import in Carrara.
Here is an example. Note this morph example is complicated because it changes the ratio of limb proportions in addition to shape.
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/2373966/#Comment_2373966
Diomede - yes, quite right. Using the export from DS can also be used to create morphs even for characters that do not load or work well in Carrara. The important thing is to use Base mesh level / no subdivision when saving and loading files (even if subdivision will be applied to the final figure) otherwise the vertex count will not match.
don't forget after loading your morph in DS to adjust rigging to shape...
Thanks Phil, Easy but not like I thought. I recall your creating a morph for horns to a figure, V4 likely, in one of your IS tutorials. Now that I know how to save morph targets... I'm wondering if I can do something similar for horns and *also* set up each horn to have a new and same Shading Domain in Carrara then resave the UVMap as a new name... perhaps I'd be better off making them as Props?? I do want to steer clear of Geographs.
Diomende, Great detailed explanation... saw that earlier but didn't read all of it very well... desire to know hadn't boiled to surface of tiny brain at the time... I'd started watching SickleYield's video but had to shut down too soon... never made it back.
Thanks for pointing out ERC FREEZE... without that all would be for naught.
John, what video?
Vyusur, I thought it was the one below. Note... she uses Blender 2.75 and says it should/will apply to other modelers. I'm leaving it since it refers to modeling.
Ooops that's not it... This one for Genesis 2... it's the one from Diomedes thread.
Thank you, John! The video (the first one) is extremely useful. It reminds me of my favorite workflow in a slightly new way. Some things in this video are absolutely new and very useful for me. I use sculpturing very rare. Prefer to do everything manually. But I'm going to try this way of sculpturing.
Kewl... glad I helped.