Hello I own Maxon's Bodypaint 1 (it came with Cinema Studio Bundle 8). I would like to know if it's possible to use it, to create textures for the DAZ characters like V3 and M3, while respecting the same layout of the official DAZ templates for the models. Is there someone who already did that, and could you please share some basic useful tips? (not artistic tips, I mean technical tips on how to handle the UV and templates issues with Bodypaint) I know that it's possible to use Deep Paint for Poser, but I never read anything about Bodypaint for Poser, so I am beginning to wonder, that there could be imcompatibilities or technical problems perhaps? thanks Orio

I got Body Paint a week ago, and I have only begun to experiment, but I would like to know if you get it right and how to do it. Sorry I couldn't help.

I have had it a long time and have yet to do one correctly...please let me know if you figure it out. Sharen

Ditto for me also I've had it awhile myself. I'm thinking of upgrading to bodypaint 2.0 though have you guys seen it? It looks like it might be a winner.

If you have loaded a Poser character into C4D/Bodypaint, and you can see all textures in the C4D-materials, you can manipulate these textures by painting directly on the 3D-model. No need to handle anything UV-related (if you NOT change the method the texture is attached to the model). All UV-related informations are part of the loaded object-file. C4D/Bodypaint has no problems to handle things corectly as stated in obj-files saved with Poser. After saving the (manipulated) textures, they are usable directly with Poser. (sorry for my english - I'm from Germany :) )

Bodypaint 2 has more UV-related features. The main program itself is not so far away from Version 1. More special things for real professional 3D use - not Poser (sorry, couldn't resist :) )

Hi ADP, I am a customer of yours. :-) Very nice work you make, I have bought the bandanna and the blouse. Could you please explain me one thing. Say I export a poser figure as OBJ (do I need to check anything in particular in the export dialog?). Ok now I paint over it in Bodypaint. Now I want to save what I have painted, as bitmaps. And I want to save in the exact format DAZ has used for their figures. This means in case of Victoria 2, a body map and a head map, with the same coordinates, so that my texture maps are standard and can be used on different V2 characters, or on the millennium kids, and so that they can be transformed by the universal texture convertor... In other words, so that they look exactly like if they were painted over the DAZ original template. Can Bodypaint do that, and if yes, do I need to do any particular procedure to do that? Thank you very much!!! Orio

To make clearer what I just wrote: I do not load a textured character in bodypaint. I do load a blank character, that I want to texture myself. So i am not modifying an existing texture (that has UV onto it). I am creating a new one. At the moment of saving it, how can I set Bodypaint to save it with the same precise layout of the DAZ template. OK I think now is clearer :-)

Some information here: http://www.perpetualvisions.com/articles-and-graphics/tutorial-bodypaint-poser.htm

Thanks for the link numanoid. It was an interesting reading. I am of the impression, however, that in the tutorial, Bodypaint creates its own UV bitmap, different from the Poser's default template. Which is what I want to avoid. I'd need Bodypaint to create a bitmap that is exactly like the DAZ templates. Orio

numanoid, that's good for a single "layer" UV mapping, but Daz figures are frequently multi-layered (Head and body parts overlap on the UV plane and are two separate texture images). From my experience with BP, it will not handle this well unless you are careful to connect the parts that reside on each map. Otherwise each part (object) has its own map (and they cannot be combined or mixed together while working on them). For V2, for instance, you must connect everything but the head and eyes to get the body map. But, the tongue, teeth, and inner mouth remain on the head even though they go onto the body map. A little cut and pasting of polygons will need to be done to get them off the head object and connected to the body. Otherwise, the UVs are identical in BP as they would be anywhere else.

Besides, the tutorial references to menus, tabs etc. that look completely different to the Bodypaint version that I am using (the one integrated into Cinema 8, namely Bodypaint 3D V1), to a point that I can not follow the tutorial through.

I happen to be working in BodyPaint v2 today for the first time, and I can tell you that the workflow is much more streamlined than it was in V1 (if you have the money to upgrade). I have made skin textures in v1 for the Maya Doll, but not the DAZ figures. I haven't done any skin textures in v2 yet. I'll give it a try and let you know how it goes. The UV mapping would stay the same, it's getting everything you need on the right texture map. I'm guessing this shouldn't be a problem because in version 2 you're given the option of which parts you want to work on at the same time and whether or not you want to keep them on one map, so you should be able to group the body parts as needed on the same map. I don't think you could do this in v1, but I really didn't work with it much, so I may well be wrong.

Orion: The UV-mapping is part of the obj-file from your Poser-character. You better don't touch anything UV-related. It won't fit in Poser after changing. With Bodypaint Version 1 you can't work on more then 1 map at a time ("layered", as stated before). With Bodypaint V2 you can. But, if you take care of this (switch on the "layer" you want to work with), all will behave as expected. I've done it several times with V1. A hint: Save your textures in PSD-Format and load a UV-Template as a layer into the texture. After loading with Bodypaint, you can switch this layer on and off while working. On not critical parts, change to Photoshop (teeth, gums, thong, etc) if you're more familar with this. Another time: Ignore all UV-related things in Bodypaint. Just load you (PSD-format) texture, paint on the model as you like, save all textures und load it into Poser. It's realy simple. I'm just finishing a texture for V3 with Bodypaint - started with V1, finished with V2 (available at the marketplace soon ;) ).

Thank you much both Redon and ADP. No, I don't have the money now to upgrade to version 2 :-( So i need to make it with version 1 necessarily . ADS, thanks for the great tips, I have one last question for you: so, if I load a model that like Victoria uses two different bitmaps (body and head), will bodypaint load it as two different layers, and as long as I take care to switch layers while I work, as you said, always painting on the correct layer for the part, when I eventually save the textures, the layers will get saved separately onto the same separate bitmap files I have loaded first? Correct? If so, then it's much easier then I thought! Thanks again for the great help, Orio

It's as easy as you thought :)

I'll say this one more time! :) I own Cinema4D R7.3 XL and R8 XL, BodyPaint3D R1 and R2, Poser 4 PP and 5. 1. BP (1 or 2) only displays the UV map for one object at a time. When you load a Wavefront OBJ file with groups, Cinema4D (and BP) considers each group as a separate Cinema4D object. Only one object can be worked on at a time in BP (even with R8's multiselect feature). 2. The UV's are contained in the OBJ file and will be identical to DAZ's layout in any 3D application. Getting them to match the template (or reference texture) images will require some fiddling (because of UV overlapping and C4D's group separation). Even in UVMapper this is needed because it displays all of the UVs on one UV plane even though they end up as two template/texture images. 3. There is no magical way to know (without reference) which parts of the UV map reside on which image. This is totally arbitrary. As long as UVs don't overlap (and they are not moved or edited in any way) you can actually put them on one image, two images, as many as you like. It doesn't matter. You could literally take each body part and put it on its own image and use all of those (although wasteful) in texturing a figure in Poser. Try it. 4. In order to create a template consistent with those used by Daz (e.g.), you must select the body part objects in Cinema4D/BP that reside on one template and "Connect" them (into one object) doing the same for each template. So, for V2, everything but the head and eyes must be connected to create the proper "Body" template over which you can paint or save the template image. Then the head and eyes must be connected to create the proper "Head" template. But, for V2 still, the tongue, teeth, and inner mouth (part of the head object) reside on the "Body" template. You will have to select their polygons, make them separate objects (from the head), and them "Connect" them to the connected Body object for them to appear on the correct template. All of the UVs will be properly positioned and sized. It's all a matter of getting them together in BPs UV mesh display. Layers in BP are only for texturing, not for "layering" UVs. 5. After doing this, it is a simple matter to save the templates (if the images don't exist already) as unpainted images in BP. You can then paint on the planar UV map or the 3D object View for each "template" using BP and save the results as texture images. If you'd like, I could show a series of images on how to go from loading Victoria 2 geometry into C4D to the point where you have Daz-consistent templates displayed in BP.

Ouch... now I am confused again... Yes, please kuroyume, would you please post the series of images. Thank you much. Orio

...and don't think about remapping something like V3 in C4D and save it as obj again. Maxon still cannot handle the correct order of vertices. If you use the morphs on this obj, they simply don't work. You could use Morphloader though, but it does not import the UV data sigh...

First, this information pertains to Cinema4D R8 with integrated BodyPaint 3D R2 module. Differences between R1 and R2 should not be a factor, but differences may exist between BodyPaint 3D stand-alone and integrated module as well as Cinema4D R7 and R8. The first thing to do is to open the .obj geometry that resides in Poser:Runtime:Geometries. Better to copy the geometry to a new location where you can keep all of the pertinent C4D/BP files. In this case, for V2, the object file is Poser:Runtime:Geometries:ZygotePeople:blMilWom.obj. Once loaded you will have a long list of objects as shown in the first image.

Note that even selecting multiple objects (body parts) will only show the UVs of the first one selected (in this case, chest).

The easiest way to get the relevant sections together in the UV display for BodyPaint is to select those parts which reside on a texture template and Group them (Object Manager "Objects->Group Objects" menu). The image shows the two groupings. Note that after grouping, you should copy all of the texture tags to the grouping Null Object so that they are retained when the grouped objects are connected into one mesh. Also a good idea to copy one of the Smoothing Tags to the grouping Null Object as well.

Select the Head Null Object, choose "Edit->Select Children" from the Object Manager, and then "Objects->Connect" from the Object Manager. This should create a singular object comprised of head, rightEye, leftEye. Do the same thing for the Body Null Object. You can delete the Null Object groups afterwards. Here are the resulting UV maps.

And...

Note that you have overlapping UVs on the Head 'template'. These are the tongue, teeth, and inner mouth of which I spoke earlier. The best procedure for this is: 1. Copy the Head.1 object 2. Multi-select the tongue, teeth, and inner mouth Polygon Selection Tags (Selection 6,8,10 in this instance). 3. Select Polygons from the Attributes Tag section 4. Invert Selection 5. Hit "Del" key to remove all polygons but those belonging to tongue, teeth, and inner mouth. 6. Select and delete all superfluous texture tags, leaving only the three pointing to selection tags 6, 8, 10. 6. Group the new, reduced Head object with the Body object as before (moving all texture tags to grouping Null Object) and connect 7. Delete group Now you should have a Body template like the one shown

Now, you still have the tongue, teeth, and inner mouth polygons, UVs, and selections on the Head object. These must be deleted to finish preparation properly. 1. Multi-select the tongue, teeth, and inner mouth Polygon Selection Tags (Selection 6,8,10 in this instance). 2. Select Polygons from the Attributes Tag section 3. Hit "Del" key to remove the polygons belonging to tongue, teeth, and inner mouth. 4. Select and delete the superfluous texture tags pointing to selection tags 6, 8, 10. Now you should have a Head template like this one.

Good point there, Tintifax. Yes, this will work if you want to make template or texture images, but not for reworking the UV map for, as Tintifax said, C4D has a nasty habit of reordering vertices. Do that in UVMapper (still using caution as reworking the UVs will invalidate all previous textures for that object). From here, you can paint on objects or on the UVs and save the results as image files and they will correspond to exactly to the templates. Kuroyume0161

Thanks for that kuroyume! As I said, I hadn't tried any of the millenium figures that required two maps, but now I'll know how. redon

Thanks very much Kuroyume, for the excellent help. Well... it looks maybe like too much work for the goal. A pricey product like Bodypaint should make such things easy, not complicated. :-( And the fact that Cinema can't handle polygons correctly, says very bad about it's professionality :-(( Now it looks like Cinema's fame of professional quality and ease of use is at least a bit abused. Maybe I made the wrong move and should have gone to Lightwave and Deep Paint instead... a program that call itself "professional" should not pose all such problems with basic procedures like handling vertices of imported objects. I am very, very angry at Cinema and Maxon, at this moment :-(( One last question kuroyume: would Bodypaint 2 make the procedure easier, and with less steps? thanks again Orio

actually it is not quite that complecated you can create multiple textures at once using 3d mode in bp1 all on the same object without splitting it the only time you need to split it is if you want to paint on the flat texture map. if you load the figure as one welded mesh then create a new texture in the texture window the size you want your final texture to be for the body name it SkinBody and assign it to the SkinBody in the material manager. then create a new texture in the texture window and name it SkinHead and assign it to SkinHead in the Materials manager do this for each map you need (for v3 you will need eye map teeth map and trans map if you are doing that one) in the texture window each blank texture will load on top of the last dont worry about that. now in your object manager if you drag the SkinBody texture from the materials manager on top of all of the texture tags that use the skin body and do the same for the head and each of the other maps. now you are ready to paint on the 3d figure, the only issue with this is you will only be able to see all of the textures in the 3d view window, in the texture window you will only see the last texture you loaded. now when painting all you need to do is click on the material you want to paint on in the material manager. when you are finished painting on the model go back into the texture window and hit save all textures dont worry that you can't see them all they will all save seperately. as I said this only works if you want to paint compleatly in 3d mode, but it works fine for me :)

ok let me amend that you can create multiple texture windows and see and work with each texture in texture view too. I didnt think about that before :) I love c4d and Bodypaint!!!

Yes, you can paint "completely in 3D mode" and avoid all of that. But in any case where you need to paint onto the UV map, there is no real recourse. I tend to do a little of both. Note that I imported the default geometry, so groups were there to begin with. You could load the default figure in Poser and export as Wavefront OBJ, welding everything. But, you still have to separate the maps to get the proper texture "templates" to work on. Either way, you're doing about the same amount of work in general (loading Poser, loading figure, exporting figure, and then splitting OR loading geometry, grouping geometry, and connecting geometry). It all takes about the same time one would guess. One thing that I should mention! Once you do this for a particular "geometry", like Victoria 2 or Michael 3, you can save those results in C4D format and NEVER have to do it again. Just reload and start a new texture!!!

Here's a quicker way. 1. Export V2 from Poser with ONLY welds on. Do not modify the figure in any way! 2. Load this into C4D. 3. Copy the object. Name the first Body, the second Head 4. On one object, using the Selection Tags, select all polygons that belongs on the head. Delete polygons. (You can make this easier by using the Texture View to see which sets of polygons are being selected. Also, make sure to be in Polygon mode). 5. On the other object, select all polygons that belongs on the body. Delete polygons. Now you have two proper templates, the first object is the Body and the second is the Head. It just keeps getting easier! ;)

but there is a way to paint on all the maps this way, as I said in my second post, bodypaint (at least the c4d version) allows you to open multiple texture windows so loading a second texture and simply switching windows is simplicity itself.