Hi, all Judging from the quantity and quality of textures offered both in freestuff and store, there must be quite a few tex wiz's here. I'd be grateful for some advice. My problem is how to achieve a distortion-free mapping of a new mesh, in order to apply a pattern (polka dots, for instance), or a structure (fur, quilting, whatever), or a picture or logo. I've tried out Zbrush (won't do it), and BodyPaint (might, but the UV map is split into a million fragments, useless for anyone else). So my questions are : o Is a distort-free mapping possible o Is DeepPaint + Tex Weapons the only answer o Have anyone tried Tru-V from Positron o ...or have I overlooked something (happens ;-) ) Thanx

I think DP + TW is the only easy answer right now. Most everything else is too expensive. -JH.

You might look at Bodypaint 3D from Maxon. A lot of people like it. Texture Weapons (so far as I know) triangulates your model, which is sometimes not acceptable, and a real flaw with this program. I don't have Bodypaint, but there is a demo to download and try (likewise with Deeppaint/Texture weapons) Tru-V was ok in it's day, but but the Version 2 upgrade never saw the light of day, and in truth, you can do more with Steve Cox's UVMapper. If you want to look for yourself, Tru-V is now at http://www.texturetools.com/truv.shtml Don't forget uVMapper. It doesn't have the fancy Atlas/Meridean UV modes, but you can do A LOT with UVMapper. Steve Cox is also working on UVMapper Pro, which should offer more sophisticated tools, and at a much more reasonable price (I hope! :) Regards- Lemurtek

It depends on what you are mapping. UV mapping programs work like a light beam shining on a spiders web in front of a white wall, and the shadow of that web is your UV map. If the web is flat on to the light and the wall, i.e. all are lined up you get a very accurate shadow and UV map. That is fine for flat objects and objects that are rectangular (box mapping). The problems start with cyclindical and spherical type objects. When you shine that light through the mesh to get the shadow on the wall you get distortions at the sides because the mesh has depth at the sides. Try Planer mapping a Poser figure to see what I mean. The UV mapping that comes inherant with Poser figures is a form of unwrapped mapping, in other words the mesh areas that are compressed on the standard UV map are unwrapped using sophisticated programs. It is possible to do this manually in UV mapper but it is a nightmare. Deep Paint 3d and Bodypaint (as far as I know) use a form of mercator mapping. The old globe map split up into many slices or segments like an orange. This works to an extent on sperical and cylindrical objects. However, there are problems when these objects have indents and protrusions like a human face (the eyes area, nose etc). What happens in all these programs as far as I can see is a compromise. Because if you think about it you are trying to map onto a 2d picture area, an area greater than it can contain. In order to do this distortion of some of the surface has to take place. Alternativly as far as I know when you paint directly onto a model, the map is distorted to compensate. However try over painting that map with a regular square pattern and then render and as far as I know the squares will be distorted. There is one other solution, to map many sections of the mesh seperately to get as many flat or near-flat sections as possible but this would be a nightmare to paint in a 2D program. Just a few thoughts STORM

only in the 3d map is invented which use 3d pixel, each is independent from other. ZB has no mapping feature, all that you "Can't" is because of the uvmap associated with the OBJ importing into ZB. BP has basic uvmap than DP. DP use TW to generate complex UVmap, but is quite slow. UVMapper is always the answer, I remap the obj in cynlider mapping so the seams of head, leg, arms are at rear,rathee than at side. but this way collar is a compromise.

To expand upon a question that I asked in the ZBrush thread, let's say I use DP/TW to add advanced mapping to a standard Poser figure (P4 man or woman, Victoria, Michael, clothing, etc). I then apply the texture and use it for myself, and all is great. But then later on I decide I want to sell or share this texture map. In order to do that, it seems that I have to use UV Mapper to create a UVS file that I can distribute with my texture map, so that other people can take the texture and apply it to their own standard P4 characters (because I cannot distribute the OBJ file as written out of Deep Paint 3D). As Lemurtek said above, DP/TW triangulates the model, so it seems the geometry is altered. The 3D object from DP imports into UV Mapper just fine, and you can create a UVS file. But when you try to apply that UVS file to the standard P4 geometry, it doesn't work (at least, it hasn't for as many times as I've tried ). Maybe UV Mapper Pro will be the answer (crosses fingers) ... or does anyone know of a workaround? Denise

When I did Natalia's body I created morphed versions of the front and back halves of the mesh that opened it out for planar mapping. This was done in my modeling program, simply by moving vertices and polygons. I then used UVMapper to apply a planar map to the distorted meshes, then exported the UVs and applied them to the undistorted versions. I had to go through a couple of iterations, using the trial-and-error method, to achieve a reasonably distortion-free surface. When I was happy with it I imported the mapped front and back halves into Poser and let it weld them back together.

dcort - You did a WONDERFUL job on that model and on the mapping. It is one of the easiest characters ever to texture. My compliments. 8-) That is a really good idea. Back to the drawing board! (Thanks for the tips). Denise

dcort- Great idea, and thanks for the tip! Natalia has about the nicest mapping I've ever seen. I wondered how you did it.

jeff... did you say 'everything else' is too expensive? like $1200 for deeppaint and texweps ISNT???? ::trying to figure that one!:: yes! the uvs saving bit in uvmapper is killer. you can pose the figure in poser (or morph it, even better! or both!) to get it to face the right way for uvmapping, then apply that map to your default model.

Something I did once: Morph the item to be planar, UV map the morphed part, then copy the UV coordinates into the original.

Hi All, I use Maxons bodypaint 3D for my textures for poser and Cinema 4DLX6 of course. you simply export you poser figure as a .3ds open it in bodypaint and start painting right on the model it automatically creates an coordinated wireframe exportable texture map of the model you import and there really NO is substiute for painting directly on your 3D model. Bodypaint 3D does every thing that the ill fated " Metacreations painter3d" promised, but failed, to do i highly recommend it

Thanx loads for all your info, gals and guys. It seems that a lot of people other than me are fighting the good fight against unsatisfactory UV's. I gather there's basically three solutions: o Use UVmapper, a bit of ingenuity and a lot of hard work o Empty your bank account and buy BodyPaint (and accept the fact that no non-BP user can use the UV templates) o Empty your bank and buy Deep Paint + Tex weps - and you'll need some ingenuity to use the results. On balance, I think I'll go for BodyPaint. Now I'll just have to spend some time filling up my bank account before emtpying it. Thanx, all. Cheers, thip

I wonder how mocap use *.3ds in BP ? SHouldn't it be *.obj to retain the uvmap ? BTW, thip, you will find it ends up with uvmap issue created in uvmapper. I also use Painter 6 to make maps, it might be cheaper and quicker in some aspect. Painter 6's impasto is a good source for making bump-based map. Bu the other way, get BP (and C4D) now, future C4D V 7 will support radiosity and caustic which is faster than other peers. By the nexy way, get duck's obj2max and max2obj free pluggies for Max 4 ( if you have )at http://www.habware.at/duck4.htm (great free Max Plugin)

I tested the new HAB OBJ plugins and found they are not as good as their verions 3 peers, the uvmap is not right in max 4. Sorry if this was a wrong info. I havetried to contacted duck give feedack and to seek the solution.

Thip: who told you that textures from BP3D cant be used by non BP owners??? once you import your mesh BP3D creates a UV map of the mesh that is painted on in real time as you paint directly onto the model itself this "quick and dirty texture" was done in about 8 minutes on a michael head imported from poser as a 3Ds mesh i was immediately able to map it back onto michael in poser and onto the same 3ds mesh imported into Bryce4 Long Live Maxon!!! Mocap

3ds ? i tried so the mesh was triangulated and ...I would stick to export as obj.

I was importing poser.3ds into C4D, it was unusable as the mesh is badly simplified then I imported it in bp3d as shown, the uvmap is.. well.. I can paint on the figure, but i still like to export/import as obj. cheers

I was importing poser.3ds into C4D, it was unusable as the mesh is badly simplified then I imported it in bp3d as shown, the uvmap is.. well.. I can paint on the figure, but i still like to export/import as obj. btw,using 3ds ends up dozen of maps for skin, eyeballs, iris... while using obj, you can just paint on one map for all. Am I right ? cheers

I will certainly try it as an .OBJ if that will make things that much more easier thanks guys Mocap

Hi, all Great to see the last word's not said yet. Mocap: I merely said that the TEMPLATES for UV that you can get from BodyPaint are useless outside BP. As you can see in Mocap's post 12 above, the UV map is so fragmented that noone could make sense of it outside BP. Of course this is not true if the object you paint already has a nice optimized UVmap, as is the case with the official Poser figures. But try optimal-mapping a self-made object and you'll see what I mean 8-( PoserPro, you lucky devil: you're even more evil than JeffH ;-) Much as I'd love to, an amateur such as myself can't afford apps such as Deep Paint, let alone 3DS Max :-( My tools are Poser, Bryce, TrueSpace and a magazine freebie copy of Amapi (seems to be the arsenal of quite a few people on the forum). Maybe I should try selling something in the forums to earn some money for software - but to do that I need the knowhow to make decent UVs for my stuff.... ;-) Whines...I mean cheers, thip