This looks more like self advertising then pirating issues. Those freaks that share stuff among each other don`t hurt you a bit. I doubt they care what they DL and who is author of  what.

People are divided into those who like to have legit stuff and those that would never spend any money on anything. If you buying regularly on MP, why the hell would you go to pirate site and DL pirated stuff. Is that make sense to you, it sure does not to me.

Tihomir

I have start to use 3D Coat, its really impressive software. Anyway description that pop up when you put cursor over any tool or command is making learning curve minimal. It actually say what tool or command do not just name of it which is useless in other apps.

Tihomir

Yes, only CS3 and 4 Extended support 3D formats, and allow painting on model. In PS that is just basic tool, BodyPaint is specialized application for UV mapping and texture painting. You can paint on several channels at once, for example Color, Reflection, Displacement, projection painting allow you to paint seamlessly. What you see in working window is just preview of texture, render to see final result. Anyway preview resolution can be increased up to 4K but that slow down the work.

Thank you for the link, looks like good one :)

Tihomir

Max is hi end app for professional use, if not used properly you will not see good results. So its easier if you render with Poser firefly, it will give decent results and is way way more simpler to use than Max. Besides paying 3K (for Max) for rendering of Poser figures is bit too much ;)

Tihomir

If 3DCoat have UV editor, it cant match these two by far. From what I saw its for different purposes :)

Tihomir

Lolol, you have just overlooked the option :)

Tihomir

Attach a file :)

Click on Browse and load image from your HDD, no need for hosting it online :)

Tihomir

Well BodyPaint is professional tool used by big boys in movies like Spiderman, etc. With BodyPaint you get ultimate control over every aspect, you cant unwrap mesh easy with advanced tools and then paint textures. Neat thing is that you can paint Color, Bump, Displacement, Specular, Reflection, etc maps in one go. So when you stroke color on model BP make that stroke on each channel, it have very similar tools as PS and even support PS brushes. And with BP comes C4D which is also major app for modeling, animation, etc.. PS CS3 and CS4 obj support is still very young and cant be used for serious work :)

Tihomir

Buy CS4 and BodyPaint, price is little bigger for both but you then have two beasts in arsenal. CS4 for usual work and BP for UV editing and painting directly on 3D model, with BP you get C4D too. So thats three major apps :)

Tihomir

Yep, UVLayout has his roots from CySlice if I`m not mistaken. CySlice is hi end retopology app made by headus too. Guess you either like it or hate it cause of hot keys way of work, but there is no doubt its very powerful tool that make tedious UV mapping tasks fun to do. Didnt use Unfold3D, so cant compare the them. UVL is updating constantly with new tools, and its getting better and better. Phil listen for suggestions and implement them as soon as possible. Price is bargain for tool of this calibre, am not advertising anyone just saying its well worth the money. There is lots of tuts on site made by Phil that get you started in no time.

Tihomir

Now you talking, if you can pull of all that that would be awesome. For organics you have UVL, Unfold 3D, and few more that do their job just right. But for hard surface you still have to spend time because its not hard but tedious as hell. I use BP for hard surface, his Interactive mapping is big help but still not perfect.

Tihomir

Maybe try to find solutions for hard surface models. They are for sure more tedious than organic :)

Tihomir

Paul, yes UVL can copy the most complex mesh UVs as long as topology is the same. All you need to do is select one edge (not loop) from master and then same edge from all other, press SPACE and bang all is stacked 100% perfect. Neat thing is that only original must be mapped, others will spread according to him once copied :)

Looking forward to see what you will make odf :)

Tihomir

Collision detection sound like very intriguing idea, if you can pull that off that would be awesome. Flattening algos. depends from mesh to mesh how they will behave, there is always room for improving. UVL is fantastic, but its good to be ambitious and try to get it better.

Paul are you talking about copying UVs, UVL have that too and you can choose to stack them in one place or distribute them on U or V :)

Tihomir