Hi, I'm trying to make paint my own texture for DAZ's Michael 3. Trouble is I'm getting a mismatch at the seams. This is nothing to do with the seam guide, which I've already got, but is a problem of size; as the head and hands on the maps are at a different scale to the body, it means I can't get markings, scars etc to match up. Does anyone know how to do this? Thanks, Rob

Well... either a) Don't paint features across a seam, or b) Be prepared to spend a lot of time and effort... Seriously, I wish I knew. I'm only just venturing into the world of texturing myself, and the only way I've found to solve seaming problems so far is to use a seamless pattern brush over where the seams meet, then use the healing brush to merge them into the rest of the texture.

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I've heard using a program like "DeepPaint" can fix those problems (but then you'd have to create new UV maps too, I think). Like karen1573 said... spend time. Use layers in your paint program and experiment. Not much else you can do.

Seams are the bane of a texturer's life. I can only repeat the advice given by karen1573 and TygerCub. Now you know why top texture artists charge a lot for their work. It's seriously demanding stuff.

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I've heard using a program like "DeepPaint" can fix those problems (but then you'd have to create new UV maps too, I think). Not necessarily ... Deep Paint 3D will also use the existing UV mapping. The only difference is that you paint directly on the 3D model, and then can switch to a 2d view, to paint your textures. It costs a bit though. 8-)

I got the same problem. Texture map done. I gave up on the seams. I rarely ever give up. And to think I labored so long on the map, thinking "Oh, the seams will be easy." Not. I am going to get Z-Brush and see if that will do the trick. This seems to be problem you have to throw money at. Luckily Z-Brush does modeling too, so it will sort of solve more than one problem all at once. Does anyone know if Z-Brush is good enough a 3D paint program to actually fix seams?

Not sure if Z-Brush does what you want with an "overlaid" texture UV like Mike's. By "overlaid", I mean how head uses the whole UV space, as does body, so when you look at it in UVMapper, you see them superimposed one over the other. Z-Brush may end up painting on to both head and body, where they are superimposed. Still might be useful, if you paint details (scars) just near the seam, then use a paint program to separate into the two textures, then copy those details on to your main texture.

Another passing thought: it would be handy to have a seam guide designed to show how scale changes. This would have thin colored lines perpendicular to the seam, which change both thickness AND DIRECTION on either side of the seam, as needed. (If the skin doesn't go in quite the direction you expect, your detail "veers" as it crosses the seam). If 3D paint tool too expensive, here is how I would go about making such a guide: Step 1: In this step, you "make your best guess", starting from the existing seam guide. Make thin colored lines, with white between them. Make about a dozen lines. Step 2: Load texture into figure in Poser. Seamed lines will look terrible! But already you'll learn a lot, by seeing where they don't quite match, and which direction they "veer" at the seam. Step 3: While looking at the texture in Poser, re-work those dozen lines in your paint program. UVMapperPro is even better than Poser at this, as you can instantly see the change. Yes, the texture will be repeated on both body and head - but ignore that, concentrate on the seam area (white out all the parts of guide except along that seam). By now, you will have a useable "seam details" guide - plus you'll be intimately familiar with what's happening at the seam. Step 4: Sleep on it. To solidify in memory what you've learned about behaviour at seams, so that you can subconsciously "do the right thing" as you paint.

Clarification: in the above, you'll be using a SINGLE texture, applying it to both head and body. You'll need to merge the head and body seam guides. Re-size the seam guide images to identical sizes (such as 2000x2000), so that you can combine them. White out all, except near the seams. Load result on to head & body - seam guides should line up. If doesn't, then you need to use UVMapper to make new head & body templates that are both 2000x2000 (or whatever). That is, START with a pair of templates that match; UVMapper is great way to make such. (Hide all but head, save out template for head; Hide all but body, save out template for body) Re-size and re-position the pieces of the seam guide that you need, on to those UVMapper-made templates. Now white out other areas, and overlay the two templates, being careful not to move either by even a single pixel! NOTE: I see that M3 has fine enough detail in its mesh, that determining direction isn't too bad (shouldn't get significant "veer" as cross seam -- just follow one of the mesh edges).

This may be very late but someone later on may be browsing through and find this helpful so I will post... One trick that I have used in the past is to use two different maps as in M2 and M3 since the seams are different. If you are going to make an M3 texture start on a M2 template and just do the areas where seams are for M3 meet and then convert the map to M3. Once you open your new M3 map you will see some areas around the edges are now done and you can now proceed to filling in the interior (main) portions. It seems to work for me Japes