Just signed up and downloaded Mari, a non commercial version of their 3d painting program over at the foundry. on first looks it looks very good, although I'm having an issue with it not showing V4's uv maps separately which is annoying as I don't want head textures on the body, if anyone out there knows how to fix this I would appreciate it.

Hi. The V4 UV maps were set up before the UDIM multi patch system became popular, so all the UV coordinates are layered on a single Patch.

There a few ways to deal with this.

1. Easiest solution is to load V4 - paint the head - save the text - then load another V4 project and paint the body, save the texture, etc etc. for each material grouping of V4

2. Remap the V4 object using a UV mapping software to create multi patches - it's reasonably easy to do with good software

But V4 would require 7 Patches and Mari non-commercial only supports 6 Patches

• so you would either need to create two new UV versions of the V4 object

• or still layer some items on one Patch - say the inner mouth and eyelashes - so that you only have the 6 patches that Mari non-commercial can support.

seams like it is more effort than it needs to be, must admit though apart from that its very good.

https://www.allegorithmic.com/ If you like Mari then you might like allegorithmics full version is affordable . I like Painter

I just saw that Mari was available for free, yesterday. Then the site confused me and I ran away without downloading. Heh. But before I ran off, I noticed that Foundry also had Modo listed. Is Mari related to Modo somehow? Did they strip off Modo's painting capabilities into a standalone package? I've been using Modo for 3D painting almost ten years, my copy is now long outdated, and I will never be able to afford to upgrade. So I'm looking into replacement software.

I guess instead of babbling here, I should just go check out Mari, huh?

@RorrKonn: How much is Substance Painter? If they hide the price from me until and unless I buy, I usually assume it's too expensive for me. I can't see a price listing anywhere.

https://www.allegorithmic.com/buy/download

includes Substance Painter, Substance Designer, Substance B2M .indie is $20.00 a month till payed off I think $300.00

Mari is 1/2 price at $1200.00 I think. https://www.foundry.com/ owns Modo Mari n a lot more. Modo $1700.00.I had,have LW7 but never used Modo .LW's 2015 is $700.00

https://www.sidefx.com/buy/#houdini1 is indie $200.00.

Blenders free.

Photoshops $10.00 a month.

zBrush is $800.00

Mudbox is $10.00 a month last I looked.

Interesting. Thank you! That is helpful for me. I guess I'll start by checking whether Blender's 3D painting features are good. Blender is powerful, but not always accessible, what with the weird interface and so many "secret" features that you can't find without a decoder ring.

I've never painted with Blender. it might be killer don't know.I don't use Blender much I play with it from time to time but that's about it. I don't have a decoder ring ;)

I still box model with a old version of C4D 9. one day it wount work on a the new OS .Then I'll have to get a new box modeler or just use zBrush.yes you can now box model with Z.

If Blender has a zBrush spot light it's cool for texturing.

never tried it but 3DCoat was popular.A lot use Photoshop it has a 3D painter in it like zBrush I think. probably more brush settings.

Substance Painter is killer with maps n ya paint all the texture, spectral, normal etc etc at same time.

my best guess would be Substance Painter,Photoshop.are best for texturing.I haven't tried every 2D app there is ,but played with a lot of them.

gimps like photoshop its free. photoshop will go 9000 pixels gimp about 3000