Mix Mash

OK, thanks for that, Carlosan. Regards, Paul (Mix Mash)

That's the thing. The mesh is a very simple quad grid that has been slightly deformed. Since I subdivided the mesh AND tripled everything, I thought it would solve the problem but it didn't. Since it was a mesh plane and was open-ended, I then tried to make a closed mesh version so that there were no holes. There are no non-planar or co-planar polygons, Ngons, or 2 point polygons. There is NOTHING wrong with the mesh and I still get the error message. Any quad polys I try to create near specifis areas get turned into tri polygons and no matter how I try to fix things. The problem is not me or my meshes - it is the program. I know this because I used to retopo more complex meshes with more diverse mesh topology in V3 and I never had that problem. I just want to know why it does it or at least how to disable the feature that it giving me tris when I want quads. Paul (Mix Mash)

Yes, I do have the latest version but I just upgraded very recently. I hadn't used 3d Coat for a while so I forgot that I used to do things a little differently way back in 3.0 I was importing the object as a reference mesh BUT I used to import the object for per pixel painting instead. If you import the object as per pixel painting then the textures come out properly. But the big issue now that I have is with retopology and the error message of 'Face deleted because of non-manifold mesh'. I even subdivided my mesh twice and tripled all the polygons so I didn't get this message but the message kept coming back. I never had this problem in v3. It wasn't always perfect but now I can't retopologise properly because of this stupid message. I don't suppose there is an option to disable this option so that I can retopologise like a used to? Thanks, Paul (Mix Mash)

I don't really use 3d Coat much but I recently upgraded to 4.8 and I wanted to do some retopo work. Firstly, I am bummed that LWO object support is gone. I used an OBJ instead but when I tried to add a a colour texture (png) to my reference model, it came in upside down on the V axis. I fiddled around with some of the view settings and it did show the image the right way up but then when I tried to refresh the image (IE reloaded it as a new colour image), it went back to the the flipped OLD version of the image. Now I'm getting mixed results as I change to the retopo room and back. Sometimes the texture disappears, sometimes it is flipped again and sometimes it is missing so I get a generic grey colour or the animated B&W grid. Basically, the image/texture system is being weird. Can I stabilise this or something similar? I just need the textures for reference for when I do retopo for now so it's not too complex a need yet but I still want that stability. Any help will do. Thanks. Cheers, Paul (Mix Mash)

I finally tried out your method last night and it was extremely awkward and I couldn't get the result I wanted. I think the best bet for me is to just do it through baking. This will ultimately give me the control I want despite it taking longer to achieve my goal. I appreciate you effort, though, Digman. Cheers, Paul (Mix Mash)

Thank you for this, Digman. I will have a look at your zip file and try out you method. I will let you know the results. Cheers, Paul (Mix Mash) Edit: OK, The technique looks sound. The only flaw I can think of is with sharp edges. Sure the spline can have sharp corners but if you stroke the path with the brush, you will lose the sharp corners. I think that if a fill tool option with splines could be added like I suggested in previous posts then it would be pretty useful.

Ok, yes, I am at fault, too. Well, firstly, do you know how to change the colour of the spline when you use it to paint? I mean the actual spline colour not the paint colour. If my model is filled with white, a yellow spline is difficult to see. If you don't know, that is fine because I can probably use a work around for this. Secondly, the main issue. Here is what I want to achieve: I am trying to paint a clean black and white texture on a female figure which will be used as a mask in a different program. Just as an example I will refer to the arm. I want to create a closed spline around the wrist of a model so that the hand can be filled with black. Currently, in the paint room, I do this by creating the spline, choosing a small brush with a hard edge and stroking the spline with the brush. I then use the fill tool to fill in the hand with black but there is ALWAYS a rim of white antialiasing that I have to manually paint out between the stroke and the fill no matter how much I fiddle with the tolerance when I fill the hand in with black. So, instead of using the spline for the purpose of stroking the colour, I would like to be able to have the spline to act as a selection barrier just like a selection in photoshop but in 3D. I don't know if this is possible and, if it is, I would like to know how to do this. I don't know how this would work on a tube-like model like an arm because if I place a spline around the wrist, how would it know which side to fill? I imagined that this could be achieved if there were two splines so that the program would know to fill all the polygon in between the two spline. For example, I have a closed spline around the wrist and another closed spline around the elbow. The program would know that I would want the forearm area of my model to be filled with the colour of my choice. Of course this is a good idea but does 3dCoat have this sort of function? I hope this clears things up. Sorry for the confusion. I would have some screenshots but I'm not near my laptop that has 3dCoat installed (this computer that I am using right now is too old for the program). If you really need screenshots, please let me know and I'll get something uploaded. Thanks. Cheers, Paul (Mix Mash)

Sorry, I'm confused. Could you post up some screenshots to explain your idea more clearly? It would make things easier. Thanks.

Hi, I rarely post here because I don't use 3d coat much. Recently I wanted to create some B&W masks on a model and I wanted to use splines. I filled my model with white but the spline is yellow when you lay it down. Is there a way of changing the colour of the spline? If I fill my model with black, I can see the spline BUT I miss out on the details of the model. Also, I would like to stick to black and white so I don't want to fill the model with grey first. Secondly, is there a way of filling areas in (with colour) with splines? I can only stroke along the spline at the moment. I would like to fill areas in just like filling a mask in Photoshop but at a 3d level. I would also like to be able to fill areas of my model in between two splines. Imagine an arm model where I want to fill the forearm area with a colour. Both splines are a unique shape around the wrist and elbow. I want to keep the anti aliasing clean and consistent so that is why I'm using splines so I wish to avoid manually brushing the colour in. Thanks. Paul (Mix Mash)

OK, I did an experiment and found out that Windows 8 is a culprit. The 'blank' screen I kept getting was due to the desktop theme. I was using a 'high contrast' theme but ONLY because the regular themes are barely customisable (this is a major kick in the teeth!) and even then the 'high contrast' themes can be a problem. I switched to a regular theme and everything works fine. Unfortunately, I can't stand the regular themes and I can't change what I want. So, technically my problem is solved but at the same time other problems exist (although as a matter of preferences). Paul

Thanks, I'll try the latest 64bit version because I only have the 32 bit version installed now. It's definitely a driver/adapter thing because if I disable my integrated board, I can see the screens for Lightwave but I get an error message regarding Open GL for Element3d, 3d Coat and Sculptris. If it is re-activated then I get Open GL to work for Element3D but I get a blank screen for Lightwave, Sculptris and 3d Coat. It's just such a graphic mess and it sucks. I'll see if the new version works better. Cheers, Paul

Hi, First of all, sorry if this is in the wrong thread but I checked and couldn't find a "Troubleshooting" or "questions" thread. OK, the problem is that I got a new powerful laptop with a Geforce GT620m graphics card and my new installation of 3d Coat (GL version) onto the machine gives me a blank screen (see attachment). When I first installed the program (it was one of my first programs installed) it worked fine and I could see everything, do everything normally. But after installing other programs, including older programs which I still use, I keep getting this blank screen (I have set my desktop theme to a high contrast one in Win 8 so that's why the screen is white in the screenshot). I downloaded the latest Nvidia drivers for my specific machine and there was no change (but it did fix another graphic problem I had). I cannot disable my integrated graphics card as it controls my screen brightness. Plus, I think windows 8 works with a swapping card system which allows for more efficient use so I don't want to disable it. Anyway, I think it is an Open GL problem. I have NO idea where to start but if anyone knows what I have to change or update to fix the issue, I would be very appreciative. Thanks. Cheers, Paul (Mix Mash)

Last night I downloaded 3.7.1 (most stable version) and found that you can use splines to create a freeze mask BUT you still have the boundaries of the stroke which gets to be part of the mask. What I was looking for was to be able to use a spline or multiple splines with NO stroke to define an area to freeze to give a really clean line as opposed to relying on just a stroke and the filling that area in. Similar to using the lasso tool in Photoshop but with splines instead. Thanks for you info so far, by the way. Cheers, Paul (Mix Mash)

I don't mean to create a spline line but to use the spline to define an area/s to mask.

In the paint room, is it possible to use splines to create a mask or not? Thanks. Paul (Mix Mash)