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OK. thanks AbnRanger. So can I clarify. Do the tweak room adjustments appear in the final normal maps that get exported? Or are they simply for modelling the mesh, which you could export (although that's not useful if the model was subdivided). I just need a bit more detail really to understand the processes. So the mesh I've imported into the paint room consists of 10 sub-objects. I subdivided them on import. All are UV'd. I've done some painting I'd like not to lose if possible. If I move to the Retopo room I can see this painted mesh. If I select "use current low-poly mesh" in comes my original un-subdivided mesh. But all merged into one layer, which is kinda uselesswhen I merge it into the voxel room. Any way to preserve the object layers? Or do I have to import into Retopo then Voxels from the start and forget the painting I've already done?

hmm. So is tweak mode the answer? It's operating on a confusing level. It's tweaking the subdivided mesh. The result of which will be baked out in the displacement map? So it's destructive painting? Is it impossible to get these tools into the painting layers?

Hi I've imported an object with UVs and about 10 sub-objects. I've taken it into the paint room, which works great, and is very fast and responsive. I was wondering if there's a way to access the "surface" tools? The paint room tools are a little wanting. I really miss crease edges, and the scrape/flatten tool works in a much more interesting way. By the way I reported a bug that I might as well mention here. It seems like the flatten tool works very differently on different areas of my model. The UV's a pretty even. It seems related to the colours of the normal map. Red and blue directions paint fine, but green directions result in massive depth when painting flatten. Very strange Also, for some reason my object was imported off center, so there's no symmetry which is a bit of a problem (I imported it as an .lwo). thanks Olly

Hi Alvordr That video was great. I'd love to see more of them if you ever get the chance. That's exactly the sort of tutorial that I think is missing, or buried in a pile of sculpting. I'm making more progress now myself, and i really like 3d-coat for a lot of reasons. Maybe I'll try to make a tutorial myself when I get a bit deeper into it. Thanks for the link though, really appreciated.

Thanks for your prompt and helpful reply AbnRanger. I'm certainly not giving up on 3D-coat, I realise I'm simply struggling with a learning curve. I do feel a couple of workflow specific videos could really help a lot of people who are migrating. I look forward to it all becoming second nature, it's a powerful toolset.

Yeah... I've watched it now. It's not ideal. There's so much information missing. Plus if you want to refresh your memory about anything you've got hours of sculpting or painting to trawl through before you find what you need. The manual is pretty terrible too - no where near enough detail. For example I'm trying to "Merge into Scene" here's the extent of the information upon that: Merge into scene (microverts): Merges the currently selected Retopo mesh into the Paint Room and Objects Panel - making it ready for texturing using the “Micro-Vertex” method. Use this on objects where you wish to paint “actual” displacement in real time. That's it, so far as I can find. The manual needs wayyy more detail, and should have links to context specific videos... You need videos detailing how you go from one room to the other. All the help videos are just in some random order, and there's hundreds of them. I have never been as confused by a product as 3d-coat. I think it would be relatively easy to sort out. I just can't get at the information I need. Like the video series I was recommended to learn the flow - the ghost game character, the bit where he unwraps the character is 40 minutes long... The information I'm trying to get is simple, but I can't watch 40 minutes every time I'm trying to get answers.

Brilliant, I'll check it out now... Thanks

Hi I've been watching tonnes of tutorials. The mouse one, the pirate one, and seemingly hundreds of others. But I still get pretty confused by the overall workflow. Is there a video that goes from: Voxels > retopo/Autopo .(both options would be handy) > UV > Paint > Export. If not, it would be amazing if someone fancied doing one. I think it's the main stumbling block for people migrating. A lot of tutorials spend too much time on people sculpting away, which is only so useful (there's tonnes of tool vids out there), and not enough time explaining the workflow and all the various options. It would also be useful to see how to use only parts of the pipeline, like bringing in sculpts from elsewhere and retopologising then exporting... Although I guess the overview vid could cover that. Here's an example of my confusion (which I admit exists on many levels) V4 may have changed this, but if you create a voxel sculpt, and you're going to do microvertex painting. Does that mean that once the mid-level mesh is created you've effectively finished with the voxel sculpt? So it would be best to roughly sculpt the form in voxels, then do all the detail on the mid-level mesh created for painting on? Any de-confusing advice welcome cheers Olly

Thanks Greg That's a fantastically clear and thorough answer.

Hi I've actually owned 3D-coat for over a year, but only started using it this week! What a waste! I'm really enjoying it so far. Hitting walls here and there, but there's a really great selection of tutorials around. My name's Olly, I'm an animation director in Bristol (UK). I've been doing CG for about 15 years... Working at Aardman, Passion Pictures, and my own small company (so small now, I'm just keeping myself company) Modelling in Modo and Sculptris. Animating and rendering in XSI and Arnold if you're interested you can see some of my stuff here... ollyreid.com The forums for Modo were really lively, and it's nice to see that there's a similar feel here.. I look forward to bugging you all with nooby questions! Olly

Hi noob question time... I've modelled a character in voxels. I've run AUTOPO (which is all kinds of fun) What I then get in the paint room is a lower quality mesh to paint on. I don't understand what the relationship is between the voxel sculpt and the mesh. If I bake out maps will they conform to the mesh or the voxels? Should I just set the settings higher at the AUTOPO point so that I don't lose detail at the mesh point. (I should make it clear I don't mean the really low poly autopoed animation mesh, I mean the high density poly mesh that's created for you paint on. Do you need to create this lower poly mesh? Would a directly converted voxel sculpt of 20 million polys explode my computer?). It's just that it's lost quite a bit of detail (like teeth) despite pushing up quite high... (also if I have a k4000 should I use the cuda or ogl version of V4) many thanks Olly