Can I use 3dCoat to tweak LWO polys?

[popwfx]

Hi,

I need some help with workflow and 3dCoat operation again. I find I get comfortable with specific workflows and then when something new comes along I need to use 3D Coat for, I'm finding it a little tricky to see the best way to do it in this app. Thanks for any patience and help with my questions.

Anyway, what I am wondering is, can I use 3D Coat to import a fully rigged/textured/weightmapped character (with a specific low poly count ~4000polys) and keep the geometry, uv maps, weight maps and everything intact, and just use 3D Coat's poly or retopo tools to tweak the model? i.e. The geometry flow (from LW) is mostly good, but I have a couple areas around the shoulders etc that I would like to use slicing tools to slice/split quads along a specific (not exactly looped) path. And I want this new geometry to not screw up my uv maps, and I want the new points created to automatically interpolate their weight values from proximity to other points without me having to explicitly set the point weight values (I have like 20+ weight maps so I don't want to have to do this by hand).

Then when the new geometry/uv coords and weight map coords are done I want to export this multilayer LWO model intact - pretty much as it was before with nothing changed but my 3d coat minor changes and then it will still be fine for the rest of my workflow (i.e. converting to FBX in a LW scene and using in game).

Can I use 3D Coat to achieve this? And if so, what is the process to load the LWO model intact without turning it into voxels and changing everything?

Thanks again for the valuable assistance from this community!

[popwfx]

(bump)

Any thoughts anyone?

Noone answers my posts anymore must be my cologne?

[AbnRanger]

Hi,

I need some help with workflow and 3dCoat operation again. I find I get comfortable with specific workflows and then when something new comes along I need to use 3D Coat for, I'm finding it a little tricky to see the best way to do it in this app. Thanks for any patience and help with my questions.

Anyway, what I am wondering is, can I use 3D Coat to import a fully rigged/textured/weightmapped character (with a specific low poly count ~4000polys) and keep the geometry, uv maps, weight maps and everything intact, and just use 3D Coat's poly or retopo tools to tweak the model? i.e. The geometry flow (from LW) is mostly good, but I have a couple areas around the shoulders etc that I would like to use slicing tools to slice/split quads along a specific (not exactly looped) path. And I want this new geometry to not screw up my uv maps, and I want the new points created to automatically interpolate their weight values from proximity to other points without me having to explicitly set the point weight values (I have like 20+ weight maps so I don't want to have to do this by hand).

Then when the new geometry/uv coords and weight map coords are done I want to export this multilayer LWO model intact - pretty much as it was before with nothing changed but my 3d coat minor changes and then it will still be fine for the rest of my workflow (i.e. converting to FBX in a LW scene and using in game).

Can I use 3D Coat to achieve this? And if so, what is the process to load the LWO model intact without turning it into voxels and changing everything?

Thanks again for the valuable assistance from this community!

Best way to find out is to do a quick test yourself. I would think the mesh and UV's would be fine, but perhaps not with regard to weight maps.

[popwfx]

Thanks, I'm trying that but a bit confused. Would you be able to bullet point the steps?

i.e. Import for pixel painting or for retopo? -- How do I import a LWO and have it use the real LWO's polys and not create voxels from it?

How do I export it? i.e. what menus in 3DCoat. I mean I have successfully painted LWOs in 3DCoat and I have retopo'ed other objects. What I haven't done is modified an existing low-poly LWO model...

Sorry I'm a little lost in the workflow between different 3DCoat rooms/modes...? thanks for your help

[3dCoatWannabe]

Here's how I think it works.

Import the LWO for per pixel painting (unless you want to paint morphs).

It will pull in UVs, layers and surfaces.

You can paint (using the texture editor is very handy for precise painting along polys).

Then, you 'export model' from the Paint Room - and it outputs and LWO along with 4 images for each UV (color, bump, etc.) along with the surfaces. What comes out is just what was imported, but now you have surfaces.

As for editing the polys, I'm not sure about that. That would be useful, and I'm sure there is a way.

If there's not an elegant way (I'm sure there is), you might be able to import the mesh into the retopo room and export the modified mesh back out - and combine the UVs and surfaces in Lightwave.

Hopefully someone will jump in, if not, maybe email Andrew directly (put post the answer here, as I'm also interested).

[popwfx]

Here's how I think it works.

Import the LWO for per pixel painting (unless you want to paint morphs).

It will pull in UVs, layers and surfaces.

You can paint (using the texture editor is very handy for precise painting along polys).

Then, you 'export model' from the Paint Room - and it outputs and LWO along with 4 images for each UV (color, bump, etc.) along with the surfaces. What comes out is just what was imported, but now you have surfaces.

As for editing the polys, I'm not sure about that. That would be useful, and I'm sure there is a way.

If there's not an elegant way (I'm sure there is), you might be able to import the mesh into the retopo room and export the modified mesh back out - and combine the UVs and surfaces in Lightwave.

Hopefully someone will jump in, if not, maybe email Andrew directly (put post the answer here, as I'm also interested).

Thank you for replying.

To address the first part you mentioned for per pixel painting - that's great - but 3DCoat doesn't seem to load all the texture images in when I do that. It often applies just one main texture image across all uv maps. Why is that and how do I load all images for all UV maps intact and correctly assigned? Is that possible in 3DCoat?

Also assuming that is done, is it possible to merge these existing separate uv maps into one main one within 3DCoat and then export it back out as LWO with just the one UV map? (I come from a TV/film background and now that I am working in Unity and games I have to rethink everything for optimization now, so I'm new at this )

Also, please let me know if you also find out about the editing of polys (particularly if that editing can RETAIN and not screw up any existing UV, Color, Weight, or Morph maps and hopefully if any new geometry created gets interpolated values for these maps).

thanks for your help and advice!

[3dCoatWannabe]

Thank you for replying.

To address the first part you mentioned for per pixel painting - that's great - but 3DCoat doesn't seem to load all the texture images in when I do that. It often applies just one main texture image across all uv maps. Why is that and how do I load all images for all UV maps intact and correctly assigned? Is that possible in 3DCoat?

I'm not seeing that happen. I just imported an LWO with 10 layers, 3 UVs and 14 surfaces.

That's what I ended up with in 3dCoat and what I ended up with when I exported to LWO. It was exactly the same. Same names, everything all the same. I believe I had 12 images due to the 3 UVs.

However, it didn't import the actual image maps (which would be cool). I think the Lightwave appLink is supposed to do that, but ... it wasn't doing it for me.

[popwfx]

...

However, it didn't import the actual image maps (which would be cool). I think the Lightwave appLink is supposed to do that, but ... it wasn't doing it for me.

Ok, maybe that's what's happening for me. Can you explain to me (I'm sure it is obvious) how to manually load the images into the correct UV maps once the object is loaded?

thanks

[3dCoatWannabe]

Ok, maybe that's what's happening for me. Can you explain to me (I'm sure it is obvious) how to manually load the images into the correct UV maps once the object is loaded?

thanks

I have no idea how to do that in 3D-Coat or whether 3D-Coat has this capability. Hopefully, someone else will chime in. It certainly would be great to pull in an entire model and the painting that has already been done.

I paint in 3DCoat and the images are created for me for use in Lightwave. I just copy them to my images folder, and when lightwave prompts me, I tell it where to look for the image it wants for the LWO.