3dCoatWannabe

I was able to generate the UV Map and bring in the low poly LWO into Lightwave. However, even though I can see the UV Map and position it (with the orginal, I can see the image position change on the right as I move the UV Map on the left), the image does not show up as mapped on the right in Texture view. This is the 3D Coat UV map (with no image showing on the Texture view on the far right). and this is the original UV Ma (with an image showing on the Texture map on the far right). What obvious thing and I doing wrong?

Ok, I imported a Lightwave object (originally created in 3ds so UV map was a bit off) of a spherical eye, removed the irregular looking UV map, added a loop down the middle and created a new UV Map composed of two identical looking circles. In the original 3ds model, there's an image of the eyeball that maps onto the eye, but the eye is several degrees off in its alignment. 1. Can I display the eye's image on the eye while in 3DCoat and position it properly - or do position it using 'Transform UV' in Lightwave? 2. Is it possible to bring in in the eye's image, which has two highlights, and paint over one of them in 3D Coat? 3. Is the output from 3D Coat going to be a UV Map inside the LWO object and also an image file that I'd have to associate in Lightwave with the UV Map? I guess I'm a bit confused about how the 'coats' created in 3D Coat end up being used in Lightwave (which I'm also learning).

Do you mean a virtual RAM disk? How are you using your virtual RAM drive with 3D Coat and other software, and who makes it? I noticed that Farstone makes one, but I haven't tried it. http://www.farstone.com/software/virtualdrive-pro.php

On what kind of machines are users having speed issues (I'm too new to have any yet)? Are some of these issues going to go away when newer high performance video cards are released soon? If so, I'd rather spend the money on hardware and have Andrew devote his finite time to new features (Yay Ptex!!!) and interface improvements (but a 12 hour coffee break does sound a bit too long to deal with). It would probably be useful when reporting speed issues to mention your graphic card, VRAM, Operating system and whether 64 bit, number of CPUs and CPU speed, RAM, CUDA, etc. I'd guess hard drive speed might also affect some operations?

Well, so far I've just been reading and watching videos - trying to figure out how it all ties together, as I'm also learning Lightwave, Modo, Jimmy RIG, After Effects and a host of plug-ins and tools. Ahhhh! I may be over complicating things, and it will all be very simple once I actually dig in and start working. Can I disregard the things I've been learning about unwrapping an object to a UV Map, as Ptex will allow outputting a complex and more detailed UV map?

Phil - I've really enjoyed your videos! As I see that you're a Lightwave user from your web site, if you ever feel compelled to create a 3D Coat/Lightwave workflow video, I'd certainly feel compelled to watch and appreciate it!

I'm a bit confused. I'm primarily interested in using 3D Coat with Lightwave to animate, so I'm trying to get a handle on how I can use Ptex today. Some posts indicate that Ptex will replace UV mapping, but UV is listed as a step in this workflow. Is this just for older programs like Lightwave that don't understand Ptex? So that Ptex is usable by older programs now, as long as we UV and send them something they understand. But - in the future, when all programs understand Ptex, the UV map will become an unnecessary step?

I'm starting to appreciate UV Mapping (at least until Ptex makes it irrelevant sometime in the future). I purchased a 3ds model converted to Lightwave with some UV Mapped eyes that are slightly messed up. 1. Is it possible for me to create new UV Maps for the Lighwave object using 3D-Coat? 2. Are there any non-obvious steps to accomplish this I should know about? BTW - would love to see Lightwave & Modo added to the tutorials on http://www.3d-coat.com/tutorial/connection-with-other-apps/ Thanks!

If you run into this problem again, or better yet - want to pro-actively prevent it by having marginal sectors mapped out before they fail , check out: http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm He also hosts a weekly security podcast that is a 'must listen' http://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm But, I'd always recommend using RAID instead. I've used RAID on all my Windows and OS X boxes, at least the ones with data I care about, for years without a problem - and have been very happy with this company: http://3ware.com/3ware_home.htm

Definitely go with an EVGA card with a lifetime warranty. They also have special drivers to overclock. This site is very good for researching video cards, and here's an article that mentions several NVIDIA cards, including the one you're interested in http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3539 This is good for checking prices: http://www.nextag.com/ I went thru the process at XMAS, and ended up with a EVGA 02G-P3-1185-AR GeForce GTX 285 2GB from newEgg. Some other vendors were a bit cheaper, but they'd change the ship date and annoyed me. So far, no complaints. I think they just released a bunch of new cards, so you might want to see what's the latest and greatest (not to mention which has the smallest chip geometry, uses less power, has more gpus, uses less slots, etc.)

I was able to download 3.2, but this page http://www.3d-coat.com/3d-coat-32/ mentions "General changes: - Updated user manual" - and when I downloaded the pdf from the main downloads page http://www.3d-coat.com/download/ , it was still for 3.1. Is that http://www.3d-coat.com/3d-coat-32/ page itself the new user manual?

I'm still a bit confused. Does it work like this? All steps in 3D-Coat except for #6 1. Sculpt in 3D-Coat 2. Add UV's to model (by adding UV's, you are also adding the 'instructions' to unwrap them later?) 3. Paint on model 4. Retopologize 5. UnWrap the model 6. Open the model in Lightwave, etc. and apply the UV Map from the UnWrap step to get the appearance of the original sculpted model? Thanks!

I've read descriptions and watched a few videos, but I'm still a bit confused. 1. Is the main purpose of UV Mapping to allow the user to sculpt a model in 3D-Coat, paint on an surface, retopologize the model, UV Unwrap the model, and finally in a poly modeling and animation tool like Lightwave, take the UV map and apply it to the poly model? 2. Does 3D-Coat perform all the necessary UV Mapping operations? I read the Avatar Issue of HDRI 3D, where the author mentioned using UVLayout, and seemed to think it was better than badword. I'm kind of hoping that 3D-Coat is a more elegant solution than UVLayout. 3. Any basic question I'm missed. As you can see, I don't even know what I don't know - yet! Thanks!

Phil - I did find a DirectX v 9.27.1734 that lists Windows 7. But, you are saying that the new DirectX 11 would be the better way to go? The download from 3dCoat is directX 9.c. A technote from 3d-coat on this would be helpful - as it is a bit confusing. Thanks!

Phil - the GTX 285 does support Cuda. 1. If I run Cuda, do I need to install DirectX? (Win7 is not on the list of supported for that 2008 directx update). 2. As my card does support Cuda (and OpenGL 2.1), should I just run in OpenGL mode - or is that always slower than directX (my card supports DirectX 10)? Thanks!

I'm installing 3DCoat for the 1st time on Win7-64. The installation program gives me two choices at the end [directX (faster) or OpenGL). It mentions these choices are also available from the start menu, but I only see one choice for 3D-Coat(GL)-64. I don't see anything about installation in the pdf. If I try to run the DirectX, it says d3dx9_38.dll is missing (so I'd need to install the directX9, right - I don't want to mess anything up, and kind of expected it would be there in Win7)? If I try to run OpenGL, is says cudart.dll missing (so I'd need to run the two installs from nVidia) But - I'm a bit unsure which I should run with my card. Thanks!

I'm new to 3D-Coat, and fairly new to Lightwave and Modo. I noticed a comment in a video that the artist no longer modeled, but sculpted and then retopologized. I was initially thinking that this made sense for organic creations, but not for creating a robot. But - I saw some demos on this site that made me wonder. With the current state of 3D-Coat's sculpting tools, how are the 3d gurus doing their modeling? Where should I focus my efforts for orgainic and non-organic modeling? Or - maybe the question should be - what type of model would not be suited for Sculpt then retopologize? Thanks!

My primary interest (at the moment) in purchasing 3DCoat is for retopologizing. I watched the great tutorial, and I can see how it is done. My problem is that I often don't quite understand 'why' something was done a certain way? When to draw 2 circles on the back, when to use triangles instead of polys? Where do I look to understand why? Also, I'd like to be able to pull in the dragon or the Asian dragon (from this site http://graphics.stanford.edu/data/3Dscanrep/ ), retopologize - and bring the model into Modo. Any non-obvious tips on making that happen for a neophyte? I'll just be able to import the models from that site into 3D Coat, retopologize, and then export to LW/Modo format? I'm sure I'm missing even the correct questions to ask about this? Thanks!

I'm building a dual xeon win7-64 box, and am undecided on the video card. Would a GTX 285 2GB or ATI 5850 1GB be a better choice? The benchmarks seem to favor the 5850, but if computer graphics are a different realm than gaming, possibly I'm not getting a clear picture?

I don't yet own 3D Coat, but am considering buying the product. Which platform is it most stable on? Also, which will open the largest model without issues?

I notice that KURV is offering 3 tutorials on 3D Coat. http://www.kurvstudios.com/3D-coat/ I don't yet own 3D Coat, but understand that it is the best for retopologizing. I believe this means to take a very detailed model and simplify it so that it could be animated in Lightwave or JimmyRig. Would one of these tutorials be a good choice, or are there better ones? Thanks!