lowedennis

I finally got to the stage where I can't resist the paint room. My Derelict voxel object is just under 10 million tris. Here is the screen grab (10 million tris).jpg)of what I'd like to start with when I enter the paint room. I accept all the default settings on the conversion process exept I change to 4096 for the image file resolution. I go into the paint room after conversion and this is what I get (Into the paint room.jpg) Shouldn't the paint room image look like the voxel image in respect that the fine detail should be seen with the specularity of the voxel image? Is there something I should be doing to create a normals and specularity map that's not in the conversion process? If so, how do I create a normals/ specularity map from the voxels original? It's getting a bit late now and I'm fading

or - 'Gravity Spray' with sliders for strength of gravity, turbulence, stickyness, ageing of colour, smudginess, amount of build up, and 3D thickness - what a fantasy that would be

I'll be finishing on this model in a week or so and I have a question that may be in fantasy land. Is there a way to dirty down (on a layer) the model using a technique similar to particle paint? for example: if I have a an image plane (consisting of coloured particles taken from an image) directly above my model and apply a gravity to it so whatever is on the plane will rain down on the model but in 3D so that the image catches on the upper most surfaces, as the rain is made of particles then they will gradually seep into the cracks and crevices forced by the gravity. I am keen to get as much dirt inside this detail below.

Thanks, it worked by clicking down the line a number of times - I was assuming that just two points were needed and it would 'stick to ground' BTW all the different brushes are not greyed out in my voxel room.

I finished drawing snakes with the freehand brush (top left of screen area) and now I need to draw with the 'draw with lines' brush still using the snakes object. In the freehand mode everything has worked without a hitch. I'm having a problem getting a straight spline to stick to my curved surface to apply the 'snake' object. So I tried the 'Curves' object but it also doesn't seem to respond to the enter key or the 'apply' button - I click to make to first point of the spline and move the curser and click the secong point but nothing happens when I press enter (on the keyboard) I don't know if it helps but I'm constantly loosing the appearance of my brush diameter so I have to revert to the tool adjustments at the top of the screen.

Thanks, I realize now more about Normal Maps (I've just done a crash course on them today) and understand their benefits - I come from the old 'Bump Map School' and need to get back in the loop again.

I've now got the model in it's basic sculpt, before I go to hi res I want to check it in Max first to make sutre I'm getting similar results that are predictable. I need to make a bump map I think (a displacement is going to be too much for my computer as the mesh I've got from quadrangulation is quite large) - so can I get a bump map to capture those fine lines from this voxel sculpt? see screen grab:

It is slowly becoming clearer, I think I can just scrape by with my existing resolution and am keen to get through the quadrangulation thingy and into the paint room to try out the goods on offer.

OK, I thought that by increasing the resolution of the main model the layers would follow so I need to do the same to the layers seperately.

Sure, I'm using a layer in the voxel setup to paint on the original model some snakes to produce those ribs and when I merge it down to the original model it is triangulated too much (probably due to my resolution of the model. My answer is to smooth the resulting merge with the smooth brush but the underlying model also becomes smoother thereby destroying it's texture that is already there. I wondered whether there was a way to have it smooth during the merge transformation so I don't have to touch the underlying model when the merge has done it's business. I've tried smoothing the layer first but it reduces it's size and disappears under the model (loosing it's height). At the moment I'm experimenting with the extrude brush (giving it the barest minimum of height)as it has a smoothing capability and it seems to be the right way to go so far.

I've now got to the stage where I need to merge down a layer I have been modelling to the original volume (Volume 1) in the screen grab: (Before Merge) Is there a way to get it to smooth out without affecting the original model during it's process ? (so the original model's detail stays the same)- see screen grab: (After Merge) I say this because I am scupting the detail in stages and if I work with the smooth tool it also smoothes everything I've done before with it.

Thanks chaps, it did work, I loaded the pic in as a mask (although I'm still trying to get rid of those pesky tiles in the background) and it printed through as an extrusion. This gives me an excellent basis for modelling. Here is a shot of the first try.

Spacepainter, when you say high res, does that mean importing a high res photo? (maybe 4000x3000?) What I am trying to do is the equivalent to the good old mesh displacement you get in most 3D software and the image height is determined by the lights and darks of the pic.

Thanks for the tip AbnRanger, I thought it must be looking at me somewhere. I'll have another bash at it tonight.

Thanks for the video tutorial, The problem now seems to be that I can't rotate or translate my model to line up with the X axis of the 'sketch' plugin so that I can transfer faithfully the image to the model's surface. Here is a screen grab of my setup.

First of all thanks for some usefull software, as a newcomer to this programm I am finding it a worthwhile adventure. I'm in the process of making a Voxel model and I need to project a still photo onto the voxel structure and hopefully use the lighter detailed parts from the photo to extrude the detail onto the model surface. Is this something to do with the image plane? whereby I edit in Photoshop and bring it back into 3D Coat?