manticor

Just checked the SDK and there is info for exporting to .SBM format contained in there and glancing through the code I can see vertex color data being calculated within it.

Hi Andrew Ran some test with the fbx exporter and yes the vertex colours are present but the scale is way out from when I imported it into XSI. I checked the scaling and the model I exported ,whether keep scale when importing into 3DC was on or off resulted in the model when exported being 26 times larger than the original imported model. I tried to bake the vertex colours in xnormal but it seems that xnormal doesn't support vertex color baking on the FBX format. So after consulting their site it seems the following file formats are supported with vertex colours .OBJ (zbrush exported) .PLY .ASE .XSI ( I tested this by exporting the fbx from 3DC into xsi and then exporting out as dotxsi ...works great. .SBM ( xnormals plugin for exporting from Max and Maya.) Also while I was researching I stumbled across the SDK for Xnormal http://www.xnormal.net/Developers.aspx .It might have information for exporting to .SBM or give you what you need to write a 3B importer for xnormal. I hope this helps Andrew.

Ok the workflow is basically import coloured mesh into high poly mesh tab ....but on right hand side uncheck " ignore per vertex colour" load in the low poly mesh to bake to in the low poly tab in the baking options tab ,turn on "bake high poly vertex colors" .Set you map size and directory and click generate maps button. You may not need to implement the coloured obj if your FBX with vertex colour works ok.I still need to test.Im doing a bake tomorrow so will let you know.

check 2 posts up ^ export to fbx ,use xnormal to bake.

i agree .highly annoyin.there should be an option for only outer surface.

try exporting polypainted models to fbx and use xnormal to bake.i havent tried it myself yet tho but worth a try.

Also importing poly painted models and applying cap holes loses colours

I got an issue too .performing a Boolean with two poly painted models only keeps the colour on one part .the second messes up the colours into a mess .also holes are appearing sometimes and other times it's like the models patches have become disconnected and smoothing creates holes.undo also causes the paint in parts to be lost .some strange bugs that need sorting out.

No probs dude .thanks for your help anyways

thanks for all the heads up guys ,but after 16 years of doing 3D I know what Im doing with Uv's etc . The problem was easily fixed by setting the brush to sharp shape (old style).No idea why the brush shape is set to stretch on direction by default as turning corners creates a spattery mess which I would imagine no-one would want.

use xnormal .export full res model with pixel painting to obj. retopo using a.lower res decimated model in 3dcoat.do your uvs . then bake in xnormal .make sure you have ignore vertex color ticked off in the high res section when baking diffuse map ...but tick it back on when baking ao.fastest cleanest baker i know of .....have fun

Been spending the past day or two really getting down and dirty with the painting system..Im VERY impressed by it but... Ive noticed that when painting my brush gets stretched along the direction of my stroke.How do I get 3DCoat to stop doing this? as Im getting splotchy results because of it.

Reading between the lines of the information given I think it is some kind of "live" auto .If it saves me hours/days of mind numbingly boring retopology work Ill be first in the queue to buy a copy.

Just downloaded Zbrush 4R2b and noticed something new in the tool pallet , alittle button called qRemesher...so did a little searching and found this paragraph on zbrushcentral QRemesher is result of the collective efforts of both Pixologic and Verold. As it’s name suggests, it is a remeshing solution both automatic and guided. Stay tuned, for a February pre-release Alpha version of QRemesher, available for download and preview inside ZBrush 4R2b. Once completed, QRemesher will be available for purchase and download at Pixologic.com. Seems to me that Zbrush are following Andrews lead (again) . From this page http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?165512-*****-ZBrush-4R2b-Launched!-*****&p=923974#post923974

I think your wish will be resolved at the next update according to what andrew has already tweeted.Im waiting for the same thing.Its gonna be a very big milestone in the era of 3D graphics.

No offence Abn but there are plenty of decaffienated brands on the market that taste just as good as the real thing......

Yeah definately needs some cage deform system.the ffd in the pose tools isn't that robust

Im posting here aswell as not sure where to put this idea...so sorry for doubling up. Im really liking the direction that 3DCoat is going at the moment ,adding the colour element to voxels and surfaces is great and being able to boolean these painted models together is going to speed up the production process massively but I have been thinking that one element that is really a big time consumer still is the retopo work that comes once you have created your models ,which given that we will be able to make ever more complex and detailed models with this new technology will inevitably will take even longer. So Im putting down an idea that Ive been mulling over in my head for the past couple of weeks as I think it would be a much needed addition to 3DCoats workflow. The idea is basically attaching low poly surfaces to the volume layers .Sounds simple but would make a massive difference. Say for instance you are making something quite technicaly ,a spaceship for instance .A lot of parts would be duplicated if you're using a kitbashing workflow. So you build say some piping and then do a quick retopo and then link the low poly surface to the voxel model.An icon of some sort ( a wireframe cube,or something similar) would show up on the volume layer.Now that poly surface should be able to be altered and that would affect the voxel surface that it is bound to .( deform by cage in softimage XSI or skin wrap in 3dsmax....you get the idea ) .Simple enough idea but being able to manipulate a high res mesh with a low one enables a lot more control and possibilies . Taking this one step further ....the model and its corresponding low poly surface can be saved as a preset in a model library . Now it can be used to add onto another model so every time you add to it not only does it add to the voxel surface but it also adds a corresponding low poly surface in the retopo room .You can imagine how much time would be saved in the retopo room doing this. Taking things one step further.... say you're doing a character for instance and you kit bash a character together from previously made arms,legs etc .You finish off your model and merge the whole lot to one surface.If the Autopo could " fill in the blanks" of the retopo mesh which should be quite easy for it to do as most of the guess work has been taken away as it knows how the flow lines are going then you have a complete high res model and its associated low res linked together , (or just do it by hand). Now it would be good to create a skeletal structure from curves and bind the low poly mesh to it which would enable posing of the high res model. also expanding parts of the low poly cage could create muscle bulges and the like and as the low poly mesh stays the same topology wise it could be morphed aswell,which would be great for facial animation and any other thing like that. And to take this idea even further and not something I'm sure is possible ...but Ill put it down here anyway. what if the low poly surface was using ptex.It raycasts from each poly and bakes the distance to the surface to a ptex texture for each poly ( imagine if the poly surface was pushed out a short distance so there are no intersections with the high res) .Then you would have something like a negative vector displacement map, plus colour could be baked aswell to another map.Then this would make it possible to store states of the high res voxel surface completely resolution independently .Which would be great all kinds of things and you could put extra detail into areas and still be able morph and deform the voxels and never have to worry about the underlying voxel surface . Id love to see something like this in 3DCoat...as absolutely anything would be possible in 3DCoat with this system. And to be honest it isn't that far away as most of the tech is already there.

Yes I know but painting tesselation over large areas is not uniform and therefore will result in different texture resolutions on the model.being able to res up the whole painted model or masking an area that needs more detail is really necessit

How long until a method to increase tesselation through masks will be available ?

Andrew just seen your twitter post about painted model booleans . Congratulations ,you're a legend

It's easy enough to open the map in photoshop and invert the green channel .no need to rebake

The bump painting idea is a nice thought but voxel painting is a pixel per polygon so to paint bumps you would have to increase resolution anyway ,so might as well do sculpting .Sculpted details also have the advantage of being included in baking cavity/normal ( or if you are willing to wait a bit longer ,ambient occlusion). An idea would be to have some way to store the model in memory or to a cache file before you do high frequency bump painting ,do your bump sculpting on a separate layer .When finished then the final models vertices could be projected onto the stored model which would then give 2 states with the same topology .Then you would be able to morph between the before and after state or even further or negatively to control the strength of the bumps.Also the morph could then be controled locally by painting areas as a mask. And if a projection system is added to 3DC then it also solves the problem of going back to voxels as you can project back to the previous model.

Yeah dot loop is awesome .the poly boost toolset was a great addition to max. I just wanted grow selection because using autopo can create unneeded polys ,so grabbing one poly and then expanding the selection saves a lot time when they are in awkward places .

Great update Andrew Just done some tests with it.And everything seems to work as it should.Apart from export of vertex colours to OBJ ,still cant use Xnormal with 3DCoat yet.Importing an LWO seams to not work with xnormal either.Maybe Im missing something . Also noticed that LC cut off doesn't destroy the painting ,which is nice. Love the new vox .layer ,will come in very handy for characters. 3DCoat rocks!