Basic "How To" For Sculpting

[bobzilla]

Since the Mac version is "here", I was wondering if there are some instructions or tutorial on how to get a model (in my case, from Cinema 4D) into 3DC, sculpt, and bring the displacement map (or textures) out to Cinema.

I assume I would make the UV map in Cinema. Bring the OBJ into 3DC (not sure of the import/export process). Do the sculpting in 3DC, then export displacement map to Cinema (again, not sure of that process).

Thanks very much for any guidance you folks have...

[wailingmonkey]

since nobody has responded yet, bobzilla, your assumptions are correct (if you haven't tried yet).

You'll want to import your object into 3D-Coat with UVs on it (in most instances, otherwise you can

just choose the automap option and paint/sculpt away...with the intention of re-importing your model with

proper UVs later). Do your sculpting/painting, export your lowpoly model along with

displacements/diffuse/normals/speculars, and re-import the model and textures back into your

rendering package (or you can just export the textures if you want your original model to stay the same).

cheers.

[falcon76]

otherwise you can just choose the automap option and paint/sculpt away...

with the intention of re-importing your model with proper UVs later

Wailingmonkey, please, can you explain better your second statement? Assume that my model is not properly UVmapped (some program don't do this). I have to UVmap in an external software (uvmapper,lithunwrap...) and import it along with the model?

I know is a basic question, I'm trying to start with some painting/sculping, but I need some advice!

Thanks (and sorry for my english, hope you can understand me)

Luca

[bobzilla]

Thanks for the info.

No, I haven't tried yet. Once then Mac version is a little more stable, I'll give it a shot.

The model I want to use is not UVd yet, so I guess I should do that. Don;t know the advantages/disadvantages of letting 3DC do the Auto UVing.

I may bring in a previously UVd model to play around with and get a work flow going.

For those also using Cinema 4D, is it necessary to use Riptide to bring models back and forth and are there any particular settings needed.

Thanks again...

[wailingmonkey]

falcon76,

If your model isn't properly UV-mapped you just import the model and choose 'Auto-mapping' as mapping type

(this will be default for un-mapped imports). Paint/Sculpt to heart's content. Then in your external

UV-mapping software you'll want to UV your model (either with your sculpted 3dC model exported out,

or with your original model). Once that's done, you just go to 'File->import uv-set' and select your

nicely UV-d model....3dC will use that UV-set when you then export out your final painted/sculpted model

(you'll have to re-export once you've changed UV-sets if you want your 3dC textures to work with

your new UV-set) and textures.

Hope that helps.

[falcon76]

falcon76,

If your model isn't properly UV-mapped you just import the model and choose 'Auto-mapping' as mapping type

(this will be default for un-mapped imports). Paint/Sculpt to heart's content. Then in your external

UV-mapping software you'll want to UV your model (either with your sculpted 3dC model exported out,

or with your original model). Once that's done, you just go to 'File->import uv-set' and select your

nicely UV-d model....3dC will use that UV-set when you then export out your final painted/sculpted model

(you'll have to re-export once you've changed UV-sets if you want your 3dC textures to work with

your new UV-set) and textures.

Hope that helps.

That helps for sure.

Thanks

Luca

[bobzilla]

OK, so it seems I need more of a step-by-step!

I've brought my model in, sculpted a line across the whole thing (as a test) and exported the displacement map (not sure if I did that correctly), put it in the displacement channel in Cinema 4D and got either no displacement showing up or it was terribly distorted.

I used an .obj to import into 3DC and used my original C4D model to put the displacement map on.

I must be doing something wrong along the way.....

[Andrew Shpagin]

I will ask one professional in C4D to help you. I will ask him when he will be online.

[bobzilla]

Thanks, Andrew. I think I got it to work, but I want to make sure I'm doing it correctly. A C4D person will be able to tell me the correlation between the two programs so I know what settings to use to get the best out of the displacement map in C4D.

Great piece of software. With barely looking at the manual, I was able to do some basic displacement painting and get a map out.

There's so many options for everything, so I thought it would take a while to get going. I'll probably dig deeper as I use it more.

[joshfilms]

Thanks, Andrew. I think I got it to work, but I want to make sure I'm doing it correctly. A C4D person will be able to tell me the correlation between the two programs so I know what settings to use to get the best out of the displacement map in C4D.

Great piece of software. With barely looking at the manual, I was able to do some basic displacement painting and get a map out.

There's so many options for everything, so I thought it would take a while to get going. I'll probably dig deeper as I use it more.

I would love to hear more on the process if you get it figured out or maybe someone will eventually post a C4D/3dc tutorial.

[rimasson]

OK, so it seems I need more of a step-by-step!

I've brought my model in, sculpted a line across the whole thing (as a test) and exported the displacement map (not sure if I did that correctly), put it in the displacement channel in Cinema 4D and got either no displacement showing up or it was terribly distorted.

I used an .obj to import into 3DC and used my original C4D model to put the displacement map on.

I must be doing something wrong along the way.....

could you post some rendering ?

[bobzilla]

Well, basically I just painted a line down the entire length of the model as a test. Nothing earth shattering yet!

I exported a 2048 x 2048 displacement map from 3DC. I made a material in C4D. In the displacement channel I placed the map I exported.

Then I used these settings. I have no idea if these are optimal. I had to play around a bit to get these:

Strength: 50%

Height: 10 m

Type: Intensity (Centered)

I checked Sub-Polygon Displacement, as well as Round Geometry. Not sure how important the other settings are.

Subdivision Level is set to 4.

Again...I have no idea what I'm doing!!!

[Pavel (pzdm) Zoch]

Well, basically I just painted a line down the entire length of the model as a test. Nothing earth shattering yet!

I exported a 2048 x 2048 displacement map from 3DC. I made a material in C4D. In the displacement channel I placed the map I exported.

Then I used these settings. I have no idea if these are optimal. I had to play around a bit to get these:

Strength: 50%

Height: 10 m

Type: Intensity (Centered)

I checked Sub-Polygon Displacement, as well as Round Geometry. Not sure how important the other settings are.

Subdivision Level is set to 4.

Again...I have no idea what I'm doing!!!

Hello

I don´t have a problem with generated displacement but remember there is more way how to get correctly displ. map...

I usually use easer HN way with higher HN render subdivision, it is easer and I get correctly results

P

I want to do some tutorials, but I wait for a final release

[Pavel (pzdm) Zoch]

a little question, did you use LWO format? I had strange expirience with spd on model generated by LWO, too - it is really strange, but if I use obj, it worked correctly

[Simon]

Hi Pavel. Since this thread is for 3DC - C4D, I thought I'd post my tests here to have it all together. I tried both sub-polygon displacement and normal map. SPD is looking good, but it's taking too long to render, on the other hand normal maps are very fast, but I have a few problems there.

I tried sculpting Meg's head, to create a normal map that can be used on the low-poly which will in turn be subdivided by hypernurbs on the render.

Problem is, the normal map is creating hard edges on the rest of the body. I didn't check "paint empty areas" on the normal map export. I guess I could erase the rest of the body off the map on photoshop, but isn't there another way, to keep the body that I didn't sculpt on the first place, smooth? If I blur the map I lose the details on the face.

I tried both low-poly and high poly maps, and both tanget/world coordinates.

I also tried exporting the low-poly model from 3DC, but when using hypernurbs & normal map I get the same hard edges.

Screenshots:

[bobzilla]

a little question, did you use LWO format? I had strange expirience with spd on model generated by LWO, too - it is really strange, but if I use obj, it worked correctly

I used .obj.

I guess there are lots of ways to accomplish this. I just want to make sure I'm not doing something completely wrong or something that will be a problem somewhere down the road.

[joshfilms]

I'm certainly looking froward to the tutorials Pavel!

thanks

Josh

[Pavel (pzdm) Zoch]

I will upload here my expirience how to get correctly result with 3DC-C4D, I don´t have a time for deeper playing with 3DC now - you now, C4D R11 is out and I must do a support - articles and much more...

How to get nice resoults:

Import:

if you need to import more than 1 object - use different material for each of them, becouse 3DC remembers these materials in obj format and specify UV of each object to defined material. If you use one material for all, there will be a problem, becouse SPD will be generated to one texture (one material) for all objects and you will have problems with UV updates etc! Don´t forget on that!

I usually use standard C4D obj exporter, works fine at me.

Cheers P

[Simon]

Indeed, my first try was to import meg along with her eyes (different object), and the UV of the eyes was 3/4 of the whole uv, leaving just 1/4 for the whole body!

[Pavel (pzdm) Zoch]

Indeed, my first try was to import meg along with her eyes (different object), and the UV of the eyes was 3/4 of the whole uv, leaving just 1/4 for the whole body!

hello everyone

here is a little videotutorial how to connect C4D with 3D-Coat.

there are next steps:

1) C4D model preparation - UV correction, model correction, export

2) 3DC model import - comparation with C4D structure

3) 3DC - SPD export

4) C4D SPDs import, deleting "suporting" polygons

5) C4D rendering, voila - amazing sculpt in C4D!

Cheers Pavel

A link

download.digitalmedia.cz/tutorials/cinema4d/en/C4D-3DC.zip

Camtasia codec needed! You can find it on www.techsmith.com

Pls keep this tutorial on this forum only - it belongs to our new C4D stuff server and this server does nto work yet...

[joshfilms]

Thanks for the tutorial Pavel!

[bobzilla]

Thanks very much for the tutorial. Downloading now.

[Simon]

This is fantastic Pavel, thanks a lot! Downloading now

Still I'll try to figure out the optimal settings for using normal maps, since they're a lot more render-friendly than SPD, for use in animations.

[bobzilla]

Has anyone here used displacement or normal maps in C4D in an animation?

I was planning on using displacement maps in my animated characters. How gig a hit do they take?

I'm on a modest iMac with 2gb of RAM.

[rafaeljm]

Thanks for the tut. I´m downloading it now. About bobzilla´s question, I haven´t used normal maps, but I have used displacement. You will normally need a good subdivision, both on the model, and on the displacement settings (SPD) to work OK, but be careful because such SPD subdivision is heavy at render time, so look for an amount where it looks OK, but is not too much. For normal models, 2 or 4 is enough. I´m attaching somehting I did recently, ths is a simple sphere and with the diplacement it looks like mercury!

[bobzilla]

Thanks for the tut. I´m downloading it now. About bobzilla´s question, I haven´t used normal maps, but I have used displacement. You will normally need a good subdivision, both on the model, and on the displacement settings (SPD) to work OK, but be careful because such SPD subdivision is heavy at render time, so look for an amount where it looks OK, but is not too much. For normal models, 2 or 4 is enough. I´m attaching somehting I did recently, ths is a simple sphere and with the diplacement it looks like mercury!

Neat looking "sphere". Does look like a planet.

I've been doing some test and displacement work pretty well in C4D. The only reason I ask about normal maps is I believe they take less time to render. But, as long as render times aren't too bad (haven't tried animation with displacement maps yet) I'll probably stick with those.

[Pavel (pzdm) Zoch]

Neat looking "sphere". Does look like a planet.

I've been doing some test and displacement work pretty well in C4D. The only reason I ask about normal maps is I believe they take less time to render. But, as long as render times aren't too bad (haven't tried animation with displacement maps yet) I'll probably stick with those.

Hello maybe I'm wrong but normal maps are correctly (from 3DC - there is an other matter - if you heavy change your mesh you must export obj, update UV and import it back to 3DC and use on your source object same UV) and normal maps and bump maps are absolutlly same in rendering times

P