Keeping Origin Points and Parenting set in external tools

[Gian-Reto]

Hi

At the moment I'm trying to set up a multipart model for use in a game engine. As I will animate the model with code, I rely on the origin points of the objects being placed exactly where I need them.

I planned my pipeline to be to sculpt, retopo and paint the model in 3D Coat, then transfer it to blender and set the origin points and parenting there.

To my big disappointment I had to find out that the current blender Release doesn't support the smoothing groups function used by 3D Coat, and after trying blender 2.68_RC1 that SHOULD support it, found out that the smooth groups in the new blender doesn't seem to work the same way as they do in 3D Coat.

Shading looks off in the game engine everytime I import an obj file from 3D Coat into blender and then import the blender file, or import an obj file exported from blender into the game engine.

I need to re-import the file back to 3D Coat, apply smoothing groups again, then export and import to the game engine, to fix all shading problems.

Now here comes my feature request:

Please make sure origin points for objects and the parenting set in external tools as blender are imported to 3D Coat, stored away and added to the file when exported to a file format that supports it (obj maybe, collada for sure). That would really help people like me that try to make multipart models with exact origin points, but have to deal with blender as part of their pipeline (which can be great tool, but also a pain).

And all other would certainly benefit from not having to reset the origin points every time they imported the file to 3D Coat.

If this feature is already in place, could you kindly guide my way as how to make sure the origin points arent lost during import/export?

Thanks in advance

gian-Reto

[Jax_Cavalera]

Just checking what happened with this?  I've been having a real tough time getting my low poly meshes into blender so I can rig them with bones.. to then use in Unity.

 

Unity and open Blend files so they are perfect for this.. I just can't figure out how I am meant to achieve the goal.

 

I can export out the obj from 3D Coat and it goes with the Baked Normals and Texture maps.

 

I then import this into Blender.. and sometimes the normals and texture map load into the mesh by default sometimes not (I only know how to apply a texture map to my mesh right now in blender).

 

If I use the 3D Coat Applink addon in blender.. it can bring in the file and it looks similar to how it looked in 3D Coat.. But the texture is ALWAYS darker.

 

Also, I've no idea what layer I'm meant to be painting the texture onto inside of 3D Coat.. so .. i'm just doing it onto the Occlusion layer at the moment since it's on the top of normals and others and looks the most "bright" inside of 3d coat.

 

I see you mention Smooth Groups.. I will have to look into this for Blender as this is likely how the Applink Addon for blender imports the low poly mesh but keeps it looking "smooth" whilst when I import it as an OBJ manually.. it always looks like a rough low poly mesh no smoothing applied.

 

 

EDIT :

 

Already figured out the answer to my problems actually .. always the way you spend hours researching for an answer and nothing.. then you click back and BAM it's right in front of you.. how could you have missed it all along lol well oh well these things happen :

 

Ok I figured out part of this now.. the manual import that doesn't show the object as smooth relates to the Shading.. on the left hand side in Blender you will see Shading.. Smooth or Flat.. pick Smooth and there you go.  then when you assign the model it's normal map all will be as good as it should be.

 

As for why it's so dark.. this remains a mystery :s seems to do that regardless manual or non.. so I am going to guess that in 3D Coat htere is an area light which makes the objects look far brighter than they are in Blender.  So to fix this you simply turn down the ambient lighting and direct light so it looks a little dark in 3D Coat and start painting away.

Edited August 30, 2013 by Jax_Cavalera

[Pix Jigsaw]

Jax,

 

1.  Don't paint your texture on the Occlusion layer, leave that for the ambient occlusion.

 

2.  Look through the layer stack and any layer that is set to Multiply, change to Normal blend mode before exporting to Blender.  That should fix your problem with having the texture so dark when it gets exported into Blender.

 

3.  As for layer to paint on, you can use the default layer, I think.  Or add one (or more) of your own layers above layer 0.  Don't worry that they are below the normal and baked occlusion. 

[Jax_Cavalera]

hmm so pretty much everything that I did.. don't do haha thank you.  Ahh man this can be so tricky when you're doing it all for the first time. With these tips it makes it a lot more simple to understand.  I'll have to try these things out and see if this also fixes the visible seams and odd baking of splits from the ref mesh.

[Jax_Cavalera]

Just an update here, I've tried to use the Default layer and change every other layer except the normals to Standard Blend.

 

When I turn Ambient Occlusion's layer to Standard Blend the texture becomes a Grey Fill with no texture details I have painted showing up.

 

When I have Ambient Occlusion set to Overlay it looks almost spot on to the colour that I've painted yet only when i have 

 

Volume 17   layer hidden..

 

if Volume 17  is showing, and set to Standard Blend .. the character looks like it has an odd Shine to it let me show in 3 pictures attached.

 

Any tips for this are appreciated... thought I had this sorted

 

 

EDIT : It appears that the Volume 17  Layer contains Specular information to do with the shine of the mesh.. not sure what blend mode it needs to display properly as it is currently masking out my texture layer.