3DC to Modo Workflow help

[britton_draws]

I am fairly new to using both 3DC and Modo and frankly I am lost. I have textured my item in 3DCoat and no matter what I do, various methods of exporting, etc I still keep getting a model that looks like this now in Modo when trying to render it out. I am not sure if this is a Modo problem or an exporting in 3DC problem but it has taken up two days of work trying to figure out and I am going crazy...

If anyone has some insight on this workflow and where I am going wrong I would appreciate the help more than you can imagine!

Thanks for looking.

[Javis]

Hi, welcome to the forum!

I would start by exporting from 3DC with the Unreal preset. Then in Modo, in the shader tree, create an Unreal Material in your material groups (instead of the regular Modo material). Apply the color/albedo texture in the same group as Unreal Base Color, normal map as Unreal Normal, roughness as Unreal Roughness and the metalness texture as Unreal Metallic.

Make sure you have the unreal material at the bottom, just like with regular materials. It should look like this:

Group
    Color/albedo texture>Base color
    Normal map>Unreal normal
    Roughness map>Unreal Roughness
    Metalness map>Unreal metallic
    Unreal material

That should do the trick.

[britton_draws]

33 minutes ago, Javis said:

Hi, welcome to the forum!

I would start by exporting from 3DC with the Unreal preset. Then in Modo, in the shader tree, create an Unreal Material in your material groups (instead of the regular Modo material). Apply the color/albedo texture in the same group as Unreal Base Color, normal map as Unreal Normal, roughness as Unreal Roughness and the metalness texture as Unreal Metallic.

Make sure you have the unreal material at the bottom, just like with regular materials. It should look like this:

Group
    Color/albedo texture>Base color
    Normal map>Unreal normal
    Roughness map>Unreal Roughness
    Metalness map>Unreal metallic
    Unreal material

That should do the trick.

Thank you so much for the response!

Keep in mind however I did say I am very new : P Much of that sounds a bit foreign-ish to me but I think I get it. My one thing I am unsure about though is the Unreal preset in 3DC. Do you simply mean in the preferences to change the "Normal Map Software Preset" to "Unreal Engine?" Also how should the Texture Export/Import Workflow be set? Gloss/ Color Specular, Gloss/ Metalness, or Roughness/ Metalness? From there do I export each piece from the Texture < Export or would I "Export Objects & Textures?"

Again, I apologize for seeming to have no knowledge at all haha. The sad thing is, I have a Master in Animation but just have never touched this side of the coin before : P

[Javis]

Hey! No problem. I totally hear you. We'll break it down.

 

For your Unreal preset question, I was meaning the Unreal preset from the Export Options panel, which pops up when you go to File>Export Objects & Textures. On the left side of the panel is a drop down list, in this list, select Unreal 4. It'll populate a list with all of the images you could need for UE4.

For the normal mapping preset, Unreal Engine is fine as well.

For the Texture Export/Import workflow, use Roughness/Metalness, although Gloss/Metalness is fine too. They are the same as each other, just inverted.

For your exporting of pieces, If you want to export each section individually, it would be different. I would stick with the whole thing for the mean time IMHO, but if you need help with that, let me know. Otherwise when you do export, yes, that is the method you would use.

And no worries! animation is fun as hell too. I did a few webinar courses from Jason Ryan, I had a lot of fun and enjoy animating. I just don't have time to do it these days. Do you animate as your day job?

 

And welcome to the other side of the coin!  Glad to have you here.

[britton_draws]

Ahhhhh

 

I was using an outdated version of 3DCoat which did not have the same export functionality. I upgraded to the newest version and followed your instructions and it looks 100x better! Thank you so much! : )

And I actually have a somewhat odd story for how I got into it but I actually went to school originally for Biology with plans to go on to Medical School. All of my notes however were just littered with drawings all over and while I love science, I realized I loved art more. I always did art as a child but my parents always stressed that it was never an actual 'career choice' and so once shit hit the fan and I had to start really making a life for myself I knew I had to do what I was truly passionate for despite what they thought! So after I graduated I found a job at DePaul University where I was able to work there full-time and then get an insane discount on tuition and so I worked there while working towards my MA. (I worked full time, went to school full time AND had a 3 hour commute each day... hah it was rough but I wanted it!!) I just recently have finished up actually and throughout my time there I learned a whole bunch but found out I like the modeling side of the pipeline far more. So now I have just been focusing on learning how to use software like Zbrush and 3DCoat and Modo so that I can have some solid work to show to actually jump in at that point.. instead of working at a University still! : P

[bisenberger]

Cool! good luck.