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3dcoat PBR to Blender Principled BSDF Add-On


Haunted
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Hi @unity2k

thanks for the nice words :)

At the moment I am ill. Hope I am getting better soon, since I have two weeks off of work from tomorrow on :D That means I can invest some more time into stuff like the AppLink, besides all the other stuff I am into.

Last weekend I took a deeper look at the existing one and the overall techniques behind it. I'll keep you updated on the progress! 

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I'll just leave this little teaser here:

image.png.84c6362192b3f8a0f35d5eab0b70f4fd.png

 

It's nearly done. Have to work on the import to Blender a little bit more and check out how to best handle multiple object export/import. :) 

Workflows supported as of now: Metalness/Roughness and Manual. Manual will make the 3D-Coat import/export dialog popup. The other one won't.

The texture import will be based on the Principled BSDF shader and should work with any Node setup, there has to be a texture at the end of each PBR input somewhere though.

More soon . :) 

Edited by Haunted
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40 minutes ago, unity2k said:

A million heart felt thanks for owning this and making it happen. Vielen Danke.

Ich bedanke mich vielmals für diese netten Worte! :D

I am also thinking about something like this:

image.png.5a78ed44468d7d63b6e29affde7b006e.png

You can create a new PBR material that is empty (leave fields empty) or select specific PBR maps. I even think about the user selecting one map, and the Add-On finds all the other maps by name in the same folder and fills it in automatically using the suffixes like _color, _normal, _roughness ect.

The use case I am thinking about is: 

You already created a model with textures in 3DC and exported it and want to tweak stuff in Blender. So you import the obj/fbx and create the material using this feature and render it with Cycles or do other fancy things with it, maybe bring it back to 3DC for Per-pixel painting. 

Could also be used to simply import existing texture maps as a new PBR material to an imported model you've found on the web.

Does this make sense?! 

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What would be great is if users could export from 3D Coat (FILE Menu > EXPORT TO > BLENDER) into the MyDocs/3DCoat 4.8/Exchange/Blender directory, but choose a sub-directory (project folder) there and point to that specific project folder in the Applink on the Blender side. Too many applinks only look as far as the EXCHANGE folder and thus you can have tons of different maps to have to sort through, because they are not neatly tucked away in their own subfolder.

Thanks for looking into this. Could be super helpful. I was just running some basic render tests with both Cycles and ProRender. With 2 GTX 10xx series cards, it's really amazing and fun to work with. Having a proper Applink will make it a much nicer experience. :good2:

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I am planning on adding a scene folder inside the Exchange/Blender folder. The folder name will always be the scene name of blender.

image.png.f3a811407e1cee614a98305ba9574b86.png

On the 3D-Coat side, you would have to manually export your stuff into the Exchange folder and rename your scene to the folder you created.

As of now it seems that 3D-Coat only shows an "Open in original App" menu entry, when first imported from Blender. After that 3D-Coat will always export the data for the specific Blender scene.

Workflow:

Open Blender, create model or import something > Export to 3DC > Paint or do something else > Export to Blender via "Open in original App"

Maybe I am missing something here, but using 3DC first, does not give me an export to Blender option:

image.thumb.png.98b6c3c0637d1554b3e1b046708335cf.png

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@Haunted

Not sure why the blender export is not showing in your version of 3DC. Do you have an exchange folder setup, I think you might by your wording in the post but just making sure.

I also am very thankful that you continue to develop your plug-in.

 

export.png

Edited by digman
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42 minutes ago, digman said:

@Haunted

Not sure why the blender export is not showing in your version of 3DC. Do you have an exchange folder setup, I think you might by your wording in the post but just making sure.

I also am very thankful that you continue to develop your plug-in.

 

export.png

Mhh weird. My exchange folder ist set up: Exchange/Blender 

Using the latest stable release of 3DC :/

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I know it is a dummy question so sorry for that. Just being safe as you did not specify.

You have setup the exchange folder under Users/mydocuments/3D-CoatV48.

In Blender is your applink plug-in directed to use the Exchange folder. 

As I am not a coder just mentioning things I know that the current plug-ins use.

Hopefully some of this will help.

Edited by digman
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Hey @digman

don't worry, there are no dumb questions :D

Yes, my Exchange folder is located here (Windows 10): 

C:\Users\Irrgeist\Documents\3D-CoatV48\Exchange

I also create a Blender sub folder via script (AppLink plugin)

image.png.de9d9b790d0c9e11f44d6b9369490904.png

I also tried to capitalize my Blender folder. I don't get the "Export to" menu option. Maybe @Andrew Shpagin can help out here?

I am using 3D-Coat 4.8.10 (DX64)(educational)

Importing and exporting is working so far. 3D-Coat created the exchange folder and recognizes the files inside the exchange folder.

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Yes, that would be the best, Contact Andrew through e-mail with what you are doing. See if he has the answer or maybe he can update the exchange folder to handle sub folders that a plug-in will create. 

Edited by digman
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At some point they changed the name from Export (to Blender) to "BringVoxelsBackToApp" which will set things where you can click Import in Blender in the 3D Coat App and it will import the geometry. Likewise, if you hit Export in the App and then click 3D Coat the dialog will start so you can import the geometry from Blender. 

How when the geometry is originating from 3D Coat is the user "Bringing back" to Blender is beyond me?

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Just a big thanks @Haunted for making this happen!  Have been doing this manually for the last few months, and testing it out now in cycles and works great.  Only thing I think I may have missed is there anyway for it to deal with multiple sub/materials?  On my test it just imported the one from the obj.  Just downloading 2.8 now to try out eevie - been meaning to try it out for a few weeks now, looks awesome!

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Hi @sHAYM4N,

thank you :)

As of now the PBR AddOn for blender creates a new material on the selected object. It imports all the textures that have the name of the .OBJ in it. 

I am planning to include a way to support multiple UV sets/materials in the upcoming AppLink AddOn though. This AddOn will also include the texture import AddOn.

I am in contact with Andrew to work things out ect :)

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Really cool!  thanks all your efort . Then I have same problem , about current 3d coat recent version and blender 2.79b.

I can not see menu "export to blender" for applink  export from 3d coat.

of course I edit,  Exchange folder.txt path, for 4.8  as same as up-date 3d coat version.

C:\Users\TAKE\Documents\3D-CoatV48\Exchange

and change blender add on / coat.py path too. It worked before.     So hope officially support and up-date blender app-link.

I could  export from blender, but  still not find way, after modify and export from 3d coat to blender.

("up-date" in blender 3d coat add on,  seems not work for the purpose.  )

And I really hope "multiple material" will  work with this plug in!   Because most of my mesh have mutlitple material_slot with material. (blender)

 

 

 

 

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Hi @tokikake,

thanks :)

The upcoming AppLink will correctly show the Export To > Blender dialog. The whole workflow is working as of now:

  • Create with 3D Coat => Export To Blender (Blender has to be open)
  • Create with Blender => Export to 3DC (3DC has to be open)

 I just need to implement some specifics like multi material and correct PBR texture creation and updates.

I hope I can post a beta soon, so y'all can test it and use it. :)

Edit: I will also post a video tutorial, when I am done, explaining the basics.

Edited by Haunted
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You cannot know how cool this is and how much it is appreciated that after so many years of neglect that the AppLink is being brought into modernity out of the stone age. Thanks and I'll definitely give it a hard workout when you drop it into beta.

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Hello 

Thanks, @Haunted for the great addon.

had a quick question can this be used with the current blender applink?

I mean use the current applink for updating mesh and use yours for the material?

Edit:

I just read you are working a new version that will cover mesh exports too, looking forward to that.

but will me approach work till it's released?

Thanks a lot 

Regards

Ahmed

Edited by Barracuda
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On 4/20/2018 at 8:14 PM, Barracuda said:

Hello 

Thanks, @Haunted for the great addon.

had a quick question can this be used with the current blender applink?

I mean use the current applink for updating mesh and use yours for the material?

Edit:

I just read you are working a new version that will cover mesh exports too, looking forward to that.

but will me approach work till it's released?

Hi @Barracuda,

if the original old AppLink works for you, you can import a mesh from 3D-Coat and import the PBR textures with my AddOn. Shouldn't be a problem.

You have to export the PBR textures manually as described , though. 

 

Hey @unity2k,

i am still on it, it's just my time management is a little bit bad at the moment (Private stuff and other things in my pipeline). When everything works out I will be back on track this weekend. Hopefully the beta will then be ready to test too :) Depends on how time consuming it will be to import multiple materials into Blender and keeping everything synchronized.

It's always annoying when the real life comes by and robs your time :P

Edited by Haunted
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Just a short update. It's not finished yet but I am still at it. I am missing a lot of free time lately. As of now I finally managed to get the image textures out of Blender.

In case you create your PBR texture with Blender first, the images will NOT be copied to the Exchange folder. 3DC will read them from their original location. Blender stores images in the .blend file (if not changed by the user manually). But I think it will work out. I could copy the images to the exchange folder and reassign them within Blender but I think this is not necessary.

If you paint your 3D model with 3DC first, it shouldn't be a problem at all.

What now:

  1. Get 3DC to read all Blender Materials and Texture Data
  2. Export all files from 3DC to Blender.

It's not that much left, hope I will find the time super fast to finally throw out the Beta!

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Hi everyone. 

I have some bad news. Since I struggle with some personal issues and some other stuff I will not finish the plugin in the near future. 

I posted my result on GitHub here: https://github.com/Irrgeist/3D-Coat-Blender-AppLink . So anyone who has some spare time may fork it and optimize it. As of now, import to 3D Coat works (just the mesh).

There are functions for detecting the different textures in the applied Blender materials. The best entry point is to check out the operators.py (Function ExecuteImport and ExecuteExport).

If anyone wants to try this, simply download the code from GitHub as a .Zip and import it using the Blender AddOn-Manager (as a zip). Make sure to deactivate my other plugin.

Afaik there is another dev who is willing to update his AddOn, but not before Blender 2.8 has been released.

I am sorry to disappoint everyone, but I need to take a break from everything right now since stuff goes down hill atm.

See you soon! :wacko:

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Haunted, why not try Patreon or Kickstarter to drum up support to make this add-on? I'm sure there are plenty of people who would sign up to support the development! Put up you need 1000 USD month or so - whatever - and give the add-on away to those who sponsor you, and sell it to everyone else for a donation!

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27 minutes ago, fractionalist said:

Haunted, why not try Patreon or Kickstarter to drum up support to make this add-on? I'm sure there are plenty of people who would sign up to support the development! Put up you need 1000 USD month or so - whatever - and give the add-on away to those who sponsor you, and sell it to everyone else for a donation!

Hey,

sounds like a nice idea, but I can't find the time and head to put more spare time into the development atm. Besides that I am not allowed to have a side job (based on my employment contract I am not allowed to have a side job in the same field, and since I am a full time software developer/IT project manager there's no chance to make money with it x_X)

Maybe someone can put up a Patreon to hire another dev or wait until the dev of the original AppLink updates his Add-On. :/ Maybe things get better here and I can come back, but as of now it's rather difficult.

 

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Huanted, you're a true artist, why don't you quit your day job and become a true artist like me, and live on fresh air and sunshine like the rest of us? Come to China, I have a great couch you can crash on - and lots of beer in the refrigerator - life is rich!

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It's a real shame you can't finish the plugin Haunted, but massive Kudos for going as far as you have with it and hope things get better for you soon!  Hopefully the interest generated here may spur the 3DC dev team into updating the current plugin into something useful & more robust

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