SmoothGroups

[blackant Master]

this is a parameter i think that really miss in the workflow, let me explain why

i use 3dc this many years now, i have always been disturbed because of Obj that doesn't keep the smoothgroups on import, or FBX that triangulate the mesh instead of keeping quads...

but the fbx has the smoothgroups infos in it, and it really helps  when you need to calculate normals but also curvature map and AO.

sometimes, you may think your model  is good, when you import it, adding textures  and painting it a lot and suddenly you reallize that somewhere in you rmodel, the smoothgroups can be improved...

 

the only way to do it is to to do it outside 3dc, wich means, exporting files to a PSD wich means also you may have problems reimporting it, with missing specular, gloss or anything..

problems with normal maps wich can  be in the wrong direction etc...

with that in mind, i must say, why not stay in 3dc and do it inside the tweak room or something like that?

[Tony Nemo]

Hmmmm... I think importing the FBX into sculpt and import the OBJ mesh for the finished work.

[blackant Master]

the way actually to manage it is to complicate,

1. first import OBJ to unwrap, don't focus on painting yet
2. export it to max and setup Smoothgroups (still in quads)
3. export it to fbx, and paint (lost quad when you import in 3dc)
4. export it to max or any soft to animate (triangulated mesh)

if we could manage smoothgroups directly in 3Dcoat, it means we can keep quads and do so much import/export.

[Carlosan]

On 1/8/2009 at 6:42 AM, Andrew Shpagin said:

Smoothing groups are supported via OBJ format. But you need to export normals also from your 3D-model app. 3D-Coat uses normals in OBJ file to recover smoothing groups.