Member acst Posted October 27, 2019 Member Report Share Posted October 27, 2019 Hey there! I downloaded the 3D Coat trial to see if the program meets my requirements, and now I'm trying to find my way around. It would be very much appreciated if someone could help me along with the following question; I have a low poly mesh (a DAZ studio Genesis 8 male character, to be precise) in OBJ format, and I want to sculpt high resolution details, save the result as a HD mesh in OBJ format and also create normal and height maps based on that. Is that possible with 3D Coat, and if it is, how would I do that? The menus are very confusing. Creating the HD mesh based on an existing low poly mesh is the primary requirement. Normal/height baking is secondary, as I could also do that in Substance Painter or xNormal, if need be. But having everything in one application would be great. Thanks, acst Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member acst Posted October 27, 2019 Author Member Report Share Posted October 27, 2019 I forgot to mention that I already have the diffuse maps for my character, so the normal and height maps would have to be based on the same UV layout (which is the normal G8M UDIM). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philnolan3d Posted October 27, 2019 Report Share Posted October 27, 2019 You could definitely import a low res model and sculpt on it. Personally I would go into the sculpt room, in Surface mode, then use the Import tool to bring in the model. I like to use the Live Clay tool with zero height to increase the density right where I need it, then sculpt details with other tools. Maybe someone else can confirm this but I think you can then go into the Retopo room and import the original mesh from the Retopo menu and still retain the original UV map. Another option would be to start in the paint room, import your model and just paint the details directly into the normal map. There are a ton of tutorials on the official YouTube channel of that helps. https://www.youtube.com/user/PILGWAY3DCoat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member acst Posted October 27, 2019 Author Member Report Share Posted October 27, 2019 Thank you very much, Phil! That sounds pretty much like what I'm trying to do. Using the clay tool with zero height to add local high resolution areas is a great idea, I'll definitely give that a try, too. Another quick question: Does anybody know if there usually are special deals for 3D Coat around Christmas available? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philnolan3d Posted October 27, 2019 Report Share Posted October 27, 2019 Yes there is usually a Christmas sale. Keep an eye on the forum and you'll probably see it here first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member acst Posted October 27, 2019 Author Member Report Share Posted October 27, 2019 13 minutes ago, philnolan3d said: Yes there is usually a Christmas sale. Keep an eye on the forum and you'll probably see it here first. Perfect, thanks! :) Back to the original question: I did what you suggestested, i.e. started in the sculpt room and used the import option from the menu to get the low poly character OBJ into the program. The result was very strange though - while it did obviously load the actual mesh correctly, there are strange artefacts/patches all over the object. I took a screen shot of a small section to show what I mean. I'm sure it's just a very stupid beginner's mistake, but I can't see how to get rid of that (or figure out what it actually is). The OBJ looks perfectly fine in all other 3D applications I have access to (Blender, Substance Painter, Mudbox, Daz Studio, ...). Also, I'm not able to zoom in close enough to actually do any sculpting. Must be the camera settings, but I cannot find anything to adjust that either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlosan Posted October 27, 2019 Report Share Posted October 27, 2019 Hi On Paint Workspace Switch off View > Show voxels in Paint Room Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member acst Posted October 27, 2019 Author Member Report Share Posted October 27, 2019 (edited) 29 minutes ago, Carlosan said: Hi On Paint Workspace Switch off View > Show voxels in Paint Room Thanks, Carlos(?)! But I'm in the sculpt room - does that setting not only affect the paint room? The zooming issue seems to be a known bug, as someone pointed out to me: Edited October 27, 2019 by acst Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlosan Posted October 27, 2019 Report Share Posted October 27, 2019 Hi Hope this help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member acst Posted October 27, 2019 Author Member Report Share Posted October 27, 2019 Thanks again, Carlos, but I'm not sure what you are trying to show me by this video. It's about retopology and UV unwrapping. Like I said, I already have the low poly object and the UVs and want to sculpt details and create the normal maps based on the result (and, of course, using the existing UV layout). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlosan Posted October 27, 2019 Report Share Posted October 27, 2019 Import the model in retopo room - Shift + M > Perform retopology > Import Retopo Mesh Now you have your the low poly model in Retopo Room - On Sculpt Room select the command Geometry > Retopo Mesh -> Sculpt Mesh Now you have the same model low poly model on Sculpt Room - After sculpt details switch to Retopo room, you can see both models: Low poly and High Poly. If you model have UVlayout done, use the command Bake to create normals maps. - The finished model will appear on Paint Room ready for additional paint and export. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member acst Posted October 27, 2019 Author Member Report Share Posted October 27, 2019 That sounds promising, Carlos, thanks! I'll try that as soon as I can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlosan Posted October 27, 2019 Report Share Posted October 27, 2019 Some more videos. This is importing a low poly model. The second is using a newer feature is flat subdivision. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member acst Posted October 28, 2019 Author Member Report Share Posted October 28, 2019 Thanks, Carlos! The previous post really helps. However, now I'm having a new problem. My computer, an i7 4770 CPU with 32 GB of RAM and an NVidia GeForce GTX 1070, is obviously WAY too weak to sculpt even small areas of the mesh I'm trying to work with (the face part of a Daz Studio Genesis 8 Male character morph), even though I only increased the density in certain areas, using the method described by Phil above. Is that to be expected? What are the REAL WORLD hardware requirements for 3D Coat for such scenarios? Or are there any tricks I could try? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlosan Posted October 28, 2019 Report Share Posted October 28, 2019 Your computer will be enough. Check this video please Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member acst Posted October 28, 2019 Author Member Report Share Posted October 28, 2019 That's exactly what I'm trying. :/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlosan Posted October 28, 2019 Report Share Posted October 28, 2019 can you share a pic to see details ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philnolan3d Posted October 28, 2019 Report Share Posted October 28, 2019 That's a way more powerful computer than I'm using. Heck a lot of my work is done with my laptop that has 16gb ram and the inboard Intel graphics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member acst Posted October 29, 2019 Author Member Report Share Posted October 29, 2019 20 hours ago, Carlosan said: can you share a pic to see details ? A picture of what exactly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member acst Posted October 29, 2019 Author Member Report Share Posted October 29, 2019 (edited) 20 hours ago, philnolan3d said: That's a way more powerful computer than I'm using. Heck a lot of my work is done with my laptop that has 16gb ram and the inboard Intel graphics. Then I must be doing something wrong. It's completely impossible to sculpt anything ... To be more precise: As soon as I click somewhere with the smooth tool active, the program freezes for a minute or more. Edited October 29, 2019 by acst Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member acst Posted October 29, 2019 Author Member Report Share Posted October 29, 2019 Oh, and another thing: When I import the low poly mesh, the textures are not imported along with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philnolan3d Posted October 29, 2019 Report Share Posted October 29, 2019 Technically if you import the mesh into Surface mode and turn off Voxelize in the Import tool options you will get textures but it gets converted to vertex colors so for a low poly model you won't get much. If you care the share the model I could take a look at it, maybe make a quick tutorial video. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member acst Posted October 30, 2019 Author Member Report Share Posted October 30, 2019 Thanks for the offer, Phil. Let me try and learn some more about the interface/concepts of the program. I think some of my expectations are just not what 3D Coat is meant to be used for (or at least not in the way I'm trying to achieve that). I can't share this particular model, but I can easily prepare a different one from scratch, as it doesn't really matter which exact mesh I'm using. It can be any arbitrary Daz Studio Genesis 8 Male character morph, and it doesn't have to be anything fancy. All I'm trying to do (for now) is add some lines and wrinkles to the face. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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