Can you replace a mesh in the Paint Room & keep layers ?

[popwfx]

Hi,

I've just spent a long time painting many layers of a low poly mesh in the paint room and when i got to one particular Paint Object (i.e. mesh) in my object I noticed that the painting was having weird errors - i checked the original mesh inside my other modeler app and it seems I had a couple of unwelded points that led to some discontinous polygons in the part that wasn't working.

Since it doesn't look like there's any way in 3DC to weld a couple of vertices together (and merge them) for a paint mesh - that means I have to change the mesh in the original modelling app (Lightwave in my case).  But if I fix that so i can paint that one Paint Object correctly in my 3DC file, how do I replace either the entire model back into 3DC with layers intact or just the Paint Object in question?  I really don't want to bake anything and flatten layers - I have a lot of detail in many layers I need to keep. 

 

Also a similar followup question - how do I ADD another new separate Paint Object to a mesh in the Paint Room?  i.e. let's say I want to pull in a prop as part of the mesh (like sunglasses on a character) and keep layers and all other Paint Objects?  Ideally I'd just like to load the sunglasses and then have it appear as another Paint Object in my list in 3DC.

Please help - It seems a shame to lose days worth of work and flexibility just because I missed a couple of polys before I started UV mapping and Painting in 3D Coat.

 

Edited May 20, 2020 by popwfx

[AbnRanger]

3 hours ago, popwfx said:

Hi,

I've just spent a long time painting many layers of a low poly mesh in the paint room and when i got to one particular Paint Object (i.e. mesh) in my object I noticed that the painting was having weird errors - i checked the original mesh inside my other modeler app and it seems I had a couple of unwelded points that led to some discontinous polygons in the part that wasn't working.

Since it doesn't look like there's any way in 3DC to weld a couple of vertices together (and merge them) for a paint mesh - that means I have to change the mesh in the original modelling app (Lightwave in my case).  But if I fix that so i can paint that one Paint Object correctly in my 3DC file, how do I replace either the entire model back into 3DC with layers intact or just the Paint Object in question?  I really don't want to bake anything and flatten layers - I have a lot of detail in many layers I need to keep. 

 

Also a similar followup question - how do I ADD another new separate Paint Object to a mesh in the Paint Room?  i.e. let's say I want to pull in a prop as part of the mesh (like sunglasses on a character) and keep layers and all other Paint Objects?  Ideally I'd just like to load the sunglasses and then have it appear as another Paint Object in my list in 3DC.

Please help - It seems a shame to lose days worth of work and flexibility just because I missed a couple of polys before I started UV mapping and Painting in 3D Coat.

 

You can export the Paint Mesh to the Retopo Room to make changes by going to the Retopo Room and from the to RETOPO Menu > TAKE MESH FROM PAINT ROOM. Make your changes/fixes and then go to the BAKE Menu and choose UPDATE PAINT MESH W/ RETOPO MESH.

For your 2nd question, you can go to the FILE menu from the Paint Room, and select IMPORT OBJECT. That will merge the object into the scene.

[popwfx]

Thanks very much AbnRanger!  I've been using 3DC off and on since v3 (mostly off) so some fundamental things like how it deals with meshes seem odd to me at times.  I appreciate your help.

 

Another couple of quick related followup questions please -

1. Once the Paint Mesh is in the Retopo room - I wanted to clean up a few polys and weld some points together - I was using the Move tool, but couldn't figure out how to get the vertices to snap to each other (when editing a Paint Mesh in Retopo room - They do snap when Retopoing a sculpt).  How do you get the points to snap to each other? And then I assume if they snap they automatically weld so painting across the polys will now work as expected?

2. If I Import Object in the Paint Room and add another Paint Object (say to replace one Paint object I already have in here - what will happen to the UVs of the imported?  Will they retain their shape and position and take the place in the packed UV map of the object I have in the scene that matches?  So I want to use Import Object for 2 reasons - a) if I need an additional mesh like sunglasses or b) if I can't get the Retopo room tools to clean up my errored Paint Object welding and looking like I like - so I edit it external and want to replace it.  What do you suggest in these cases?

 

thanks!

 

 

Edited May 21, 2020 by popwfx

[popwfx]

Ahh another quirk I just noticed for people like me who don't get it fully... When you "Update Paint Mesh with Retopo Mesh" you loose all Paint Objects.  They get collapsed into one mesh.   So after tweaking and welding in Retopo, I'm going to try separating the Paint Objects into Retopo Groups and see if that works...

I'm confused by the separation between rooms and meshes....

[popwfx]

3 minutes ago, popwfx said:

Ahh another quirk I just noticed for people like me who don't get it fully... When you "Update Paint Mesh with Retopo Mesh" you loose all Paint Objects.  They get collapsed into one mesh.   So after tweaking and welding in Retopo, I'm going to try separating the Paint Objects into Retopo Groups and see if that works...

 

Actually - this is a pain - if I have like 10 Paint Objects and just need to tweak 1 point ot poly on one Paint Object, this method is cumbersome unless I am doing it wrong.

Is there a way to TAKE MESH FROM PAINT ROOM and retain Paint Objects as Retopo Object Layers?  Because otherwise I have to split the meshes into retopo layers and that takes a long time on a complex object with many Paint Objects. 

 

Is there a "SELECT CONNECTED FACES" in the Retopo Room? or SELECT BY SURFACE NAME?  Manually selecting individual polys in order to recreate the Paint Object layers before bringing back into Paint Room is too difficult. 

My whole thing here is trying to retain the Layers in the Paint Room, and Retain Paint Objects (for ease of visibility switching and mesh organization) while just welding a couple of points and polys to get painting across those polys to work. Trying not to lose days of work.  Thanks again very much for your help and sorry if I'm being obtuse here.