Creating Surface Materials in 3D Coat

[varcanrex]

Is it possible to create surface materials that are assigned to groups of polygons during retopology in 3D coat? I'm having trouble finding a way to do this and/or exclude polygons from being painted on after retopo and UVs are created.

After reading this: https://3dcoat.com/manual/paint/279-surfacematerials/

Would I need to retopologize the object, breaking it up into separate objects?

[Carlosan]

Hi 

Surface Materials in 3DCoat are the equivalent of polygonal material assignments from other programs, such as Modo or Maya.
If upon import 3DCoat detects any of these Surface Materials, they will be respected and kept, and can also be used to perform various functions in the Paint Room.

 

2 panels are very useful to isolate paint objects:

- Windows > Panels > Surface Materials

Display the objects surface materials list. You can rename, hide, lock surface materials, and change texture sizes for export

- Windows > Panels > Paint Objects

Show the Paint Objects list into a Layer system. You can rename, hide lock and delete objects listed here

 

In 3DC unlike SPainter the textures are assigned globally by painting Objects or Surface materials, and not by texture sets (uvsets). So you dont need to assign the same smart material to every layer or uDim.

[Carlosan]

9 minutes ago, varcanrex said:

Would I need to retopologize the object, breaking it up into separate objects?

Yes

Please look at this video

Related:

 

[varcanrex]

Thank you, this was helpful.

[Blu]

Everything can be done inside the Modeling or Retopo Room

1. Edit > Preferences > Beta > Treat retopo groups as materials
2. Make poly selections and separate onto different Poly Group layers
3. Bake > Update Paint Mesh with Retopo Mesh

You should now see them pop up in the Surface Materials panel.

After I create my Surface Materials I usually go back and undo Step 1 so that I can do the usual workflow from there.