Ptex and Photoshop extended?

[The Candy-floss Kid]

Hi Folks,

I wonder if anyone knows whether Photoshop Extended can read the ptex uv format on an exported .obj from 3D-Coat?

Is Ptex something only a few render engines and software can use at the moment? I'm a bit fuzzy on this.

I'm so taken by the speed of 3D image creation using 3D-Coats voxel technology that I've been considering buying Photoshop Extended to roughly match textures /image composite over renders of voxel sculptures from 3D-COAT.

Still not sure how far away painting or texturing the actual voxels is away in the development of 3D-Coat?

Is it something that would be possible in the near future?

Any way I do hope some of you folks can help or offer advice on this topic.

Many thanks

[The Candy-floss Kid]

There are some new video tutorials that show the workflow using Ptex...whether it's straight to an external 3D program, ready to render, or bake the result in 3DC to an image map on a model that already has UV's laid out (meaning you still get the advantage of using Ptex to get local subdivision when painting, and have the flexibilty to edit the result further in Photoshop later, if needed). To me using Photoshop Extended's 3D painting would be similar to stepping down from painting a 2D image in PS to work on it in Microsoft Paint. Why do it? I can understand wanting to use some of PS's filters and such on a flattened 2D image, but it's 3D capabilities are far more crude and limited than 3DC's.

Many thanks Don for your reply.

So Ptex is uv format that can be read by all 3D software that handle uv's on meshes?

I see your point about there being little point in using PS Extended with regard it's painting facilities.Great advice and tips. Much appreciated

My interest really stems in trying to think of a way to continue to utilize the enormous speed advantages of working in voxels on certain jobs rather than polys and using PS Extended for proxy shapes with textures that could be composited back over voxel renders. At the moment I've been experimenting using this technique using Lightwave to texture proxy shapes/forms (or quadrangulated exports) and camera matching to the original render from 3DC but wondered whether going the photoshop route may be quicker. At the moment I'm just reviewing the options and as yet haven't invested in PS Extended but rather currently investigating the merits of going this route.

One of the things when your a 3D artist creating renders for print rather than animation is that traditional routes of texturing and uv'ing can be very time consuming when you ultimately may only see a small part of the textured mesh facing the camera. In that respect I always found ZBrush's pixols a clever approach to fast texturing i.e only texturing surfaces facing the camera but lacking in the respect of being able to change views other than marking objects and redesigning a scene from a different views.

If any of you use PS Extended I would appreciate any feedback on how you've found it for such tasks.

Many thanks