I got 3D Painter, but for the life of me I can't seem to figure out how to use it, and I thought maybe there are people out there, such as myself, who have to be spoon fed in order to get the most out of their purchase.

So, here's an idea for a quick tute to get started.

Let's say I want Shaggy to have a black eye (a simple black circle around his left eye).

What is the procedure, step by step, to get this done and have Shaggy with his black eye in the chor. ready to animate?

A basic rundown of it:

Flatten the region you want to paint in an action/pose.(eye area)
Decal a blank white image onto it.
Save the model.
Go into 3D Painter.
Start painting his black eye!
Saving in Painter won't save the whole model....only the image you're painting on to.

Thanks Ken. I was looking for a step by step, kinda like TAoA:M. Start to finish simple exercise.

You could also use the automapping tool if you wan't to avoid the flattening:
1) Save the Shaggy model to your harddrive and open it in Animation:Master
2) Right-click and select '3DPainter...' to open 3DPainter
3) Click the 'Create Decal Tiles' button to do automapping. In the window that appears, select the 'Extra Large' option (if your graphics card allows it) and click 'OK'
4) Click the 'Start Projection Paint' button and start painting.
5) Click the 'Accept Projection Paint' button to project the projection paint canvas onto the decal.
6) Click the 'Save Modified Textures' button.
7) Close 3DPainter
8) Render in Animation:Master

[attachmentid=20385]

OK, thanks for the quick tute, but did I miss a step? How do I keep Shaggy's color?

[attachmentid=20387]

In my previous tutorial, the whole model is covered by the decal. Here's how you just paint the eyes:
1) Save the Shaggy model to your harddrive and open it in Animation:Master
2) Right-click and select '3DPainter...' to open 3DPainter
3) In the Project Workspace, select the group 'Eyes' and then click the 'Lock' button.
4) Click the 'Create Decal Tiles' button to do automapping. In the window that appears, select the 'Medium' or 'Normal' option and click 'OK'. The automapper will now create a map just for the eyes.
5) Click the 'Start Projection Paint' button and start painting the eyes.
6) Click the 'Accept Projection Paint' button to project the projection paint canvas onto the decal.
7) Click the 'Save Modified Textures' button.
8) Close 3DPainter
9) Render in Animation:Master

[attachmentid=20390]

Or you could create a decal for the whole model (like in my previous post), but initialize it as 'transparent'. This will allow you to paint wherever you want on the model, without making all underlying colors invisible
1) Save the Shaggy model to your harddrive and open it in Animation:Master
2) Right-click and select '3DPainter...' to open 3DPainter
3) Click the 'Create Decal Tiles' button to do automapping. In the window that appears, select the 'Extra Large' option (if your graphics card allows it), set the initial background to 'Transparent' and click 'OK'.
4) Click the 'Start Projection Paint' button and start painting.
5) Click the 'Accept Projection Paint' button to project the projection paint canvas onto the decal.
6) Click the 'Save Modified Textures' button.
7) Close 3DPainter
8) Render in Animation:Master

As you see in the following render, the underlying colors are still visible now:

[attachmentid=20391]

OK, so, here is the tute with pictures:

1) Save the Shaggy model to your harddrive and open it in Animation:Master
[attachmentid=20394]

2) Right-click and select '3DPainter...' to open 3DPainter
[attachmentid=20395]

3) Click the 'Create Decal Tiles' button to do automapping.
[attachmentid=20396]

4) In the window that appears, select the 'Extra Large' option (if your graphics card allows it), set the initial background to 'Transparent' and click 'OK'.
[attachmentid=20397]

5) Click the 'Start Projection Paint' button and start painting.
[attachmentid=20398] [attachmentid=20399]

6) Click the 'Accept Projection Paint' button to project the projection paint canvas onto the decal.
[attachmentid=20400] [attachmentid=20401]

7) Click the 'Save Modified Textures' under the File menu.

8) Click 'Return to A:M' under the File menu.

9) Render the model in A:M
[attachmentid=20402]

Thanks Dhar for asking the question, took me a bit to work it out as well.