Hi,

The only video tut on 3D paint I know of is the short part on the CD "Decaling / UV Setup" from Zandoria Studios. If there is another one, please let me know! While this tut is very valuable it is pretty much limited to using 3D Paint for merging decals. Also, the 3DP manual does a good job of telling you 'how' to use the program but not a lot on 'what' it can be used for.

I'm considering creating a video tut on what 3D Paint can be used for, techniques as well as a quick start. I think this is something that would be valuable and something that is 'missing' that needs to exist. Unfortunately, for the 'what it can be used for' and the 'techniques' part, frankly, I simply don't know at this point. I'll have to play around with the program and 'discover' these and this could take time.

However, some out there have used 3D Paint for some very impressive work. I need your help... I need you to post any techniques and usage you have discovered so I can add it to the tut. The tut will naturally be a 'forum' effort and you'll get glowing credit and accolades!

If a group effort can be made, I'd post the script for the tut here for all to critique before creating it. Also there would be this thread which would contain a lot of the content. I'd probably only charge $500 for the tut and of course keep all the money for myself (JUST KIDDING!!!!). It would of course be free.

This effort will probably fall on its face (I'm not real good at starting up 'group' efforts LOL) but hey, its worth a try!

Cheers,
Rusty

I hope this takes off as I would like to learn 3d paint myself ,it must be capable of a good many things .My main thing is cloning

You should have been here to see my eyes enlarge as I read the first part of that Rusty!

I agree that some tutorials on the UV Editor and 3D Paint would be great to have.
The whole area of texturing is something we really should nail down for A:M Users everywhere.
For many this is uncharted territory.

I hadn't planned to go into 3D Paint as I got to decaling during my current pass through TaoA:M but you are convincing me that its something I need to at least touch the basics on.

The use of 3D Painter is very straightforward but... only if you are starting to paint on a model ready for decaling. Getting past that stage is the toughest part (I think). Information getting A:M Users up to and past that point is important.

I'm very interested in what you discover here.

Here's hoping you offer volume discounts on all your $500 videos!
If I buy 200 videos can I get them all for free?

great idea

Quite a while ago Will Sutton or Jim Talbot made some great vids on texturing a face. When you say "how", is that the sort of "how" you mean?

If its something that takes advantage of 3D Paint then absolutely yes! I know there is great potential there -- we've seen it in winning contest entries. But beyond blending decals... and just having fun doing stuff that you could just do in the UV editor and PS... there must be more to it that it does better or easier. In truth I'm not sure what this is off hand -- I am not qualified at this time to do a tut on it and without some help from others who have played with it, it will take me about a year to get up to speed if left on my own.

I'm not sure what the skull and cross -bones brush would ever be used for -- probably nothing. If I want a perfect circle painted on something I've made a brush to do this (new squares and others are probably needed). It has many capabilities with potential but, kind of like expressions, I find myself searching for things to use it for (and that's not so good) and its simply because not enough examples of usage and techniques are out there.

BTW, I need to look at Sutton/Talbot face texturing tuts in any case, where are these? I need to explore far easier ways to do the face. I have a great one myself (I've been told its great anyway) if your going for ultra realism on the big screen (Note: it is pre- 3D Paint and UV mapping). It is massive overkill otherwise but a good learning exercise for layering maps and many various techniques in both AM and Photoshop.

Cheers,
Rusty

I'm not sure what your angle is yet is all. Are you talking about the "art" of creating maps for 3D models in 3D painter?

Will that be radically different than painting 2D in photoshop for applying to an unwrapped mesh? Green is still green and a bump is still a bump in either case. It seems to me that the judgements about why and where to put the paint dont' change because of how the decal is applied.

So maybe I don't understand yet what information you are planning to put across.

Good points Rob and to be honest, I don't really know yet. Beyond doing a quick start (basically a video version of the manual), I guess I'm just looking for how people can use this tool to their advantage, what you can do with it and why you'd use it rather than the various methods provided by AM. For instance:

= Seems to me that merging decals (hiding where one decal meets another) as shown on Sutton's Decaling / UV Setup 'is' something that at times 3D Paint can make easier. So is there anything else like this? Or, is that it?

= In line with the above, it seems like things can be done in 3D Paint that otherwise would require flattening and/or moving splines around before stamping the decal(s).

= Is there anything that 3DP can do which is unique (i.e. that can't be done any other way... I doubt this but...)?

= How the stock or custom brushes and/or brush types can be used to get this or that effect.

= I assume that any map type (bump, distortion, cookie cutter, etc.) can be created in 3DP -- are there any advantages to using 3DP for layering decals?

= You can 'see' your model while you texture it... seems to me that at times that has to be worth something.

Green is green and a bump map is a bump map but the addition of UV mapping to AM was a nice touch all the same. The addition of 3D Paint seems like a nice touch as well but 'where's the beef'? I bought Right Hemisphere's Deep Paint 3D for texturing classes using XSI and I always wished it would work for AM but 'why', LOL, I don't really know! Intuitively it seemed like it would have value. Perhaps 3DP has no real value, just a different way to do the same thing. I haven't worked with it enough yet to know.

Others seem to want something... I know I do. What exactly? Don't know yet. That's why I want something I guess.

Rusty

I would think those are the BIG reasons for wanting 3D paint... it should be more intuitive than painting in 2d for wrapping on 3D.







So... 3DPaint is that A:M version of the paint program you wanted to work with A:M. That should be good news, right? The things you learned in that class should work in A:M now too, right? That sounds like the basis of what you might cover in a tutorial. Without infringing on any copyrights, of course.

Frankly, no, the class was poor and we mainly painted using materials in Deep 3D which 3D Paint doesn't offer -- but you have given me an idea. No one is offering any ideas here and this means that even though any 3D Paint tut from me is many months away, it will be an eye opener.

Cheers,
Rusty

To me the great thing about 3D painting is that it is conceptually simpler than all the UV/Decalling/flattening stuff we all learned starting out..... I think that is why programs like zbrush appeal to people too....
Interface wise--if you could make the concept even more intuitive where you could have paint "materials" (where you are in reality painting 8bit channels to define diffuse,specular,reflectivity,etc....but all you see is the combined effect), that would be pretty awesome. That would be like the hobby of painting wargame miniatures. Anything that hides the "technical" abstractions of what we do, letting the artist paint "directly"[even though that is really a complex illusion] would be better.

I have thought about doing a second video, focusing on the detailed step-by-step of painting the maps, but never got around to it......I have some other things I want to do first. [mocap, syntheyes, VFX compositing, etc......it just seems like it is impossible to get to everything]

Put me on the pre order list.

I love tutorials, made a few myself for another program. Hope ya get all that you need. I brought 3D painter not long ago so really, I've yet to use it to it's full potential. Painting in 3D, my brain just works better there. Painting 2 flat maps, well my brain just couldn't wrap around that very good. I give full credit to all the artist who create beautiful textures in 2d. Back to the point. I think one strong part of 3Dpainter is that you can paint in 3d or 2d, directly on the uv map plus get a projection image into photoshop were you can create layers,which at this time 3dpainter does not support. Also creating your disfuse,spec,bump, and painted on displacement (good for stills not animation).
Tutorial idea
The tutorials that I like take a model from begining (painting wise) to the end and use that to show the strengths of the features that the program has to offer.

Digman,

I know the basics of 3D Paint and have used it maybe a dozen times. I'm perhaps qualified to put together a beginner tut (which would basically be the manual in video) but no more than that. Originally I wanted to find a beginner tut for my wife and would have loved an advanced tut for myself. However, I've come to the conclusion that creating any kind of 'advanced' tut would really be a tut on using custom brushes. Whether it be Photoshop, PSP, DeepPaint 3D or our own 3D Painter, I hardly use custom brushes at all and, if there is some strength or art to using 'custom' brushes I don't know what it is.

I'm no longer sure I'll ever get around to making a tut for 3D Paint -- a beginners tut to replace the manual doesn't interest me that much as we already have the manual. I'm not qualified to make an advanced tut never the less I've started out several times to do research on advanced techniques which I could build on for a tut. I have always ended by searching for materials, tuts or any anything on techniques for using custom brushes, finding nothing and wondering if anyone uses custom brushes or did someone just say 'hey, we can create custom brushes' and do so even though they have no use!

I'm still thinking on it though one must note that no one has posted any ideas for 3D Paint 'advanced' usage or, any kind of usage for that matter. Perhaps there is nothing more.

Rusty