4ColorGrafix » 3-D Modeling

Fixing Morphs with UVMapper Pro

Webmaster K — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 16:09:18 +0000

In a previous post I mentioned that vertex order was critical for creating successful morphs in Poser. Many 3d programs do not preserve vertex order leading to the garbled mess pictured above. There is a method for correcting errors like this using a program called UVMapper Professional.

In order for this to work you must keep a copy of both the original 3d object and the morphed version of the object. Additionally you cannot add any new vertexes or edges to the morph; it must have exactly the same number of vertexes as the original object.

In UV Mapper Pro load your morphed object.
Select Tools->Vertices->Reorder. In the file manager select the original object. Your morphed object will turn into a garbled mess if you are successful. If you are not successful you will need to create your morph from scratch. Problems are usually caused by having deleted or created vertices in your morph. Even adding back vertices after deleting them may result in a bad outcome. Be very careful when creating your morph.
Vertices->Reorder" src="http://www.4colorgrafix.net/des/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/uvmap-reorder2.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="214" />
Save the new morph.
Load the new morph into Poser. Voilà! You have changed your garbled morph into a proper morph.

From Poser to DazStudio: Displacement Maps

Webmaster K — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 03:39:24 +0000

Displacement Maps and Bump Maps add additional detail to a 3d digital object that is too difficult or time-consuming to sculpt. I have constructed a brief tutorial explaining how to get Poser style displacement maps to work with DazStudio 3. The product used in this example is my popular Wondrous Winter collection available for sale at Renderosity. This tutorial assumes that you know how to load Poser content into DazStudio. If you don’t know how to do that, read this tutorial first.

Step 1: Load the Poser content containing the displacement maps or bump maps then switch to DazStudio’s render pane:

Step 2: On the “Surfaces” tab to the right, select one of the materials from the drop down menu:

Step 3: If you see a name under “Strength” instead of “None”, change the “Negative” value from 0.010 to -1.0:

Step 4: Change the “Positive” value from 0.010 to 1.0:

Step 5: Repeat steps 1 to 4 many times until ALL the materials have been converted.

Plains of Africa

Webmaster K — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 18:16:31 +0000

An image I made recently using Vue 7 Infinite. This image is a bit of stereotype complete with elephants and acacia tree but I was trying to create a calming wildlife poster. Click on the image to see a larger version. The final image is actually 72 in x 14.4 in.

My Dream 3D App

Webmaster K — Tue, 19 May 2009 01:46:01 +0000

No one 3D application has all the features I need for my projects. I have often found myself using multiple programs to complete a single project. Problems sometimes arise when I have to convert files to different formats for use in different programs. In an ideal world I would only need one tool: My Dream 3D App! Here is a wish list of 10 features for the perfect 3D app.

UV mapping like Silo3D & UVMapper.
UVMapper has an easy to use interface for creating basic UV maps. Silo can create UV maps and straighten them using its vertex, edge and face manipulator tools. My dream app would have the best features of both of these pr0grams.
Texture painting like Blacksmith3D & BodyPaint3D.
Once an object has been UV mapped, Blacksmith3D allows the user to paint directly on the object in the round. No more fiddling with seams. You can paint a 3D model as if you were painting a sculpture. Bodypaint3D is a more advanced version of this lower priced tool with painting features similar to Photoshop.
Figure animation like DazStudio’s Animate.
The Animate plug-in for DazStudio is better at blending together separate animations than Poser. I have also found that for popular Daz figures such as Victoria 4 and Michael 4, DazStudio is much more accurate for posing. My ideal app would have these superior animation qualities.
Face creation like FaceGen.
The face room feature of Poser gives digital artists the freedom to create new faces for Poser figures. Unfortunately, it does not work with Daz figures. FaceGen is a very expensive tool which can transform the face of any 3D figure into a face from a well-lit photo.
Line-fitting like Shade3D.
Shade3D can wrap 3D surfaces around any figure using its line-fit feature. This makes it useful for creating clothing.
Cloth room like Poser.
Although DazStudio now has a cloth simulation feature, it is still not as flexible as Poser’s Cloth Room. Poser allows any object to be converted to cloth, provided it does not intersect itself; Daz Studio has special requirements for clotg creation using proprietary developer tools. At the time of this writing, these developer tools have not been released.
Lighting and Rendering like Vue Infinite.
As evidenced by movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean II, Vue can generate images with highly polished levels of realism, provided you have the right hardware.
Vertex, face and edge manipulation like Silo3D.
This feature of Silo3D makes it extremely useful for creating morphs for figures and modifying other objects. The user can precisely control where each vertex, edge or face moves allowing for the creation of zipper morphs for example. Another advantage of Silo3D is that it preserves vertex order so that you don’t end up with a morphing mess!
Environment creation like Vue.
Vue can randomly generate trees, mountains and skies. My 3D app would have this feature to create realistic environments for 3D figures.
Sculpting like Z-Brush.
Even if my dream 3D app could create any face from any well-lit photo, it would still be nice to be able to sculpt new features into that face (e.g. scars, moles etc.). Having done physical sculpture with clay, I can honestly say that Zbrush is as close to that experience on computer.

3D Definitions for the Newbie

Webmaster K — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 00:21:56 +0000

When I first started in 3-D design, some terms were familiar to me because I had studied university-level mathematics but many new terms were thrown at me that I did not understand. Over time I came to understand what these meant and I would like to share this knowledge with those new to 3-D. These definitions are entirely my own. I reserve the right to change them at any time.

	Bezier Curve: A curve that is defined by a series of control points. Manipulating the control points reshapes the curve. Bezier curves belong to a class of curves called splines.
	Bump Map: A UV map where black represents shadowed areas, white represents lighted areas, and shades of gray represent different levels of lighting. Bump maps create the illusion of detail much the same way actors use makeup to appear like they have deep scars or wrinkles. Bump maps do not alter the underlying geometry. Compare this to displacement maps.
	*COLLADA (.dae):** A Universal industry standard format used for saving 3-D files and transfering them from one application to another. COLLADA is managed by the not-for-profit technology consortium, the Khronos Group.
Crease Angle: This is the value used to smooth out a polygonal surface. Higher angles result in greater smoothing. Lower angles result in a “blockier” looking image.
Diffuse Color: The light reflected from an object when exposed to pure white light. This represents the true color of an object.
	Displacement Map: A specialized UV Map where black represents flattened areas, white represents raised areas, and shades of gray represent different levels of height. Displacement Maps alter the location of vertices and edges in the underlying object. In general, it is much easier to modify geometry with a displacement map than to add additional faces.
Edge: A line defined by two vertices on a polygonal surface.
Face: A single quadrilateral made up of 4 edges and 4 vertices or a single triangle made up of 3 edges and 3 vertices.
Global Illumination: All the light in a scene, including direct illumination from light sources such as lamps and the sun, as well as indirect illumination due to light reflected from objects in the scene. For example, when near a red shiny object, some of the surrounding objects pick-up reflected red light. Calculating global illumination is a computationally expensive process.
Least Squares Conformal Mapping (LSCM): LSCM reduces the amount of distortion in a UV map by keeping each grid as square as possible.
	Morph: As a verb, the process of changing a 3-D object into another object without changing the number or order of edges and vertices. This is most commonly used to transform the face or body of one figure into another. As a noun, the result of this process, hence “Elite Morph for Victoria 4″. The advantage of morphing is that one high quality figure can be used to represent multiple characters.
	Non-Manifold Surface: These types of surfaces can break many 3-D applications, especially Poser’s Cloth Room. Real-world solids have the property that, at every section on the surface, a small enough ball around that section is divided into exactly two pieces, one inside and one outside the surface. Non-manifold surfaces are physically impossible objects because they violate this rule. For example, a ball no matter how small could be divided into more than two pieces when passing through a section of a non-mainfold surface. This can be described mathematically but there is no way to visualize it.
Silo from Nevercenter gives 3-D artists a quick method for finding non-manifold surfaces. Go into Silo’s Selection menu under Select Special Geometry and select edges with more than two faces (opt Edges with faces > 2). This will highlight the nonmanifold surfaces in your 3-d mesh.
Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline (NURB): A curve or bumpy surface in 3-D space that is defined by a series of control points and a knot vector. Manipulating the control points reshapes the NURB. NURBS differ from Bezier Curves in that the control points are given different weights or levels of emphasis.
Normal: An imaginary arrow that points out from a 3-D surface. The direction of a normal determines how an object is displayed.
Polygonal surface: A 3-D surface made up of many faces.
Render: As a verb, render is the process of creating a 2-D bitmap image from a 3-D model using realistic lighting and reflection. As a noun, render is the end result of this process.
Specular Reflection: Highlights. Shiny object have a higher specular reflection than matte objects.
Spline: A curve that is made up of pieces of smaller curves. Each piece is defined by a different equation.
Transparency Map: A UV Map where black represents invisibility, white represents opaqueness, and shades of gray represent different levels of transparency. Transparency maps are useful for creating realistic looking hair and skin.
Texture Map: A UV Map that applies color to an object.
	UV Mapping: The process by which a 2-Dimensional texture is applied to a 3-Dimensional surface. UV mapping allows digital artists to “fake” detail in a 3-D object, thus reducing development time. UV unwrapping involves the inverse process, flattening a 3D object into a 2D texture.
Vertex: A point. The plural of vertex is vertices.
*Wavefront Object (.obj):** The most common type of polygonal surface. It was the de-facto standard used for transferring 3-D objects from one 3-D application to another. The COLLADA format is replacing it.

5 More Tips for Making Poser Clothes

Webmaster K — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 16:22:37 +0000

…Or 5 More Things I wish I knew before wasting many hours doing the wrong things modeling Poser Clothes!

Don’t use triangles in your mesh.

Keep your meshes as straight as possible.

Group your meshes as you model them.

Use Multiple Threads in Poser for your renders.

Be careful of exploding Morphs!

Continuing in the tradition of 10 tips for making poser clothes, here are 5 more helpful tips. There is some math involved but don’t worry, you won’t have to do any calculations!

1. Don’t use triangles in your mesh.

If you plan to use the clothes you have modeled in Poser’s Cloth Room, triangles will kill the simulation process. If you try sub-dividing a triangle mesh using Nevercenter’s Silo (type ‘C’), the result will be a mesh with huge gaps; some polygons will be smooth while others fly hundreds of units away from your figure. There is probably a mathematical reason for this; all manipulations in 3D Applications are based upon linear algebra. I suspect division by zero may be the culprit. At any rate, its best to avoid triangle meshes. Better to use meshes composed of quadrilaterals (4-sided shapes. e.g. squares, rectangles, trapezoids, and parallelograms).

2.Keep your meshes as straight as possible.
This tip makes a big difference in UV mapping. the closer to 90 degree (right) angles the mesh is, the easier it is to create a smooth UV Map over-top the mesh. The ideal mesh would consist entirely of rectangles. To create realistic looking folds it sometimes becomes necessary to violate this tip but try as much as possible to follow it.

3.Group your meshes as you model them.
What newbies often do is create clothing as a single object and then create groups for the abdomen, chest, etc. afterward. To save time and to ensure your clothes bend as naturally as possible, it is best to define the groups as you model them. Depending upon your modeler, you may be able to copy the exact locations of the body parts of your target figure (Victoria 4, Apollo Maximus, etc.).

4. Use Multiple Threads in Poser for your renders.
Splitting your render into separate threads will speed up rendering time. I also found it prevented a problem with crashing in Poser 7. The maximum number of threads you can use is 4 in Poser 7. I tried rendering a separate process but I found that actually slows things down. You can find these controls on a Mac under Poser 7 > Preferences > Render. On a PC, Edit > Preferences > Render.

5. Be careful of exploding Morphs!
This tip applies to all figures, not just clothes. When creating morphs, be careful which programs you use to create them. Edge order matters for morphs and some modelers will change the order of your edges resulting in the exploding mess shown at the start of this article. If you create morphs within Poser itself this is usually not an issue but Poser has limited morph creation tools. I use Nevercenter’s Silo for morph creation. This tool is extremely powerful for creating morphs, improving models made in other programs and making models from scratch.

I Love the VUE (Esprit)!

Webmaster K — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 07:46:14 +0000

With Vue I can fly…

No 3-D Application can do everything. Some specialize in figures, others in sculpting. Some excel at producing realistic surfaces others at creating scenery. At a price of $229 US, Vue Esprit is one of the best programs for creating environments, does an excellent job of producing realistic surfaces and it integrates well with Poser, the primary figure creation software in the 3-D marketplace. Higher end versions can cost upwards of $895 US or more. For anyone starting out in 3-D, this is the ideal application to get.

Key Features of Vue Esprit.

Support for Poser figures including the use of the Poser Shader Tree. There is no need to import figures as Wavefront Objects then re-apply textures for multiple figures.
Support for Ambient Occlusion, Translucency, and Sub-Surface Scattering. All these lighting features add realism to a scene. For advanced Poser users these features are similar in function to Poser’s Material Room.
Crash recovery. If Vue suspects that it might crash, it will warn you ahead of time and attempt to save your work. This is a vast improvement over other programs that just crash and tell you nothing.
Realistic environments including plants, trees, grasses, mountains and water

What’s Missing from Vue Esprit?

Support for Python scripting. This would make using this program even easier. There are some plugins for Vue that will simply not work with the low-end version of the program because it lacks Python support. You get what you pay for. More money = More features. Python Scripting comes with the higher versions of Vue. On the bright side e-on software makes it easy to upgrade their software from lower versions for a fee. For example, Vue Esprit can be upgraded to Vue Pro Studio for an additional $199 US and Vue Pro Studio can be upgraded to Vue Infinite for $399. This way instead of speading $895 US at the start you could purchase parts of the program in installments, gaining functionality with each upgrade.

10 Tips for Making Poser Clothes

Webmaster K — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 04:40:28 +0000

Wondrous Winter…

…Or 10 Things I wish I knew before wasting many hours doing the wrong things modeling Poser Clothes!

Back-up Everything you create.
There is an easy way to make MAT Poses.
Remove IK (Inverse Kinematics) Chains from your clothes.
Use Morph Manager.
The Hierarchy Editor is your friend.
Don’t fear the Set-Up Room.
Joint Parameters are important.
Make your model at actual size.
UV maps will save you time.
Learn to use Python.

Follow these tips and you will save yourself a great deal of time. Below is a more detailed breakdown of what each of these things mean.

1. Backup Everything you create

Many-a-time I have been saved from destroying weeks-worth of work by retrieving a backup I made earlier. As a Unix Geek using a MAC, I have set up rsync and crontab for this purpose. The new Mac OS v10.5 eliminates the need for this hack. At any rate whatever your operating system, ALWAYS BACKUP!

2.There is an Easy Way to make MAT poses
Material or MAT Poses are convenient method for adding different color materials to clothes. The easiset way to make these files is by creating a material collection (in Poser 6 or 7 extention mc6) or a single material file (in Poser 5, 6 or 7 extention mt5) in Poser’s Material Room. Change one line in these files using a text editor (on my Mac I use XCode). For mt5 “actor $CURRENT” should be changed to “figure”. For mc6 “mtlCollection” should also be “figure”. Close the file and save it with the extension pz2. You’re done.

3. Remove IK (Inverse Kinematics) Chains from your clothes.
This tip will save you hassels when you apply MAT poses. I ran into a situation where every-time I applied a MAT pose it moved the clothing that I had applied it to. I couldn’t understand what was going on. I now know that IK Chains were to blame. IK is only really needed for giving realistic bends to figures. For conforming Clothes this isn’t necessary; the clothes bend with the figure. Read tip #5 to find out how to remove IK Chains.

4. Use Morph Manager.
Try as I might, there is no better tool for adding and removing morphs from poser figures than Morph Manager. On a Mac you can run Morph Manager using Q and a LEGAL copy of Windows.

5. The Hierarchy Editor is your friend.
I found the Hierarchy editor very useful for removing Full Body Morphs (this isn’t done so well by Morph Manager) and renaming parts of figures. At present you are stuck working one part at a time, which makes it less useful if you have to change say 50 morphs but it does work. To use the Hierarchy Editor, first switch to the Set-Up room. Then select Window -> Hierarchy Editor. Here you can delete IK Chains (Tip #3) or bones.

6. Don’t Fear the Set-Up Room.
The Set-Up Room allows you to adjust Joint parameters and re-assign parts of figures to new groups. You can even turn imported wavefront objects (*.OBJ) into figures using the Set-Up room. For anyone making Poser Clothes, this is the MOST useful feature of Poser. Learn to use it well.

7. Joint Parameters are important.
With some 3-D models, the joints are such that modeling clothes for them can be quite tricky. Victoria 4 has an issue regarding bending her legs near the hip (the unfortunately named “crotch issue“). Mastering Joint Parameters will prevent some of these issues.

8. Make your model at actual size.
You will thank yourself when it comes time to import your clothing into Poser. I use Shade 8 Which has a PoserFusion feature for Importing Poser Figures. I model my clothes around a figure in the correct size and location it should appear when it becomes finished Poser Clothing. I can then import it into Poser with all import options turned OFF.

9. UV maps will save you time.
Modeling clothes can be time consuming. Transparency Maps, Bump Maps and Displacement Maps can save time. For example, instead of creating the ribs in an a sweater, a bump map painted in Photoshop can give the impression of ribs in a sweater. UV Maps are basically fltatened out version of a model; like a map of the Globe flattened onto a sheet. UV Mapper is one inexpensive program that can be used to create UV Maps but there are many others (BodyPaint, Blender, ZBrush., etc.).

10. Learn to Use Python.
Without Python, I literally would not have time to sleep when creating 3-D Models. Python allows me to automate the creation of Full Body Morphs and Renders. I can sleep while the computer works. It’s a nice arrangement. Poser comes with a manual on Poser specific Python commands. You can also look at the following sites for ideas on how to use Python with Poser:

http://www.python.org/
http://www.3dtrue.com/tutorial/6.html
http://castleposer.co.uk/articles/python_lists.html

Q -run Windows on a Mac

Webmaster K — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 16:45:17 +0000

Q is based on the CPU emulator QEMU. Q allows Mac-users to run Windows and Linux on a Mac. Unlike VMWare and Parallels, Q supports PowerPC Macs (G4, G5) in addition to Intel Macs. For anyone building 3-D models, this is a useful program to have. Many 3-D modeling utilities and programs (Morph Manager, CR2Editor, and ZBrush to name a few) only run on Windows. Q is FREE and is available under the GPL (GNU Public License).

Setting up Q is very straightforward but a bit tedius:

Download Q from the website http://www.kju-app.org/kju/
Create a disk image using Disk Utility (available under “/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app”). Your disk image should be large enough to fit whichever Operating System you wish to install (4 GB minimum for Windows XP).
Eject your Disk Image after creating it. DO NOT format it in DOS (contrary to the instructions on Q’s website). I found I had nothing but headaches after I attempted to install windows on a pre-formated drive.
Set-up a new Guest PC with Q. Set your new Disk Image as the Hard Disk and set CD-ROM as the medium to Boot From.
Install Windows from your CD (assuming you own a copy). Follow the on-screen instructions.

SECURITY NOTE:

DISABLE NETWORKING FOR Q. You cannot secure your Windows install at this time. XP cannot be updated using Q. I suspect similar problems for 98 and Vista. To be on the safe-side, don’t put your Windows share online. This avoids potential problems with viruses.

Mighty Morphin' Mac

Webmaster K — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 05:57:03 +0000

DazStudio from Daz Productions

When I first started creating my own 3-D Models, I found the most popular online resources — Morph Manager, UV Mapper Pro, and Cr2Editor — are all PC-Only. With patience and perseverance I discovered some alternatives to these programs that work on the Mac!

Shade is an excellent tool for building 3-D Models from scratch that is produced by E-Frontier and is available for both the Mac and the PC. 3-D objects are designed in Shade using splines, curves that can be re-shaped by moving a small set of control points; this is the same method used to create shapes in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. In building my own models, I learned that Shade has UV Mapping capabilities equivalent to UV Mapper Pro. Although Shade has a steep learning curve, it is well worth the time and monetary investment.

DAZStudio created by DAZ Productions is quickly becoming a powerful alternative to Poser. The cost of entry is much less than Poser (DAZStudio is free) although it lacks some of the capabilities of Poser. There are many plug-ins available, some free and some for sale, that increase its functionality to the level of Poser. One very useful free plug-in to get for DAZStudio is Inj / Rem Export, a tool for creating Morph Injection files.

Xcode, Apple’s Development Program, is available on the OS X installer disc. This is the closest thing to a CR2 Editor available for the Mac. XCode won’t add extra-formating to a file unlike TextEdit. It is a powerful tool but it seems like a waste to use it for something as trivial as editing a text file.