Flattening A Model Question

[Tralfaz]

I've searched through the forums and found some great tutorials on flattening models for decal preparation.

 

I have had some success using this technique, but am not sure how to proceed with a particular model. The tutorials that I found deal mainly with the face, and not the whole head.

 

Can someone explain or point me in the right direction on how to flatten an object like a pair of pants for decalling? Is it possible to flatten the pants so that both the front and back of the pants are visible at the same time?

 

I tried flattening and decalling the front first, then the back, but you can definitely see where the different decals were applied to the two areas.

 

Also, since this is kind of in the same area, what kind of tools does 3D Painter allow you to paint directly onto the model with? For example, can you airbrush directly onto the model? Can you create color and bump maps right on the model? Are there any tutorials (preferably video) that shows this process?

 

Thanks in advance...

Al

[zandoriastudios]

Check-out this tutorial:

http://www.zandoria.com/uv.htm

 

For a video demo, click this banner:

[Tralfaz]

Thanks for the link to the tutorial William. I am going to follow it through and try it out on my model.

 

Just curious, where exactly do I find the video demo? I found CDs for sale, but did not find any demos?

 

Thanks...

Al

[Tralfaz]

Well, I had a chance to try the tutorial William. It was excellent and easy to follow.

 

Not sure if I have done something wrong though, or if this is normal or not.

 

I was working on a vest, and set up my groups (front, back and flap). Flattened each one individually and stamped them with the blank.tga file that I created. When that was done, I took the screen shot and brought it into Adobe Elements, and scaled it up to a width of 2000. Since constraints was turned on, the height ended up at 1499. Saved the image back out as a .tga file and replaced the blank.tga file with the new file inside A:M.

 

When I rendered the vest, I got what looked like some type of distortion or overlapping where the front meets the back.

 

Went back to the decal, and the image looks much smaller than the original blank image.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thanks...

Al

 

Vest with distortion

[attachmentid=22749]

 

Flattened vest (flap, back, front)

[attachmentid=22751]

 

New .tga loaded into UV editor

[attachmentid=22750]

[yardie]

I just got to tell you that if you try something complicated in AM and it does not work out then the answer is far easier than you think. Have you tried applying the decals using the cylindrical Method. I found with a simple patten it works. If your having such difficulty try the simple approach first. A lot can be achieved if you take your time and read up on the documation. Most of the documation on flattening is for the face. The few example that have used flattening on clothing have used simple pattens and they could have achieved the same results with applying the decal, cylindrically

[jpappas]

Al,

 

I reread your post and can't quite tell if you mention this, but the most important thing about when you replace blank.tga with the new larger one, is that the aspect ratio remain the same. To make this even easier in your workflow just double or quadruple the size, don't go to a new arbritrary size. So if your blank.tga was 800x400, replace that with 1600x800, or 2400x1200. Or work backwards, if you know ahead of time you want the final decal to be 2000x1000, then start with a blank.tga that's 1000x500, or 500x250.

 

Yardie,

 

I see where you are coming from, but, I don't think this is that complicated a method, after all, I've been using it for a year now and I'm not the brightest bulb in the bunch. The cylindrical method is easier to apply at first since you don't have to flatten and prepare the stamps, but harder in the end if you need to quickly add specific details to the decal in specific areas, and you want to do this by hand in a paint program with predictable results.

 

-Jim

[C-grid]

Al,

 

As I remember Mr.Suttons tutorial telling such area need more(exaggerated) decal-space.

One way is keeping this in mind before, flattening and decal then afterwards 'fool' the decal-calculator-function giving the specific area alot of .tga-decal space in de uv-editor, it will lessen the distortion alot.

 

Of course I hope too, to have 3D-painter someday...

 

Niels.

[zandoriastudios]

looks like the texture is stretching at the seams between front and back. You can compensate some by "spreading out" those patches at the edge so that they are more proportional to the ones next to them...

 

Looking at your screen capture, I can see another problem. You have overlapping splines at the upper left shoulder( front side)....

 

Until you have a program like 3D painter, you will have trouble getting the seams perfect.... I always get a little distortion where you are seeing it, it seems no matter how careful--because it is just really hard to do.

 

If you have 3D painter, you can go into Projection Paint mode and then clone across the seam--It's SWEEET!