Full body seamless decal

[Moden]

Heya! I've been using Hash for years, and still pick up on pretty simple stuff that I've been overlooking from time to time.

 

One thing I've never bothered to look into is how to do a fully seamless decal. That is; usually you decal the front, then decal the back, and you'll get a seam down the side (unless you make the texture line up absolutely 100% perfect by hand). Normally, I've just worked around this, but now I really do need to do it properly.

 

Is there a way to flatten an entire model (not just one side/area)? Could I use alpha channels/transparent backgrounds to "fade" one decal into the other? Thanks a bunch!

[robcat2075]

Is there a way to flatten an entire model (not just one side/area)?

besides the special cases of a cone or a cylinder it's probably topologically impossible.

 

 

Could I use alpha channels/transparent backgrounds to "fade" one decal into the other?

yes. I'm pretty sure that's standard practice. However....

 

 

There is an "A:M Paint" program you can find discussed somewhere on this forum that allows you to paint on the whole model in 3D. Sounds like a bargain at $99

[Moden]

Wow, that AM Paint program looks like just the ticket! Thanks a bunch!

[digman]

3D Painter has it's advantages by using a auto uv which divides the model up into alot of planner patches. Then you use projection mode to paint across the seams in 3D. Also you can make a regular UV map ,paint it in a paint program. After that you bring it into 3D Painter to get rid of your seams by using projection mode.(3d painter will load your handmaded uv map). The only drawback of using projection mode in 3d painter is that you lose some texture sharpness when you apply your projection texture to your model.

3D Painter works as a plug-in inside A.M. or as a seperate program. http://3dpainter.com/

 

There is another way also by exporting your model as an obj file. ( I used 16 polygons per patch to get the model to match the A.M. model.) then bring the obj model into another 3D paint program. Now most 3d paint programs do not handle triangled polygons well ( These are made when exporting from your 5 point patches or 3 point patches). I have found that some work better than others in handling them.

 

Tattoo 3d paint: http://www.terabit-software.co.uk/

older program but works well with Hash exported obj models. Limited in some of more modern features but has projection painting too. Great for quick texturing and fixing seams.

 

Blacksmith 3D: http://www.blacksmith3d.com/

It also works well with Hash exported obj models. The free version is limited but still works well for texturing and it's free...

 

3D-Coat: http://www.3d-coat.com/index.html

The most powerfull of the above programs. Has lots and lots of features but does not handle 3 point triangles very well. I work around this because it is my fav. 3d paint program. In version 3 that is coming up

it will have direct poly painting so the triangle issue should be solved.

 

Edit: I forgot to mention that you just save the texture file and apply it to your A.M. model. You do not have to load the obj model into A.M.

[heyvern]

In the past I would do screen grabs of the mesh from the front, side, back, top etc etc. Each screen grab was then lined up in photoshop and I painted the WHOLE texture in one piece over the screen grab reference so they were "perfect" and lined up in AM. Now perfect is a relative term. I'm talking like 98.7295% or 99.2802% perfect . So the other thing I did was to put a slight soft edge alpha channel on the edges of one of the decals. This would hide any slight offsets. This isn't as much work as it sounds really.

 

-vern