pixelplucker Posted July 21, 2011 Posted July 21, 2011 Here is one of a bunch of characters that my uncle had for some kids stories so I thought I would give 3d Coat a whirl for the rough model design. I manually retopo'd the model and exported an obj, brought that into am and with a little cleanup got this. Some small tweaks but already have it rigged. Where I needed hooks I made simple triangles so they were easy to spot. Quote
jakerupert Posted July 25, 2011 Posted July 25, 2011 Interesting technique. Did you save some time compared to model it directly in AM? Quote
pixelplucker Posted July 25, 2011 Author Posted July 25, 2011 Time wise it takes about the same. Only advantage I had was I could concentrate on the form and refine that before there were any patches. Once the shape was the way I liked, I then could concentrate on the flow of patches. As others suggested a retopo in AM would be really nice. Maybe have Pilqway add AM spline tools to 3d Coat? I could see that being incredibly useful since it would allow the export of a fully textured model with displacement maps etc. Is there any difference in the obj importer/exporter in AM between 15.j and 16? Quote
jakerupert Posted July 26, 2011 Posted July 26, 2011 So I guess using some basemeshes of quadpeds or twoleg figures for instance, export them as obj or x file and refine them over in that other app to create some monsters Rhinos etc. and get the retopo back into AM could also make sense, right? Have you tried the .x porter from Fuchurs site yet? Maybe he will give better result then obj.... Quote
jakerupert Posted July 29, 2011 Posted July 29, 2011 >Is there any difference in the obj importer/exporter in AM between 15.j and 16? Quote
Fuchur Posted July 29, 2011 Posted July 29, 2011 >Is there any difference in the obj importer/exporter in AM between 15.j and 16? it has been altered in some way to be compatible with the mdd-exporter... so i dont know more about it... *Fuchur* Quote
pixelplucker Posted July 29, 2011 Author Posted July 29, 2011 I haven't bothered with the .x exporter since 3d Coat doesn't support it. One issue I have with the obj files is in the case of hooks, and 5 pointers or if I need to re-attach a spline to correct its continuity, I lose the UV's on those patches. It would be nice to take advantage of the texturing abilities and advanced uv tools. If the obj importer could identify a single vertex on an edge and create a hook and interpret a 5 point n-gon and create a 5 point patch I think this would solve most of the issues. Ideally it would be better to have splines in 3d Coat but I don't know how much of that would be offered in the SDK. More I use 3d Coat the more I like the freedom and ability to refine a model without restriction. For some it may sound like more work but for me, simply relying on rotoscopes doesn't always offer the depth realization you have when sculpting. Just some thoughts Quote
Zaryin Posted July 30, 2011 Posted July 30, 2011 The transfer looks pretty good. I don't see a problem with this type of thing. I know others would like to see A:M used for everything, but that model looks pretty good and now you can animate him in A:M . When I first got into A:M I used to use alot of Bryce and Poser with it. Quote
jakerupert Posted July 30, 2011 Posted July 30, 2011 >If the obj importer could identify a single vertex on an edge and create a hook and interpret a 5 point n-gon and create a 5 point patch I think this would solve most of the issues. This was the main reason, why Hash retracted from cg talk, because he was fed about about these endless discussions and lack of understanding, why A:M doesn`t fit into the polygon world workflow. I don`t know of the status of today. Maybe we could ask Yoda and Fuchur, if some featurerequests in that direction would make sense. It seems to me, if a bridge could be build (and the new mdd is promising), there could be a pipeline for building gameassets in that form: model highpoly models in one of these specialised sculpting apps>retopology that to lowpoly> bake and transfer all the highpolymaps to the lwopolymodel> import that into A:M > ANIMATE ALL GAMEMOVEMENTS EASILY IN A:M >and export as FBX to the gameengine. As I said its possibly out of the range to achieve this, but why not ask? Quote
pixelplucker Posted July 31, 2011 Author Posted July 31, 2011 Resource wise redoing the obj importer for AM and it's complexities might be cost prohibitive. At the same time as wanting a retopo tool for AM might be equally difficult since AM probably can't see the surface of a poly model the same as it sees the surface of patches. Since most AM users don't need to go beyond the realms of AM, adding these features to AM might not be worth while. For those that do or those that want to go beyond and make even more complex structures and more advanced texturing, uv mapping etc., wouldn't it make more sense to have a program such as 3d Coat have the AM modeling tools inside that allowing direct AM spline export? I suggested 3d Coat because it isn't a poly modeler and uses voxels so there is no poly conversion in the creation process. Other 3d sculpting programs use micro-displacement which are poly based. Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted July 31, 2011 Hash Fellow Posted July 31, 2011 Cute bedbug! In case anyone missed it the Doo-Sabin subdivision in Wings does a good job of eliminating most topology problems in polygon models before import into A:M. Some manual edits still needed. Quote
pixelplucker Posted July 31, 2011 Author Posted July 31, 2011 Thanks Rob. The problem is if any edits are done the uv's get lost on those patches. Not a bug, just the way things work in AM. Quote
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