is Zbrush or Bodypaint a good tool for texturing? or PS?

[juancaratino]

i like to know, what is the way you guys use for texturing your characters,

UVW - PHOTOSHOP
ZBRUSH?
BODYPAINT?

Y like to know, if exisit a new o modern way for texturing the nex character generation games, PHOTOSHOP is the old school. Is there any other Methods? more new, more easy, more robust, more ... BEST? :lol:

sorry my english

[Mrpearlzildjian]

So far as I know, ZBrush and Photoshop are still the most common, unless you use the alternative to ZBrush, being Mudbox. I still use ZBrush, but have found the "poly-paint" procedure doesn't work too well in certain situations. Since it doesn't allow you to paint textures on a per pixel basis, you have to subdivide to an incredible amount to get a decent resolution, and even then it's not fantastic. Fine textures like hair are very hard to paint at a high quality in ZBrush, so when it comes to doing hair, I still use Photoshop, but for the base of my textures, I use Zbrush, just because of the simplicity, if you are painting textures that are not extremely fine.

I know a few people on here use BodyPaint, I have it, but am still learning how to use it. It seems promising though, considering that it paints on a per-pixel basis, rather than pixels per poly like ZBrush. By all means learn it, as much knowledge about as many different programs is a great thing to have, but to the best of my knowledge, most studios rely on ZBrush, Mudbox, and Photoshop for their Sculpting and Texturing needs.

[DreameR]

~ I use Photoshop for everything. I prefer it. I sometimes use BodyPaint to fix seams.

[juancaratino]

yheap but what about this presentation of Zbrush 3.5 Spotlight and Lightbox?

The part of the guy whit crazy eyes or the part of the black girl...is really Incredible


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tky0eMs2Y7o

[Mrpearlzildjian]

ZB 3.5 comes out at the end of August, and everyone here seems to be looking forward to it. Hopefully the features shown will work the way they are supposed to, but it seems it would eliminate the need to learn BodyPaint. However, like I said, it's always good to have as much knowledge of as many different programs as possible. I am looking forward to learning ZB4 though when it comes out this month though, GoZ seems promising, but I don't plan on using that until they work out the kinks.

[MyPeople]

dont bother with bodypaint. its stupidly painfully slow. just go with mudbox paint tools and photoshop.

[Vailias]

Personally I'm in love with photoshop CS4 EX's 3d paint functionality. Its gorgeous.

I remember hearing some people having bugs with it, but I've had nothing but joy being able to use photoshop's brush engine and layering etc with direct on model paint.

I believe you may run into stroke speed issues with higher resolution textures, but it purrs along for me with the multiple 512's I had on my last project.

[Ace-Angel]

Generally, I use ZB to lock in my texture colors, then I use PS to go over them and add details or add the general bulk of actually coloring and etc.

ZB can do much more actually, you can even move around the textures once applied if you want. Issue is I didn't find a decent tutorial to EXPLAIN HOW TO DO THIS! Just some snip videos or pictures, that is. Annoying when such potential is hidden to the average joe.

As far as seams go, I use 3DC to fix them, since it's the only program which doesn't give me speed issues or headaches when it comes to textures painting. Of course, I do have to be careful to just do the seam, or else, I might destroy my previous maps if I stray too much off...

I think you can low-poly paint them too! It was a bug actually Andrew found! Although I don't have the latest version, so don't know if he made it a new features, cleaned up the bug or what not.

@Vailias: I never had PS CS4 EX, can you tell me how the 3D texturing works? Is it worth the jump to it? Have any links to videos I could watch to get the idea on how it works? I have seen many people say it's the perfect 3D texturing tool, but I would like to know more before I jump the wagon.

[darkfox]

i wouldn't mind learning body paint myself
ATM i use photoshop and zbrush:P

[JacqueChoi]

I'm purely Photoshop (totally old school).

I've very occassionally used the ZappLink to remove difficult seams, but even then go in with photoshop to touch it up a lot more

[cookepuss]

dont bother with bodypaint. its stupidly painfully slow.
I've quite inclined to disagree. While you may prefer to use MB, there's absolutely nothing wrong with BP3D. Bodypaint, which is just a UI swap for C4D since they're the same program, has a very loyal following. Outside of the C4D community itself, BP3D/C4D is a studio favorite within the film industry. There's good reason for that.

Like any 3D paint app, it does not live in isolation. What you start in BP can be further detailed in a 2D app such as Photoshop. The multi-layer PSD support is rock solid and makes this an easy task. Granted, some artists only use BP to fix seams, but that's pretty much a waste of money - especially if you own the $3,700 Studio bundle.

My usual workflow in BP is to unwrap it there, block out my texture there, polish & refine it in PS, and bring it back to BP to smooth out problems or add some last minute touches. The functionality designed for tight AE integration also makes it that much easier when you have to composite or tweak your stuff in post. That's an added bonus if you do stills.

As far as speed goes.... I don't know what planet you're on. I really don't. I'm using a lowly GeForce 8800GT and it flies with millions of polys and multiple texture sheets. You might have been running it in software rendering mode. In OpenGL mode, it's much faster.

BP is also amazingly stable. BP/C4D only crashes on me maybe once a year. Honestly. Most of the time, it's something stupid like a faulty 3rd party plugin.

I'd take the combo of BP & PS any day over MB & PS. There are some nice things about MB, but the app is still pretty rough in some respects.

i wouldn't mind learning body paint myself
Download the C4D demo. The BP tools are just a small subset of C4D's overall functionality. IIRC, the demo is save enabled for up to 40 days. Learning it shouldn't be too hard if you know Maya. In fact, it might even feel like a 2nd cousin of sorts, albeit one that's likely to incite less newbie frustration.

[mdrid]

hmm, i think i should try Bodypaint

[sinz]

Here's a quick start guide I made some someone on P.C.:

Body Paint 3D Quick Start Guide.


Start up bodypaint,
1. Go directly to window [tab]

2. Go to layout, choose BP 3D Paint, then choose in the same tab save as startup layout,

3. Go into file open,locate your model, alt+LMB controls the zoom, alt right click controls rotations,

4. Go into materials tab (bottom right), file new material, double click the mat icon that pops up, color+spec should be automatically checked ( I turn spec off) in the material editor, locate your texture file,

5. Close the material editor,

6. Click on the RED X in (materials tab) to enable 3d painting, drag the mat icon
under materials to your 3d model in the viewport,

7. Click on the texture tab near view to see your texture uv's.

8. (Tips) You can move the windows anyway you like after your done save the layout, and it should always appear in that layout everytime you start up BD3D.

Click on the layers tab to add new layers colors ect...

The Attributes tab allows you to change your brush settings.
Bonus in the viewport under display, choose constant shading for 100% illumination shading.


This is for new users obviously you old schoolers already know this ;).

[cookepuss]

There should also be some free tutorials on the www.cineversity.com site. Many of the best ones are member's only, but there should be more than a few free gems.