Hi Keith, I have similar problems but my models are mostly SciFi oriented (spaceships, mechanical structures etc.) so I can't help but prefer to use MOI for (at least) starting off my models to be finished in a poly editor (for retopologization (cleanup) and UV)

I asked the author of 3D-Coat if he would perhaps add a feature where a model does not have to be subdivided upon import since for hard-body models, it's not required.

He mentioned that you can turn off import smoothing BUT the subdivision is required to provide the exta detail for painting being that painting takes place on the vertices; the more you have, the finer painting details you'll get.


But likewise, I find I can't take the majority of my MOI models in programs like 3D-Coat or ZBrush because the subdivision ruins them.

-Will

Ho I see 3D-Coat is a vertex paint ^^
That said you don't have to subdivide your model in zbrush if you 'only' paint on it.

Hi Keith - the UVs that you get from MoI will be just the natural UV structure of the NURBS surface.

When your model is made up of multiple surfaces, these UVs are not really guaranteed to align together in any kind of special arrangement. I mean like the U axis of one surface may be lined up with the V axis of a nearby one, or they may be at a 45 degree angle to one another if you have trimmed-back areas of the model, etc...

If you need a particular UV organization different than that, you'll need to discard the automatic UVs that MoI puts out and then apply new ones using the UV mapping tools of your target program. I guess it sounds like you were doing that already, but yes that would be what is necessary if the built in UVs do not work for you.

I'm not quite sure if I understand the "inside out" UV problem really - I mean UVs give a mesh point a location in a 2D texture map - they don't point to an inside or outside of a volume like a normal does...

- Michael

"Ho I see 3D-Coat is a vertex paint ^^
That said you don't have to subdivide your model in zbrush if you 'only' paint on it."

Yes, I've tried doing exactly that with tri/quad only exports into ZBrush and while some models come in pretty decent like my MOI spin on the Olympus Mons structure:


(I see the front plating came in from MOI with the normals flipped - I guess due to being a non-closed surface. Not sure how to fix that...)


Other objects unfortunately leave a lot to be desired:



Now if there's a technique on importing curved objects that I'm missing for situations like this, I need to find out about it!
I told MOI's mesher to break up anything larger than 2 which gave me way more polys but there's no smoothing info I guess to make it look as clean as it does in MOI.

-Will

Hi Will,

> I guess due to being a non-closed surface. Not sure how to fix that...)

Most polygon modeling programs will have a "flip" function that can be used to fix that. I'm not very familiar with ZBrush but I would think it should have that somewhere in it.

On the second one, make sure you don't have the display set in ZBrush to "flat" or something like that, it looks like you may have smooth shading turned off there. It may be a in a set of display properties that list something like : Wireframe, Flat, Gouraud, ...

It may be labeled something like "Gouraud" or smooth.

Sorry I'm not more familiar with ZBrush to give you a more precise answer.

- Michael

3d coat will be more than a vertex prog, it will be a "voxel" prog
(volumic pixels) ;)

Zbrush has a special mode for painting an object!
It's the "polypainting" mode http://www.zbrush.info/docs/index.php/Polypainting

It's the more easy, you have just to paint on the surface of the object
It's better if you export your model with big numbers of polys (for have not to subdivise in Zbrush)
from Moi in "Triangles Only" format Obj

Thanks for the suggestions, guys.

Yeah, if ZBrush has a flip function, I'll have to read up on it cause (obviously) ZBrush doesn't get much use with what I'm currently working on so my skills with it could certainly be better...

I'll look into the smoothing also.

-Will