More questions on drawing on avatars...

I've installed a couple of applications, BodyPaint 8.5, Daz3D Studio, 3Ds Max 9, Maya 9.5 and Poser 7. I have access to all of these at work, but I primarily work in PS CS2 myself.

Anyway, to my questions, or better, to my problems.. I'm trying to make straight lines both around the legs and along the legs to get those mapped to the PS templates. (Yes, I know they'll bend and move when worn...)

I looked at Robin's guide for Bodypaint, but I only found a brush to paint with in there, and rectangles etc. Of course that won't make a "straight" circle around the leg, but one that follows the mesh.

I thought one way to accomplish it would be to open the UV for the SL avatars, then create a circle, and "fit" it around the leg, but so far I haven't seen a way to do it. Same with a straight line. Also, I'd like to be able to move body parts (like one leg) out of the way to be able to paint/draw on the inside of the thighs.

I guess it would help a lot if I was used to the 3D applications, but I've never used any of them before, so they're all just creating a big bucket of "???" for me. Oh, I have access to more of these applications, like Zbrush as well...

I thought if I can find a way to do these tasks in any of these applications, I'll start learning that one (or two..) instead of trying to understand a little of each and every one.

Of course I would like to export the results in a format that would be editable in PS CS2, and that applies directly to the texture templates provided by Robin and Chip.

Thanks!
Alexandra
(Suzhanna)

Hi!

I'm going to answer using BodyPaint. It might be easier to do this in Z-Brush, but I'm just starting to learn that program; maybe someone who knows it better can give you (and me) instructions for that one. (It might be even easier to do it in PS CS3 Extended, when that comes out, but we'll have to wait to see. )

So; to begin with, I'm going to assume that you know how to get the mannequin set up in BodyPaint. If you don't know, please tell me, and I'll walk you through that.

Assuming that you have it there, and are using the Linden UV Maps (you didn't let BodyPaint make a new, completely useless, one,) anything that you draw will automatically appear on the "Templates." I'd recommend that you make sure you're drawing on transparent layers, to make things as easy as possible in PS.

Just save them as .psd files, when you Save the three Textures, and you'll be able to open them in PS without any problems.

As you know, there's no "line" tool in BodyPaint. For some bizarre reason, there's no way to constrain your brush strokes, either. So the first thing you have to do is to make your straight line in PS. Just draw one there, any size at all, and save it as Straight Line.psd

Open BodyPaint, and make sure that "Project on Invisible Parts" is enabled, in the BodyPaint pane of the Preferences dialog. (You can erase any parts of the line that wind up where you don't want them, in PS, and this way you can get the line to match perfectly on both sides of the body.)

Next, use one of the Orthogonal Cameras, so the mannequin will be straight in the window. In the View pane menu (not the menu at the top of the BodyPaint window, or the one at the top of the screen,) choose Cameras > Right (for instance.) That will make your mannequin appear to vanish. Tap the H key, to zoom in and center it.

Now, Open the Straight Line.psd texture. This will automatically switch you to the Texture pane of the main window. Select All (Command/ctrl A) and Copy (Command/ctrl C). Click the blue tab to move back to the View pane.

Paste (Command/ctrl V.) You'll see the bounding box for your line, probably out in the gray area around the Mannequin somewhere. Drag it over onto the mannequin, wherever you want it. To resize it, use the handles of the Bounding Box, just like you would in PS.

To rotate it, click the blue tab to show the Active Tool pane (probably on the right somewhere, depending on your BodyPaint setup.) That will show you the Transform Bitmap options, including Move, Scale, Rotate, Perspective, etc. You can Move with any of them, by clicking inside the Bounding Box. The rest work by grabbing the control handles, much the way they do in PS. (The Shift key does constrain Scale and Rotate, by the way, but has no effect on the rest.)

When you're happy with it, just click the Apply button, and it'll be dropped onto the map.

To get a straight line around a body part, just Rotate the line, so it becomes horizontal.

Of course, you can use the same method to project just about anything onto the Mannequin, not just straight lines. Have fun with it!

Hope this helps!

Millions of thanks!
This looks just like a manual... *smooch*

However, I still want (need) to know how to access the inside of the legs and thighs, for that, I need to spread them somehow (no funny remarks, thank you...).

Can I do that to the UV in for example Daz3D or Poser studio, save it, and reopen it in BodyPaint? Or can I do it directly in those programs? As far as I've seen, I can't easily maneuver legs or other parts in BP, just paint on them.

Or are there functions to accomplish this in another application like Poser or any of the others I have access to? If so, please let me know how... I promise I'll get a book and start learning the 3D app ASAP..

I'll look into all of this tomorrow, right now I need to get ready to go to a party, it's Friday evening here..

Again, thank you!

I don't use Bodypaint so this might not be relevant, but what I do in max is just select the polygons of the leg I'm not working on and hide them so they're out of the way. Perhaps Bodypaint has something similar.

Max looks just extremely confusing to me, just like Maya does... But I guess it's just the learning curve.
Any hints, tips or step-by-step to do what I'm looking for would be really welcome!

Well max isn't really a "little" painting tool.
Oh and of course it is illegal to use it without a (pricey) license, even more for commercial use

Hi!

You don't need to spread the legs, or anything.

Project on invisible parts will put the line on all the parts that you can't see. For instance, if you put it on the outside of the right leg, it will be on the outside of the right leg, the inside of the right leg, the inside of the left leg, and the outside of the left leg.

So just delete the parts of the line you don't need, when you get into PS.

If, for some reason, you do want to hide some polys, it's certainly possible.

But I don't have time to explain it all right now. I'll do that later. (I need to download the update, because I don't use BodyPaint often, and it's not working right any more.)

Which version of BodyPaint do you have, by the way?

I know that... Both points. But the company that I'm with has enterprise licenses for ALL the applications I test and try to use, so don't worry about licensing..

I'll look into it during the day..



It's version 8.5

It works as a charm! Thank you so much Robin!
However, I've noticed a small thing with the c4d files you provide in another thread, at least I think it must be those.. In BP I get an absolutely fine and straight line on the model, but when I import the resulting texture in either slcp 1.22 or SL "live", there's a "dip" in the line much like a "v", but not as pointy.

I'll try to set up a model myself from the UV obj files in the download section to see if there's any differences.

See, that's the problem, and the reason that I don't use BodyPaint very much.

Sadly, the mannequins we have aren't a really good match for the Avatars in SL. The maps match perfectly; but the polys themselves.. ummm .. don't. The angles and positions are different enough that painting on the mannequins is .. ummm .. less than perfect.

There are many here who will tell you that it's because the AVs in SL use the sliders, and the slider positions are all wrong. But a very old-old-timer, who has been here since beta, told me that they were actually different models, and I'm inclined to believe it.

The only thing I can suggest, and what I do, is to do what you can in BodyPaint, and then manually fix the dips and other weirdness by uploading a set with both the painting and the UV map on them, seeing what needs to be corrected where, and correcting it in Photoshop.

It's a pain, but it does work fairly well.

And no, the OBJ files are the ones I used, so unless they have changed them, the dip will still be there. But by all means try, and if it's not, let me know! If they've fixed that, it will save me a world of time and trouble!

Would it do me any good to use another application than BP? If so, which one, and just like before; How?

Oh darn.. How should I open those .obj files? When I use the usual "open" menu option, I get a small "box" at the zero point of the painting grid. When hitting the "H" key, nothing else happens, so I don't really know what to do with it....

When I open the c4d files you so kindly provided, everything looks just fine.

I just noticed... My in-world avatar is tall, with long legs, and that's what "deforms" my attempts.. When I selected the default shape and reset all parameters to defaults, the textures I've made in BodyPaint fits exactly, there are no faults whatsoever... Just perfect!

Oh, by the way, I just upgraded Maxon to Cinema4D release 10 and it has polygons, shapes, lines etc! Hooray!

Okay.. So I stratched the mannequin in BP, but it didn't make any difference, the resulting texture was still exactly the same. Did I stretch it in a wrong way maybe? Advice are very welcome...