Blender, Imported OBJ, UV Mapping, and Grief

heyas;

i have blender 2.45, and have been following the two tutorials for making it spit out sculpt maps:

http://iramblesorry.blogspot.com/2007/05/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love_28.html
http://www.bentha.net/sculpted2/Blender-to-sculpted.html

i have created a sculpted object in lightwave, using the lightwave base-sculpty-starting method. basically you create a cylinder, then unroll the uvmap for it to get a square map. you then sculpt the cylinder.
so i have a nice neat shape, and a nice neat square uvmap. unfortunately, lightwave's method of making sculpty maps is ugly.

so i have exported this object in wavefront OBJ format, with its uvmapping intact. and i managed to get it into blender. with its square uvmap.

then i pick up the usual blender sculpty material making steps. 3 textures, x/y/z mapped to red/green/blue, in add mode. exactly the same as i have been doing on objects mapped IN blender. (also with the "neg" button pressed for red, as the last sculpty i tested was inside out without this option.)

i hit bake... and it bakes. and comes out flat red. ie: it is mapping all the points as zero distance from -- well, whatever it is that it is measuring from!


since i have little to no clue how to use blender; i have no idea WHY it is doing this, nor (better yet) HOW to fix it.
i tried moving the 3d cursor, i tried changing the size of the object in blender, i tried changing the obj importer size interpretation from 10 units to 1 unit.

okay, i just went through all the steps to make a sculpty 'from any object' by using sphere shape keys, to map it in blender. i get the same results. any clues why this isnt working???

Id say check your normals, uncheck the neg box for red, and make sure that the green and blue channels are set to col 1, and make sure that you havent selected any other boxes that should not be selected. You said that you have the colors set to add, but double check that for the red channel.

Edit : I played around with the color settings some...I cant reproduce your problem, so most likely none of those fixes will do anything for you.

heyas;

well, the normals face outward. unless you meant check some checkbox for normals.... in which case, i dunno where that is. ;) and 'col 1'? where's that?


i believe the root of the problem has to do with the imported object. the colouring works fine for stuff built IN blender. but its just not working with my obj. :/

::sigh:: if i could just get past this last block! i could be making cool sculpties!

If you really want to use the material baking method rather than my scripts, then it's a lot easier to do with nodes. I've attached a picture of the material node setup to use for sculpties.

You can find out more about the scripts here : /8/60/203571/1.html

domino;

if your scripts will get a sculpt map off my imported obj, then i will be very very happy.

if not, i have NO idea how to get my blender to look like your screenshot!! :X let's hope the scripts work.

The baking script just provides an easier and more accurate way of getting the sculptie map. As with the material method you still need a square UV map. It will quickly elimate the material setup as a potential problem though, so if you are still getting a red square with my scripts, then the UV map is the likely cause. With my scripts the UV maps for the meshes added with "Add - Mesh - Sculpt Mesh" show an ideal layout you can compare with.

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Node_Editor is the starting point in the Blender wiki docs for working with nodes. The picture in my post above is a material node setup.

domino;

if you can bear with me, im a total clueless blender noob.

okay, i have the .blend file with my imported obj, and i have the uvmap in a second panel. i have your scripts loaded in and accessible. now, what exact steps do i follow? the instructions talk about adding and modifying a sculpty mesh.

oh! oh, i just do render: sculptymesh. that was easy. OH! OH OH OH! i see colours! wohoo!!!!!!


dang, now im gonna have to figure out what on earth i screwed up. ah but heck, this is WAY easier! oh, im so excited! i can SCULPT! MUAHAHAHAHHAAH! im dangerous now!

it even looks good in sl! it's a miracle!

domino, you rule. i think you knew that... ;) thanks a tonne!