Bodypaint Workflow

[Per-Anders]

Seems a few more steps than I'd use.

1) Make model, make editable, if you want connect em all together.

2) Add material(s) to model part(s).

3) Right click on each materal, and choose "Texture Channels->Color" (or whatever channel you want to add a texture to. Select the settings you want.

4) At this point you can simply start painting and it should paint on all of them, hwoever to uv map it's easier if we go to teh bodypaint layout for UV editing.

5) Select "Use UV Polygon Edit Tool" from the left hand panel, pick an object to uv form the objects panel, and it's uv's should now be showing in the UV/painting window.

6) Map however you want, using the controls under the "UV Mapping Tab" and the tools on the left hand side and a selection of UV's (which you can select in either the 3d view or in the 2d view). My personal preference is for using a combination of interactive mapping and the other projection tools. However if i'm feeling lazy I'll use the "Optimal" modes.

7) Paint the map in bodypaint, in either the 3d view, with or without projection painting, or in the 2d view. Optionally send the texture to another program if desired by adding a layer, selecting outline polygons from teh layers palette, saving as a PSD or layered TIFF, loading into whatever, messing around, then saving and reloading into bodypaint/c4d.

[Per-Anders]

Oh and before I forget there's also the Paint Setup Wizard method.

Which would be:

1) Make models

2) Go To BP UV editing layout

3) Select Paint Setup Wizard, follow instructions.

4) Start Painting

[LucentDreams]

Could some of you experienced Bodypaint users please tell me if this is the correct way to unwrap a model?

In Cinema 4D (Modeling Mode)

First, create the model in Cinema 4D. I have created a barrel for this project.

1. Select the individual model parts and make them editable. You must make the model editable, this assigns a UVW tag. Until you make an object editable it doesn't have real polygons

right


2. Now, select all of the model parts from the "Object Manager" and Group them.
(In the Object Manager select all of the model pieces > Objects > Group Objects)

well assuming you want all the objects that make the barrel in a group then yes group them, if your goign to connect them as you did later, then no you needn't group since your going to connect them all anyways. You likely would group though as the conecting isn't necessary really, see further on to understand what I mean.


3. Now add a "Selection" tag to each separate model part. (Selection > Set Selection)

a good plan if you plan on connecting them, but again not necessary


4. Now connect the objects. To connect the objects, select all objects and select connect from the Functions menu. Functions > Connect) The individual model objects must be connected so they can be made into 1 UV map, otherwise you will have to make separate UV maps for each object.

well yes and no, you want to have all the objects use one texture right? thats still possible while each has their own UV, and it would be the same amount of data really. just fit each objects UV's on different areas of the canvas you could even then paint eac h objects UV's onto seperate layers so that in photoshop you could group each objects texture layers into a specific layer set. The only advantage connecting offers is seeing all the UV regions at the same time, something I hope multiselection will allow in future versions of BP.


5. Next, Create a new material and give it a color. (File > New Material) Then drag it onto your connected model in the Object Manager. This will color all of the model parts.

you could just use the wizard really. but yes make a new material, and instead of setting a colour and later on using file new texture, just right click on your material, and choo texture/color to put in a colour channel. There are a dozen ways to do this really, your jsut choosing the longer method. When learning a new app always check what options context menus provide, they usually store the most important fucntions for what ever you click on so you don't need to hunt and search.


6. Select the material icon in the "Object Manager" and under "Projection" select UVW or other mapping type. Then select OK

It shoudl be UVW by default really, I wouldn't bother setting it to anything else unless you know they will suit your need instead of UV, its much easier to do this stuff with the UV manager later.


In Cinema 4D (BodyPaint)

5. Now from the Layout menu at the top left of the window, change the layout view from Standard or Modeling to "BP UV Edit".

you can jsut load the needed windows into your interface or make your own if the layout of the BP UV EDIT layout isn't to your taste too.


6. Select File-> New texture, then select a color like white. The default color is black. You can change the color to what ever suits you, but I would suggest starting off with white. Next, select a size and DPI for the mesh. Then name the material and choose OK. If you chose white, your UV map will turn all white.

you UV map shouldn't, but yes your texture should be all white. Do note this is one spot where using the wizard makes life easy, especially with many channels and objects/materials, as you can easily create many channels all witht he same DPI and color depth etc BG color etc. I typically recommend 50% gray as a starter for any channel including color, I agree black is an odd one, I think thats the default because of bumps,transparency, alpha, and displacements.


7. Now select "Show UV Mesh" from the menu just above the mesh window. (UV Mesh > Show UV Mesh) Note: If the UV mesh isn't visible, make sure the model is visible in the "Object Manager".

visible and selected.


8. In the materials manager, double click the original material you made for the model, and with the color channel selected, click on the small arrow to the left of the texture browser box. Then select bitmaps. You should see your new texture in the list you created in there called something like Untitled_1.b3d. Select that texture, then close the "Material Editor". The model will change to white if you chose white for your new texture.

this step woudl have been eliminated with both the wizard and the context menu method I suggested. this can also be done direclty in the AM to prevent that opening and closing process.


9. Then switch to the Brush Tool (Menu > Tools > Paint Tools > Brush) or click on the Brush tool in the tools palette. Now click on the "Attributes" button, then scroll down until you see the brush settings. Change the brush size to 1 pixel (leave all other fields at their default values).

okay if thats what you want to do.


10. With the brush tool still selected, click on "Colors" button and change the color to black.

I'm assuming in the last two steps the buttons are the tabs for the different managers right? This is a common workflow, a one pixel brush set to white or black


11. Now select your model from the Object Manager. You should see the UV mesh in black outline with a grey background. Now make the background white. To do this select the material color from just above the mesh window (Textures > Untitled_1.tif). Now your background should be white.

Well really your just setting that to the active texture to paint, its like having multiple PS files open in Photoshop and switching btween them you cna only paint ont he one thats active in PS. You can actually do this without having it active in view though. Won't tell you how as it can confuse people.


12. Next select the "UV Polygons" tool. (Tools > UV Tools > UV Polygons). The outlines will change to Cyan. Then select all (Command + "A") and the model and should be outlined in red. If not make sure "Show UV Mesh" is selected and the UV Polygon Edit Tool is selected.

why did you set your brush stuff before UV editing? not wrong, but seems to be some steps misplaced. anyways yes this step is fine.


13. All your UV maps are stacked on top of each other. To separate the UV maps go under (UV Mapping > Mapping) and select "Optimal Angle" then the stacked UV maps will separate into a bunch of pieces.

errr depends on how the UV was made and from what projection, if its cubic then es they are all stacked up, cylinder will have the cap on top of the sides, spherical will not overlap at all.

This is an auto mapping method, if your in a rush you can do it this way, but honeslty for any longer term project (mroe then a two day sort of thing) I'd do proper UV editing so I wouldn't touch the automapping methods.


14. Now relax the UV's (relax UV's)

uhm automapping algo's should have an option to automatically relax


Think of the UV's as flat polygons and select and move/scale etc them generally as you would polygons in C4D itself.

sure.


Double clicking a selection tag will highlight just the uv's related to that tag. Use other selection tools just the same as you would in Cinema. Then you can move them around to your hearts content - useful if you wish to quickly get rid of overlapping uv's of different parts.

yes and no, some selection tools only work in polygon mode on the actual 3D object, like loop, ring, and fill selection, these three cna greatly speed up your workflow for UV editing too so make sure you leanr how to use them. Not sure if they are available in the standalone BP or not.


Don't do move/rotate/scale in the View editor, but in the Texture editor (where you see the UV mapping)

why? you can move the UV's in the editor, I do it alot, expecially when using photographs for textures, its make it easy to match a UV to a texture. I will spend more time in the texture view, but the reason the UV edit layout has both is to worki n both effectively.


15. Now All your polygons should still be selected so go to the top menu and click on (Layer > Outline Polygons) and your selection should be outlined with a 1 pixel sized brush stroke in black.

yes, I would have set the brushes right before this step personally. I'd also make a new layer first and apply this to the new layer that way you can paint underneath it.


16. Now save the texture file. Go to "Menu" and "Save Texture" (Menu > Save Texture). Save the texture as a Photoshop (.psd) file so it has layers.

or tiff or targa, I reommendpsd or tiff though.


Painting the UV Map

1. Now open the file in Painter or Photoshop and you'll see 1 layer with the black UV lines. Create a new layer to paint on.

2. After you're done painting the file save the file and open up Bodypaint

sure, or you can do this in BP too. BP is after all a painting app not jsut a UV editor.


Applying the UV Map to the Model

1. Open Cinema 4D > BodyPaint

2. Double-Click the Material, the Material Manager will open. Select Color, then select the "Arrow" to the right of the word "Texture" and select "Reload Image" and choose your newly painted Photoshop (.psd) file. Voila! Your painting from Photoshop should be applied to the model.

you can again simply right cilck on the texture in the material manager and choose revert, and it will revert to the saved photoshop one. saves opening anothe rwindow or anything like that.

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