Seams in FBX textures

#1

hey guys.

First let me say that I have had EI for about a year, but I have not had the time to really learn it. So please pardon any stupid questions.

I am having trouble importing some very simple FBX models into EI. All I am trying to do is get a model in with textures(no camera info etc.)

what I have are some simple houses that I have UV’d and textured in C4D then exported as a FXB file. when I bring the model into EI, the textures have seams showing everwhere!
I have tried changing the “fractional digits to 6” prior to importing the map, and I have also tried increasing the sampling level (object info -> shading -> sampling) …nothing.

the FBX file reads back into C4D with no problems, and opens in Carrara with no texture problems. it is a single model with one texture map.

if you look at where the seams are, you can see that it is not a matter of positioning, as the seam shows around all edges in some cases.
is there some sort of “fix” for this?
I am using EI 6.6.2

#2

Keith,

There are several things that you can try. Double click on your object from the Project Window and click on the ‘Shading’ tab. Make sure that ‘Use UV Space’ is enabled and try to change the Wrap Horizontal, Wrap Vertical and Normalize check boxes. I’d start with all 3 unchecked first, then try ‘Normalize’ then go on from there.

If that doesn’t work, try deleting the texture and re-adding it. I’ve had issues with FBX translated textures appearing to be correctly applied as far as the position offset is concerned but for some reason they really are not. Re-adding the texture appears to fix that issue.

Let me know how it goes, if you’re still having issues, post a link to the project and I’ll take a look at it.

Peter

#3

Ola,

EIAS 7 uses a new FBX library.

Thankss

Tomas

#4

Thanks!

Peter, I had tried all of your ideas already with no luck, but you suggestion got me thinking.
So this afternoon I decided to take another look at my actual texture map, and thats when I realized, the the “UV Wizard” feature in C4D, makes rectangular UV’s…not square:hmm: doh!

so as a test I opened the FBX in Carrara, and exported a square UV map, and tried it… no luck there either.
But then I noticed the way that EI aligned the texture map to the UV space. it appearers to jam the texture map right to the edge of the UV coordinates, and since my UV map has a border of a few pixels, nothing was lining up and the texture was scaled too small.

so I open the texture map in PS, and crop down to the very edge of where the UV’s start, re-save, and re-import into EI…and viola! scale and placement are perfect!

I’ve got about 20 other houses to import so hopefully I will have a clear, understandable workflow by the time this is over with.

Thomas, does that mean that EI 6.6.2 uses an older library…FBX 5???
I was trying to complete(and get paid for) at least one project in EIAS6 before I upgraded;)

thanks again guys

rickei

#5

Does the model have more then one UV space?
Ian

#6

Hola,

In Cinema4d Bake texture object, and export as .obj, then translate with Obj2Fact (plug-in) and open perfect in EIAS.

Cheers
Diego

#7

Ola,

“Thomas, does that mean that EI 6.6.2 uses an older library…FBX 5???
I was trying to complete(and get paid for) at least one project in EIAS6 before I upgraded.”

EIAS 7 uses FBX 6 library.

Thanks

Tomas

#8

Just in case this is an issue with anyone else, here is what I have come up with.

for some reason, EIAS seems to “crop” in to where the UV coordinates start, instead of the corners of the UV space. I have tried FXB’s exported from Carrara, and C4D, and the exact same thing happens.

anyway, if I crop the texture map to the edges of where the UV coordinates start and stop, everything comes in perfectly.

It’s hard for me to explain so see image.

thanks for the suggestions everyone!:buttrock:

#9

Thanks for the tip,

i was just recently struggling with UV maps also while learning the whole procedure in EIAS.

Regards
Stefan

#10

Have you checked “normalize UVs” on the objects in question (shading tab)? Such things occur when a texture is not aligned to the UV space, but to the polygons that the UV space contains.

Jens

#11

I had a discussion about UV cropping here.

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=186&t=635278

#12

Hi Rickel, I have had no luck with FBX and UV mapping. For me in the shading tab go to UV and is gray out. So i guess is a problem of how did i texture my geometry inside C4D. DId u use Bodypaint or Selection Maps?
Thanks,Edgard

PS:I just rather wait to make it right and than if in eed to i get OBJ2FACT,too much toyas not much money now.

#13

Hey Ediris,

Many EI users use other programs with EI. I use Maya so I can’t tell you anything about C4D but I can say, UV and FBX work perfectly. You may be having some problem when you export from C4D. Matter of fact, FBX UVs in EI is why I learned Maya. It was because of EI’s for UV import.

This looks to me the same problem I discuss with you. I guess some apps export based on the UV perimeters and other export on the UV til space.

It would probably resolve if a poly was used as a bounding box UV.

#14

hey guys,

ediris: when you use the UV tools in C4d make sure that you have created a square UV space… I use the BodyPaint setup wizard (see attachment) set the minimum and maximum width/height settings to the same number.
I have had the same problem with the UV checkbox in EI being grey, but if you run the FACT file that was created from the FXB, through Transporter it fixes it.

AVTPro: this may just be a problem with C4D, but I don’t know why, because the FXB’s open fine in several other apps… but I only have issues with EI??? I am waiting for Tesla to come out before I purchase OBJ2FACT

I am having good luck with FXB’s now that I have cropped my UV’s

#15

Yes we were Alonzo, i guess i have to play with the UV textures in Cinema some more.To get good results.
Ok that will solve the problem a asingle square as a UV. You think Steamroller is a good solution for UV,Alonzo?
Ok let me try it again.

30 minutes later look like i got it a decent cube thanks dudes.
Now letas try a fish, mmm i got hungry
By the way Nigel that was a complex UV model. Queastion Nigel i dont underastand awhen you say a Square UV? and alsao i wa wonderig to do that housae you had to use on Bodypaint a projection method right?

#16

Hi Edgard,

Please try, triangulate model in C4d or just remove N-gons, and Bake texture object, thats works fine here… bake texture in C4d automaticaly create a square UV space.

cheers
Diego

#17

Yes Diego but i donot have OBJ2FACT, Or it doesnt matter? ANyways no N-gons just a simple square.I am very disapointed right now. You have to get all these plug ins to make EI work. I am not botheirng in using it for animating i am just using it as a renderer. Is to slow for texturing, i wish it could be a Vray but also you could animate some tuff in it.Like the deforemrs which are really really good.

Diego when you bake your textures, wat basic materials are not permitted?
Does it keep the transparency,reflections,specular,difuse,bump,displacmenet?

Edgard

#18

Hi all and again: The fix for the “seam” problem is the “normalize UV” checkbox in the group info window.

The UV space like C4D and others handle it is a square going from 0-1 in U and 0-1 in V. All polygons like in the house example are layed out within this square. the texture you will bake will exactly fit to this square. If you import your object into Animator with UVs, the UVs are treated like any other txture space in EI. If you align your texture to the UV polygons the texture will be scaled to fit the bounding box of the visible polygons, but NOT to the original 1x1 UV space. So, if your map has some space around the different parts of your objects, this space will show up on your object, if you simply align it in EI. That is why “cropping” helps here, since you actually crop the texture to the size of the bounding box of your UV layout. But this is NOT good, since it will nevr be 100% exact, but that is what we want.

If you check the “normalize UV” checkbox, the texture will be placed and scaled to the initial 1x1 texture space, and everything will line up fine. Please check it out.

The problem was solved with O2F with the introduction of a “texture polygon” which gave the user a placement aid since earlier versions of EI did not have the normalize UVs option. You can read about this here. Texture polygons are rather a hack and should not be used during conversion with O2F for Animator versions latr than 6 I guess.

http://www.ramjac.com/obj2fact/obj2fact_manual/o2f_interface/interface22.html

Jens

#19

Edgard[/QUOTE]

Hola Edgard,

I think that C4d for modeling / texturing and EIAS for render is a great combo. But need OBJ2FACT and Encage plug at least to function well.

Our productions are very long (30-60 min music animation) and believe me EIAS is light years away from the remaining renders engines , in terms of render quality/speed and convenience of management renderama. But need some plug-ins in order to make your life easier.

You Can import the animations channels via FBX and Bvh, just need some investigation, look into the Ian’s FBX tutorial and some import -exports FBX tutorials in C4d.

Cheers
Diego

#20

Yes Diego but i should be able to do all my texturing inside EI, but is just too painful. When you know you could do it faster or enjoying the tools available for you, should they attack this issue in the next upgrade?. Little by little they are adding what they can.But this should be a big issue.Oh i forgot Steamroller is porting,no date yet.