Using Images to Paint Models

[Bunderfeld]

Hi Simon and the rest of the Curvy 3D staff, I've finally got around to learning Curvy 3D and am amazed by how simple, yet efficient, that Curvy 3D is for making 3D Models and Sculpts. My most favorite feature of Curvy 3D is when you save your Sculpt, whatever Painting you have done is saved as a Texture Map for that Sculpt. Even though I don't have Art Skills, I've still been able to paint my Sculpts and then take them into InWorldz where they are ready to use since I can texture them with the Texture Map that was made when I saved the Sculpt!

I do have a question and depending on the answer may lead me to ask for a Video Tutorial on how to accomplish it. My question is, can I take an image that I created in Photoshop and use it to "paint" my Model? What I'm thinking is say I have a image created in Photoshop that is a row of decorative leaves and I want to use that to go around a Bowl that I'm making. Is this possible, and if it is, could you show me how in a Video Tutorial?


Thanks,

Bob Bunderfeld

[Simon]

It is really simple when you know how... just right click on the square picture to the left of the words "Base Colour" at the top of the Object Properties panel. This will open a file chooser and you can pick an image to use.

You can do the same right click technique on all the images a model uses - in particular loading a pre-existing image onto "Curvy Map" can make some good results.

[Bunderfeld]

Hi Simon, thanks so much for your reply, I'm always impressed that the CEO of a company cares enough about one of the Company's products that he would answer a customer personally.

I must admit that I was having a very "dumb" moment when I posted this question though. I realized that all I needed to do was to use the Texture Map that was created when I saved the Sculpty to add or subtract what I wanted. I must also say that I'm so impressed with "Curvy 3D" in the manner in which it creates that Texture Map for the Sculpty, not to mention how easy the program is to use. I know there are a ton of Tutorials in existence for "Curvy 3D", but I can't seem to find anything that deals with Lofts and Meshes, and how they could be incorporated into a Sculpty. I also was wondering if there was a way to take multiple objects in a model, like say the Teapot, and merge them all together and save that as a Sculpty?

Lastly, I was wondering if there was an upgrade of "Curvy 3D" coming anytime soon? Not that I would have any suggestions since I'm really not using anything too complex, but I know this version of the program is almost 2 years old and wondered if any new upgrade was going to be announced soon.


Thanks again Simon,

Bob Bunderfeld

[Simon]

Making sculpties out of lofts works fine - you just have to remember to stop the edges wrapping round in SL, I think there is a check box that sets the wrap mode eg: Sphere, Cylinder, Plane - and you need plane.

Sculpties out of meshes, or merged objects is possible but is quite tricky. The process is to take some new lathe objects and make them conform to the mesh, then export these new conforming lathes rather than the original mesh.
This process is outlined here starting with step 5 "Draw lathe inside sword".

[Bunderfeld]

Sculpties out of meshes, or merged objects is possible but is quite tricky. The process is to take some new lathe objects and make them conform to the mesh, then export these new conforming lathes rather than the original mesh. This process is outlined here starting with step 5 "Draw lathe inside sword".

Thanks Simon, I've taken a look at that Video before, unfortunately it's another of those that lack Audio and it's very difficult to tell what's going on in the Video.

I was looking over the web for some reference material and came across a FREE book for Blender that looks like something a new person to 3D modeling might find useful. Perhaps you could give it a quick once over and if it would be useful for your customers, you could link to it in your Tutorial Forums.