 | For this tutorial we are going to paint a model of a baby. This model is available at a
number of web sites that offer public domain models. You can however use any character you
wish for this tutorial.
You will want to have an Orthographic view to work with as well as a perspective view.
Select View Selection from the View menu. Choose the
upper center icon that shows a single vertical line.
Right-Click on the right view, and select View->Orthographic->Front
from the popup menu. Note that front means front of the scene rather than front view of
the model. |
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 | We will not be able paint a complicated object such as this in one step.
We first have to determine what areas will need their own texture map. Once we decide
which areas need their own texture map, we mask these areas by painting them a unique
color.
For this model we will have texture maps for the body, face, hands and feet. Each of these
areas will be painted a unique color to indicate where we will be placing our texture
maps.
Set a color of yellow using the Material Palette. Click
on the object to select it, then fill the object with the color using the
Material Fill Operation which is located on the Operation Panel. Yellow indicates the areas that later be filled
with a skin colored texture.
Note that we are painting with a color not a texture. Painting with textures can result in
increased model points since where there are seams between textures, points need to be
split. |
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 | Click to select the Face Group Selection Tool. It is located on the Edit Toolbar.
Click and drag with the Face Group Selection Tool on
the orthographic view to create a rectangle that encloses the baby's head. When you have
done this, release the mouse button. |
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 | This selected all of the faces within the rectangle.
Only those faces that were forward facing were selected. If you had wanted to select all
faces, you could have Alt-Clicked while using the Face Group Selection Tool. |
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 | A number of faces were painted in the previous step that didn't need to be. |
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 | Use the sample tool from the Edit Toolbar to sample the body color. There are a number of
shades of yellow, so we want to ensure that we have the right one.
Use the Face Painting Tool
from the Edit Toolbar to repaint the areas accidentally painted
green. There should be a relatively smooth edge between green and yellow. But since we are
painting faces, the line between green and yellow will never be entirely smooth. Just make
sure that green is contiguous. |
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 | Use the Face Group Selection Tool to
select the faces that make up the diaper. Paint them white. This will be the only part of
the model that will not be texture wrapped.
Notice the over-run of paint again. If the creator of the model had kept the diaper as a
separate object, this would have been much simpler. Since they have been merged into a
single object, it is necessary to do a little bit of clean up. |
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 | Use the Face Painting Tool to repaint the areas of the
body accidentally painted white. |
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 | Paint the tops of each hand and each foot a unique color.
Ensure that you are very careful to paint only the top part of each hand. To see a more
detailed view of properly masked hands click here.
We have now completed the color masking of our object. |
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 | Create a skin-tone texture using your Paint program. Select it using the Material Palette. Click on the
Material Palette to select a spherical wrap.
Note that even though this skin tone is a continuos color, it must be a texture. Textures
and colors do not render exactly the same, so if there is a mix of colors and textures it
will be obvious in the model.
Fill the selection with this texture using the
Material Fill Operation from the Operation
Panel. |
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 | We will now create a bitmap of the baby's face that we can paint.
To use the Unwrap operation, the area of the object to be unwrapped must be facing towards
you when looking at the object in a Front Orthographic view. Ensure that this is the case.
If it isn't, rotate the object so it faces you.
Click on the Material
Palette to select a cylindrical wrap. This is usually the best wrap method for
character faces. You may find that with some character faces a spherical wrap or even a
flat wrap produces the best result. The best method is to try each wrap type until the
Unwrap Operation produces a bitmap you are happy with.
Click again to select the Point and Face Selection Tool. Alt-Ctrl click anywhere on
the green part of the face to select it.
Click on
the Operation Panel to open the Unwrap
Operation.
Select a texture size of 512x512 and click OK. Save the file somewhere where you won't
lose it. |
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 | In your Paint program, open the texture you created, and change all of the grey areas to
the exact color that you used in your previous skin tone texture.
Also, change all of the white areas to a color that will not be part of the final texture.
I chose yellow for this example. |
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 | Here I have painted in the eyes and lips of the texture. |
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 | Select this texture you created using the Material Palette
and apply it to the object using the Material Fill
Operation. If you deselected the the green mask, you will first have to re-select it
by Alt-Ctrl clicking.
Don't worry about any creasing between the face texture and body texture. This will be
resolved in the final step.
Notice that the areas near the ears have a lot of overlap of faces. It would not be
appropriate to try to paint areas such as this because the result would be poor. If you
were to want to paint the ears, you would have to create separate masks and bitmaps for
them or reduce the size of the color mask around the ears. |
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 | It is actually possible to see how changes you make to the texture affect the model
while you are modeling. As you make a change to the texture in your Paint program, simply
save it and reload the model to see what the effect has been. It isn't always obvious what
point in the texture is what point on the model so some trial and error may be necessary.
I have now filled all of the yellow lines with skin tone, and added some blush to the
cheeks. |
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 | We will now repeat this process for the other masked areas.
Remember that in order to use the Unwrap Operation, the area to be unwrapped must face the
front.
Rotate the model as shown so that the area to be wrapped faces the front. |
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 | Repeat the process of creating a bitmap, but this time use a Flat Wrap. |
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 | Paint fingernails on this texture and apply it to the object.
Repeat this process for the other hand and the feet. |
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 | Apply the Crease Operation and adjust the slider to the far
left so that there is no creasing. This will correct any seams that appeared when the
textures were applied.
We now have our finished model. |
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