Using Poser Materials in Deep Paint 3D - Method I

Note1 - this tutorial will not make much sense without reading Using Poser Materials in Deep Paint 3D - The Set Up. I can't guarantee this tutorial will make sense after you read it, but I'm reasonably sure reading the Set Up tutorial first will help.

Note 2 - the first few steps in this method will be repeated in the other methods. This isn't just deja-vu.

Method I - Some Assembly Required - in Photoshop.

I'm using Sharkey's Dominatrix outfit. Why? It illustrates why someone might use only some materials from an object, and, let's face it, sexy outfits get attention.

  1. Open the .obj file you experimented with in the last tutorial. (See, I told you to read Part I, first!) When the list of materials comes up, using the Ctrl Key, select just the items you want in Group 1 (in this case, the RimBreast and Wire). Click on the Merge button. You'll get an error message. Click Okay.

  2. Hit the Edit/Resize button. Choose the map size you want to use. (For this, I used 1024x1024.) FOR THIS TO WORK, YOU MUST USE THE SAME MAP SIZE FOR ALL YOUR GROUPS!

  3. The next dialog box will give you the option of naming your merged materials. For the sake of your sanity, I strongly recommend that you give the material a useful name. I called mine Fred. (Just kidding.) I named the first group Lacing.

  4. The second group in my example was the rings. Since there was only one material, I selected it, hit the Edit/Resize button, set the map to 1024 x 1024, and left the name alone.

  5. I selected all the other materials using the Ctrl key, then Merged them. Hitting Edit/Resize, I set the map size to 1024 x 1024, and named the material Bodysuit. Here's the results thus far:


  6. In the Elements Tab of the Control Panel, go to the Layer menu (see above if you've already forgotten). Select a material. In this case, I'm going to select the Ring material. Click on the C button. Select 1024 x 1024 for the map size, then select "Nothing" for the channel.

  7. Do the same for the other materials then hit okay.
  8. To work on one material at a time, go to the Control Panel: Elements: Materials. You can lock the materials so you are working on just the one that you want by clicking on the gray box to the right of the word "Export." The green check mark means that the material can be worked on. The red circle with a slash means that the layer is locked.

  9. Now you can use the brushes to paint each material separately, affecting only that material. Don't use the flood fill with this method. You'll color the entire map, not just the area for that material. There are ways to get just the material colored with the flood fill, which I'll cover in another tutorial. (Be patient. It takes time to write these tutorials up!)
  10. If you're going to color the entire material a solid color, and it's separate from other materials, you can do it easily in the 2D view. Double click on the C channel and it will open up the color map in the 2D view.

    Right click anywhere on the 2D map and Select "Display Wireframe. Now you'll see the wireframe. Pick the color you want and paint over the wireframe.The wireframe will appear on top through the entire process. You can right click on the 2D view and deselect the "Display Wireframe" so you can do any paint touchups. Don't extend very far past the wireframe. Remember, you are only seeing the wireframe for that material, not the entire object.
  11. When you are doing painting the entire object, you'll need to export the materials separately. In the Control Panel: Elements: Layers, click on each materials, then click on the grey arrow to the right of the Channels label. Select: Export All to PSD.


  12. Save each material. By default, Deep Paint 3D saves the materials as Deep3D_[material name].psd.
  13. Open up Adobe Photoshop.
  14. Open up all the materials you saved from Deep Paint 3d.
  15. You'll see the wireframe as well as your painting.

    Right click on the wireframe layer and delete it. Do that for all the .psd files. Note that the file background is transparent. That's because it saved only the portions that you painted onin Deep Paint 3D.
  16. Select one material file. It doesn't matter which one. Go to Layers: Flatten image. The background will turn to whatever color you have selected as the background color.
  17. Go to Select: All, then Edit: Copy.
  18. Click on the next file and click on Edit: Paste. The first file will show up on top of the second one, hiding it. Click and drag the Base layer above the Pasted layer.
  19. The two texture maps will align properly.

    *Why not copy the second image to the first so you don't have to move layers around? Because Adobe Photoshop will mis-align the second image as it does not take up the entire window. (At least it did that to me with Photoshop 5.5 and 6.0. I can't guarantee what 7 does.) With the first image flattened, it takes up the entire window. Selecting, Copying, and Pasting it to the new window will force it to align properly. Could you copy the second file to the first one and manually align it? Sure, but why bother? Especially on complex texture maps, you risk ruining the texture map with small mis-aslignments.
  20. Now that the layers are copied over and properly arranged, click on Layers: Flatten Image. Now it is one image again.
  21. If you have more material .psd files, repeat Steps 17 - 20 as necessary.
  22. When you have combined all the materials into one texture file, save it as either .tif or .jpg. (.tif gives slightly better resolution but uses a LOT more memory. .jpg is the most common format and the one I suggest for the final file.)
  23. Now you can open up Poser, apply the texture map, and see the results.

Hey, Hon, would this be okay for church on Sunday?

Thanks again to Robin and Peter from Deep Paint 3D whose ideas I tweaked to get this to work for Poser.

A backward poet writes inverse.

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