Using Poser Materials in Deep Paint 3D - Method II

Note - 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.

Method II - Using the Selection Tool to Pick out Different Materials.

I'm using Sharkey's Dominatrix outfit. Why? (Kickbacks? No.) The outfit illustrates why someone might use only some materials from an object, and, let's face it, sexy outfits get attention. Any .obj file with multiple material groups will work.

  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. 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. Double click on the globe that showed up in the C channel. This will load a new screen with ... nothing on it. Maximize the window. Click on the magnifying glass, then set the Factor to 50%. Now you can see the entire screen filled with ... nothing. (Ooh. Aah.)

  8. Right click on the grey nothingness. Select Display Wireframe. Now you can see the underlying wireframe for the texture map just for that material.


  9. Looking at the original UV Template for the Dominatrix suit, I know I have a problem. There's other objects near my rings. I can't easily separate out the rings from everything else.

    ... Or can I? ("Umm ... why make this tutorial if there wasn't a way?" I hear you say.)

  10. Click on the Selection Tool, then choose the Irregular Selection Tool.


  11. Select the first ring area using the Irregular Selection Tool. Keep it tight to the rings in the wireframe view. Go to Selection: Save Mask. I saved the mask as Mask_Ring.tif.

  12. Deselect the mask. (Selection: Deselect All.)

  13. Use the Irregular Selection Tool and select the next area of the Ring. Go to Selection: Load Mask: Add. Choose the mask you just saved. (Mine was Mask_Ring.tif.) Now you have both the original area and the new area masked even though they are not directly next to each other..

  14. Save the mask. Repeat as needed until you have all the pieces of that material saved as one mask.

  15. Close this window. You'll be back to your .obj painting window.

  16. Select the next material and repeat Steps 6 - 15, saving this mask under a new name. (Lacing for my example.)

  17. Close the file. Yes, I'm serious. Close it.

  18. Open the file back up.

  19. Merge all the materials into one group. (If you can't remember how to do this, click here.)

  20. Once you've merged the materials together, click on Edit/Resize. Use the same size map for the merged material as you did each individual material earlier. YOU MUST USE THE SAME MAP SIZE FOR THE MERGED MATERIAL AS YOU DID FOR ALL OF YOUR GROUPS! You can give the merged material a name if you want to. (I called mine Bob.)

  21. In the Elements Tab of the Control Panel, go to the Layer menu. Select the material.

  22. Click on the C button. If you're asked for the map size, use the same settings you've been using, then select "Nothing" for the channel.

  23. Double click on the globe that shows up in the C channel. You'll see the gray void again.

  24. From here, click on Selection: Load Mask: Assign. Navagate to the first selection mask that you saved. You must load the selection mask from the 2D texture screen for this to work. Don't be tempted into loading it from the 3D view. Just don't.

Using these selection masks, you can paint, use flood fills, etc., and only affect the parts you want to. Save the finished product in whatever file format you prefer - .jpg, .tif, etc. Don't save the .obj file. When you load the texture map in Poser, you'll have your original materials list in the Render: Materials menu, (even if you grouped some of the materials together) and everyone will be able to use the texture maps you create (so long as they have the object, of course.)

You can also use these selection maps for your Bump, Shine, Glow or Opacity as well.

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

Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.

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