Texture painting software

mmitchell_houston

I have Photoshop CS 5.5. But I'm not sure it's the right tool for painting b&w toon-like textures. I've been eyeing Blacksmith 3D, but think it might be overkill for my needs. Any thoughts?

Richard Haseltine

Do you want o use projection painting - that is, painting directly onto the mdoel and apinting across seams? If so then Photoshop isn't the right tool. However, if you are wanting to paint things like clothing where the texture seams correspond to fabric seams it may actually be close to ideal since fabric is essentailly a 2D pattern. If you do want to do projection painting you might also want to look at Substance Painter, Mari (the Indie version on Steam, at least) and 3D Coat all of which will work with OBJ files - but do note that the first two will have issues with the Daz human figures, the first in particular.

mjc1016

Richard Haseltine said:

Do you want o use projection painting - that is, painting directly onto the mdoel and apinting across seams? If so then Photoshop isn't the right tool. However, if you are wanting to paint things like clothing where the texture seams correspond to fabric seams it may actually be close to ideal since fabric is essentailly a 2D pattern. If you do want to do projection painting you might also want to look at Substance Painter, Mari (the Indie version on Steam, at least) and 3D Coat all of which will work with OBJ files - but do note that the first two will have issues with the Daz human figures, the first in particular.

Blender is also in that list, but the paint tools are basic compared to most of the rest of the list.

Also, Blacksmith 3D is a paint program.

mmitchell_houston

Richard: I am looking at painting on Daz and Poser figures across seams, so I think painting directly on the model would be a good option to have. I will need to paint on clothing, but that's the secondary consideration. Thanks for the info. All three of the products you listed are over my budget, and I think they all have features that I do not need.. Thanks for the info, though.

I'm going to start looking at other tools, including some older ones (as I said, I'm not doing highly detailed maps -- I need some simple tools for toon texture creation.

The first I'm going to look at is Tattoo. It's old, but free: http://www.terabit-software.co.uk/Tattoo.aspx

I'll also see if I can find the rumored-to-be-free Deep Paint 3D.

Then, after that, I may go back and look at Blacksmith 3D.

mmitchell_houston

I couldn't get my old copy of Deep Paint to install on Win7 (well, my copy was from 2002, so I'm not surprised).

I've decided to get a R'osity Prime membership so I can get a huge discount on Blacksmith 3D, v6 Pro. With the Prime discount, the software is only $105. That's in my budget, and it's optimized for use with both Poser and Daz Studio. So, I'll be picking it up this weekend and having a go with it.

What pushed me to go with this tool were:

• The creator's videos on YouTube -- they were pretty good and showed how versatile the software is.
• Native support for CR2 files.
• The price (as noted above, even if I factor in the $30 Prime membership + $105 for the software, my take home price is only $135, which is much cheaper than many of the other options I looked at).
• It supports drawing tablets, which means I can adjust line thickness based on pressure; since I'm planning on creating some b&w maps, this is very important to me.
• By use of its Projection Mapping feature, I will be able to export patterns to other apps, including Photshop and (hopefully) Manga Studio.

All in all, these features made me decide that this is a package worth getting. I also decided that it was worth paying for the Pro version, rather than the limited "Standard" version. Here's hoping I'll be able to use it to customize the texture maps for my next comic book illustration project.

WendyLuvsCatz

Sculptris is free and does 3D paint

otherwise there is also Carrara

WendyLuvsCatz

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/343654/#Comment_343654

some helpful hints by others here

mmitchell_houston

FOOL: Thank you VERY much for that info and the link to that thread. I may look at Sculptis before I pay for Blacksmith 3D. 

I did look at the programs discussed in the other thread, and had already decided that Coat and UV Mapper were probably a bit beneath what I wanted to do. I think they're both probably fine programs, but the pressure-sensitive drawing tablet support, symettry and layers in Blacksmith 3D sound like features I will use and enjoy using.