Photoshop CS4: The new Character Tool?

Started by murs47, March 20, 2010, 07:05:14 AM

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murs47

I finally got CS4 and noticed that Adobe has implemented model texturing into the program. I watched a demonstration of it and the user textured directly on the 3D model rather than on a flat file. Pretty amazing.

Has anybody heard about this? Or even tried using it themselves?

GogglesPizanno

There has been software like this for a while... Blender even has a slightly lesser version of this in the current version. The big thing here is the the integration into photoshop itself (I believe you have to have the Extended version of CS4 for the 3D tools. The regular Version doesn't have it).

File support is limited to the standard generic formats (3ds, obj etc...) so to do a mesh you'd still need to export it out of a 3D program with texture mapping intact as a 3DS or OBJ file, but it definitely has the ability to make skinning more detailed and robust.

Maybe I should try and push work for the upgrade  :)

lugaru

Now I'm a totally unskilled skinner but I would love to be able to see what my work looks like on a mesh in real time... is this possible or is it like painting a statue?

Kommando

I can't see it much different from using Body Paint.  Though it does take a bit of getting used to.  I've used Body Paint in combination with Paint Shop Pro for skinning in Second Life.  I would have tried it for FF, but I have neither game anymore.

murs47

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH-8qtRvnD8&feature=related

A quick video. User doesn't do much, just paints a blotch of purple and applies an image to the model.

Would have been nice to just load in a .nif, maybe a plug-in or a later version of PS will make it possible.

deano_ue

i think it's only in cs4 extended

i've seen some fantastic photography tutorials that use this

Symon

Nifskope will export a Nif to an OBJ, so in theory, you should be good to go.
"You fertility deities are worse than Marxists," he said. "You think that's all that goes on between people."

Roger Zelazny, Lord of Light. 1971.

murs47

Quote from: Symon on March 21, 2010, 03:16:32 PM
Nifskope will export a Nif to an OBJ, so in theory, you should be good to go.

That's excellent. I'll give this a try when I find some time and let you guys know how it goes.

murs47

I made something of a breakthrough(if you want to call it that)



The accessory items didn't show up and it seems the _refl layer is on full blast.

I'll do some more experimenting. I'll be sure to post the messages that pop during the process, cause I have no idea what they mean.

Podmark

That's great Murs. Except for the blatant lie. There is no way Murs could be that guy's best friend. NO ONE wants Murs as a friend :P
Get my skins at:
HeroForce
my Google page

GogglesPizanno

While not a skinner, and lacking real artistic talent of any kind, I was able to try it out briefly on a co-workers copy of CS4. In my 5 minute experiment, I found that for someone like me creating a new skin from scratch, it was kind of hard to do as I dont have the skills for individual shading etc.... but as Murs example shows, for adding details (especially lines and seams and logos that have to match up) that normally UV mapping would warp and make really weird and/or difficult, its amazingly easy. For that alone i think its totally worth it.

Previsionary

Quote from: Podmark on March 23, 2010, 03:08:29 PM
That's great Murs. Except for the blatant lie. There is no way Murs could be that guy's best friend. NO ONE wants Murs as a friend :P

Agreed. Though, why did you have to put him on blast like that, yo? Murs knows he's lonelier than a gasp of fresh air in a Manhattan sewer. You didn't have to bring it to his attention! No shame, Pod. No shame. ^^
Disappear when you least expe--

murs47

Quote from: Podmark on March 23, 2010, 03:08:29 PM
That's great Murs. Except for the blatant lie. There is no way Murs could be that guy's best friend. NO ONE wants Murs as a friend :P

:o     :mellow:     :angry:

Quote from: Previsionary on March 23, 2010, 03:36:36 PM
Agreed. Though, why did you have to put him on blast like that, yo? Murs knows he's lonelier than a gasp of fresh air in a Manhattan sewer. You didn't have to bring it to his attention! No shame, Pod. No shame. ^^

What are you doing in Manhattan sewers? :huh:

Quote from: GogglesPizanno on March 23, 2010, 03:29:34 PM
While not a skinner, and lacking real artistic talent of any kind, I was able to try it out briefly on a co-workers copy of CS4. In my 5 minute experiment, I found that for someone like me creating a new skin from scratch, it was kind of hard to do as I dont have the skills for individual shading etc.... but as Murs example shows, for adding details (especially lines and seams and logos that have to match up) that normally UV mapping would warp and make really weird and/or difficult, its amazingly easy. For that alone i think its totally worth it.

This could very well be the answer to warp issues. The only reason why I included an angled view was because the front looked like I just put the type over the body and set the layer to multiply. Of course, the chest area of male meshes don't have much, if any, warping issues. I'll try and load up a female mesh later today and see what happens. That should be the ultimate test.

murs47

I don't know what the heck happened. Especially because I haven't changed any settings, but meshes load up looking like this now:


Symon

That looks rather like a bounding box that was exported and then imported, becoming a normal object.
Try the usual standby of now cutting and pasting your amended character mesh back into the version you had before export to OBJ.
"You fertility deities are worse than Marxists," he said. "You think that's all that goes on between people."

Roger Zelazny, Lord of Light. 1971.

GogglesPizanno

You can also use blender with the nif import/export scripts.
Just load up the character, and then select only the mesh pieces you want to export.

* Or if you are using Blender, you can also export from nifskop...

** Or vice versa...

*** I need to eat something

murs47

#16
I made some progress that I showed in my skinning thread. I'll demonstrate how I did it here.

- First I exported the mesh into an .obj file using nifskope. Be sure to click on the mesh piece you want exported before exporting:


- You'll get a pop-up message with a long explanation. I don't know what it means. Just hit 'OK'

- Name the .obj whatever you want. I just threw the exported .obj file on my desktop for this demo.

- Next open up the .obj file with PS. Keep in mind you must have PS CS4 Extended to do this.

- The mesh will probably load in some awkward position so just use the 3D Move Tool to get it into place.

- You can either make a new layer or work straight on the 3D layer. For this example I'm going to put a Green Lantern symbol on the chest. I suggest with whatever shape you do make, have it pure black.

- Place the shape where you'd want it to be on the mesh and merge it down to the 3D layer.

- Next go up to the 3D menu and choose "Export 3D layer..."


- Name the file whatever you want. File format doesn't matter.

- When it asks what texture format you want to save, choose Targa or .tga.

- Now, you should have a texture file wherever you exported the 3D layer. In my case it's the desktop. Open that texture file up.

- You should see the shape required to create the shape you want on the skin. Copy this layer and paste it into the skin you're working on.
This is what the Green Lantern symbol looks like:


- Do whatever you want to get that shape on to your skin. I chose to trace the shape with the pen tool.



deano_ue


area34

I wish I could use it too. When this thread began I tried it out but my PS just keeps giving me an error about lack of memory when I import into it. I hunted for a fix since I shouldn't have a lack of anything and the best I can figure out is it's just a error with my specific video card.

murs47

Quote from: area34 on March 28, 2010, 10:52:03 PM
I wish I could use it too. When this thread began I tried it out but my PS just keeps giving me an error about lack of memory when I import into it. I hunted for a fix since I shouldn't have a lack of anything and the best I can figure out is it's just a error with my specific video card.

You could try going to Edit > Preferences and playing with the settings. Try enabling OpenGL Drawing first. You have to restart PS after to get it going.


AfghanAnt

Great find but I'm assuming this has no weight on PSC3 users (me) which is fine. Maybe I'll do an UV editing tutorials for those of use who don't use can't afford PSC4.

area34

I tried to change those settings but the entire dialog box is blank. Claims I have no video card. I use multiple video cards since I have three monitors for my computer (two for my desktop and a third being my TV) and I think it's either my TV card being cheap or just because I have so many that it's causing a conflict. I would play with it at work but like AA's it's CS3.

murs47

I remember reading somewhere Adobe completely revamped the 3D system for CS4 so this technique may not work in CS3.

SIDENOTE: There's an error in my tutorial. When in Nifskope be sure to select the mesh you want to be exported before doing so. Example: If you want to export Magneto's helmet, simply click on Magneto's helmet then export.

laughing paradox

I just tried this (Thanks for that little correction at the end about clicking on the mesh piece in Nifskope) and it works perfectly.

I'll definitely be utilizing this technique in my future skins. This has been a boon.

murs47

#24
Quote from: laughing paradox on April 02, 2010, 09:26:08 PM
I just tried this (Thanks for that little correction at the end about clicking on the mesh piece in Nifskope) and it works perfectly.

Ok cool, it works.

One other correction: you don't need to get rid of the .mtl file. In fact if you place the exported .obj and .mtl in same folder as the textures you're working on, PS will load them up with the .obj file.

Quote from: laughing paradox on April 02, 2010, 09:26:08 PM
This has been a boon.

Isn't it though? It has solutions for so many things which I can't wait to give a try. There is also a possibility of bump mapping. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm hoping.

GogglesPizanno

Quote from: murs47 on April 02, 2010, 10:02:04 PM
Isn't it though? It has solutions for so many things which I can't wait to give a try. There is also a possibility of bump mapping. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm hoping.

Its possible to get a nice bump mapped texture on there, the problem as I understand it is that the game engine doesn't really support them. So from a game perspective its still limiting, but from the standpoint of doing character art with a little more zing, than i agree it could lead to some cool stuff.