United3dArtists Archive

Can anyone suggest a good, free application for painting on a texture while its on the model? I have searched online and have seen so many different things it makes my head spin. I have tried using TS, but the paintbrush is so small it takes forever, even after scaling it up. Thanks for any suggestions.

Steinie has done well with Sculptris. That is a free little brother to Z-Brush. http://pixologic.com/sculptris/

Finis wrote:Steinie has done well with Sculptris. That is a free little brother to Z-Brush. http://pixologic.com/sculptris/

Cool, thanks! Ill check it out!

I have been looking for this for ages. A GIMP/Photoshop like program that allows you to paint onto 3D models.

Sculptris doesn't do very well with painting imported models, at least not low-poly models. I also own a program called Substance Painter but it's not quite the same and doesn't do very well with high-poly models.

What about Blender? Does it have texture painting ability?

Finis wrote:What about Blender? Does it have texture painting ability?

Ha ha! I have heard they are very good, but the idea of trying to learn anything in Blender is overwhelming and also downright irritating after using TS. TS is like a Lamborghini with a steering wheel, motor, brake/gas pedals and a stick for shifting. Power in well thought out and easy to use form. Blender looks like trying to run the Starship Enterprise by yourself. I could probably be done, but you would have to learn a heck of a lot of stuff and go back and forth a lot.

I actually fired up Blender the other day to see if I could import a model from trueSpace for a simple unwrap... Geez, what a horrible interface. I always seem to forget why I don't use Blender, from time to time I'll go "Hey, maybe I should use Blender for this" and then I fire it up and am reminded as to why I don't use Blender. The UI is about as intuitive as a square wheel.
If I'm ever going to get into another more up-to-date 3D program, it certainly won't be Blender. I've tried, not my thing.

As for the painting... Blender has a sculpting feature but I'm not so sure about painting. I think I came across a paint function at some point so maybe it does.

I have actually been using Substance Painter since my last post. Just experimenting around with it. Turns out that it works a lot better with high-poly models now. Last time I tried Substance Painter it was in Beta, now it's fully released and has a decent amount of new features. The particle paint features are still awesome and they have a decent amount of cool presets now like splashes, burning and rain effects.

SanpperTrx take a look at some of the artwork I have painted:

vi ... f=32&t=530"

All of them have been painted and textured using trueSpace and Sculptris. For me this is all I need.
Marcel has done amazing work with these two programs also.

Remember there is a big difference between painting directly on a model and painting on a UV.


There are other programs having a 30 day demo you could try also. If you are a student or teacher 3D Coat would be $99.
I and MadMouse have used UVLayout with Photoshop to paint on the UV with amazing results. (expensive route).
ZBrush is awesome if your swimming in money.

Steinie wrote:Remember there is a big difference between painting directly on a model and painting on a UV.

You mean using a program like Sculptris is easy vs. working on a flat UV or texture image in Paint Shop right? (Not differences in results or use related to how programs store the data like Z-Brush vs. Sculptris.)

I'd go with Sculptris and I might even after I learn Blender ... whose UI sucks. Often its abilities aren't as good as paid programs of similar scale but that's proper and to be expected. Pay money or pay effort or mix. Pick your poison.

The old saying, "everything is hard until it's easy" is true. Experience and expertise are what makes a thing easy to do. See videos of Blender experts who know the 21 million hot keys and senseless UI and methods well doing things at light speed with ease. Similar for Modo etc. TS (real TS, model side or older versions) made it easy to get from hard to easy. That was its strength. It was neither powerful nor wimpy in features compared to others but was a good value for the money. It is time now for TS'ers to broaden their horizons. It wasn't the king of alll CG and everything else is worthless. You are smart people and quite capable of learning other less user friendly software.

Edit: sounded mean, rewrote a little

Steinie wrote:SanpperTrx take a look at some of the artwork I have painted:

vi ... f=32&t=530"

All of them have been painted and textured using trueSpace and Sculptris. For me this is all I need.
Marcel has done amazing work with these two programs also.

Remember there is a big difference between painting directly on a model and painting on a UV.


There are other programs having a 30 day demo you could try also. If you are a student or teacher 3D Coat would be $99.
I and MadMouse have used UVLayout with Photoshop to paint on the UV with amazing results. (expensive route).
ZBrush is awesome if your swimming in money.

Thanks for the advice, but Sculptris does not like this model at all. It loads it up okay, but when I go to paint mode it totally botches up the model and makes it look like it is having a meltdown! I probably just need to fiddle with it some and learn a little more about the program. Ill keep on it!

Also, that's some great stuff you have there! I never got very good at modelling stuff that isn't in parts, though I have been trying to practice more. I like what I do, but I know I can do better. Thanks for the info!

Blender is actualy quite easy .you dont need keyboard shortcuts if you dont want .every tool can be used with a mouse or pen
zbrush is the perfect for the job but you have the one time payment ,after allways updated for free .
mudbox is also a good app now online you pay mounthly as you yuse it . sorry theese arnt free but they are the best you can get.
with blender just youtube what you need to know you wil lern quick..

Glad to hear that Pugman1. A bit more of getting my real world things in order and I'll have time to learn it. I'd forgotten to take advice from the strong. We live in a world of people who expect everything for free and believe everything can be easy. Advice from someone who, win or lose, fought well is valuable.

Blender might be good for me. I like using menus, control panels, and icons with the mouse more than shortcuts for most things. Mudbox! I just saw video of its retopo tool. Cool!

I use texture painting in Blender. Free.

The only hard part is making a texture to paint on. But once you do, it is easy. With the texture layers addon (already included) that too becomes easy.

1. Create and assign texture to a material on a UV'd object
2. Put in the right display mode (to see it) with a light (optional)
3. Switch to paint mode
4. Paint with the brushes they have

Learn more with many good 10 to 30 minute tutorials on youtube. I can paint up to 500k polygons ok with 2k textures ok on my I7. 4k is manageable.

Key topics to streamline your painting experience:
Fall off settings
Texture brushes and settings (and how to make new brushes)
Projection space settings
Quick overview
Texture layers and texture management

The rest is secondary.

3D coat is my personal favorite but I don't own a license. Not free.

I hear great things with Substance Painter. Highly recommended. Not free.

Mari by the Foundry is the most professional one out there that you can get. Not free.

SnapperTrx wrote:

Finis wrote:What about Blender? Does it have texture painting ability?

Ha ha! I have heard they are very good, but the idea of trying to learn anything in Blender is overwhelming and also downright irritating after using TS. TS is like a Lamborghini with a steering wheel, motor, brake/gas pedals and a stick for shifting. Power in well thought out and easy to use form. Blender looks like trying to run the Starship Enterprise by yourself. I could probably be done, but you would have to learn a heck of a lot of stuff and go back and forth a lot.

I can sign below those words :D

I also thought that about blender but if you want to learn you will .
here is a cycles blender reel .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDRTjzLNK0g" .
I find it strange that so many maya users are moving over to blender .
it can do what maya can do just learn

SnapperTrx did Sculptris work out?

Have you tried linking TS to your favorite paint program? I've done this exporting a UV map to MS paint. Once you paint and save the map in the paint program TS applies the mapped texture to the model directly in TS.

Have you tried linking TS to your favorite paint program? I've done this exporting a UV map to MS paint. Once you paint and save the map in the paint program TS applies the mapped texture to the model directly in TS.

Did you find a program that works for you?