Unofficial Painter 3D FAQ
Over the year and a half that I have been using Detailer/Painter 3D, I've been asked a lot of questions. I saved my answers and with the inclusion of P3D with Poser 4/RDS5.5, I thought I'd post them. Please note that some of the answers can be subjective and that there may be some inaccuracies. Comments, corrections and suggestions are always welcome! - Dan Whiteside.
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Will Painter libraries work with P3D?
Will Photoshop Plug-ins work with P3D?
What's the difference between the terms UV mapped, Implicit and Parametric?
P3D exports aren't mapping right in my 3D app.
How do I change/add/modify the UV coordinates in P3D?
Ho do you "drop" the mesh onto the image?
How do I get rid of that plastic (specula) look?
I loaded a .OBJ file and any painting on the model fills the image with a solid color.
How do I get 3DS imports to read the textures properly?
How do you create custom views?
Help! I'm lost in all these Palettes! (or how do you create custom interface setups?)
Index: Poser Issues:
My Poser model is full of holes (or I have hundreds of objects).
I'm using a small brush, but it comes out huge on the model.
Bump maps come out looking all blocky.
How can I change the UV mapping?
When I paint across seams, I get lines all over the figure!
Index: Painter Brushes:
How do I load a Brush Library?
No matter what color I use, the Marker brushes always paint black.
Basic P3D:
Will Painter libraries work with P3D?
In most cases, yes. Some of the Painter 5.5 Internet plug-ins don't work (you'll get an error message) and some of the 5/5.5 plug-in brush libraries don't undo properly. In some cases brushes that seem to do nothing can be fixed by restarting P3D (Mac). Remember that if you move the Painter 5 "New Brush Libraries" over to P3D, you must also move the Plugin Brushes as well.
Will Photoshop Plug-ins work with P3D?
All the Photoshop Plugs I've tried work just fine, but P3D is not PS5 complaint, so you may get failures with later plugins. Don't forget the "Other Raster Plug-ins" Preference under the Edit menu. This allows you to select the PShop plug-in folder so you don't have to copy them over to P3D.
What's the difference between the terms UV mapped, Implicit and Parametric?
In common usage they mean the same thing. UV mapped really refers to any object that contains UV coordinates. Implicit/Parametric is the type of process that was used to map the UV coordinates onto the object.
P3D exports aren't mapping right in my 3D app.
First, make sure your 3D app supports UV mapping for the file type you're importing (for instance Bryce reads 3DS files but not the UV's). Second, try rotating the image 180 degrees on the X-axis in your 3D app or flipping it on the X-axis in a 2D app (like Photoshop).
How do I change/add/modify the UV coordinates in P3D?
Funny thing - you can't. P3D doesn't have any procedures that alter the UV's. Only utilities like UVMapper or 3D apps like RDS5 can alter them.
How do I "drop" the mesh onto the image?
Open the Map Manager (Window>Map Manager), expand the palette and select Drop Mesh. Remember that the Color of the mesh is determined by the current color in the Art Materials: Color palette. Don't drop a white mesh on a white background!
How do I get rid of that plastic (specular) look?
Select the Object with the Selector Tool (the Arrow Icon) and Open the Objects 3D Palette (Window>Objects 3D). Expand the palette and lower the Specular slider.
I loaded a .OBJ file and any painting on the model fills the image with a solid color.
In the .OBJ spec UV coordinates are optional, so these type's of files are interpreted by P3D as one big pixel UV map!
How do I get 3DS imports to read the textures properly?
Pretty sure that this is a bug. Although P3D will read all the maps in (well, most of the time!) , it often loses the connection between the object and it's map. But most 3DS files label the image maps the same as their associated object - so it's just a matter of looking through the Objects 3D palette to see what objects are not attached to a map and then using the Map>Load>Texture/Bump dialog to reattach them.
How do you create custom views?
Click on the Trackball (Rotation) Icon and open the Window>Controls item. In the Controls Palette, click the Preset View Position Pop-up and select Save. Type in a view name and the next time you hit the Pop-up it will be listed. This does not save the current magnification.
Help! I'm lost in all these Palettes! (or how do you create custom interface setups?)
Select Window> Arrange Palettes Default. This puts every thing back where they belong. Once you get the palettes the way you want them it's a good idea to save it by selecting Window> Arrange Palettes Save Layout. You can then recall it as described above.
Poser Issues:
My Poser model is full of holes (or I have hundreds of objects).
This happens when you try to load a .OBJ file directly from the Poser Runtime>Geometries folder. Save the .OBJ from inside Poser.
I'm using a small brush, but it comes out huge on the Poser model.
You need to make a bigger map image. First, note the current Canvas size in the Canvas>Resize dialog. Select the object and open the Texture Dialog (Map>Load>Texture) and in the Apply dialog make sure the mapping mode is Implicit and the Minimal Distortion check box is OFF. In the Image Size boxes enter larger Width/Hieght values with the same aspect ratio of the original image. So for Stock Poser 700x700 (1:1) figures, try 1400x1400(1:1). When you close the Dialog, P3D will ask what to do with the old image.
Bump maps come out looking all blocky.
Bump maps for Zygote models need to be as big as possible. Remember that each of the types of maps can be different sizes - only the aspect ratio needs to be the same. So for a 700x700 Texture map you can have a 1400x1400 Bump map.
How can I change the UV mapping?
As mentioned above, P3D has no functions for altering the UV's. Only utilities like UVMapper or 3D apps like RDS5 can change them.
When I paint across seams, I get lines all over the figure!
Of all P3D's faults, this is perhaps the most annoying. When ever a brush gets near a Poser seam (like the front to the back of the head) P3D connects the "dots" with a straight line from one seam edge to the other. This line often goes right through other body parts and thus the line. At one time I thought that masking a selection would (and should!) prevent this, but it doesn't. There are some P3D files on the Poser 4 Content Disk (Poser 4 - Painter 3D folder) that use Floaters to get around this, but it often leaves large areas "Un-paintable" (like the Face Floater).
Painter Brushes:
How do I load a Brush Library?
In the Brushes Palette, click the first Popup on the bottom left. At the very bottom of the Popup menu is the Load Library item. Select it and in the dialog select the new library. This replaces the current library, so to get back to the default brushes, load the "Painter 3D Brushes" library.
No matter what color I use, the Marker brushes always paint black.
In the expanded Brushes Palette, change the Method pop-up from Buildup to Cover. You can also try lower the Opacity value in the Controls:Brushes palette.
