Hexagon vs. Paint 3D vs. Photoshop vs. ?

wildbillnash

Okay, I've spent almost two weeks to get Daz 3D to connect with Photoshop CS6 (which I bought specifcally for this reason).  I get the option "Initialize Photoshop 3D Bridge" and the only thing that happens it it creates a 3D Bridge Camera, whatever that is.  I can find nothing about what it's for.

I want to build scenes from my books for promoting and need something to do more than create the shapes.  I need controls and lights to shine.  I need paintings and holographic images in scenes.

So, I tried Paint 3D that came with Windows 10.  I made a simple donut, painted one side red and saved it as an .obj file.  I opened the file in Daz 3D and the donut is a mile long and invisible.  It's cloaked.  So, what gives.

Now I'm looking at Hexagon 2.5 that came with Daz 3D.  I know nothing about it.  And I don't want to waste my time learning it if it doesn't do what I want.

The first image is testing out how to do it.  The control panel in front of my character is blank.  I want to add controls and holographic effect similar to the second image.  Which of the programs is best for doing that?

 

BeeMKay

You need a combination of Hexagon and Photoshop.

in Hexagon, you'd model whatever "physical" things you need, like the screen mesh, for example. You'd also use it to create the UV-map, and a texture template map.

In Photoshop, you'd use the Texture Template map to create the texture (image of the control screen), and, if neccessary, other maps.

The textures you create then would be plugged into the surface slots in DAZ Studio.

I'm not familiar with Paint3D.

But what you have to understand is that the DAZ bridge to Photoshop has the purpose to get completed images over there for editing. It is NOT an object surface editing bridge, because Photoshop does not have that ability. Programs like Substance painter can paint directly on mesh surfaces, but they have their price.

And for structure creation, you'd need a modelling program. Studio is the program that is used for posing and rendering.

For Hexagon, there's a list of resources here: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/326/hexagon-help-topics-and-tutorial-links#latest

 

 

wildbillnash

Thank you for the info, Bee.  Finally got some info I had been asking about for days.  The control panel model was created using 3D Builder that came with Microsoft 10.  I just didn't know about the texturing thing, still being new to it.  Do you know of a video that shows how to create an object, move it to Photoshop, do whatever with the textures or UV-maps, and use it in Daz 3D?

BTW, the links on the page you linked to are dead.

BeeMKay

Mhm, sorry for that. They are from the New User Hexagon thread here in the forum. These here still work:

http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/hexagon/2/videos/start

The top link has a ton of tut vids, the second link has some basic project work.

Here's also an interesting tutorial: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/44577/

This is the one I used for learning Hexagon basics: https://www.daz3d.com/modeling-in-hexagon-fantasy-tower

This one is by Dreamlight, and also pretty good: https://www.daz3d.com/hexagon-revisited-create-models-money

To create the UV map/texture template, you can also use Blender.

And you do not move the model to Photoshop. PS does not work with 3D models. If you want to paint directly on the object, like I said, you need a program like substance painter.

What you do is take the image map (texture template) and open that with PS just like any other image map.