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Texturing & Shading

sheedee3Dsheedee3D Posts: 214
edited August 2018 in New Users

I downloaded a free car (obj file) from Turbo Squid...and i wanted to texture/shade it...but all these models come in only one base white color and there is no possibility to select individual surfaces in Daz in order to apply a shader to each surface...the only selection that can be made is the whole obj...i can only give the whole car one color...kind of a bummer!...

And i noticed that when i purchase a car from the Daz store then it is possible to select individual parts to apply shaders...why is this?...

 

 

Any way to also make this possible with free cars?...

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Post edited by sheedee3D on

Comments

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 102,804

    How are you selecting - with the Surface Selection tool, or in the Surfaces pane? If so then you are going to need to create surface groups - you can do that in DS with the Geometry Editor tool or you can use a modelling or mapping application. Of course that assumes the mdoel is UV mapped at all - if not you are definitely looking at editing with an external application.

  • sheedee3Dsheedee3D Posts: 214
    edited August 2018

    Is there a tutorial somewhere on how to use the geometry editor tool to create surface groups?...

     

    And by the way why do all these free models come in an uneditable mode whereas the models that we purchase are fully editable?...

     

    Of course i could buy one of their cars over at Turbo Squid...but thats definitely not an option...way to expensive?...

    Post edited by sheedee3D on
  • JonnyRayJonnyRay Posts: 1,744

    Think about it like a physical model. The base geometry of the car is like a clay model. All of the form is there, but there is no color. Now imagine that you laid paper around the model of the car and cut the paper into shapes for the body, the hood, the doors, etc. Then you peel those pieces of paper off and lay them on a separate flat sheet. That is called UV mapping. It allows you to then color the pieces on that sheet and the rendering engine knows how to apply them back to the physical car.

    The next step would be instead of using clay car, use a plain plastic one, but then make the doors and hood and trunk into hinges. But now that we're opening the hood, we'd also have to create an engine to go inside it. Which also needs to be UV mapped to make the parts have different colors.

    For a free item, you *may* only get the base geometry (i.e. the "clay" car). There is no UV mapping so setting colors and such for the different parts would be something you'd have to do on your own. Some freebies are at least UV mapped in a general way and you can change the colors of various parts. Very few free cars are going to be fully functional models with opening parts and animation capabilities. Each additional level of detail involves an increasingly complicated and tedious amount of work. Turbo Squid (from a marketplace standpoint) is mostly aimed at professional artists for whom spending $100 on a car model is just a cost of doing business and something they pass on to their customers.

    On the other hand, if you're a car buff, the Platinum Club here will give you access to a fairly large collection of fully functional car models that look amazing and cost $2 - $4 each. Everything from classic muscle cars to exotics to Fast & Furious style tuners.

  • BeeMKayBeeMKay Posts: 7,019
    sheedee3D said:

     

    And by the way why do all these free models come in an uneditable mode whereas the models that we purchase are fully editable?...

     

    Of course i could buy one of their cars over at Turbo Squid...but thats definitely not an option...way to expensive?...

    Not all cars come like that, but if you have just an obj file, and the creator of the object didn't add any UVs or surfaces to the model, then that's how it is. Keep in mind that creating surfaces is a service - it takes time to assign them, and as you already pointed out, those who you are paying for have the proper surfaces... because you paid someone for their time to create them for you. Pretty much the same goes for rigging and bone weighting, and morphs.

    The (probably rude sounding) truth is, if you want things for free, it's best to learn some skills that will help you making the free item usable for your purposes, or even model them yourself.

  • FSMCDesignsFSMCDesigns Posts: 12,783
    BeeMKay said:
    sheedee3D said:

     

    And by the way why do all these free models come in an uneditable mode whereas the models that we purchase are fully editable?...

     

    Of course i could buy one of their cars over at Turbo Squid...but thats definitely not an option...way to expensive?...

    Not all cars come like that, but if you have just an obj file, and the creator of the object didn't add any UVs or surfaces to the model, then that's how it is. Keep in mind that creating surfaces is a service - it takes time to assign them, and as you already pointed out, those who you are paying for have the proper surfaces... because you paid someone for their time to create them for you. Pretty much the same goes for rigging and bone weighting, and morphs.

    The (probably rude sounding) truth is, if you want things for free, it's best to learn some skills that will help you making the free item usable for your purposes, or even model them yourself.

    Agreed. Also depending on the modeling app used, the material zones could be grouped which doesn't transfer well from app to app and is usually the reason why you only have a single material zone inside DS.

    I use Ultimate Unwrap 3d and it will read and allow you to create the new material zones easily and then save for use in DS..

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