Can i convert blender file into sculpt texture?

[Adam123 Gearz]

So i just came back from a long 5 year break from SL, and sculpting has changed alot. I first tried sculpty paint and it made the rainbow looking texture and you simply uploaded the texture, now i still see that but a blender file is uploaded through mesh with all the checkboxes etc and you have to calculate how much it is going to cost when uploading. Im learning and have made a chair leg for my first sculpt and wanted to upload it but dont have the money, is there anyway i can change it into a "rainbow sculpt texture" and temp upload to try, i know i can use the beta but just curious about this as it would be alot easier to just upload it that way. Thank you for the help in advance

 

Edited April 15, 2017 by Adam123 Gearz
change

[Rolig Loon]

There are certainly a few legitimate reasons for making sculpties (for extremely large objects, for example), but for most things, sculpties are an obsolete, inefficient technology.  They were introduced as a temporary measure before LL was ready to let people import full mesh objects.  I'd really recommend making mesh models in Blender and doing your trial uploads on Aditi.  Sooner or later, you will need to learn how to use the mesh uploader anyway.  It's really not all that hard, and the cost calculation is automatic.  You see what it's going to cost before you hit the button.

[Adam123 Gearz]

30 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

There are certainly a few legitimate reasons for making sculpties (for extremely large objects, for example), but for most things, sculpties are an obsolete, inefficient technology.  They were introduced as a temporary measure before LL was ready to let people import full mesh objects.  I'd really recommend making mesh models in Blender and doing your trial uploads on Aditi.  Sooner or later, you will need to learn how to use the mesh uploader anyway.  It's really not all that hard, and the cost calculation is automatic.  You see what it's going to cost before you hit the button.

 

Thank you for your help, yeah i decided to look into Aditi and im now using the mesh uploads. My only problem is the textures look so bad on blender D: No idea why, i followed a tutorial and copied it step by step but when i pressed unwrap on the chair part it said something about not being able to unwrap it properly. Now it looks like this, any ideas why?

[Rolig Loon]

It looks like you left out a couple of important steps.  First, you need to mark seams in you model that will be the boundaries of the islands that you unwrap in your UV image. Then, you need to open a window that is set to display UV/Image editor, so that you have someplace to unwrap it to.

https://gyazo.com/c2a03ee2b501e04ccc0c30b9f7df27f5

As far as textures are concerned, I wouldn't apply and bake them in Blender if I were you.  Upload them to SL separately and apply them in world.  You have to pay the upload fee for the textures either way, but if you do it separately, you won;t need to keep uploading the model every time that you change a texture.

And use local textures or do trial uploads in Aditi until you are ready to pay the upload fee.

[Chic Aeon]

Along with what Rolig said, it should be noted (and underlined) that not all Blender tutorials are designed for what we need in SL.  This can be VERY confusing when you are trying to learn. 

 

I made some text tutorials awhile ago as well as some step by step Blender Render  tutorials for beginnings. These are indeed FOR Second Life and Opensim :D. So that might be helpful. 

 

Sorry having issues inserting a link (or even the text to copy for a link ^^)

Beginner Blender Render Text Tutorials

Hopefully that works. 

 

LOL. OK, something important to add to the new forum suggestion box. 

 

Edited April 15, 2017 by Chic Aeon

[Adam123 Gearz]

Thank you for your responses guys, i did actually see something mentioned about creating seams in the models but i have no idea how i couldnt find the video again and i dont understand what the seam does. But i really do appreciate your help

 

Every video i watch on seams, is it just going around the outside of the object? It isnt really clear to a beginner like myself

Maybe it will just be worth it to texture ingame over trying on blender D: seems too complicated for me right now

Edited April 15, 2017 by Adam123 Gearz

[Rolig Loon]

1 hour ago, Adam123 Gearz said:

[ .... ] i did actually see something mentioned about creating seams in the models but i have no idea how i couldnt find the video again and i dont understand what the seam does. But i really do appreciate your help

Every video i watch on seams, is it just going around the outside of the object? It isnt really clear to a beginner like myself  [ .... ]

A seam is exactly what it sounds like.  Imagine the seams on any article of clothing in RL, or think about how you would have to use an X-acto knife to cut apart a cardboard box to unfold it into a flat sheet. When you mark seams on your 3D model, you are deciding how to make a 2D map of its surface with the fewest pattern pieces and (often) the least distortion. The pattern pieces -- islands in your UV map -- will define how the model is to be reassembled when you upload it to SL.  Chic has made some excellent tutorials, so watch them.  You may also want to look through the tutorials on Gaia Clary's Machinimatrix site, starting with http://blog.machinimatrix.org/category/mesh/quests/coffee-cups/

Edited April 15, 2017 by Rolig Loon
typos, as usual

[Adam123 Gearz]

1 minute ago, Rolig Loon said:

A seam is exactly what it sounds like.  Imagine the seams on any article of clothing in RL, or think about how you would have to use an X-acto knife to cut apart a cardboard box to unfold it into a flat sheet. When you mark seams on your 3D model, you are deciding how to make a 2D map of its surface with the fewest pattern pieces and (often) the least distortion. The pattern pieces -- islands in your UV map -- will define how the model is to be reassembled when you upload it to SL.  Chic has made some excellent tutorials, so watch them.  You may also want to look through the tutorials on Gaia Clary's Machinimatrix tie, starting with http://blog.machinimatrix.org/category/mesh/quests/coffee-cups/

 

Thank you very much thats exactly what i was just watching  its great i have done the seams now (decided to try a table) and it seems to of worked. My only problem is now and this is my last issue, is that when i save this and upload it into SL even with textures selected it isnt uploading with textures, just a white object instead of a wooden one. How do i save the texture onto my object? Thank you so much for the help

[Rolig Loon]

Just now, Adam123 Gearz said:

[ .... ] when i save this and upload it into SL even with textures selected it isnt uploading with textures, just a white object instead of a wooden one. How do i save the texture onto my object? [ ....]

Hehe.... I don't. I always apply texture after I upload the model to SL.  As I said earlier, it's much more cost effective to handle the model and textures separately.  If you really want to bake textures in Blender and then upload the model, you should wait for @Chic Aeon or someone else to respond. 

Actually, there's more than just cost effectiveness at stake. As you will discover, the process of unwrapping a model and the parallel process of defining faces for materials on the model is potentially a very complicated process -- sometimes as complicated as making the model in the first place.  It often involves a lot of trial and error, rethinking the best way to reassemble the model so that textures align properly across seams.  Baking textures over and over each time you change the seams and create a new UV map is just one more way to get confused.

[Chic Aeon]

@Rolig Loon

 

  While I definitely bake these days I never upload with the model. I have never actually been able to get that to work (haven't tried in a long time).

Happily I really love making UV maps (OMG! Really? Yes); I tend to think in patterns so that's probably why. But even after years of practice things DO go wrong as you say. My alt pretty much lives on the beta grid now (major -took me days to fix and some things never returned - inventory issues keep me out of there).

And now as a habit I always use "local" textures on the main grid first. It is surprising how one avatar sees things differently (and catches mistakes) that the other avatar missed. Who knows what THATS about!

I am thinking through some new video tutorials for Beginning Cycles (not what Adam is using according to the screenshot). Not sure if that will work out as I have a tendency to fiddle while I work unlike the pros that make tutorials,  but it is an interesting process trying to come up with a method that is as easy as it can be. That is SO not how I learned. LOL.

 

[Chic Aeon]

@Adam123 Gearz

 

Here is a quick screenshot of some mapping (Adam and I have been conversing but pictures don't seem to be working in "private" mode.)

When you change a model you usually have to remap. There are exceptions like removing edgeloops, but if you make changes, then of course your UV map needs to change too.

 

Note that each piece of the model has a corresponding area on the UVmap.

This is in CYCLES render, not BLENDER render so a few things may look a little different.

[Adam123 Gearz]

1 minute ago, Chic Aeon said:

@Adam123 Gearz

 

Here is a quick screenshot of some mapping (Adam and I have been conversing but pictures don't seem to be working in "private" mode.)

When you change a model you usually have to remap. There are exceptions like removing edgeloops, but if you make changes, then of course your UV map needs to change too.

 

Note that each piece of the model has a corresponding area on the UVmap.

This is in CYCLES render, not BLENDER render so a few things may look a little different.

 

Thank you for the picture it did help and you did in PMs, like i said it is my first day so i was kind of lost when you said i should be "Baking the texture" etc and i havent even learnt about that yet, cant really find any videos online to just explain that little part. 

[Chic Aeon]

@Adam123 Gearz

Well it took me days just to figure out I needed to unwrap (map) a mesh object in order to get textures on there. Honestly I have NO idea how to bake a texture in Blender Render as I typically just baked an Ambient Occlusion map.  Once I get all my ducks in a row and after Fantasy Faire is over, I'll (maybe) work on some new and much improved (she says hopefully) tutorials.  Happily there are MANY more tutorials out there now than there were four years ago. Many however, as I said have little to do with GAME ASSET MODELING. Blender does tons of stuff and we only use a tiny part.

 

Here is where you can bake an Ambient Occlusion map. Full render is in there too but I never could get that to work (it DOES, it was just me). I use Cycles Render now.   If you leave the margin at 16 pixels you may easily have overlap. AND you want to check NORMALIZE in that pain to keep any color you might have added out of the equation. That's pretty much what I remember. I have been in Cycles for well over a year now :D.

 

Good Luck!

 

PS. If you are used to sculpts, check out the VERY OLD BUT STILL GOOD "Kettle Quest" videos. Type in "Kettle Quest Blender" and you can find them. They were specifically made to help sculpt makers learn how to do mesh and ARE for SL. Most things should be the same although the interface will look different. 

 

 

 

Edited April 15, 2017 by Chic Aeon