3d coat crashing when building mesh

[XxKIIIZxX]

Hey all,

 

I just got 3d coat a few days ago and I've brought a sculpted mesh into the retopo room from Blender and after I got through everything it requires it crashes at the building mesh stage. I have tried several different models with the same result any Ideas?

 

win 7 64

3.4 ghz processor

16 gb ram

gtx 980

 

 

[Carlosan]

Hi !

Please check if there is a non-manifold surface.

And if you have n-gons, can clean-up using Retopo > Remove n-Gons

[AbnRanger]

You don't import a high poly mesh into the Retopo room. You import it into the Sculpt room and then move to the retopo room to build a mesh over it

[XxKIIIZxX]

ok so can I have both exported to each room.? I already have a low poly version of the same model made in blender and I wanted to re unwrap the low poly while creating new seams in 3d-coat and paint the high poly in the paint room and then bake the high sculpted normal to the low poly mesh. if you don't import a high poly mesh to the retopo room why does it say you have a range of 2-4 million polys that you can import to it to retopo and for that matter isn't that the whole point of the retopo is to use the base high poly mesh and build another shell around it so that it follows the same form as the high poly version ? I'm not trying to doubt what you are saying I'm just trying to understand

[digman]

Ok, it might take a few times in the thread to get us all on the same page so I what type might not match what you need. 

 

1. it appears you are from the New panel selecting "Preform Retopology" You are selecting the top left selection. A correct valid method.

2. After your high polygon mesh is imported, you are switching to the retopo room, then importing your low- polgyon mesh under the retopo menu to be your low polygon retopo mesh. Correct.

3. Creating seams and unwrapping for your uv set... Correct

4. If you mean by "building mesh"  baking to the paint room. Incorrect in this case and a possible cause of the crashing. if unwrapping is crashing then you might want to share the high and low model or 3DC file if possible for others to look at...

That specific selection of Preform Retopology you chose is not designed for baking. This selection is designed mainly for creating a low-polygon mesh over the high and creating a uv set. Then exporting that low-polygon mesh out of the retopo room. Again no baking to the paint room by design in this selection.

 

For the workflow you appeared to have stated the below would be a more correct choice.

 

Under the Preform Retopology panel, choose the top right selection.

Your model will be imported into surface mode. If the model is tiny, scale it up to a working size. Select "Yes" on keeping the original scale. When you export the model it will be at the scale as it was created in Blender.

Switch to the Retopo Room, and repeat step number 2. "importing your low polygon mesh from the retopo menu. You will be asked a snapping question. Sometimes it is best not to snap, just depends upon the model. I generally do not snap as my low-polygon model fits good enough.

Repeat step number 3 "creating seams and unwrapping"

Now you are ready to bake to the paintroom for your normal map, capturing all the details from your high polygon surface mode model.

The low polygon model with normal map applied is put into the paint room for painting and adding any more normal map details you so desire.

Side Note: After baking under the View Menu in the paint room, deselect "show voxels in paint room" otherwise your surface mode model will hide the baked one.

 

You mentioned that you wanted to paint the high polygon model or in other words "Poly Painting--Vertex painting" You can paint a high polygon surface mode model... no depth but paint only. The one thing with poly-painting is that it is vertex based, meaning you need a very high polygon model to have a quality texture created.

If you choose this method, The poly-paint will be baked to the low-polygon model and of course your normal map. 

Side Note: You can sculpt more details onto the model in the sculpt room / surface mode and those details will be baked to the normal map.

 

As mentioned above I might not have answered all your questions but I sure over the course of this thread, they will be. 3DC is a very deep program and once you understand how it works then much is cleared up... 

 

Yes, sorry for the long winded answers. other than doing a video or having a personal skype session, it takes some words to explain the process...

 

A video on navigating 3DC's YouTube channel.

 

3D Coat Overview videos and common workflows.  Down in the list watch do not miss watching  "Common Workflows' Part 1--2--3

Edited December 2, 2015 by digman

[XxKIIIZxX]

first Thank you for the help,

 

just so you can see what I'm trying to do I've posted this image and from what I understand from your answer is I add the high using surface selection and paint and bake Note high poly is 2.5 million polys so that should be fine for the detail painting then bake it out. then do the same for the low poly retopo mesh add new seam unwrap and that's it. I guess my confusion in this is that in blender you place the Hi Over the Unwrapped Low and bake to that specific map. I'm trying to understand how the hi poly map will be same layout as the low once its unwrapped in 3d coat ?

[digman]

I read your new information and I can tell already a personal skype session (with voice) would clear this matter up faster than trying to type in a thread posting, Send me a pm if your are interested in a Skype session, I do them, not all the time but as service to the community and more so when it would be less time consuming than typing. If not I will return tomorrow an continue here. I am a Blender user as well...

[XxKIIIZxX]

I can get on Skype tomorrow about the same time I posted earlier tonight I will message you the info. Thanks Digman

[AbnRanger]

first Thank you for the help,

 

just so you can see what I'm trying to do I've posted this image and from what I understand from your answer is I add the high using surface selection and paint and bake Note high poly is 2.5 million polys so that should be fine for the detail painting then bake it out. then do the same for the low poly retopo mesh add new seam unwrap and that's it. I guess my confusion in this is that in blender you place the Hi Over the Unwrapped Low and bake to that specific map. I'm trying to understand how the hi poly map will be same layout as the low once its unwrapped in 3d coat ?

When you have a model in the Sculpt Room, that is your Hi-Poly version. If you have a low poly version already created, you can import that into the Retopo room, as your Retopo mesh. If your UV's are good to go, you go to the BAKE menu and bake to PPP with Normal Map. 3D Coat creates a copy of the low poly mesh (from the Retopo Room) to the Paint Room. Once the baking is done, you go to the Paint Room > VIEW Menu > HIDE VOXEL OBJECTS, and now you see your low poly mesh with maps baked.

 

You can begin texture painting or applying Smart Materials to your model, at this stage. If you want to paint on your sculpted/high poly model first and bake later, you are going through a different workflow. One which borrows the Paint Room to paint directly on the vertices of the high poly sculpt...it's called vertex painting. You can bake all that paint information down to a UV map on your low poly object, later if you want. It can sound confusing, but this OPTION/ALTERNATIVE was requested, and it has some nice benefits...but most artists will stick with leaving the whole texture painting stage toward the end. The Vertex painting workflow just lets you switch the texture phase to an earlier stage.

 

It's good for when you don't want to Retopo, and just render the model in 3D Coat.