Metasequoia modeler tutorials and Keynote translated plugins

[HwitVlf]

Holy poverty Batman! That seems like a lot, but looking at the Meta site, at least the "standard" version is still afordable ($53 USD new, $36 for upgrade). Maybe he's trying to upgrade the high end Meta to a pro-level tool, while still keeping it version that's affordable for hobbyists.

It never feels good to have to make do with a lesser versions, but looks like the main difference between Standard an Ex is that Ex has more output/input formats and some neat rendering options. Those are great, but I can maybe live without them. Will v4 support old plugins?

Ben, I would find it quite helpful to see a video of the texturing phase. I gave up on making my own textures from scratch (as opposed to using photoshopped pictures) because every time I tried came out looking like a 2yr old finger-paint art. I love the idea of doing it from scratch, but I'm just getting something horribly wrong ‎ 

[airflamesred]

Will v4 support old plugins?

I'm not quite sure, John, the BBS is saying yes and no. It really needs to though.

[airflamesred]

I too would be interested in your texture approach, Ben. While I was looking at some alternatives, Sculptris popped back onto my radar, which also does mesh painting.

[Verdite]

The only time ive ever used painting on a mesh was for weight painting in blender, a pre-animation process. Though you did get my attention Mark when you painted that axe - looked damn good given the process you used.

I have a method which you two may like, its more about using a saved atlas image in the texture for accuracy. I have edited my video clips today, and should have the vid up by tomorrow evening (GMT) as converting various clips into a saved movie format takes a long time.

[Verdite]

I decided to drop the resolution at the beginning of the video to save on upload time, and adjusted the speed for the texturing process for YOU John! ‎ 

This isnt my best texture, but it'l be fine for this character. People sometimes go overboard with 'noise' in textures, but it looks un-natural. Smooth textures are easier on the eye, and I may add some stubble later.

https://youtu.be/pt913xkv588

[HwitVlf]

Thank you for all that work Ben! Checking it out now ‎ 

[Verdite]

Did it help? 5 mins into the video is the texturing process.

[HwitVlf]

Absolutely, Thank you Ben! I'll add this to the top post shortly too. I am absolutely going to try hand-made textures next time I give it a go.

I was using the paint brush tool (not sure what it's called in GIMP) to paint the entire texture from scratch whereas you started with a solid "base color" layer. That's kind of a no-brainer, but I hadn't thought of it. ‎ 

I was ending up with a harsh step between color fields that I really didn't like in my hand painting attempts. You painted in multiple layers of similar colors and used what I think was a "soften/blending" tool to smooth it all together in the end. That made a huge difference. It also looks like there is also a good amount of talent/knowledge involved in knowing where to put the shadows and the highlights. I learned a lot about head-shading from your video, and I expect I just need to find references for other models I make, and eventually I'll learn.

Near the end, it looked looked like you applied an effect to the entire image; was that a hue change, saturation adjustment or something else? ‎ 

[Holy_Diver]

The best thing you can do for yourself is stick to 16bit colour. If your gradients are 32 shades you'll have a much easier time than 256 shades, and the gradients will still be gradients after down converting to 16bit colour. All SOM textures are 16bit. Except in extreme cases like sky gradients it will look fine. Even Dark Souls' textures look like they are 16bit to me most of the time.

No matter how many times I hand out the advice, no one has ever taken it.

[airflamesred]

Really good Ben. Nightmare with the UVs but I say again its a dam good likeness.
Meta is short on brushes etc, but I do find making some markers on the map just so I know where things are, as in your eye brows here.