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NURBS sculpt map distorted?

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octoyen

3:24 pm Dec 26, 2009

posts 15

Merry Christmas!!

I got the chance to play around with Prim Composer and ScultGenMax for the last couple days. For me, it's difficult to model a complex form via re-arranging vertex of a sculpt shape from Prim Composer (3Ds Max). So I've been playing with NURB modeling and ScultGenMax. It works out pretty well, except the final sculpt map creates distorted surfaces that is not in 3Ds Max. I have the same problem with Prim Composer, I can't get a smooth orangic shape/surface sculpt map for a complex form. Simple forms such as stairs, boxes and cylinders…etc have no such issue.

I've double checked all the settings in 3Ds Max & ScultGenMax, but it still generates distorted surfaces. Am I doing it wrong or ScultGenMax is designed to work with pre-defined sculpt shape?

The surface in the pic below is created by U loft of 3 NURBS Curves ->Surface Approx set to Regular U & V steps 32x32, then added Unwrap UVW .

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Shack Dougall

1:23 am Dec 27, 2009

posts 1154

I haven't done a lot with NURBS, but here are some things to keep in mind.

The object must be convertible to a single Editable Poly. It can be NURBS, but the thing that the sculptmap is generated from is always an Editable Poly. Prim Composer clones the object and converts it to an Editable Poly before generating the sculptmap.

The UV map on Map Channel 1 should be a regular grid with mostly perpendicular lines in it. I mention this because the NURBS tools in 3ds Max like to warp the UV map according to the contour of the model. If the UV map is warped, it can cause distortions in the sculptmap. If this is happening, there is a way to prevent it. See the tutorial Creating a nurbs.max file for 3ds Max 7/8 on the Video Tutorials Page for some hints. The steps to prevent warping of the UV map are described there. It is very simple, but I can't remember exactly what it is ATM.

Hope this helps, but I'm not sure if these comments are relevant or not.

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octoyen

2:31 am Dec 28, 2009

posts 15

Hi Shack,

Yes, your input helps a lot. Convert a NURBS model into a single Editable Poly is the key to make a good sculpt map from ScultGenMax. The nurb.max video tutorial also helps as well.

In ScultGenMax 1.3, I get better result by check off the Proportional option. For some reasons, it gives a milky tinted sculpt map if it's enabled. Also, is there a way to generate a 32x32 pixel sculpt map? Some forms are better with 32x32 sculpt map. Resize a 64x64 to 32x32 sculpt map in Photoshop creates undesired affects.

Below is two sculpt maps from the same form