Pixel Bunneh

I’m always looking for easier or better ways to handle UV unwrapping and texturing. Complex objects can be a real challenge to add graphics to, and Second Life sculpties are probably the biggest pain in the rear of all. Because a sculpted prim is actually dependent upon the UV map being a precise shape, you don’t have the option of moving parts here and there on your map to make texturing easier. Enter CS4 and its 3D capabilities.

And hey, since it’s Halloween I’ll do this tutorial on a witch hat

I’ve created a witch hat in Prim Composer, a sculpty plugin for 3ds Max, and exported it out as both a sculpted prim and an .OBJ. I then open the .OBJ in Photoshop. Note: The material file seems to cause some problems with .OBJ files, this is the same issue I’ve run into with Daz 3D. So you’ll need to open the .OBJ in a text editor and delete the mtl information found at the top of the file. Save the file, close it, then open the .OBJ in Photoshop.

Removing mtl info from .obj

.OBJ in Photoshop

If you don’t already have it, Window > 3D will open your 3D toolbar. Take a look at your layers. You’ll see your mesh and whatever diffuse textures were imported with it listed there.

Mesh Layers

You have a few options here. You can add a layer, texture is as you please, then move the layer down onto your mesh, or you can texture directly on the mesh, or you can open the texture layer in a new tab and paint there. A combination of all options is what I use.

Note: This is truly what you see is what you get. If you’re looking at the mesh head on, and add a solid layer to it (such as black for the hat) it will only cover the area in front of you. It won’t cover the entire object.

A slow process of adding a layer of black, then moving the layer down – turning the mesh – adding another layer of black, then moving it down, etc…will get you a UV map that looks like this:

Adding black to the hat mesh

Easier way? You bet. Double click on the diffuse texture listed under the mesh in your layers properties. That will open the texture layer up. Add a layer and fill with black…then merge them.

I prefer to work in this layer for the big stuff, and directly on the mesh for the small details. So I’m going to keep that layer open while I add some things to my hat. Every change I make to the diffuse tab, will show up on the mesh when I tab back to that view. Neat!

Adding details to the diffuse map

Decorated mesh

When you’re done, save the diffuse file out as your texture file. This is the one you’ll upload to Second Life to add to your hat sculpty. There is a lot more you can do with this, add bump maps, lights etc. but I just wanted to show you how to get started using this handy tool for texturing sculpted prims.

My hat in Second Life:

Sculpted hat in Second Life

This hat is available as a freebie here.

Have fun!