#MeshPaint 3D Demo
18 messages in this thread
We finally got the demo version of MeshPaint 3D uploaded last night. Take a
look and let me know what you think.
Brent
Brent,
overall, I like it a lot
however I'd like an undo command. – unless it's in there and I've just missed
it. 🙂
really nice program . ..
-Kyle
Hi Kyle,
<< – unless it's in there and I've just missed it. 🙂 >>
Press the large U next to the paint brush icon.. ;-]
jonas[adesk]
just slap me around a little . . I'm losing my mind! 🙂
Kyle,
The Undo command is the big U button. It should also function as a Redo if I'm
not mistaken. If you double click on some of the tools, a requestor window will
open to adjust settings. They are designated with a tiny arrow in the upper
right corner.
Brent
Hi Brent,
<< We finally got the demo version of MeshPaint 3D uploaded last night. Take a
look and let me know what you think. >>
I had the opportunity to use MeshPaint for an hour or two today. Overall, the
implementation was pretty impressive. However, I'm concerned about a few things
with the demo version:
1) Using projected coordinates seemed to be the more stable method of
operation, however, many times I noticed that paint would shoot off from the
intended location. I'm not referring to such things as paint appearing on the
back side of an object, being painted from the front using a planar projection.
I did not set up my tablet under 3DS, just used the mouse.
Has this quirk been ironed out in the release ? Could the mouse aggravate this
? Does the routine respond to a pressure stylus ?
2) Using parametric coordinates was more quirky in the same way as above,
unfortunately, as this seems to be the more powerful and natural method to use
if possible.
3) Actually, it would be especially nice if somehow the paint was applied to
*any* mesh, *as if* lofted coordinates were used in it's construction, even if
you had to sacrifice some precision. Then it could be easily corrected in an
external paint program.
4) The opacity percentage range seemed to be skewed. That is, very non-linear.
It seemed that only a small percentage of the available range was used, which
produces noticeable change. Put another way, it seems that the greatest amount
of visible change required being at 25% or less. Maybe I'm wrong, I did no
specific tests to confirm this, it just seemed that way at the time.
Assuming the quirks mentioned above are addressed, I think it's a awfully
good/useful program. Your people did a good job on the design.
Regards,
BILL
Bill,
>>1) Using projected coordinates seemed to be the more stable method of
operation, however, many times I noticed that paint would shoot off from the
intended location. I'm not referring to such things as paint appearing on the
back side of an object, being painted from the front using a planar projection.
I did not set up my tablet under 3DS, just used the mouse.
There are a few problems with Planar mapping that will be corrected by Monday.
It is likely that they are the cause.
>>Does the routine respond to a pressure stylus ?
You should be able to use a tablet, but the pressure settings will be ignored.
>>4) The opacity percentage range seemed to be skewed. That is, very
non-linear. It seemed that only a small percentage of the available range was
used, which produces noticeable change. Put another way, it seems that the
greatest amount of visible change required being at 25% or less. Maybe I'm
wrong, I did no specific tests to confirm this, it just seemed that way at the
time.
When you select the New command, the base color or the map is determined. Any
opacity settings will be applied to the mixture of your selected paint color,
and the base color. The best way to test the opacity settings is to apply
strokes of different colors on top of one another. I'll also perform some
tests.
Thanks for your valuable feedback!
Brent
Hi Brent,
I got another chance to use MeshPaint again, and discovered some other
features, etc.. I was able to reduce the "stray painting", but not eliminate
it. Clearly, for complex objects, constructing them with lofted coord's is the
ideal method when using MeshPaint. But, the paint still shoots off. Using the
Line tool seemed to help minimize this in some cases.
I agree with JKJ, in that I too found myself forgetting to enable "Paint" after
a render. It would be nice if Paint was enabled after a render, or if some
other automatic method was employed. This is nitpicking, I know.
I again agree with JKJ about expanding the interface (if possible without
severely degrading program operation) to make more use of the screen
resolution.
I look foward to seeing the next/release version.
Regards,
BILL
Brent,
>>demo version of MeshPaint 3D… let me know what you think…
That's kind of like the beautiful girl asking "Am I pretty?" Are you fishing
for compliments, or what? <g>
Zounds! This is one incredible program!! Between segments of a project I
thought I'd try it out for a few minutes – a half hour later I had to make
myself stop. I painted all around an egg mapped with spherical coordinates.
Finally, an easy way to put detail around the poles of a map. Yes!
I REALLY like the Region mode that works like a real-time interactive regional
rendering control. Very clever.
The brush editing, the tools, the opacity control – this program will be
incredibly useful. There were some things I couldn't figure out, so I'm
looking forward to the real thing with docs.
A few initial observations in the "suggestion" mode <g>:
I found myself often clicking on Rotate, Render, picking a tool
or color, then forgetting to click Paint before trying to paint
%< You might consider having any mouse click in the tool box
or palette automatically turn on the Paint button, just as
clicking on any view control button automatically turns Paint
off.
I would, as I mentioned earlier, vote for an interface that
dynamically scales itself to the full extents of the screen
resolution. At 1024×768, there is a lot of wasted space that
could be used for a larger paint area, etc. I realize that
this would not be a trivial effort.
I would like to see a larger palette, even if the squares were
smaller. The load & save will help, but 32 colors at once is
somewhat limiting.
I noticed that a LINE drawn across the "seam" of a spherical
map wraps all the way back around instead of crossing the
seam. Considering the other problems these programmers have
solved, this should be an easy one.
The LINE tool has a little oddity when used in the Region mode,
in that any portion of a line drawn outside the current
specified region paints within the region only without
rendering the extents of the line as the other tools do. It
just leaves the rubber-band line on the viewport.
You might consider hilighting the All button as a mode
indicator.
I'd like to see some std. geometrical tools – box, circle,
etc.
Yikes, I'm running at the mouth again. I had no Really Wierd things happen, no
crashes.
Very nice program! The only 3DS'ers who won't want this one are those
suffering from severe brain damage. Thanks for uploading this demo version.
JKJ
John,
Thanks for the suggestions, and positive feedback. It is nice to see good
responses after working so hard on this thing!
>>A few initial observations in the "suggestion" mode <g>:
>> I found myself often clicking on Rotate, Render, picking a tool
or color, then forgetting to click Paint before trying to paint
There will probably be an "Always Render" toggle box in the next version. After
any rotation, zoom, or dolly, the program will re-render. This would allow you
to stay in paint mode.
>> I would, as I mentioned earlier, vote for an interface that
dynamically scales itself to the full extents of the screen
resolution. At 1024×768, there is a lot of wasted space that
could be used for a larger paint area, etc. I realize that
this would not be a trivial effort.
It may take until the next version of the program (ie. 1.5, or 2.0) before we
implement this. However, we should have fairly quick and continuos updates.
>> I would like to see a larger palette, even if the squares were
smaller. The load & save will help, but 32 colors at once is
somewhat limiting.
We went back and forth on this one. It is just as easy to do it either way, but
for ease of use purposes, we wen't with fairly large onscreen buttons. I'll see
if we can make it a user defineable option.
>> I noticed that a LINE drawn across the "seam" of a spherical
map wraps all the way back around instead of crossing the
seam. Considering the other problems these programmers have
solved, this should be an easy one.
Will investigate!
>> The LINE tool has a little oddity when used in the Region mode,
in that any portion of a line drawn outside the current
specified region paints within the region only without
rendering the extents of the line as the other tools do. It
just leaves the rubber-band line on the viewport.
Also, will investigate.
>> You might consider hilighting the All button as a mode
indicator.
Good idea. I'll bounce it off of J.J.
>>I'd like to see some std. geometrical tools – box, circle,
etc.
I suspect that the reason some of these are missing is due to how they might
react in a 3D environment. I'll report back.
Brent
It's a pleasure to provide feedback when it doesn't seem to go into a black
hole!
>>"Always Render" box…
This sounds like a good idea. If you do, you might consider making rendering
interruptable by any view control click.
>>geometric tools, 3D environment…
I pondered on this for a little while. (The same problem might hold for
implementing the standard region selection and manipulation tools like Lasso
and Move, common in most paint programs.) However, even if they were drawn
only with respect to the viewport, as with the LINE option, they would still be
useful. Along the same line, people will soon wish for a text tool also,
though I suspect it might be faked with a set of custom image stamps.
BTW, thanks much for
a. No hardware lock.
b. Providing an UNDO button! (wish item: a REDO button)
c. A reasonable price.
And, dirt. Dirt! This program is great for simply adding grunge and dirt to
an object. I wish my machines would get done rendering so I can play again.
JKJ
John,
>>BTW, thanks much for
a. No hardware lock.
b. Providing an UNDO button! (wish item: a REDO button)
c. A reasonable price.
a) We had a lot of hard discussions about this and feel that we've done the
right thing.
b) The undo button should function as a redo by clicking it again. We may have
forgotten to hook this up, but it will be there.
c) Thanks!
Brent
Brent Great work on Meshpaint. I've been able to do some things not possible
before. I'm glad you've decided to put the Always Render option in, I was
forgetting to click paint myself once in a while. I'd also like to see an
option for viewing more colors – maybe a color gradation box containing all the
colors – like Photoshop has. You could then refine it further from there. Just
an idea. It also seems like the opacity is very skewed. I didn't really get any
opacity until I came down to around 20% or so. Also, it would be great to be
able to change your mapping from within meshpaint like you can within optimize
and such. Just ideas. The program is fantastic.
DM
David,
have I updated you lately? leave me mail.
Brent
Brent, the DEMO is quite impressive. Along with all the other
valuable comments on mesh paint I would like to see the addition of
KEYBOARD ARROW use for rotating the mesh WHILE painting. If the
screen did an AUTOMATIC re-render when it detected no keyboard input
you could, on a fast machine, paint with your pen (mouse) in one hand
and other hand on KB nodging the mesh as you paint it!
>>>> >> I found myself often clicking on Rotate, Render, picking a
tool or color, then forgetting to click Paint before trying to paint
<<<<
There will probably be an "Always Render" toggle box in the next
version. After any rotation, zoom, or dolly, the program will
re-render. This would allow you to stay in paint mode. <<
[From] Angelo Guarino [DTI Inc] 70323,3375
[To ] BRENT W. MALNACK 73131,2027
[Date] 04-02-1995 21:41:49
[Subj] MeshPaint 3D Demo
[Sect] 1/IPAS Usage
Brent,
I've had a chance to play with the full version of MeshPaint after I installed
it on one of my customers .. really cool.
I would only make two comments. 1st, as I said on the phone, the program
really needs to be 3DS material def aware .. so if an object has a material
assigned, those bitmaps in the material definition are available in a list of
some sort.
2nd, the implementation of the airbrush "brushing" as a factor of cursor
movement is really un-intuiative <sp?>. Was there a reason that a time-based
repeat was more difficult? The way it is implemented now, I find it pretty
hard to control the application of paint.
A really awesome product .. especially for a 1st release and it has now made
my "highly recommended list – must have" list (a small group consisting of IPAS
#6, IPAS #7 & now MeshPaint!)
Ang
Great job on MeshPaint 3D, Brent!!
Mark
Mark,
Thanks! The real credit has to go to our programmer J.J. Hoesing who has done a
great job ahead of schedule!
Brent