Insider news: Mesh-Export out of the voxel room improved

Hello friends,

very interesting. Today Andrew announced a very nice improvement of the existing mesh export out of the voxel room.
As you may already know, you can export low-detailed mesh information of your high-poly voxel model. Andrew improved the quality of the exported result. The improvement will be found in one of the next updates.

Example result of the improved voxel mesh export.

Video example: Wanna see...

Best wishes
Chris

Tips & Tricks: Updating UV sets of models with existing textures

Hi folks.

Here is a tip for people who needs to update UVs of a model, but without loosing already painted information inside 3D Coats paint room.
Where is this needed? Imagine, you are working as a team member and someone else has changed the UVs, after you have already started to paint the textures. Normally a horror scenario for every texture artist, because you have to restart your work or will loose your painting layer information after a eventually needed rebaking process. But not if you are using 3D Coat...

I have written this tip in the 3D Coat forums, because a user asked for it.

To keep your painted textures, while updating to the new UVs, do the following:
1. Export the model with the updated UVs to a obj file.
2. Now move to 3DCoat and open your old working scene, if not already done.
3. Go to the "Textures" menu inside the paint room und use "Import UV".
4. Use the new obj file as the source for the new UV information. Change the uv smoothing if needed, when you will be asked for in the assistant window.
-> Your old uvs will now be replaced. That's it!

Important: This works with identical models only- the vertex positions have to be at the exactly same place.

The big advantages of this method:
- No rebaking process needed!
- No paint layers get lost! (This is currently unique in the texture application market as I know)

Summer calm

Hi,

it is a little bit quite around me, currently. I've started a new appointment at the beginning of this month. The contract force me to work at the clients office for the rest of the year, but once a week I am working at my homeoffice. At this day I will try to update all my internet activities. But before this, I have to finish a few old appointments and that takes all my freetime.

As soon as I have more time, I will publish new videos and infos about 3D Coat and more.

Nevertheless I am preparing a new featured artist interview for August.

Enjoy the summertime
Yours Chris

Featured artist: Daniel Lieske

A big Hello to you all,

the summer has begun, in the northern part of the earth and so in europe, too. As always at the start of a new month, I am proud to present a new featured artist for you. This time it is my buddy, Daniel Lieske. Daniel is not a blank sheet in the international digital graphics community, he is a very talented illustrator and his imagination entertain us with beautiful artworks.

Enjoy the interview!
Yours Chris

The artist

1. How old are you?

I'm 33.

2. Where are you currently living?

I'm living in a small German town called Warendorf.

3. What are you doing, when you switch your PC off? Do you
have other hobbies?

Not really. When I leave the PC I'm normally either eating or sleeping. At the weekends I normally enjoy some free time with the family.

About the work
1. How did you get the idea to be an digital artist, why
digital?

Digital just happens to be the most recent technology to do art and to present it to a wide audience over the internet. As an artist I just use the tools that exist. If we would still all paint in oil that would be what I would do, too.

2. Do you have a special education in arts?

Not really. I picked up a lot at work but the most things I taught myself. I like to analyse things and get behind their workings. Digital art is a great field to do just that. There's a lot to explore and new stuff is constantly emerging.

3. Are you employed or do you work freelance?

I currently concentrate on my own projects which means that I'm mainly working as an author. I do some freelance work on the side though.

4. Which recent projects were the most important for you?

That definitely has to be the Wormworld Saga Digital Graphic Novel which I'm currently working on and which will keep me busy for a long time.

5. Which project was a real challenge?

The graphic novel is a huge challenge on multiple levels. There obviously is the creative and technical challenge to create a compelling story and visuals but there's also the business side of things where I constantly learn and improve.

6. Where do you get your ideas from?

I think that ideas come from things that one has seen before. So I guess my ideas come from everything I have ever seen in my live. I see patterns, I recombine and try to make sense of this world somehow. My solutions can then be seen in my artwork.

7. Are you working with references or is all your work from imagination?

If there is a connection between my work and the real world,I normally like to look at the real thing first and study it. I think art has a lot to to with understanding the complexities of life and our imagination is hardly able to come up with these on its own.

8. What are your plans as an artist for the future?

I hope to be able to work as an author for a long time. I will need some 15 years to tell the Wormworld Saga. I don't really think about what will come after that just yet.

9. Which software are you using for your work, and which hardware?

I do most of my work in Photoshop CS5 with a WACOM Intuos4 tablet. I work on a PC.

10. Which software or tool do you like the most and never want to miss?

I love the new natural media brushes of Photoshop CS5 in combination with the WACOM Art Pen. I waited a long time for such a versatile digital brush and I really don't want to miss it.

The portfolio
1. If you have a personal website, please give us the weblink.

You can have a look on my work at daniellieske.com and your are very welcome to read my online graphic novel at wormworldsaga.com