extract colors for masking ( reverse Material ID feature )

[Steve Bentley]

Isn’t that what the discreet colors in the texture map are doing now? Or is the object being textured truly blue green and orange?
It sounds like you are planning an intermediate step when you don’t need one. I may be missing something.

[Ronny Traufeller]

Maybe i am missing something ☺ how would you proceed?
Keep in mind that i want to get several greyscale Images Out
Of this, alpha maps. And that i want to Stack Materials That Way.
I dont want to solve this by doing it in a Layer based System in one material.

If you have a Way in mind outside of mine please go on. The Image
Was something i found somewhere Else, that still describes my plan perfectly.

Thank so far,
Ron

traufeller.de

[Steve Bentley]

I’m still not crystal on the need for this but here’s a thought.
Why not have the artist doing the textures (or is that you?) only work in grayscale and then all textures in C4d would really just be alphas with whatever color you want on the object in the color channel in the material (or another image)
Unless all the objects are simply textured with solid colors I think there is so much to texture mapping (tiling, UV mapping, orientation, mip settings, all the different channels) I’m not sure that a pipeline can be simplified to this degree.
Can you expand on why you would want to approach it this way?

[Ronny Traufeller]

hey,

i know its a very blue eye’d idea..

And i am doing the intermediate step with an
after effects comp that key’s and outputs greyscaled images.
And its possible in other 3D Apps, so i am just asking.

The final thing will be different kinds of fabrics on one mesh, and i wanted to keep
everything in one document for the fashion designers,

i am not in a rush here, and honistly i think it could be a strong feature if it would exist no?

thx,
Ronny

traufeller.de

[Steve Bentley]

I see what you are trying to do.
Wouldn’t it just be easier to paint with flat color in layers in BP. Each layer would be self alphing and you could turn each on and off for your masks in AE.
I mean, keying colors will work, but because of antialiasing you will always have a little fringe you will have to deal with.
But that will will work and then you just swap materials in C4D with the new AE renders.

I think there’s a way to do this all in C4D. If you paint in layers in BP you should be able to pick fabric swatches in C4d and assign them to areas of the model and they will be masked by the master masking texture made in BP.

You could also just make selection tags of the various areas that get different fabrics and then literally throw a bunch of fabric textures on the model and just type the appropriate name in the selection area of each texture tag and they will only show up there.

[Ronny Traufeller]

thanks for your thoughts so far,
i think the bodypaint approach is pretty legit.

Also sharing a psd with fixed layernames could be pretty good
cross software situations ( BP, PS; AE ) to preserve a layer order structur.

actually i started a setup using the Octane plugin, it provides a mixed material
where i can use alpha maps independent from the material itself.
kinda like selections..

so some could drag and drop fabrics independent from the “distribution file”

other minor problem:
no matter what solution will make it once, i am still stumbling how to scale and rotate a fabric, with uvw mapping.
because i cant simply transform the image inside the shader that will be dynamicly changed , but thats way to complicated
at this stage, i will make variations for each fabric in scale and rotation i guess.

okay thanks again,

i might give an update once this clears out ☺

Ron