Adding JPEG to a T-shirt
Spectre576
Posts: 53
in The Commons
I'm trying to add a small JPEG image to the front of a t-shirt
Is this possible without having it cover the entire surface and is there a way to make it conform to the shape of the t-shirt/body?
Thanks!
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It's easy to do if you have the UV Map for the shirt model.
I'm a newb so forgive me but is the UV map the same as the texture map and would I open that in Photoshop to apply it?
Do you know how to use the Layered Image Editor (LIE)? It's what I typically use if I am simply adding a logo or graphic to a T-shirt within DAZ. You can also use it to add tattoos to characters, grime to vehicles, grafitti to walls, etc. It is pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it.
There are a few video tutorials on this on YouTube. Just search for "DAZ Studio" and "LIE." There is also an older online tutorial about it that is mostly still accurate here:
http://greywulf.net/2009/05/09/second-steps-with-daz-studio-multi-layered-image-editor/
Understanding UVs - Love Them or Hate Them, They're Essential to Know
Imagine your t-shirt was unstitched and laid out flat for you to paint on. That's the essence of a good UV map.
I"m old schoold I guess, so I usually find one of the base textures, drag it into photoshop, and make a new texture map, layering the graphic or whaterver over the appropriate texture area, then saving it as a new .jpg and applying the new texture. This way, I can adjust the newly added stuff using Photoshop transforms to 'distort' the new element to get the look right if I need to using perspective, distort, etc. transforms, and having the 'baseline' texture map for reference helps me size the new element properly to boot. For torso maps/wraparound textures, for the back/seam split area, this may not be ideal, though...
If you want to modify a texture map in Photoshop, etc. while working in Daz:
- First, start up Photoshop (or whatever you use for image modification). Any decent image editing program should do, but it'll probably need to be a bit more useful/feature rich than say Paint, preferably one that uses layers.
- The easy way to find a texture map is to go to the surfaces tab, locate the area that governs the texture you'll need to work with, hover over that, so you can see which folder it's located in for reference and also note the specific name of the texture being used for base (or whatever).
- Then click on the texture to bring up the texture list, then click browse. When the window that shows the textures contained in the folder you are currently in shows up, make sure you are in the right folder (or navigate to the proper folder), then select the current texture (or a different one that applies to that texture control if another color or whatever spot catches your eye), then grab that texture image and drag it into Photoshop (drag it down to your Photoshop program 'tab' along the bottom, not sure what you Mac users do), or directly into the photoshop window if you are doing split monitors or can otherwise see your photoshop window. This will open up that texture in Photoshop.
- I usually create a new Photoshop layer for any changes. In the case of adding a logo, you'd drag the logo image into the texture map window as a new layer, then start working with it, cropping out any background, etc. that you don't want ot appear.
- Modify the texture as needed, then save it to a slightly different filename in the same folder (so you don't overwrite the original, but you still have the 'B' for bump, 'SSS' or whaterver in the name so you know which texture map group it is supposed to be used for. Save to the same image format as it was before (.jpg or whatever)
- Then, click on your Daz program tab again, (it'll be patiently waiting for you to select a texture) and you SHOULD see your modified texture in the same folder. Click it, then click 'Select/OK' and you are golden.
- Quick note: if you then modify that texture (or any texture for that matter) using the same filename as before, Daz won't 'see' your changed texture if the texture was already applied to something. So you'll probably need to restart Daz (there may be another way) or maybe just reload your scene. I always save any changes to a new texture name (Texture B1, Texture B1a, you get the Idea) and then pick the newly named texture to get around this.
I tried to figure out the whole keystroke combination once to apply multiple layering but apparently I'm doing it wrong because I haven't done it successfully. My methodology/process is probably all wrong... I haven't tried very hard to learn this yet, though. I read some Daz tutorial somewhere that talked about this, but obviously it didn't 'take' with me.
That's what templates are for. Jimbow is talking about a UV map, but we mostly call them templates. They are a blank map, which is much better than adding a layer to an existing texture supplied with the product.
Depends on what you are trying to do. Sometimes, you want to replace some texture elements with others (rather than simpy 'pasting' over them), while keeping other parts, or you may ned to shift elements within the texture without replacing the whole texture. Of course, if those elements are incorporated into multiple maps, then comes the fun part of 'cloning/replicating' your adjustments across multiple maps. This has the advantage of more 'natively' incorporating your changes, if the original texture map is going to look 'wrong' underneeath your changed elements. Of course, you should NEVER overwrite the baseline texture, you may want that later in another project...
Here's a good example of what I'm talking about:
The gem inset used to be a slit 'Sauron/Reptilian style' eye slit, and that would have looked wrong underneath the new pattern/shape. I modified 3-4 different texture maps to incorporate this change, and adjusted the blue shading underneath a bit as well, to better highlight the new pattern. The good news is that you can usually see all of the relevant texture maps when you browse into the folder, so it's pretty easy to drag the ones you need into Photoshop all at the same time. Of course, you should have a basic understanding of what they all do before you mess with them.
In any case, if you can get away with adding your element cleanly using an easier method (for you), by all means you should use the easiest method. And one that is within your skillset. I've been working with Photoshop for decades now, so it's my go to for a lot of things beacuse I'm so comfortable with it.
Again, I haven't successfully grasped/utilized the whole LIE thing yet, which is why I said an 'old school' way of doing things. Not for the lack of trying. Sometimes Daz tutorials aren't all that helpful, and there are often several ways to do things, and figuring out which one is best in any given situation isn't always black and white. Someone did mention some tutorials above, I was just suggesting another way to do things as an aternative, one that has worked for me in a number of cases now.
You only have to visit my site to see what it is that I do with textures. Or I should say used to do, as I stopped doing this sort of stuff for a variety of reasons, and nothing on my site is morne modern thatn V4.M4 or K4.
I'm not saying you are wrong, and I'm not trying to pick a fight with you here (apologies if I have given you that impression). Getting a good grasp of LIE in Daz is a useful skill to learn. I was just giving a quick rundown of how to quickly modify textures directly if there is something there you want to change (say something within the texture is out of place in your current context/needs nudging), and detailing my methodology on how I personally quickly access textures from within Daz for editing in Photoshop (as opposed to navigating to them outside of Daz).
I certainly encourage people to learn how LIE works (even though I haven't successfully used it so far), once you are comfortable enough with Daz to understand how to use it properly (or in the first place).
The Daz help pages with broken images are a bit frustrating, though...
RANT MODE ON
Here's a perfect example of what I mean.
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/artzone/pub/software/lie/reference/lie_access
First off, where exactly is the Layered Image Editor button/option in the Surfaces Tab that this page talks about? (I've looked in the surfaces menu dropdown via rightclick or in the upper right corner of surfaces, the main menu category dropdowns, anywhere else I could see...)?
Secondly, see what happens when you click the Access Via Surfaces Tab link on the linked page above! I get a new window that simply says 'precondition failed' on a white background. Clicking the selectsurface.jpg slightly farther down generates the same 'precondition failed' page. This is a common problem with several of the Daz tutorials I've tried to read (missing subsections/images/broken links).
THIS is why I gave up trying to figure out the whole LIE thing for now... It's not that I don't want to learn.
THIS tutorial (linked above, thanks for posting it Mighty Mysterio) suggests a methodology that is completely different than the Daz tutorial (i.e. selecting the figure/surface to bring up the LIE editor as opposed to not selecting the figure first), which would imply that the Daz tutorial is wrong to begin with...
http://greywulf.net/2009/05/09/second-steps-with-daz-studio-multi-layered-image-editor/
By following greywulf's tutorial, I FINALLY found this LIE menu option (been breezing past it before apparently when I've been manually selecting textures), but again it wasn't intuitively clear. He says 'look under the color tab'. OK, so where is this color tab? It's not in the left naviagaion menu where you choose individual textures. It turns out that it's part of the surface texture selection dropdown. In the case I'm looking at at the moment (I have Daz open with a model loaded), I have a defined texture under the Surfaces tab for Diffuse Color for the area I've clicked on (on the model) using the Surface Selection Tool and if I click on that tiny texture icon to the left of the Diffuse Color slider, I FINALLY see LIE in the menu options. I.E. Browse, none, then a separatiion line, then Image Editor and Layered Image Editor, then another separation line and a list of all the textures being used in the scene with textboxes.
Here's two screenshots showing where the LIE editor is (your Daz tab layout is probaby different from mine).
Clicking on Layered Image Editor (below Browse, None, and Image Editor after you click on the tiny texture icon next to Diffuse Color) brings up a new window that includes the testure, but I"m not getting the context for the texture. Is this just a flat texture map (I'm being rhetorical here, don't need an explanation guys)? It certainly isn't showing the texture as it appears on the figure (i.e. 'assembled/3d). Which makes me wonder why I'm not just using Photoshop, since I already used photoshop to 'clean up/crop' the logo .png for use. Does LIE modify the other maps incorporating your logo along with your current texture map, or do I need ot edit those each individually? And if I need to edit the baseline texture anyways, well I'm not seeing brush options to do that. I'm sure that various tutorials cover this, but I've already made my point about the general need for well written tutorials/links to them. This isn't a knock on Greywulf's efforts, as he took the time to make one after all - thanks to Greywulf for that, and it pointed me in the right direction - but as it's a little light on details, a more comprehensive tutorial is always a good thing, if there is one.
I'm not the guy to write that LIE tutorial, heck I just found it (finally)!
ALL that being said, if you have a clean logo in .png format, yeah I can see how LIE works directly now, so yeah by all means use it if you are satisfied with what it can do. But I stand my my statement that for more complex changes that involve modifying/adjusting the base texture, LIE may not be enough...The other Image editor (browse, none, image editor) in Daz apparently only looks like it only deals with Gamma (that's the only option I see for the texture I'm looking at, at the moment, it may do other things but I'm not seeing any).
OP take note. If you can understand how to use LIE (via the tutorials such as the linked one but not the Daz one), use it. Waht you want to do seems straightforward enough, depending on the underlying texture. My way will get you there too, as another option.
To the experts here:
Please continue to point out more of the clear, concise LIE tutorials with lots of screenshots. In my case, video tutorials often aren't as helpful as a good, well written text tutorial with lots of context shots. Plus video tutorials suck up usage totals, for those of us that use 4G connections, etc. with data caps to access the internet, but others like those so linking both types is good. In my experience, It's too easy to 'gloss over' minor tidbits when you are putting together a short video, but if it's in text form, there's more incentive to explain them better, at least in the the better written ones, plus you don't have to 'pause/rewind/replay' a written tutorial. The written ones are a bit more of a pain to put together, though, I admit.
One should always keep in mind that not everyone speaks the jargon around here (ESPECIALLY those writing tutorials). Not everyone here is a 3D graphics professional, and they may just be doing this for fun.
Sorry to take your thread slightly off track, OP. That was not my intent, just trying to help!
If people want a different, more recent LIE Tutorial, Nancy Schultz wrote one in an issue of DS Creative which you can find in PDF form here:
https://issuu.com/philatdsc/docs/ds_creative_15
LIE definitely is not the only way to do it, as other posters have mentioned. What matters really is your comfort zone and the time you want to put into it. Unless you're trying to sell your textures (in which case they'd have to be in a certain type of format) whatever works for you is the best strategy for you to use.. I will also say that, in my experience, if you want to perform major surgery on textures rather than just adding a different silkscreen pattern to a tee, some type of external photoshopping is necessary.
I really hope this helps.
Wow thank you all so much for the responses. I did not expect such detailed information and advice. Using the method of editing the Textures in Photoshop I was able to do exactly what I was looking to do. Sadly, as I was working on something to show you guys my computer completely shut down and I hadn't saved any of the hours of work I put into it. So for now you will just have to take my word for it. As to the method of using the LIE, I did figure out how to access this but have not spent much time to try out this method though I do fully plan to.
Thanks again everyone!
Photoshop is great about saving recovery files invisibly in the background, if your computer crashes you'll very likely get those recovery files automatically open when you next start up PS. Same can't be said for most of the other programs I use on a daily basis.
I was actually talking about a render I was working on in Daz but I here is the template for it which I should have just posted in the first place. This is not what I intend to use this for but just something I made as a test.