Suggestions

Maybe also some kind of Mask tool / Stencil for brush and for layers (it could use vector graphics and / or png raster graphics with alpha). Text tool would be nice too.

[Taron]

Hi jumu and welcome to the forum!
I'm planning on doing that, too, but it's not there yet! Initially I felt it was not necessary to have it, because it can be rather annoying and I wanted to boost the power of virtuality, you know. ArtRage could drive me nuts with it and it's hard to get a feel for how to use it. However, I realized I could do something else, using a color pallet, where you can really load the brush with paint, rather than using a slider. Something that is more alive and intuitive, you know.
THUS it will come!

And THANK YOU!

Hi dear Taron,
Just curious: since Verve can export in "filename_col.png" for color and "filename_mat.png" for heightmap, which is great, what about importing such pair of files into a layer of Verve (especially the heightmap, that we could have modified elsewhere) ? is it doable ?
Regards,
GBoGBo

[Taron]

That's been the entire hold up with importing images altogether, hehe. I still need to write a 16bit import that remains 16bit. Once I have that, I will add choices to which channel you want to use as height, for example and so on...

Thanks for the quick answer Taron, this sounds really great !

T* ...i know ... verve can change light position shadow but affect only bump not colors
and this link: sketch paint with multi orients for make normal map, depth, ao ... and 2d simulation of normal map lighting ...
it is not an IBL as famous ...
اما منظورمن هم همین هست!
semi lighting ... its idea ... fake materials with a kind of visual-sphere-mapping ... with a selected from real photo orb or a drawn abstract ... cel shade or posterize, marble or caustics, organic, iron, reflections, glass...
verve have bump and light now,...and with this feature change to a fast sample base material painter .

when you post about zborn toy, i test this renders with verve maps and zb displace in sculptris ... viewtopic.php?p=4812#p4812 .
اما اگر این کار مستقیم و بدون واسطه انجام شود یکی از آرزوهای بزرگ نرم افزاری من تحقق پیدا میکند.
sculptris drawing! ... but slower and limited

you know, but for example normality plugin for AE, sculptris, zbrush, mental-ray and may some other softwares use this trick for 2d or 3d material shade. normality can convert an only normal map to sculptris like material (with only an imported orb- image) ... i think verve even may let we paint that orb too... interactive complex lighting, reflection and shade ... normal map (bump base/flatten base) not seems hard for you, you make a big z toy.
i rendered hunderds test with this map (3dsmax - menal ray - env grayball) and wish that a day have this in a paint software.
sorry for re-suggest : )
some max renders frome a displaced like plane ... without other light and material. only a photo!
(final-gather:off - self-illumination:100)

http://s5.picofile.com/file/8133029350/ ... all_2_.png


http://s5.picofile.com/file/8133029418/ ... all_5_.png
http://s5.picofile.com/file/8133029526/ ... all_6_.png
http://s5.picofile.com/file/8133029534/ ... all_7_.png

it is not suitable for 3d and animation sometimes, but really suit for frozen frames and.
one of my best 3d models ... 2011 ... without any real light and complex materials and complex paint, only one grayball and simple mask maps like cavity ... exprimental, fast and special i think.
http://s5.picofile.com/file/8133029568/ ... aDF_1_.jpg
http://s5.picofile.com/file/8133029618/ ... aDF_2_.png
http://s5.picofile.com/file/8133029626/ ... aDF_3_.png
http://s5.picofile.com/file/8133029634/ ... aDF_4_.png
http://s5.picofile.com/file/8133029676/ ... aDF_5_.png

شاید من عجله زیادی دارم اما این به خاطر چشم انداز خیره کننده ای هست که به نظرم در این روش وجود دارد.
باز هم میل، میل خودت هست. ممنون.

[Taron]

Part of the plan from day 1 already!
It's M U C H easier than what I've got going right now, but it's no fun unless you have a good interface for it. I wrote "MaCrea" which is a tool to create those material spheres. I want to put that into Verve with some more interactivity. I really believe that this will be pretty amazing. On top of that I will try to have parametric components, so that you can use just one material sphere, but paint or layer settings can influence aspects of it like reflectivity (glossiness), translucency and so on....

Might end up being a little revolutionary all by itself!

OH, AND BY THE WAY: ZbornToy already has that, too. Instead of using the lights, use environmental illumination, select "Spherical" and dial up reflection amount... that is exactly the same thing! With the exception that you can have some ambient occlusion type shadows in ZbornToy on top of that! ...even more so, it depends on "Glossiness" and will blur with lower glossiness but be unchanged and fully functional with 1.0 on glossiness.
(Have you bought the ZbornToy?)

T*
i saw today some tutors and videos about your ZbornToy!
you right!
it is too advanced and powerful. i saw treemare, vector paint and cuastix samples.
pano env was nice. bump, light and all features looks nice but i dont...
i try test with demo version but still couldn't useful result. may i dont know something or my ae or gpu not match
... let me stay trying ... and if i can, test and re-ask
but if i cant request you that explain a bit about some features ...
*
i downloded Macrea again ... its have a busy interface.i cant work comfort but i know that is nice for lighting sample and matcap making for clean and noise-free and simillar chromeball ...

but i select my grayballs instead make! its too easier!
that is hilarious but i search and test different types of images that can use for spherical camera mapping. a full bank of marble orbs, rendered spheres, painted circles and crops from graphical images. even paint-guess-new paint cycle. i use a metallic crop for metal! wooden for wood! stone for stone! caustic for C! 2d solic cliparts for flatten 3d to textured paper ...
i change and enhance my material only in photoshop and max compsit map that like ps layers!
2d based 3d fake material!

my suggestion is more simpler that one you said and its shown our smiles = ) ) ) ... we wait until this.
... but what that i said is yet powerful & easy for each user... sooner than match UI and codding puzzles.
sooner than ZLive : )
i even composite, relight, retouch only in a non-limit and familiar way. in one word ... photoshopy mats.
(external source, import, or a matcap window near canvas for paint light and make colors ... suggest as a temp solution)
it cant make real caustic or real relight but its near to real result and can paint artistic really!

only need try usual select a suit image material and change to custom, and bump texture, then bake or flatten and retouch and composite. (i texture some 3d character whit only grayball bake and some 2d effects... i like* them!)

achive new wave of artistic results with new fake artistic media! good painters and creative illustrators made happy with this easy world! this is too easy but what can & want make is a full toolkit for various post 3d effects on 2d images. and may need moore times for full test and match.

i like material painting ! i like collage and assemblage paint
ببخشید. من روحیه خلاق و صبور تو را هم دوست دارم. متشکرم

[Taron]

you've given me deeper and more permanent wrinkles in my forehead, that's for sure!
HUH?
Never mind, b, I think a lot of what I do targets the more advanced users mostly because I really make them for myself in the first place. MaCrea, for example, was really directly for use with Sculptris, which explains the gray base color and constant reference to it, because in Sculptris 50% gray in a material sphere equals diffuse white and everything above 50% brightness is considered specular highlights or reflections for that matter.
With the ZbornToy I've managed to make a tool that only highly skilled and imaginative professionals can put to use and they do so amazingly well. I've seen some fantastic commercials with it that even surprised me, but you got to be very familiar with 3d rendering, shading design.
This, however, is a Verve forum and I won't put a big tutorial on anything else into this. I might make a ZbornToy forum here, too, while I'm at it!

T*