3D MODEL PAINTING IN PROCREATE

- How to export your 3D Model to Procreate for 3D painting

(There is probably a lot of ways to do this. This is just the way I do it.)

I'm a long-time Procreate user, absolutely in love with the app. Procreate just released the 5.2 version making 3D Model Painting possible. I of course had to try this and to be honest, this just opened up a new world for me.

While it was fun to paint the 3D models within the Procreate app, I also had to try to make a 3D model myself. I will try to explain how you can export your 3D model to Blender so you can add in the UV Map that you need for 3D Painting in Procreate.

Nomad Sculpt

Nomad Sculpt is my go-to sculpting app for this project. I have tried to learn how to use Blender, but I just find it to be a bit difficult to use. Nomad Sculpt is easy to understand and has a lot of awesome features. This is a paid app, but I do think it's worth the money. I decided to make a doughnut for this project. If you have not used a 3D sculpting program before, it is very similar to how you would work with clay. You basically start with a ball of clay and use the tools and different settings to shape it. Also, I'm far from an expert in 3D Modeling. This doughnut was my 2nd attempt to sculpt, and it's far from perfect.

The doughnut is ready to export to Blender. The reason you need to do this is because Nomad Sculpt don't export an OBJ file containing a UV Map. Procreate needs the UV Map for the 3D Painting to work.

From the menu in Nomad Sculpt make sure that gITF is selected. Also, remember to click on "export layers".

Send the file to your PC. I'm using iCloud for this.

BLENDER

So, how do you import the 3D Model to Blender so you can make a UV Map?

Open Blender on your Desktop (They don't have an app).

Before you import the doughnut file, delete the object as shown in the above picture.

Now you need to split the screen. On the right screen make sure it's in "Edit Mode".

Also on the right screen, go to UV settings and set to "Smart UV Project". For some reason, I get a better result when doing 0,030 on the "Island Margin". I have no idea why...