Hi. I want to manually paint a human model I made with mirror modifier (ever since the beginning of the model I used the modifier) but the modifier makes the whole painting process symmetrical, making it impossible to add unique details on certain points, disabling the modifier or attempting to turn it off just deletes half of the whole model.
Is there a way to temporary disable it without losing anything and make asymmetrical changes, then enable it again to keep making symmetrical changes or would I need to start from scratch again and make another model with its parts modeled individually?
PS: I´m really new to 3D modelling, I´m not too good so I´m hoping there´s a solution since making another model would just take me weeks.
What you are asking for is non-destructive editing within the modifier stack, and as far as I’m aware, Blender is not yet capable of this. No need to start over, though. Applying the symmetry modifier will allow you to work asymmetrically
As nice as such a feature would be, in this case it’s really forcing you to learn a good habit. And that is to not jump ahead to the fine details before you’ve finished fleshing out as much as possible in symmetry, to the point that you can safely commit to it by applying the symmetry modifier without worrying about the need to go back to it. It’s always tempting (especially for beginners) to skip ahead to the fun stuff. However, you will become much more proficient at your craft if you learn early on to slow your roll.
Thank you for your response, I´ll be sure to try that. I will learn that modifier and more good habits as you say (currently learning materials) I also found out that applying mirror modifiers in intervals can allow me to work asymmetrically but that requires me to be more careful and maybe takes more time than symmetry modifier. Thank you again
If you are painting a texture on a model, you can use the painting Symmetry settings in the tool bar to turn symmetry axis off and on, so that way you can apply the mirror modifier on the model, unwrap to get a full map, and then paint with say X symmetry on for the bulk of the work, and then turn it off and paint unique non-symmetrical features.
Same kind of controls also exist in the tool bar for Sculpt mode, allowing toggle of X, Y, and Z axis for stroke placement.
Craig, the solution doesn´t seem to work, I disable the X, Y and Z symmetry off and the painting still mirrors it, is it that texture painting only supports mirroring for symmetrical textures?
Your set up is the culprit here - if you were using a mirror modifier first, then your mapped image is probably only mapped to half the character/object mesh and the uv islands probably are doubled up in the same space. You can get the fix for this by adding a new image to the iamge editor and creating a new UV map in the Object properties panel by hitting th eplus sign in the UV layers. Once you have that, then you can unwrap to the new image, and then bake the texture to the new image and save it, using the new uv mapping for that image.
edit: here is a video to explain myself more clearly I hope
Thank you very much Craig! that really helped me, I also found that turning on U and V texture axis on the mirror modifier disables mirroring for texture painting allowing for better customization. Your explanation helps me understand more UV maps (which I needed) I also found your youtube channel, I`ll be watching them.
