What's the typical Import & Paint Workflow Setup for ArmorPaint?

I’m looking at the documentation trying to understand and learn to use ArmorPaint but am still rather frustrated trying to understand it further. This is kinda why I stopped using it a while ago but I do like that it’s improved a lot since then so that is why I am trying it again.

Has anyone had any success with this? What’s your import and paint workflow? (I am more of a visual learner so sometimes I don’t fully understand things properly when I read it)

Basically, I created a Skiier Character for a simple Skiing Game so I wanted to use ArmorPaint for the project this time around.

However, I can’t seem to figure out the proper workflow for this though with a steep learning curve. I’m not very familiar with PBR stuff other than standard blender texture painting and import into UE4 so I am trying to understand and play around with it more to figure it out better.

I can import the character into ArmorPaint but I can’t seem to figure out how to set it up so that I can paint only on specific parts instead of painting across the whole thing which is what I have at the moment it seems. I’d like to be able to paint each piece of the character properly such as clothes, skis, gloves, helmet, ski poles, head, visor, etc.

I tried using separate uv’s, separate model objects, merging into one object and same issue. I know in blender I can separate the model or merge it so I think I am not going about it the right way to use it properly in ArmorPaint maybe? Can someone advise me on how to proceed and set it up?

This is what my character looks like in blender at the moment:

When I import the .Blend File into ArmorPaint though, this is what I see below but its just one mesh showing up as cube even though in blender I renamed it to the separate parts?

Anyone else have any luck? What’s your setup look like?

My goal here is to learn this and create a youtube tutorial series for visual learners like myself to help others similarly once I get the hang of using ArmorPaint.

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UPDATE:

I think I found my problem. I wasn’t naming the Objects correctly via the Meta-data Blocks for the mesh so it was keeping it as just Cube X, etc,. I had only been doing this in the Hierarchy at the top right of blender when adding models. I think that should solve my issue and allow me to paint correctly but will test this further later although still learning a lot especially with 2.8 release around the corner. I am pretty sure this will fix it so that it imports into ArmorPaint for proper mesh naming to paint.

UPDATE II:

After changing this in Blender then attempting to import it doesn’t seem to work on the .blend but .fbx does seem to work so I think the dev version for 0.6 may not support this on blend files correctly yet.

@lubos its a pain trying to view the mesh hierarchy to select/toggle while viewing it on top of the .fbx having holes in it as well. Seems like my previous reported issue has returned and there’s no modifiers on the mesh. The blend file works but only if merged into one object which is a problem because then I can’t paint on it unless I use the UV Map directly.