Part 7
Mapping and finishing off
Perhaps
it's best to render test images out with smooth simple max textures, with
a little shine
| The best way to explain mapping is to refer you to a few tutorials. | ||
| _ | There are a number of extra tools available which are extremely useful in this operation. My favourite is Texporter, which creates a bitmap texture out of an unwrapped view of the wire frame component you are trying to texture. This is all explained in Skyraiders tutorial. Just go there. | |
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As a summary though - just look at
these steps. Mapping- though you probably ticked "generate mapping coordinates" on creation, the subsequent modifications will have changed the mapping so that an applied map will be somewhat screwed up. therefore- apply mapping again to your plane. Mapping coordinates can be applied to sub-componants such as wings fuselage etc in separate stages. |
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| If you Mirror>instance cloned the wings- then make them unique. then select the fuselage - click the edit mesh modifier, click "Attach" then click the wings, tail planes but not any separated elevators, rudder, aerlerons. |  |
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| In Edit mesh sub-object mode, choose Elements. then select the horizontal flying surfaces (wings & tailplane) Open the modifiers list- choose UVW Map. Click PLANAR. | ||
| The orange square represents the extent of the mapping in this image. |  |
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Next select the fuselage & we will need to use Cylindrical mapping. Now choose the UVW Map sub editing mode -Gizmo |
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Notice that the Gizmo becomes Yellow & it has a Green seam. This is where the edge of the bitmap lies. Underneath is probably the best place for this because it can be hidden by a panel line or oil stain in the bitmap (skin). If your gizmo has the seam in another position, then use the rotate button to turn it to the 6 O'clock position. refer to Skyraiders tutorial for more detail on this and the next few stages. |
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| A test render can be made by rendering from the top viewport. Then in your favourite bitmap editor. colour it in, add panel lines etc as far as you wish. then you can assign the texture via the Materials editor. Again - refer to Skyraider on this. | ||
pagelin
Footnotes:
| SkyRaider 3D | Brilliant tutorial on mapping- though not really a Game skin method | |||||||||||||||||||
| online tutorial | Max's own Texturing a Spaceship Tutorial | |||||||||||||||||||
| Bitmap editors. | Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Elements, Paintshop Pro, Corel Photo Paint, | |||||||||||||||||||
| Aluminium cloud | Creating the bitmap using photoshop layers. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Colour reference | Colour swatches for reference when working on the above tutorial | |||||||||||||||||||
| plane founts | Install founts from here to use in your skins | |||||||||||||||||||
| Spitfire Roundels | Roundels for the Spitfire | |||||||||||||||||||
| Hurrican numbers | For modellers of the Hurricane, here are listed plane numbers as found painted on teh fuselage | |||||||||||||||||||
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