Topic: 3DS Max question

[Victory]

Ok, here's my prob. As you can tell, I can Kitbash pretty good, with pre-textured models. However, I have an idea for a new Borg ship, but every time I put the borg textures on it they apear all stretched out and not very much like Borg. Can someone show me a way to put on the textures a different way that may not screw it up so bad?

[Mr_Tricorder]

I'm going to put together a texturing tutorial for 3ds max 4 for someone else who is having problems.  I can send you a copy too as soon as I finish it.

[Lord Schtupp]

Ok good.

After appling the material with the texture to the object, apply the UVW Mapping modifier to the object. Then highlight (select) the UVW modifier, click the "Bitmap Fit" button. select the texture of the material, click ok. Now the texture is applied squar to the object. Often though it will be out of scale so use the scale tool to scale the texture to roughly the size you want. you might have to select X, Y, or Z axis under the alignment box that is in the UVW Mapping modifier.

After all that and you have it in the ballpark, apply the "Unwrap UVW" modifier to the object. A window will appear that will let you select individual or groups of vertexes so that you can micro adjust your object to the texture.

Good luck, Ill check back to see how your doing.

[Victory]

Ok, that helped, however..... On two sides the textures show up fine, but the other 4 they are streaky. I'm closer now than I was 30 min ago, but still so far away.

[Lord Schtupp]

If its a simple cube that your textureing you can try the simple approch of selecting the UVW Mapping modifier (delete the Unwrap UVW modifier first), select "box" under mapping in the UVW mapping modifier. This will map the whole texture to six sides of the object.

[Victory]

Well, it is a cube, but not a true cube, it's a new design straight from the sick and twised mind of me. MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Lord Schtupp]

Ok then ignore my last post.

The default mapping is planer, or flat. To map the other four side you must detach those faces and make them seperate objects. To do this, apply the "Edit mesh" modifier. Under "selection" click the polygon button. select one of the four faces then click "Detach" button. A dialog window appears confirming that you want to make it a seperate object. Just click OK, repeat for the other three sides. after that, select each seperate face and repeat the steps in my first post. Cool?

[Victory]

Sweet, thanks bub, it works. My first fully new ship... hehe, watch out world!

Now then, in my kitbashing experience, I notice a large number of boxes, usually green. I have figured out they are hardpoints/damage points, but not figured out how to add them to a ship. Any imput would be appreciated.

[Mr_Tricorder]

3ds max calls those "dummy objects".  they are commonly used for various animation techniques, but the SFC games uses them as reference points on the object for hardpoints and damage points.  I'm not at my computer right now, so I'm not exactly sure where to find them, but browse through the different tabs under the Create tab for "dummy".  Just create them as you would create a standard primitive wherever you want to make the hardpoints and damage points and rename them accordingly.

[Victory]

ok, I'm a pest, I know... I know what to name the hardpoints, but on some of the models I've seen points named a1, a2, b1... ect.  Obviously they are the damage points, but what does each name mean?

And possibly even more important, how do I assign the damage textures

[Mr_Tricorder]

I just finished my starship texturing tutorial and emailed it to you.  I also just submitted it to sfc3files.

As for the a1, a2, etc. dummy objects, those are the damage points.  When an enemy's weapon hits your ship, it hits at one of these points.  The letters represent the six sides of the ship, and the weapon will hit on one of these three points at random.  For example, if an enemy ship is behind and to the right of your ship and fires at you, the weapon will hit at either c1, c2, or c3.  If the weapons hit the hull, these damage points determine where the damage textures appear on the model (assuming you have damage textures).  To apply damage textures to a ship, all you need is a damaged version of each texture map and self illumination map with the same name as the original texture map or illumination map but with a capital D at the end of the name.