A quick tutorial on textures........ok, first, I am mainly a BC modder, and second, I am new at this. But I will tell you what I have learned.
In max, you have a button called the material editor. Pull it up and you see a bunch of colored balls basically, each representing a different texture slot.
Now, you choose what you want to texture, pull up the editor, highlight one of the balls, choose Material - Assign to selection. Make sure to choose Show map in viewport in the same menu so the map shows up in your work windows.
Now, start with a basic texture....say a flat color map, bmp, 512x512. Save it in a texture folder in the same folder as the model you are working on, calling it map_diffuse.bmp, and then go back to the editor.
Make sure the ball you applied is still selected. Then go down to the maps dropdown below the area that has the texture balls. When you click on it, a bunch of slots will come up with different names...the ones you are concerned with are diffuse color, specular level, self illumination and bump.
Take your map you made, and darken it, applying a lower contrast to it as well. Make sure it is pretty dark, just barely percievable. Then save it as a second map, called map_bump_specular. Next, go back to the first map, and black out everything on it.....I know, wierd, right? Just do it for now. Now save that as the third map called map_glow.
Now, under the diffuse color strip, make sure the level is 100 percent, then click on the none button, choose bitmap from the top of the menu that pops up, then choose your bitmap you made, called map_diffuse. Now go to specular level, do the same thing and use the specular/bump map, go to self illumination and use the glow map, and finally the bump one for the specular/bump map again.
Now the maps are properly applied. I recommend you set the specular level at 60, the glow level at 30 to 60, and the bump level at -10.
Now you make your textures. Use the first diffuse map when you are making them. As you make the textures, you will notice they apply kind of wierd or not at all on the mesh...dont worry about this.
Let me step you through one application. Lets say you want to make a torp launcher, and you draw a torpedo launcher tube, you know, the glowing ball so to speak. You built a tube for the launcher, but right now it shows up grey....nothing is on it. So now we will apply it.
You select the tube, go to Modifiers-UV Coordinates-UVW map. Note that now a texture appears, but it looks wierd, stretched or jumbled. Now choose Box in the right radio menu. Then convert to editable poly (right click menu). Now the texture is on there, but it still doesnt look right...its not lined up.
With the object still selected, choose Modifiers-UV Coordinates-Unwrap UVW. You will see a box pop up that shows a texture and a bare frame over it. That frame is the representation of your piece you need to texture. Now move and manipulate the frame to fit over the section of the map you want to show up. There are lots of things you can do, like resizing, moving polys, etc, so I wont go into that....you can experiment on your own. You also might try the flatten mapping option in the same box, might make it easier to work with.
Once you have the section mapped properly, you are done. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Now, back to the textures. Lets say you figured out how to apply the textures, but you only have one map, the diffuse map you have been working on. Remember the other maps? Remember the process to making the others? Do the same with the finished texture you made, and when you get to the glow map, leave the bright lit parts alone on the map and black out the rest....like your torp for instance, you leave the big red ball untouched, and blacken around it. Finally, convert the map down to 256 colors...this will distort the glow map, but dont be concerned.
And there you go. I may be wrong about some of the steps, someone else can correct me.
Topic: Modelling questions (Read 1204 times)