3d) first attempt with 3ds max

[WiseKran]

here it is

i posted a thumbnail b/c the file is relatively large


I followed a tutorial for this one, then made some modifications of my own, with the limited knowledge i have.

any help or suggestions are welcome.

also i was trying to figure out how to apply a black material to only the claws, but the hand is all one object so im not sure how to do it   anyone know?

after all this toiling, im REALLY starting to appreciate the work  
of other 3d artists such as Zeraph\'s Klyros, wow i cant even fathom the amount of work he must have put into that!

[dannythompson]

The hands look.... well like hands I suppose, pehaps you should make them hand shaped cookies? Add a nice big bitemark out of one of em . Yes Zeraph\'s work is good, but don\'t worry, with a little hard work and lots of practice you could become just as good one day.

[WiseKran]

lol, i just might do that!  sounds wierd, and fun. so i will make them into cookies, and put them on a plate.  

ill need a texture for cookies, hmm. this ill be ahard work


does anyone know anything about my previous question

how to apply a black material to only the claws. however, the hand is all one object so im not sure how to do it,  anyone know?   /me hopes zeraph or someone who\'s pro will come by.

[ArcaneFalcon]

This is a good tutorial on using the material editor and possibly uvw mapping (I only skimmed it).

This is a good tutorial on uvw mapping, though as soon as it gets into its using deep paint 3d just stop, \'cause deep paint is dumb.  Once you get through doing an unwrap you will need a plugin called texporter to get the map into a 2d file.  Just do a google search, I\'m sure you\'ll find it.

:emerald:

[WiseKran]

wow, thank you.

i have searched for tutorials but never found these!, and to be honest, i dont like the tutorials encluded with the program. they arent explicit enough and i often get lost.

thanks

also i got the plugin \"texporter\" but i have no idea what to do with it... not to mention i dont even notice a difference in my 3ds max,      

anyways i got this far, and then i was lost as to how to make a texture for my hand  heres a screenshot.. perhaps someone could help



i feel like such a noob...    my 2 questons are, how do i use the texport plugin to export this thing.. and how do i make a texture out of those misc. peices of my model....xD

[ArcaneFalcon]

This is the hardest step.  You need to take all those pieces and stitch them together to make as few pieces as possible.  I think a top and bottom would be appropriate for your hand.  Also, try increasing the angle when you do your unwrap, that will help to get fewer pieces, but not so high that you get bad distortions and overlaps.  Honestly, the best tutorial I found for this is that second one I gave you previously.  It teaches how to grab and rotate pieces and stitch them together.  To do it right will take an hour at the least.  Don\'t worry if it is really slow at the beginning, you\'ll get better, but as your models get more complex it will get slower and more tedious.  What fun! :rolleyes:

To use texporter you need to click on the hammer tab (all the way to the right from the modify tab), then click more, then click texporter.  A new roll out will appear with a bunch of options.  The best place to learn to use it is from the included texporter help file.  It can explain everything better than I can off the top of my head.  Just be sure texporter is getting the uv coords from the same map channel as the one you did your unwrap on (default is 1).  Once you have the file in 2d format (don\'t use .jpg, its compression gives un-uniform color, I would recommend .png, then you can just magic wand it) you will need a graphics program for making the skin.  Get your hands on photoshop if possible, but if you need something free then the gimp will do nicely.  It\'s almost as good as PS (photoshop, not planeshift).  Just google it.

[WiseKran]

i have photoshop, but not much of this makes sense,


so i have to \"stitch\" all those little fragments together into one large wierdly shaped mass... then umm...  make a texture in the shape of it? then how do i apply the texture?

perhaps i should start with something liek a sphere or a cube... this hand is looking very complex.

oh yea and... to be honest that \"deep paint 3d\" is looking very convenient right now, none of this UV mess... the deep paint lets you look at your model in 3d, and paint right onto it . so why isnt that the best thing since sliced bread?

[ArcaneFalcon]

Simply put, because painting directly onto the model doesn\'t allow you to get near as detailed as you could with photoshop.  

Yes, you are correct in your ascertation that you need to stitch them together into a big mass.  In the uvw unwrap edit window get into vertex mode (far left of the 3 modes, on the bottom) and select a vertex on the edge of one of the fragments.  Notice it turns red (to show it is selected), now, with it still selected, go looking for a blue vertex somewhere (or many blue vertexes).  All the blue ones are the ones that correspond with the one red one.  This means the one red selected one and all the blue ones can be stitched together.  Now, go to edge mode.  Select an edge that is on the edge of one of those small pieces.  Now go looking for a blue edge.  Yep, the red selected one and the blue edge can be stitched together (of course, you have to get them near each other and have them both selected red before you can stitch them).  I think starting with a box is an excellent idea to get the hang of it.

Once you have your skin made go back into 3ds max and go into the material editor.  Select an empty (gray) material and make sure the mapping channel is set to the one you did the unwrap uvw modifier on it (default is 1).  Down in the rollouts go looking for \"diffuse\" and a blank box to the right of it (should be near the top of the rollouts).  Click on that box.  It brings up the material selector.  Double click \"bitmap\".  It brings up a file browser window, go select your skin file.  When loaded up the material ball in the selector window will have the skin applied to it (it will look goofy).  The box you clicked on earlier will now have an \"M\" in it.  Make sure your mesh is selected drag the new material from the material selector over to the mesh (click & hold on the ball, drag over to the appropriate selected mesh).  If done correctly the skin should be applied and your mesh should look hella tight.

One thing to keep in mind about texporter is that its boundaries for the skin file are just a few pixels too small (resulting in seams on the mesh).  Just make your skin slightly larger than the boundaries and you will be fine.

:emerald:

Edit: Pro tip - make a checker board texture.  Now, apply that to your model (sam way as for the regular skin, except it will simply be a checkerboard).  Now go looking for places on your model where the ckeckerboard is stretched out (squares are diamonds).  Those are areas that you need to fix in your unwrap uvw modifier.  Click the

• next to the unwrap modifier and go to select face.  Now select the faces that are stretching the checkerboard texture.  Go into the  unwrap edit mode.  The faces you selected in the 3d viewport will be selected in the edit mode window.  Get in vertex edit mode and reposition the corner vertexes until the texture is back to squares in the 3d viewport.  This makes it so when you apply the real skin it is applied with as much quality as possible.

:emerald:

[WiseKran]

thanks for your time!

now im gunna go try that, and this afternoon ill post the results here. hopefully it will go well.

EDIT: i tried stitching together a sphere UV thing..   is this right?



I ended up with 2 large parts that dont fit inside the blue box...  and the 2 large parts i have wont join together without crazy distortion..    so do i leave it like this?

EDIT: and i beleive i did something wrong

[ArcaneFalcon]

It would almost be better to unwrap it like a cube:

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    []                 ()
[][][][]  becomes  ()()()()
    []                 ()

But you have the right idea.  Yes, you need to make them fit inside the blue box.  You can select them and then use the scale tool to make them smaller if you need, or you can try rotating and repositioning them to get them to fit.  Or, I think there is a tool that can do it automatically for you, but I prefer to do it by hand.  

In the material editor, where it says \"repeat\" and has a 1 next to it, up it to about 10 or so in both the x and y direction.  This will make the squares smaller on your sphere and therefore easier to see if they are being stretched.  Also, the hard lines are where the edges of those 2 pieces are.  It isn\'t necessarily bad because you will be taking this into account when you do your skin.

[WiseKran]

i dont know how to unwrap it like a cube
i just hit something in there that said \"flat mapping\" or something like that, how do i choose different methods to unwrap?


so all i have to do from here is scale it down so it fits inside the blue box.. nothing else?     after it is all inside the blue box, how do i go about applying a texture such as an eyeball.. or something

i have read that tut you gave me over and over, but it talks about \"planar\" maping, but it sounds automatic and i would rather do it manually and learn

[EDIT] Ok after alot of experimenting i have finnaly got it,

here have a look



also , some of the bloodshot lines dont exactly match up,  how can i tell when im making a texture if those lines match up exactly?   here is the UV map and the texture





as you can see, i went for a long shot and i tried to match up the bloodshot lines, i was close, but unfortunatly not close enough.. is there any trick to this?

i feel like i have made some good progress :]

[ArcaneFalcon]

Very nice!  I know it\'s confusing to learn, but I think you\'re well on your way.

As for making the lines match up, it is really impossible to make things match up perfectly on the seams.  On your current uv map you could put the center of the eye in the middle of the + on the skin, rather than on one of the wings.  That would give you more room to make the bloodshot lines without having to cross seams.  The box unwrap isn\'t the best for a sphere (usually a sphere or cylinder works better) but it is great for learning.  If you are trying to make an eye try taking a look at Zeraph\'s floating eye monster (a few threads down).  That has a cylindrical mapping (though he used a geosphere I think) and doesn\'t have a seam anywhere except the center of the pupil and point exactly opposite that one (on the back).  I think it would be easier to see if you just take a look, his map and skin are posted in there somewhere.

[WiseKran]

Yes i figured that out on my own, lol but it isnt worth it to post the results, but they look great!

um i dont know what your talking about when you say \"box unwrap\" or \"cylindrical\"    

when i first open the uv map, that is the one i used for the second eye i made, and that is the one zeraph use, i beleive,

secondly

when i look at the options, all i see is \"flaten\" \"normal\" and \"unfold\"  mapping,      where do you see the cylindrical and cube?

anyways, i think i am getting the hang of it :]

ps: excuse my english please, although a speak it very well, it isnt my first language

EDIT:: here is new render using the kind of maping zeraph used, i made my own texture applied bump mapping, and played around with specualrity an stuf, then for the finishing tuoches i put in a few lights to make it look really glossy, i think it turned out pretty well

[Adeli]

Very nice WiseKran...
There is a lot of work needed huh?
I recently finished that claw tutorial, I ignored them for a while, just playing for fun.

[ArcaneFalcon]

when i look at the options, all i see is \"flaten\" \"normal\" and \"unfold\" mapping, where do you see the cylindrical and cube?

Before you apply an unwrap uvw modifier, try applying a uvw map modifier.  Those options are in the uvw map modifier rollout.