Universal Forum Archive

I am new to 3DS Max.
I am makeing a vehicle, andI almost have the model finished. How do I go about adding color, headlights, windows, ect.?

ack. Where to start :)

Um, you need to do two things: first, uvwmap your model. That's where you tell Max how to "flatten" the polys in the 3d model onto a 2d bitmap. Then, you need to uvwunwrap your model. That's where you tell Max whereabouts on the bitmap each poly's texture will go.

You can do this two ways: manually, using Max's uvwmapping and uvwunwrapping modifiers; or automatically, using a tool such as chiliskinner. A texture exporting tool, such as Texporter, is also pretty much invaluable for creating an outline template you can paint on. I tend to use a combination of manual and chiliskinner...tools are good for simple shapes but anything organic or otherwise complex is often better skinned by hand.

It's waay too complicated for me to explain here, though actually when you get your head around it, it's pretty straightforward. Unless you're hedge, anyway :p It's the most time-consuming bit of modelling (aside from actually painting the bitmap, probably), but it's where your model will stand or fall, IMO.

Find some texturing tutorials (try http://www.computerarts.co.uk/tutorials ... p?id=30328 and http://www.animatricity.com/pages/tutorials.htm for starters. There are hundreds of quake/unreal/half-life-related tutorials out there too, and the principals are the same.

f

I tried texporter, but was unable to get the settings correct.
Right now, working with chiliskinner. I like this program a lot better, but still trying to understand the whole process. My vehicle doesn't want to unfold.
However, I am reading through tutorials.
If you have any tips or hints, feel free to pass the knowledge!!
Thanks

SA

Actually I found the tutorials on the chiliskinner site to be very useful indeed, though what it lacked was a straightforward explanation of what it's doing. This might all be confusing or unhelpful or already obvious to you, but here goes...

Basically... what chili is doing is making a copy of your model; then exploding the copy into its component parts; and then giving you tools to join the model back together in a way that lets you flatten all of the polys from 3d into 2d - literally squashing them flat. The aim is to preserve the shape of each poly as best as possible, so as not to introduce squishing and tearing in the texture - and at the same time make it easy for an artist to paint on the final texture bitmap by ensuring the headlights, for instance, are in the right place on the bitmap in relation to the radiator grill. You do that by using chili to join the vertices and edges of the exploded polys.

When you're done welding vertices and edges - ie, when you think the model copy will flatten nicely - you then use Chili to flatten it. It tells you if there is a problem with the way you've joined stuff together; sometimes it lets you go ahead and flatten the polys anyway, sometimes you have to go back and change the way you've joined stuff before it'll work.

Assuming it all flattens ok, you then use chili to optimise the flat version into a square shape (a plane) - it works out how it thinks it's best to lay out the shapes to maximise the use of space; and then it lets you apply a planar texture map to the whole flat thing, so each of the flat polys has texture coordinates on a square bitmap.

Then it lets you do some clever magic stuff that still amazes me - morph all the flat polys in the copy back onto their counterparts on the original model. Weld all the vertices back together (cos you exploded it originally), and hey presto - one skinned model.

Try to think in terms of origami, and you'll get it :) Imagine you had to make a template of your model on a bit of flat paper. By carefully choosing which edges are joined together, and which aren't, you could draw an outline template that someone could cut and fold back into the shape of the original model.

Chili tries to estimate how you want the polys to connect when it explodes the model. It often gets them wrong so you tend to spend time detaching polys and reattaching them somewhere more sensible. And then using Max's unwrap tools (for example) to pull the vertices around on the uvmap to get the best overall effect.

Again, though, go thru the tutorial - it'll prolly help...
f

it's pretty straightforward. Unless you're hedge, anyway :p

heh, yeh 6 months later and i think i almost figured it out.


i give myself two or three days before i forget the whole thing all over again

Oh, and - Texporter is useful when you've finished skinning your model. It just lets you take the texture coordinates from your model and export them in bitmap form, with control over the colours and lines used in the template. You end up with a template bitmap with the outline of all the bits of your model on - perfect presents for overworked artistes like hedge :) You can then use a paint prog to notate the template.

There are loads of tools that combine various bits of this operation - some skinning tools also let you export texture templates, and some texture tools include skinning (texturing/uvw) functions. I dunno, I get by with Chili and texporter, and an awful lot of feckin about it Max.

Some other hints (jeez, I'm being helpful today):

- Take chili's advice about using a chequerboard mapper bitmap to heart. Very very useful
- Chili is rubbish at cylinders, spheres and very complex shapes. For cylinders and spheres, I usually let chili do whatever it likes, and then when i've finished skinning and have the final morphed, welded model back again, I apply Max's uvmapping modifier with the revelevant settings to the tricky bits of the model and fiddle with it from there
- For very complex shapes it's generally a case of winging it, or more likely, needing to redesign the model to make it flow better.

f

you mean max lets you make things other than cubes?

This is my first project, and I will get the hang of it as I fiddle with it.
Max is a powerful tool, but 3D modeling is a difficult concept for the beginner.
I followed the TUT of Chilli and could NOT get that cube to unwrap correctly!

Yeah, uit'll take six months;)

SA

Heh - it didn't work for me first time round, either :) Is this the one you're trying?

http://www.chilliweb.co.uk/chilliskinne ... C_Case.htm

As it's Xmas, and I'm still feeling unaccountably generous (bah! humbug), if u wanna send me ur attempt i'll try to work out wot's going wrong...

NOSPAMalien@alienbraincookies.com

(without the nospam, obviously :)
f

heh, you just gave your email to a silent assasin. he's gonna ninja your inbox.

oh feck :)
f

public disclaimer: yes that's fooli.





the one with the swords.





(...i keed, i keed......)

I have about 10 differant (unfinished) versions now. I have been reading through tut after tut on trying to find the best way to model my car. I haven't found the best way yet. Therefore you don't have to worry about me sending anything to your inbox!!

I appreciate the offer though, and will continue to patiantly learn 3ds max.

SA

*flog hedge :)

Well, good luck SA - i started teaching myself Max and 3d modelling in general about 2 years ago, and i'm almost at the stage now where I know just how much I don't yet know about it all :) It's amazin when u get ur head around it, though. Keep on tryin', and mail me if u get seriously stuck.

f

OK, I have tryed useing the box method, and now moved toward splines.
I kinda like splines better, except when I have the Blue Prints set up (according to the tutorials) and draw the splines (front, side, and top) they cross each other, just like the blue prints. It isn't like I can just select the whole side, front, or top and move them to the correct location because they are just simple lines!!

My question is, how do I do this right? According to ALL the tuts the side should coincide with the front and top!

Thanks,

SA

Ahh... not quite sure what you mean. You can select and move splines just the same as you'd move polys. Have u got a URL to the tut?

I find splines more confusing than box modelling... but aye, in theory you can use em to make nice curvy looking cars and stuff :)
f

I have been useing a bunch of tuts, and they all pretty much say the same things.

When I set up BP's the look like a + sign in the middle of perspective view. After makeing the front, side, ect. they are also in this + form. They are too close (and overlapping) the other groups of splines, therefore selecting all groups of splines instead of 1 to move into position.


The author never said anything about having to rearrange the splines, which leaves me to believe as he made them, they were already into position.

I would use box modeling, but I don't know the controls well enough to mold the box:/

Hmm. It's a bit hard to work out what u mean without some kinda visual aid.

Box modellin depends on your control of the edit mesh modifier... there's a lot of stuff in there, but basically it's just one modifier - to select and move vertices about, weld them together, splitting polys to add detail.. etc. Splines need control of all sorts of cross section and surface tools, which is why they scare me. They also tend to create much higher poly models. Anyway, use wotever works!

Btw - if you wanna make a simple box model look smoother and curvier (ideal for cars)... make your basic shape with a lil bit of detail and add a meshsmooth modifier with one or two iterations.

Couple of screenies of some of the stuff i've been workin on recently - hopefully to encourage and show what's possible - all this is box modelled...





f

Here is my progress with the boxes. Notice the descrepancies on the hood I put another box on top, and used the cut command to extrude diagonal. Something went wrong though.

Well, tell me whatcha think

[img]C:\Documents and Settings\Desktop\3DS_BP\front copy.jpg[/img]
[img]C:\Documents and Settings\Desktop\3DS Mx\BP\side copy.jpg[/img]

Feck

How do I insert