Newbie Lw User Interested In Skinning

[Skol]

If you guys are behind on skinners, I have D3 & LW8 & Gimp, but really no excuse to use them.

I know how to UV map (as in: I've read tutorials and clicked a few buttons), and I learn quick otherwise, although I don't have much to show except for some LW renders that demonstrates my knowledge of said button clicking. I'm very new to this. My experience w/ photoshop (and the gimp, by extension) is a couple of years.

 

I've been following darkmod for a couple months, and thief for more than a few years (including dromed), and I want to help. So I'm wondering if I'm qualified, or, at any rate, may-as-well-be-qualified-enough , before I send an e-mail.

[Springheel]

We can always try giving you something to uvmap and texture, and see how it goes. I'm pretty sure there are some untextured models sitting around, though I'm at work so I can't check for sure.

[Skol]

We can always try giving you something to uvmap and texture, and see how it goes. I'm pretty sure there are some untextured models sitting around, though I'm at work so I can't check for sure.

 

 

Actually, interesting new development:

 

Because my computer's motherboard is faulty, windows has trouble loading at boot. It's always been this way. however, windows has decided that I've changed the hardware configuration so much that I have to reactive windows within 3 days. Since I've reformatted so many times, that activation key no longer works. So my computer has a life span of exactly 3 days. By trying to troubleshoot THROUGH windows, I have to buy a new license FOR it.

 

Money grubbing bastards. Wow.

I'm furious.

[SneaksieDave]

You need only call microsoft support and tell them that. They'll give you a new key with no hassle.

[Skol]

Thanks for the help. I'm back up and running with a clean hard drive

 

(plus tools)

Edited September 28, 2006 by Skol

[Skol]

Aright, I've UV mapped and almost completed (diffuse) texturing on a model. That's gone good.

But should I make specular/diffuse/height maps, or just a diffuse maps Normal maps?

 

I don't know that much about radiant, so I'm not sure what it is you all need.

[Crispy]

You need a diffuse map (for colour), and a normal map (for bumpiness, and making the model look higher-poly than it really is). You can often get away without specular, depending on what the model is supposed to be made of, but if it's metal then you might want one.

 

That's all.

[Skol]

You need a diffuse map (for colour), and a normal map (for bumpiness, and making the model look higher-poly than it really is). You can often get away without specular, depending on what the model is supposed to be made of, but if it's metal then you might want one.

 

That's all.

 

 

Excellent, thank you

[Skol]

Crispy, would you mind if I PM a few questions to ya?

[Skol]

Great, now I'm spamming the thread

 

Another coupla questions, because I'm concerned about taking liberties I'm not supposed to take:

 

I'm under the assumption that there aren't hi-poly models for these models (they're mechanical and don't require loads of geometry). Since there are a few curved surfaces, is it okay for me to either subpatch and freeze or smooth a few surfaces, maybe add a few dents here and there, and use

that to generate a normal map?

 

Second of all: as much as I like making UV maps (really, it's like a puzzle), will atlas mapping work sometimes? I understand now the beauty of surface baker, and in general would prefer to surface edit a model instead of going straight to PS and using textures from sources with FUD fair-use claims.

 

basically:

Am I allowed to create normal maps by upping the detail on the source model

and

Can I atlas map in conjunction with surface baker (will it be more seamless, at any rate)?

 

(to clarify: I unwrapped one model using endomorphs, but this caused seams I hadn't predicted, and I'm looking for a quicker way to UV/texture)

Edited October 5, 2006 by Skol

[Crispy]

Crispy, would you mind if I PM a few questions to ya?

Go ahead, you don't need to ask to PM anyone. It would rather defeat the point of PMs if you had to ask on the forum for permission first all the time, wouldn't it?

 

I don't see anything necessarily wrong with making the high-poly model by using the low-poly one (just make sure you keep the low-poly one around!). I dunno whether it would be easiest way to go (depends on the model perhaps), but as long as the end result looks good, you can do what you like! This is art, not science.

 

As for UV maps, if it looks good (minimal stretching), I doubt anyone's going to be complaining. A good way of checking for stretching is to apply a checkerboard texture to your UV-mapped object. If the squares look square, then you're good; if any of them are stretched and skewed then that's bad, so you should try to avoid that.

 

The checkerboard texture trick also gives you an idea of the resolution that you're using for each part of the model; some parts of models can deserve higher resolution than others. For example, faces are sometimes made disproportionately large in the UV map, so that you can put a lot of detail on them. But for most objects you should try and give all the pieces the same resolution, so that it's easier to get the same level of bumpiness etc. on all of the pieces.

 

I've never used Lightwave, so I can't answer your questions about endomorphs / atlas maps / surface baker (not knowing what they are!). Sorry.

[Springheel]

I'm under the assumption that there aren't hi-poly models for these models (they're mechanical and don't require loads of geometry). Since there are a few curved surfaces, is it okay for me to either subpatch and freeze or smooth a few surfaces, maybe add a few dents here and there, and use

that to generate a normal map?

 

To be frank, those models were made over a year ago and I doubt anyone but me even remembers them, so anything that you want to do to improve their appearance is fine with me.

 

Can I atlas map in conjunction with surface baker (will it be more seamless, at any rate)?

 

This I don't know.

 

Here's an example of one of our other mechanical models, just to give you something to compare to:

[Skol]

You guys are cool

 

Thanks

 

fyi, atlas mapping just puts all polys on the same plane and keeps them seperated on the UV map to prevent overlap, but otherwise it has no regard for how they connect to each other (unless they're already connected on an arbitrary plane) - I'm pretty sure most modelling apps have something similar.

Edited October 6, 2006 by Skol