Texturing

[DRedshot]

i wont make a video, but i think i can still help you out. There are probably plenty of videos on youtube, so if this doesnt help out, have a look there. This is assuming you already have made a box/mesh, and you want to apply a texture. this is focused on Maya, but the principles should apply to any 3d model editing software. (sorry about the long post )

You should create a new folder first, at the desktop, called "MyModelNameGoesHere", and put your texture image in here, then you can export your mesh here aswell.

1. So, you've made a model, and you want it to look nice. Well first off you have to assign a material to the mesh. the material affects details such as reflections and mattness, and also stores infomation about the texture you will be applying, so it is very important.

Spoiler below!

- Select the object in object mode
- right click>Assign New Material
- Then select any of the following materials:
- Blinn: Good for metals
- Lambert: Good for wood materials, not very reflective
- Phong: More for plastics/wet materials

2. now something should pop up at the right hand side of the screen, called for example "Lambert2"

Spoiler below!

- First rename it to something else (doesnt matter what)
- Under "Common Material Attributes" there should be an option called "Color". Click the checkered square to the right of it.

3. A box should pop up, called "Create Render Node"

Spoiler below!

- in the list at the right click "File"
- Change the name from "File1" to whateveryouwant
- scroll down to Image Name, Click the folder icon at the right, and browse untill you find the image of choice.

4. You have now assigned a colour to your material! Now if you click the textured button (little checkered sphere above window) you should see the texture! But if you look, its all messed up, this is because you have to do something called UV mapping. There are lots of tutorials everywere, but ill just go through the basics.

Spoiler below!

- First go into component (or edit) mode and select one face
- click the "Polygons" tab, near the top of the screen
- The last five checkered icons inside the "Polygons" tab represent UV mapping/editing. The last icon is the texture editor itself.
- Click the "Automatic Projection" icon (second from right)
- then click the last icon (texture editor)

5. Now you are in the texture editor. that orange square is the face you selected. You can manipulate this square untill it is in the correct position with the "Move UV Shell Tool" - its at the top left of the screen, below "Polygons"

Spoiler below!

- click move uv shell tool
- Next Click on the orange box. It should turn white. now use W to move, E to rotate, R to scale.

6. Repeat this (Steps 4 - 6) for all of the other faces (you can modify multiple faces at once by selecting more than one face before clicking one of the "Projection Icons"

7. Once it's all done you can export as openCollada, save it into the folder you made at the start, make sure all of the files have the same names (if you've made specular suffix with "_spec.dds" normal maps "_nrm.dds" alpha "_alpha.tga"....

- Now copy your folder to the entities folder and fine tue it in model editor, assign the .mat file in material editor et cetera, and it should work in your map!

Hopefully this helps, if it doesn't i wont be offended, it is hard to understand instructions when they are just written down. But there are loads of other tutorials, just search for them!