Hard Light Productions Forums
Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: Flipside on December 08, 2006, 02:10:37 pm
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Ok, I'm slowly working my way through a Heavy Assault Cruiser and decided to type up a Tutorial as I went along, the first part takes you through some of the basics of using Photoshop to texture your model, including bump-mapping for possible normal maps or texture baking. The techniques listed here are at a pretty basic level, but are designed to be built on as you work.
http://www.aqsx85.dsl.pipex.com/Tutorial_Part1.doc
Hope it's useful :)
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yay :yes:
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Yarrr, can you make a .pdf or something? I don't have Microsoft Word or Works, and I can't remember what the OpenOffice link is. Wordpad can't "convert" the pictures. =/
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http://download.openoffice.org/1.1.5/index.html
There's the OpenOffice link.
I'll try to get a PDF up in the next day or so though :)
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Ahhh I see you use one PSD for everything diffuse/bump. I usually do them in seperate psd files, mainly cause i've got 5 or 6 seperate groups just for the diffuse texture.
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Usually at the beginning stage I'll stick to just one but divide it up into layer groups. I tend to try to one overall texture because it helps co-ordinate the colour/bump maps :) I quote like the way you have colour only 'sub-panels' on your models though, I might look at something similar for this one. You wouldn't believe how frustrating it was to keep flattening and saving the layers to do a quick render in Lightwave ;)
The main thing the texture lacks at the moment is 'character' since that's a final stage of the texture-making process, I'll be referring people to your grime-making tutorial to help them with that :)
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Lightwave doesn't support PSD (with layers)? :shaking:
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Interesting. To think I hand-draw all of the "effects" in my maps.....
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Interesting. To think I hand-draw all of the "effects" in my maps.....
:eek2: That must be a real ***** to do.
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Lightwave doesn't support PSD (with layers)? :shaking:
Actually it does :nervous:. Forgot about that...
Interesting. To think I hand-draw all of the "effects" in my maps.....
I used to do the same thing, but with the new features of the Engine and the fact I do texture baking now rather than pre-make the 3d-effects, my style has changed significantly over the years.
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Ahhh your baking your bump map right into the diffuse map :)
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Ahhh your baking your bump map right into the diffuse map :)
Yup, I do my texture baking in Lightwave which works a little different to 3DS Max as far as baking is concerned I think. It does, however have the advantage (I think) of being able to burn to a different texture map, which means I can take multiple-mapped models and then burn all of those maps onto a single seperate map applied to the entire mesh.
Visually, I actually think the quality of the 3DS Max texture burning is slightly better, but I'm comfortable with the Lightwave interface :)
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Very nice tutorial.
The help lines... man... that's a great idea.
I did use help lines too, but not to this extent. This is a useful trick. :)
Interesting. To think I hand-draw all of the "effects" in my maps.....
I do whatever looks best. Sometimes a little bit mixing of both looks best.
It's interesting how hand-drawn stuff looks sometimes more 'correct' than the baked stuff. For SoL, it's pretty much hand-drawing all the time. To achieve a less realistic and more 'stylish' look. ;)
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Ahhh your baking your bump map right into the diffuse map :)
Yup, I do my texture baking in Lightwave which works a little different to 3DS Max as far as baking is concerned I think. It does, however have the advantage (I think) of being able to burn to a different texture map, which means I can take multiple-mapped models and then burn all of those maps onto a single seperate map applied to the entire mesh.
Visually, I actually think the quality of the 3DS Max texture burning is slightly better, but I'm comfortable with the Lightwave interface :)
Oh you mean bake several textures into one? Max does that, although I definetely don't recommend it, it modifies the UVmap terribly.
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http://www.aqsx85.dsl.pipex.com/Tutorial_Part1.pdf
PDF Format Document for those who don't have access to .doc files :)