Help a newbie Understand texture mapping & scaling better....please?

[merc187 46]

Hey guys - I've been posting on this forum for the last 6-7 days but am a brand new Simtropolis member. A lot of you guys seem to be veterans and regulars here so pardon my new-ness or lack of specific ettiqutte I may be foregoing.

The last month has been spent on figuring out how to manage Blender and learning definitions, procedures, methods, and ways to do things all of which I'm not even close at being even a true "novice" at. This was clear when I created my first POS model (Golf Cart) and tried to build a texture map for it. I mean, it turned out embarassingly horrible. Really bad. I'd like to see if any users/members here with more advice are willing to share any tips and helpful advice at what a new modeler should be thinking about when creating these texture maps.

I'm very proficient in Photoshop and digital art programs but this entire modeling thing is really new to me. I was hoping someone would be able to clearly explain how to scale down images into your diffuse texture so that they match the model faces? I'm STRUGGLING with this. I understand the first step is to work out your UV Mapping which is a task but how do you go:

* FROM THIS: https://i.imgur.com/cT8AEJC.png

* TO THIS: https://i.imgur.com/y48LNYE.jpg

I understand as well this may be the simplest, Modeling 101 answer but I do appreciate any insight you guys can provide. I have some of the basics down but again I'm just lost and want to practice and learn how to make these right and at the highest quality my skill will allow. Thanks again everyone!

[DethKwok 238]

This is how I do it: The process might be easier to understand if we work with one face at a time.

Select the face you want to texture in edit mode, open up the UV editor, add a diffuse with the add button, then unwrap.

 

You should get a polygon of whatever your mapping surface is. For example, a square face should put a giant square on your diffuse. you can click and drag vertices, lines or whole faces to wherever you want on the diffuse. What I do is to have a texture ready, or a texture thats blank, that'll be updated as I go along.

After you assign one face to a certain area on your diffuse, you do the next.
There are other ways to speed up this procedure. You can do multiple faces, or have an object thats already mapped, and duplicate the object

I'm a novice aswell, I'm sure an expert blender user could explain more functionality.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

I never did it before but I think you can export UVs to bring into Photoshop (Unwrap model>export UVs>line up textures in Photoshop) But the easier way is to just use the UV mapping tools in an app like Blender. You basically unwrap the model faces and move the UVs (mesh face) around to line up the texture.

 

Go through this course for Blender taught by a very clear and to the point professor http://gryllus.net/Blender/3D.htmlEach lesson is short and effective. Got me going in no time. There is a lesson on UV mapping in there also.

[Sims firehouse 198]

I was learning how to create textures and found some useful messages in a video explaining the texture-baking process.

This video does not cover earlier steps, how he had textured the material:

First, go into edit mode and select faces to assign materials, and then add new textures for the materials.
Second, create a UV map for the textures used by the materials.
There is a useful blender plugin call sure UVW that can help you map the material texture onto the UV space.
https://developer.blender.org/T31788

Once you have applied the materials and their textures UV-mapped, you can follow the demonstration below and finally bake all material textures into a single texture with a new UV map, both of which will be imported in the game.

[merc187 46]

Thanks for the tips guys - I do appreciate it.  Making a bit of ground on all your tips.  Still going to dabble with the texture piece but I already see how this is going to help me TEN FOLD for getting the models to look better than my first run.  I made up a little screen shot and it was actually a lot easier than one would think.  The actual entire UV's got exported on this test building I put together this afternoon but once you organize them piece by piece I can finally see how the precise maps are made on the photoshop/texturing side.  Thank you all for the links.  @Sims Firehouse - that is an awesome link, thank you.  That just opened up what "baking" inside blender can mean for CSL and exporting texures and other maps easily.  Just opened my world up man.  Do you usually apply several materials and various textures directly within blender and bake them out to maps that way?  I've seen mixed responses on photoshopping/gimping/etc. their maps outside of the modeling programs.  Not sure if it's quality or versatility with the photo editors that make them beneficial.

 

EDIT:  If you un-check "all UV's" in the export menu and ensure you have the selected UV's in your 3D viewport window selected (say if you wanted to texture just the front face of a building's UV scheme) you will get the following image - which is just the "pinned" UV's I had in my example (above, or below I think - somewhere in this post): https://i.imgur.com/7MNvUz2.png