CREATING GAME ART FOR 3D ENGINES- P9

CREATING GAME ART FOR 3D ENGINES- P9: Iwish to thank the editing team at Charles River Media (Emi Smith,Karen Gill, Jennifer Blaney, and Jenifer Niles) for their help in gettingthis book publish-ready. Thanks, too, to my technical editor, MikeDuggan. Also deserving recognition are the guys who make the TorqueGame Engine available, GarageGames, who directly or indirectly madethis book and the accompanying CD possible. In particular, I want tothank Joe Maruschak at GarageGames for the great articles and forumanswers that have helped me and many others get a handle on this engine.I...
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CREATING GAME ART FOR 3D ENGINES- P9218 Creating Game Art for 3D Engines has a wide range of tools for creating textures in the actual mesh. The two images shown in Figure 9.9 started as planes. The steel texture on the right was created by setting the plane segments to 20 × 20. Some of the polygons were beveled, and a MeshSmooth modifier was applied. The reptile texture on the left was converted to an Editable Poly and subdivided with the Cut tool. Some of the sections were beveled, and Edge Tesselation was applied. The entire model had the MeshSmooth modifier applied to it. To take this idea further, you can unwrap the model to a UV template, paint the template, and apply the result to the model again. This is how the reptile texture was created. First, the model was unwrapped using the Unwrap UVWs modifier. The UVs were used to create a template, which was then imported to Photoshop and painted with darker green paint in the lower faces and lighter green paint in the more elevated faces. This texture was then reapplied to the model in 3ds Max. At this point, you can create another rendering of the model in its textured state for the final texture bitmap. FIGURE 9.9 You can model textures in 3ds Max and then render them as a texture file. Chapter 9 Character Texturing 219TROUBLESHOOTING After a texture is on a model, problems with the unwrap can become more appar- ent. Misaligned Unwrap modifiers can be disorienting to deal with, and distorted textures can ruin a model’s believability. Misaligned Unwrap If you have an Unwrap UVW modifier that has become misaligned, meaning that the seams for the UVs appear to have become offset from the actual model location, unfreeze and unhide everything, and make sure all the modifiers are “on” in the modifier stack. Distorted Textures If you are going to use rivets or some other round design in your texture, be careful about using the Normal map to unwrap the model. If the model is not flat to the front or back view (or whichever view you use), you can get texture distortion, which is more obvious if the texture has circular elements, because the oblong shape is a dead giveaway. This can also be the case if you have not carefully corrected the UVs by moving vertices in the UVW Unwrap dialog box. In either case, it ruins the believability of the effect. In those instances, it’s better to unwrap using a Planar map aligned to the model with Best Align than using Normal map.SUMMARY Character texturing begins with a template that lays out the UVs for the model in such a way that they are as flat and as recognizable as possible. Layer Styles and Layer Masking are powerful tools for creating and enhancing textures. Shadows and highlights can give thickness to a layer of paint or make a handmade scratch look like it cuts into the surface. Scratches, ribs, dents, grime, and dirt layers can make a surface look more authentic. Digital photos are a quick way to create a face texture, whether the image has to be stretched to fit the UVs, or it has to be cut and pasted into different pieces that fit and then blended together. 3ds Max is a great texture creation tool; you can model, render, and hand-paint textures in Photoshop and then reapply them to a model.This page intentionally left blankCHAPTER10 CHARACTER RIGGING In This Chapter • Rigging—Overview • Minimizing Vertex Collapse • Fitting the Biped to the Character Mesh • Examining the Skinning Process • Moving and Rotating Bones to Check Vertex Assignments • Rigging a Robot • Using the Default Player Biped with a Custom Mesh • Combining Bones with Biped 221222 Creating Game Art for 3D EnginesRIGGING—OVERVIEW Rigging is the process of creating and applying a skeletal structure to your character mesh so that when the different bones move, the mesh moves with them in a con- vincing way. You can achieve the skeleton part of the equation with either biped or bones. The skeletal system is connected to the character mesh by using the Skin modifier. By taking care in how you create the mesh, how you create the skeleton, and how you tie the two together, you increase your chances of success when it comes to the final stages of animating and exporting to the Torque Game Engine. The difficulties of r ...