Wednesday, 6 January 2010

Having some serious issues with TEXTURING!

Today I've been trying...

To do some test texturing on my models and my head is currently spinning! There are so many different ways (well, a few various ways) to apply a texture onto a model. I have been calling my mate Anthony for some help as well as downloading some Texture Tutorials.

I have found a way but I'm not content with it. I have no time to be a perfectionist but it does count towards my Hons Degree. Confusion kicks in when I have for a texture that I want and then I put it to the right size but then applying that to my object is strange. Below there is my model's UV's


Viking Sword 1 UV




Metal Texture

How the heck do I place my texture in this shape correctly and accurately? I'm getting more confused with this process. I realized that I'm a learner by doing and watching someone do it then I can "copy" that process. It more difficult because I have to put it in and shrink it down but then am I not losing the quality of the texture?

An example is the UV above. The texture I have is 512x512 and the UV has been saved as 512x512 but the shape is square and the UV is whatever shape it is... so how do you apply this correctly??

This was difficult in not knowing whether this was correct but I had a go...


Placed this into PhotoShop




Try a ting dot com... (This is what I tried to see if it would work or if this is the correct/incorrect way)

I know this attempt is lazy but when you need to try something to test out a theory then it has to be done quickly!



This was all the pieces of my Viking Sword covered with the textures and I painted the handle part myself and added a few "extras" like Emboss, Pattern Overlay etc...

Maybe the way above (shrinking it to fit) will be the only way but is it the correct way? I'm no sure what to do. Since this is for the Unreal Engine 3 (UE3) it will have to be done as such. I need some assistance from someone... My Mentor works in Runcorn now so it's difficult to catch up for a tutorial now. College is closed due to the Snow and this really bites!

I'll be working on this for a while everyday so this Blog will be (should be) updated more often.

Below is my attempt/result so far... looks OK but I feel that I need better texturing skills! Ahrrrrrgggggg!!!!


Viking Sword Textured Render 1

I feel that this looks OK... since this is only a prop it will have to do I guess...




Viking Sword Render 2




Viking Sword Render 3...

Fixed the error on the first Sword Render image where the handle part was showing on the Sword Butt... Anyhow, today could have been better but at least I have done something!





2 comments:

  1. Hi Kevin. Seems like you have been really struggling here.

    What I have been trying to get into the heads of my second years is that the texturing needs to be kept relative. What I mean here is that you are trying to fill the UV's for the sword over one BIG texture wheras really you should be looking to combine textures and UV's of the smaller Assets into one or two texture pages.
    This initially confused alot of the students. But once you get your head round it it makes sense.
    What you have done is spread the UV ov the blade really wide. to try and fill the UV space. Now this is really bad because the Pixels on the blade model will then be really squashed up.
    So what you have to do is make the UV realative. So that the length and width of the unwrap are long and thin to match the actual blade. Then the handle, the ball at the end etc should also stay relative to the shape of the blade on the UV.
    This will mean that the Sword will then only take up a small space on a texture page thus leaving room to add another assets UV space onto the texture so that maybe two assets share 1 texture.
    This then means you are using less textures and saving memory.
    This also means that the textures you bring will be scaled down to fit your UV. This is the correct way to go.

    I know this might all seem alot to take in and its hard to explain without any visual aid. So It will be vital for you to come in next week if you can so that I can at least show you what I mean.

    All the best Kevin and keep going.

    Dean :D

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  2. Thanks Dean... I'll be having a go of this and I'll post up my results. I do understand what you mean I just think that my UV mapping needs to be better than the one above. I'll have some more goes and I'll also place another one of my weapons within the scene so that I can texture 2 models and save on texture memory. Thanks again!

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