<div class="IPBDescription">using lith unwrap</div> Ok, so you want to know how to skinmesh?
Firstly, get the model you want, and make it an ms3d file. I chose the gman for this tutorial. I attached this model so you can follow the tutorial perfectly.
Download lithunwrap v1.3 (i sware by it <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->) <a href='http://c3.woosah.org/LithUnwrap.zip' target='_blank'>http://c3.woosah.org/LithUnwrap.zip</a>
then open up your model in lithunwrap. Your model should be a messy pile of lines and shapes. select all of them by dragging a box around them with your mouse. Then press Tools --> UV Mapping --> Decal press z front for now and scale to mapping space. it should turn out to be something like this:
3. im going to choose the head to be the first part to skinmesh, so drag a box around the head (might be easier if you zoom in around it) then when its selected press Groups --> Modify...
add a new group and call it "head" then press ok, Press the button named "assign" then hit ok. close that window and then you should see a new group appear in the menu on the right hand side, click on that.
now zoom out so you can see the whole workspace (indicated with a grey outline). Select the head and goto Tools --> uv mapping --> decal. this time you will choose right. it should turn out to fill out the whole workspace with the side of the head. deselect everything, then just select the few faces along the face like so:
5. pull the face away like in the last picture, then deselect that. select the remaining faces and drag them out of the workspace. We will deal with those bits later. ok now select the face part again, do a front decal wit the uv tools like we did earlier(Tools --> UV Mapping --> Decal --> front). That should give you a rough outline of the face, select that and goto Edit --> Scale --> Arbitrary... Press x0.5 which scales it by a half, so its half the size. Close that window, and then drag the scaled down face into the top right corner. That part is meshed. Now drag in the other bit of the head. Now do the same for the top of the head, but this time instead of doing a front decal, do a top decal, so it lays it out flat from the top point of view. It should look like something around this after you have scaled it by a half etc:
Now do all the rest of the head, but leave out the neck. now, as you have the neck selected, goto Tools --> UV mapping --> Cylindrical. when the menu pops up, choose the Y axis, as we want it to get all sides of the shape around the Y axis. make sure capped is unticked. Then press scale to selection space. you should get a curvy kinda line with vertex's inbetween them. like so:
ok, now for the cool bit, Press Materials --> Modify... goto add, and call it checker. When you have done this, select the material and press properties, Press maps then it will have a drop down menu called diffuse map. from that menu select checker, then goto properties. in the 2 text box menus put 50 in both of them. Then click ok in that window, then ok again. You should still have the materials window up and neck selected, press assign, then close the window. Press Preview --> Show model. use Ctrl and drag the mouse to move the 3d model about. Drag the model so you are looking at the neck. You should see a black and white checker on his neck. its slightly stretched sideways, as we want them to be perfect squares, so the final texture isnt stretched. It should look like this:
now close that window, and it should take you back to the workspace. Now as we saw it was stretched sideways, we stretch the mesh sideways. Press Ctrl + S to do manual resize. You should get a Green box around the selected area. Drag it sideways by using the corner tabs, while trying not to resize it up too much. Then goto preview --> show model, look at the neck again and see if its got squares rather then rectangles, if not try resizing again until your happy. Once done, drag that so its neatly in a corner making room for other objects.
And there you have it, a skinmeshed head, try other different UV mapping techniques for the body and experiment to see which one suits it best with the checker material to show you if its stretched.
ok, click on the mesh u wanna save, press the floppy icon. save it whatever u want. then select the group with the material u wanna put on, then press materials --> modify. press add and call it 1 or whatever then press assign. press properties after selecting that material then press maps. on the top drop down menu select bitmap, then properties, press change and locate your bitmap.then keep pressing ok till u get back to ur workspace, then preview ur model
it gets the sides of the model, lays them out flat so you can open them in a photo editing program, and apply trxtures to it, so the model knows to put what texture where
Assigning groups is not the same as skin meshing. Comparing lith unwrap to the skin meshing type tool in milkshape is like comparing photoshop to MS Paint. You are very limited in how you can layout your skin in milkshape. Lith unwrap is much more powerful and therefore flexible.
Once you have your skinmesh you can export a picture file of some sort (can't remember what file type it is) and then open that file in your picture editting software of choice and create a texture to go on top of that map. You then colour index this file and save it as an 8 bit bitmap. You then use that file as your material for the model's skin.
ok i was talking to ctx earlier and this is my understanding of skinmeshing:
When your done, it is like a template for creating textures. you have the area (barrel or head or whatever) and you can make the skin go in the space. When you are done skinmeshing, you save your work as a 256 color bmp and like...256x256...depending on what the modeler needs. then the skinmesher gives it to someone who can draw in photoshop, and that person draws the skins on the skinmesh. then he hands it back to like...me for say. then i can use the texture coordinate editor and i assign the areas to the actual physical areas of my model.
When your done, it is like a template for creating textures. you have the area (barrel or head or whatever) and you can make the skin go in the space. When you are done skinmeshing, you save your work as a 256 color bmp and like...256x256...depending on what the <b>skinner</b> needs. then the skinmesher gives it to someone who can draw in photoshop, and that person draws the skins on the skinmesh. then he hands it back to like...me for say. then i <b>apply the texture to the skinmesh</b>
Just a quick question, could you maybe do a quick tutorial except about using a gun instead of a gman player model <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
no need to web. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->
that's why it's here in this *special* forum <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->
when i opened my model in lithunwrap it made all the groups that I have in milkshape and put one thing in each group. How do i put everything in 1 group so that i can pack it all together for the skinning bmp? (or possibly 2 bmps)
Comments
then open up your model in lithunwrap. Your model should be a messy pile of lines and shapes.
select all of them by dragging a box around them with your mouse. Then press Tools --> UV Mapping --> Decal
press z front for now and scale to mapping space. it should turn out to be something like this:
then when its selected press Groups --> Modify...
add a new group and call it "head" then press ok, Press the button named "assign" then hit ok. close that window and then you should see a new group appear in the menu on the right hand side, click on that.
now zoom out so you can see the whole workspace (indicated with a grey outline). Select the head and goto Tools --> uv mapping --> decal.
this time you will choose right. it should turn out to fill out the whole workspace with the side of the head.
deselect everything, then just select the few faces along the face like so:
when the menu pops up, choose the Y axis, as we want it to get all sides of the shape around the Y axis. make sure capped is unticked. Then press scale to selection space. you should get a curvy kinda line with vertex's inbetween them. like so:
And there you have it, a skinmeshed head, try other different UV mapping techniques for the body and experiment to see which one suits it best with the checker material to show you if its stretched.
Happy Meshing ^^
Although i'm too lazy to skinmesh, if i ever have to this will help me alot.
save it whatever u want. then select the group with the material u wanna put on, then press materials --> modify. press add and call it 1 or whatever then press assign. press properties after selecting that material then press maps. on the top drop down menu select bitmap, then properties, press change and locate your bitmap.then keep pressing ok till u get back to ur workspace, then preview ur model
it gets the sides of the model, lays them out flat so you can open them in a photo editing program, and apply trxtures to it, so the model knows to put what texture where
Great tutorial Cookie <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
indeed <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->
also, after your done skinmeshing..what do you do with the model next?
Once you have your skinmesh you can export a picture file of some sort (can't remember what file type it is) and then open that file in your picture editting software of choice and create a texture to go on top of that map. You then colour index this file and save it as an 8 bit bitmap. You then use that file as your material for the model's skin.
Hmm, maybe I didn't explain that too well.
he is right as he says, its like comparing paint to photoshop (paint being ms3d and lithunwrap being photoshop)
you can export your skinmesh to a picture file (bmp) and open it in photoshop to draw the textures etc
When your done, it is like a template for creating textures. you have the area (barrel or head or whatever) and you can make the skin go in the space. When you are done skinmeshing, you save your work as a 256 color bmp and like...256x256...depending on what the modeler needs. then the skinmesher gives it to someone who can draw in photoshop, and that person draws the skins on the skinmesh. then he hands it back to like...me for say. then i can use the texture coordinate editor and i assign the areas to the actual physical areas of my model.
am i correct?
When your done, it is like a template for creating textures. you have the area (barrel or head or whatever) and you can make the skin go in the space. When you are done skinmeshing, you save your work as a 256 color bmp and like...256x256...depending on what the <b>skinner</b> needs. then the skinmesher gives it to someone who can draw in photoshop, and that person draws the skins on the skinmesh. then he hands it back to like...me for say. then i <b>apply the texture to the skinmesh</b>
that's why it's here in this *special* forum <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->