Okay - I really need the help ... has anyone made any custom textures for space ships, and if so can I see them? I'm a little confused at what custom textures should look like (ie, for ships, etc etc etc) and if I can get a couple which have been made before hand, I might be able to learn from them. Thanks Tracy

Hey there Tracy .. FastTrax has some that might work in the Chemical Studios link over there .. they are basically materials rather than image mapped textures. I have been trying to figure out how to get the textures lined up from a few lightwave models but it is kind of a pain. I have seen a good deal of metal ship type materials though. You might also try going to the sci-fi art forum at http://www.happy-soft.com/scifiart/ubb/Ultimate.cgi ... They might be able to help you some since it is directly what you seem to be interested in ... Good luck

If I rember you made the models in Rhino and then used UV Mapper.. Right? I think that one of the best looks will be using the bump maps they are the key to a great looking ship. Bumps will give you the best looks. You could make scars and stuff with bump maps Do you have Painter 3D? it comes with Poser 4. Spike

Painter is REALLY REALLY REALLY slow on my 233mmx even with 128megs of ram and a 3d graphic card... What I am after however is how a UVmap looks like - to see how it all fits together and how it is painted (designed) I don't know, I haven't seen any UVmap stuff and the only one I have seen which might be simular is Poser stuff (which isn't really any help) So what I'm looking for is some UVmap's so I can see how they are done... not how to make bump maps etc etc :) tracy

Have you used UV Mapper? It will make a UV map for you. http://home.pb.net/~stevecox/index.html Once you get the hang of it, you can make UV maps any way you want. Spike

One more thing; About Painter 3D Keep your 3D preview window small 200 x 200 or less. Spike

Yes I do use UVmap... however, because I don't know what the map is supposed to look like painted I'm a little confused about how I go about mapping them. That is why I want to see a UVMAP completed, so that I can get an idea about what it is that I have to do, how it looks, why my own ones look really stupied... etc etc etc Also - no matter what screen size I make Painter3d it always goes very very very slow. Imagin Byrce3d being used on a 486 with 8megs it feels like that.

Hummmm.... Ok UV maps can sometimes look odd. If you have a model and want to send it to me I will look at it this weekend and see what I can do. Please zip it first. Spike finch@dpix.com

Should I break each part of the model into smaller sections for the UVMapper... IE, export the engine, the top hull, the bottom hull... then do it that way? The tutorial on the UVMapper is really vage, and helps with Poser stuff - but I'm not doing Poser stuff (I haven't figured out how to make clothing so I am giving that a break for now) and everything I am doing is either rendered in Bryce4, or my friend who has 3dMax will render it if I can get it working in Bryce correctly. tracy

If you plan on painting each part differently I would break it up, but if you plan on giving it that one piece look keep it whole. If your model is a multi piece thats ok because UV Mapper gives you the option to select by group or name. When you made the model did you gice each part a name? this will make it easy in UV Mapper. Spike

If you want me to look at it, please send it to me before 4:00p pst. Spike

Yeah I did - ie engines, etc etc etc... the only thing is - when I design the image (I'm trying it in box view this time since there will be special stuff on the sides... ) I can't figure out how you know the angle of the UVmap bitmap etc That is why I was hoping to see someone elses work

I have a collection of fractal textures for Bryce4 including water-planes in fractals Anyone interested in such?

The only way to know what angle to use is to try different ones. Keep in mind you can use different map modes for each part of your model in UV Mapper. Without seeing the model it is hard to know what mode is best. Spike

Argh! Has anyone else noticed how communication over internet with the written word is so damn confusing :) Okay... this is what I'm getting at.... When you do a top and bottom UVmapper texture, where are the sides of the model on it? How do you paint onto that texture map that UVMapper has created for you. tracy-ann

UV Mapper will make a template. The bast way to use the template is to bring it into a paint program that suports multi layers like Photoshop. From there you just paint the template and save that new layer. use the new layer as your texture. I hope this helps some. Spike

Okay - I'm going to make a new template and show what I mean - how do you know from a planier version of the bmp that UVMAPPER makes where the sides of the object are - and then front and back? I just can't figure it out.

UV Mapper will try to split the nornals. What this meens is if you had a ball and used planier mapping with the default settings it would split it front half(closest to you) back half(farthest from you). But if you map a complex object with lots of holes and stuff the map could look odd. That is why it is best to split the object into multi parts if you can and map each part with the type of map that is best for that shape. ie: body = Planier engene = box If you rotate it 90 deg it will split it left right. 1. select all 2. Resize it to 1/4 screen. 3. Move it off to the lower left or out of your way. 4. Then select by name and move that selection to a new area. 5. Remap the new selection using what ever map would give you the best look for that shape. And so on until the whold model is done. Sometimes one could spend hours remapping a object. so don't think it's a quick job. Does this help? Spike

That helped soooo much... this also means I can do a whole model and not part by part like I was attempting to do before.... what size texture bmp do you think is best for a 1024x768 render?

Well..... I used a 2000x2000 for the Tyra one but I also made some closeup renders. If you are going to do close-ups you will need the dpi. Try a 1000x1000 as a test and see how it looks. Keep in mind the template you make should be large 2000x2000. from there you can always make your textures smaller in Photoshop.