OldSiteResourcesQuake2TutorialsNstTut1

Down            and Dirty Tutorials For NST

Tools            needed for this tutorial

Npherno's            Skin Tool

a            model of some type in MD2 format.

Overview

These            tutorials are pulled from the set of posts I put up on the Message             Board. I've attempted to spell check and flesh them out a bit            more, but I'm afraid they will also require a little thinking on             your end as well. You may need to do a little trial and error as            well. Good luck with these and your own models. -            rogue13

Skin            Mapping

This            exercise is for when you have a completed model in MD2 format and             you are ready to lay the polygons from the 3d model onto the 2d             skin.


 * 1) In the 3d window, turn your model so you have a full view of one             side of an hand. For the purposes of this tutorial, I'll be remaping             the back of the left hand from the standard female model. It helps,             but not necessary, if you've done some of your animations already so             you can get into different tight areas as you cycle through the             frames. You want to be looking at the set of faces you're currently             interested in as perpendicular to the 3d viewing plane as possible.             Obviously it's impractical to line the view up for every single             face. So we make an educated guess and try to average the difference             between a set of faces.



2.Another tip to make your life easier: Check the color sections            I've put into my presets in the lower left of the screen. The            green will display as unselected polys on the model and the red will             be selected. Pick your own color scheme if my Xmas theme            doesn't do it for you.

Now            make sure you've selected the triangle tool and have turned off the             camera mode. [ The 3rd and 1st buttons respectively, check the            screenshot as well. ] You can toggle between camera and edit modes            by hitting the space bar.

Now            select the faces you are looking at mapping by holding the cursor             over the face and hitting the left mouse button. The right            mouse button deselects it.



3.            Now select the rectangle tool [ 8th from the left ] and click and             drag a box onto the 2d skin that's vaguely the same proportions as             if you put a box around your selections in the 3d view.



4.            Select the Rectangle pulldown menu and select the only option you             have, "Map from 3D View"  You'll get a dialog box up. Until you get the hang of it, select "parallel" and            "no backfaces".



You            should almost always say no backfaces. If you know why            you shouldn't select that for a particular case, you're probably not             needing to be  read this tutorial. The options here can            help you set up your skin to map several pieces of the model to the             same place of the skin. This saves space for other sections of            the model and can help increase your level of detail that you can             put it. Look at the dire avenger model and the terminator            models for good examples of this. These are also advanced concepts            and remember that although there is no undo, you can simply reselect             the faces and remap them again if you bungle something.

Click            ok and the faces will appear in the rectangle on the 2d skin. you'll also notice that the checkerboard pattern appears on the            model. This is important. Npherno didn't pick the pattern on            accident. It can help you arrange your skin so that you can            paint across different sections properly without texture sheer.



Texture            Sheer

Texture            Sheer: when a triangle is mapped to a section of the skin in such a             way that it causes the texture to warp excessively across the plane             of the polygon on the model.

See            the first side picture of the hand that has some sheer, because of             the way the initial selection was laid down on the skin. See            the second pic that I've adjusted the triangles and have gotten the             texture to blend better with the adjacent triangles. This            tends to make for some wacky skin arrangements. Where you pull your            skin off of, and how its laid out can be an art to get right, if             you're so inclined. This is something that takes time to get a            good feel for it and don't worry if you end up remapping a section a             couple of times to get it to lay out properly. Of course            "properly" is subjective, here.



Sticky            Mapping

[            this is the raw post from the message board, I'll refine it at a             later date ]

This            is for arranging the polygons on the 2d skin, once you've pulled             them off the model.

1.            after you select the faces you want to move, hit the paperclip             button. this is the sticky mapping button.


 * 1) now hold your cursor over the selected faces on the 2d skin and             click and hold the right mouse button, then drag the faces to where             you want.:

3.            thats all you have to do :) but say you like the way a set of faces             are lined up but you just need to scale them to fit. no problem.: do             the same as above and hold the control key down, then click and drag             the right mouse button. it will scale in relation to each axis that             you drag the mouse button.:

4. if            you've don this on an already skinned model, you are already quite             excited but I suggest that you do a quick scribble on some faces and             then experiment with the above concepts. you'll see why the button            is called "sticky mapping" it also works when you adjust             individual vertices.