Texturing Questions...

[delilah]

 

well...  how the hell did it turn black?  you can see it is red in photoshop...

I have no idea, at least i don't with out more information.

Was it 1 layer in PS?

If you open the jian.dds you linked is it black or red?

 

Have any other textures come out wrong?

What are your dds export settings?

 

The dds plugin could be playing up, try reinstalling it.

 

 

 

yes, all one layer

 

i re-opened the dds and it was all black like you said... the alpha channel was what was supposed to be on the red channel, so i cut and pasted it and filled the alpha in as white.

 

all the other textures look ok, but that one is the only one i have tried to change.

 

dds saves as a color map, using dtx5, no mips.  all else is default i think.  im gonna try the new dds in a minute

 

ok...  i just tried to batch update all tangent spaces and i got this error, 22 times "need vertices, normals, texture coordinates and faces to calculate tangents and bitangents" .  interestingly enough, this armor has 22 pieces in it

 

[Vioxsis]

Well that could be 1 or more of 4 things, vertices, normals, texture coordinates and faces.

could you post the nif and dds's so i can look at them myself?

[delilah]

Well that could be 1 or more of 4 things, vertices, normals, texture coordinates and faces.

could you post the nif and dds's so i can look at them myself?

 

can i send them to you in a PM?  i want to wait until its done before i post it for averyone

 

couple things i say, though...  i cannot edit uv for the armor items in nifxkope.  in nitrishape block  uv sets is all zeros, but in the original armors there are a bunch of numbers there.  and...  when i unwrap uvw in 3ds max and pack normalize...  do i need to do anything else or is the UV automatically linked/stuck to/whatever to the mesh?

 

[Vioxsis]

Yeah you can PM them me.

 

You don't need to do any thing after using unwrap UVW, collapsing it down will make it permanent. But an object all ways has UVs if it doesn't something has gone wrong.

 

And all zeros for the UV set sounds like something went wrong.

[delilah]

Yeah you can PM them me.

 

You don't need to do any thing after using unwrap UVW, collapsing it down will make it permanent. But an object all ways has UVs if it doesn't something has gone wrong.

 

And all zeros for the UV set sounds like something went wrong.

 

i made several accidental saves over the last few days so i ended up exporting and importing parts as individual obj files quite a bit. idk if that could be the issue, but...

 

im going to try uv maping each part and exporting it seperate.

 

[delilah]

@vioxsis

 

regarding your PM,  i went through each trinishape and set the bsuvsets to 4096. then i right-clicked its parent node and selected mesh>update tangent space.  did that for all, then saved the nif.  reopened it and all the textures are grey and i get the 22 errors again

 

this thing is frying my brain out

 

EDIT:

im an idiot for not paying closer attention to your spoiler...  has vertex colors = no makes a HUGE diggerence...  all mine were set to yes

 

[Vioxsis]

It was 4097 not 4096.

[delilah]

see?

lol

 

 

edit:

 

not sure what is going on with this snakeskin texture...

 

here are my steps...

 

1. load the green original
2. crop it to 1 x 1
3. make new layer
4. copy background to new layer and keep new layer selected
5. tab to channels
6. select the rgb channel
7. ctrl+a to select entire canvas
8. image>adjustments>hue/saturation
9. check colorize
10. adjust sliders until im happy with the color and hit ok
11. add new channel (alpha) and fill it white
12. tab to layers
13. left click on new layer and select merge visible
14. file>save as  enter new file name and dds extension > save
15. re-open file and view the black image that isnt red any more
16. cry

[Vioxsis]

This is what i just did

 

Diffuse Map

1. open snake skin

2. crop and resize

3. Use colour balance ctrl-b to make it red

4. Use hue/saturation ctrl-u to better match the pic you posted.

5. ctrl-shift-s. dds. dxt1 na <(if your not going to use the alpha you don't need it.)

Normal Map

6. make b/w alt-ctrl-shift-b

7. duplicate the blue channel and call it Alpha 1

8.  select and copy the rgb to the alpha

9. filter > nvidia tools > normal map filter

10. ctrl-shift-s. dds. dxt5 ia

 

http://www.mediafire.com/download/hhh5dowdwc35pyc/Red.7z

I tried to match your pick at the bottom of page 1.

[delilah]

i hate you for making it look so easy.

 

but...  while you were doing that, i installed gimp and was able to adjust the color to what i want and save as a bmp.  i was about to pop it into photoshop and save as a dds...

 

and i think im gonna try what you just did

 

 

it does look fantastic, though.  a little dark in nifskope, but great in 3ds max.

 

[delilah]

sigh...

 

it seems that if you use DTX5_nm  it saves as black and white...  i had the wrong dtx5 selected

 

[delilah]

ok...  i have not posted in a week or so, but i need some help picking colors and textures...  i am trying to stay with a red/gold/black theme but that may not be possible without over-doing some of the colors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• is my gold texture too dark?  i dont have a specular or env map applied to it yet so it isnt reflective atm
• i like the gold look for the trim on the knives, but i need ideas for a color/texture for the bracket that is holding the knives, and the top and bottom sections of the thigh armor the bracket is attached to.
• what color should i use for the snake that forms the panty, and for the snake on the collar?  same color?  complimentary colors?
• regarding the gold collar piece:  Should i remove it or keep it?
• i have a darker version of the leather texture for the center part of the thigh armor that i plan on using for the knife grips and sheathes. and i was debating if i should also use it for the fabric part of the upper armor or if i should leave it jet black.  any ideas?

 

any tips and suggestions would be greatly appreciated and if you have a texture that may look good here please post it.

 

on a side note...  i have been trying to get the top fabric to "sparkle" but it really isnt going as planned.  i have a texture set that almost looks like its sparkling, but the reflections are not random enough.  if anyone knows how to make it twinkle like stars, please let me know

 

 

thanks in advance

[Vioxsis]

I'm probably the last person to help with this kind of thing, (been texturing an armour set for about a month now...)
 

ok...  i have not posted in a week or so, but i need some help picking colors and textures...  i am trying to stay with a red/gold/black theme but that may not be possible without over-doing some of the colors.

"red/gold/black" Are high contrasting colours that only complement each other by being nothing alike red/green/blue being the same. When used in small amounts it can work but when you have more then 3 distinct pieces it tends to fall apart.
 

• is my gold texture too dark?  i dont have a specular or env map applied to it yet so it isnt reflective atm

Hard to tell, with a gold cube map it will look brighter. Just make all the gold on the diffuse the same shade and once you see it in game with a cube/spec map adjust it to your liking.
 

 

• i like the gold look for the trim on the knives, but i need ideas for a color/texture for the bracket that is holding the knives, and the top and bottom sections of the thigh armor the bracket is attached to.
• what color should i use for the snake that forms the panty, and for the snake on the collar?  same color?  complimentary colors?

 

This is the kind of thing i meant with "3 distinct pieces"...
 

 

• regarding the gold collar piece:  Should i remove it or keep it?

 

It looks nice from the front, but not the back. I would adjust the back of it to sit lower, or if that doesn't look good remove it.
 

 

• i have a darker version of the leather texture for the center part of the thigh armor that i plan on using for the knife grips and sheathes. and i was debating if i should also use it for the fabric part of the upper armor or if i should leave it jet black.  any ideas?

 

I don't like pure black being used for anything (or any colour being used pure with out good reason) so i'm definitely for changing it.
 

any tips and suggestions would be greatly appreciated and if you have a texture that may look good here please post it.

I get my textures from here http://www.cgtextures.com/index.php <(you have to sign up to download 15mb a day which sucks but it is worth it).
And here http://www.texturemate.com/ <(no sign up, and has a nice choice of textures and brushes/patterns for PS)

As for tips i would change your colour scheme, by choosing a colour/theme then narrow your choice down to about 4 shades. And then if you want to pick a stand out colour/pattern that you will use sparingly to make it unique.

You have to decide what you want to 'pop', and you can't have every thing 'pop' as nothing will. So you have to use complementary colours and contrasting ones in that regard.

 

 

But i really am a terrible at texturing... So i wouldn't put too much stock in what i said.

[delilah]

Quote:

 

 

I'm probably the last person to help with this kind of thing, (been texturing an armour set for about a month now...)
 

ok...  i have not posted in a week or so, but i need some help picking colors and textures...  i am trying to stay with a red/gold/black theme but that may not be possible without over-doing some of the colors.

"red/gold/black" Are high contrasting colours that only complement each other by being nothing alike red/green/blue being the same. When used in small amounts it can work but when you have more then 3 distinct pieces it tends to fall apart.
 

• is my gold texture too dark?  i dont have a specular or env map applied to it yet so it isnt reflective atm

Hard to tell, with a gold cube map it will look brighter. Just make all the gold on the diffuse the same shade and once you see it in game with a cube/spec map adjust it to your liking.
 

 

• i like the gold look for the trim on the knives, but i need ideas for a color/texture for the bracket that is holding the knives, and the top and bottom sections of the thigh armor the bracket is attached to.
• what color should i use for the snake that forms the panty, and for the snake on the collar?  same color?  complimentary colors?

 

This is the kind of thing i meant with "3 distinct pieces"...
 

 

• regarding the gold collar piece:  Should i remove it or keep it?

 

It looks nice from the front, but not the back. I would adjust the back of it to sit lower, or if that doesn't look good remove it.
 

 

• i have a darker version of the leather texture for the center part of the thigh armor that i plan on using for the knife grips and sheathes. and i was debating if i should also use it for the fabric part of the upper armor or if i should leave it jet black.  any ideas?

 

I don't like pure black being used for anything (or any colour being used pure with out good reason) so i'm definitely for changing it.
 

any tips and suggestions would be greatly appreciated and if you have a texture that may look good here please post it.

I get my textures from here http://www.cgtextures.com/index.php <(you have to sigh up to download 15mb a day which sucks but it is worth it).
And here http://www.texturemate.com/ <(no sigh up, and has a nice choice of textures and brushes/patterns for PS)

As for tips i would change your colour scheme, by choosing a colour/theme then narrow your choice down to about 4 shades. And then if you want to pick a stand out colour/pattern that you will use sparingly to make it unique.

You have to decide what you want to 'pop', and you can't have every thing 'pop' as nothing will. So you have to use complementary colours and contrasting ones in that regard.

 

 

But i really am a terrible at texturing... So i wouldn't put too much stock in what i said.

 

 

 

 

no, no...  all very good suggestions, and thank you.

 

i think i will prolly use the red from the pauldrons for the snakes as well, but in a slightly different shade, or with white instead of black...

 

for the gold collar part...  i had thought about lifting the neck fabric to connect with it like a turtle-neck, but, eventually i want to replace the top's trim with snakes (thanks for the idea, winny257), and that ring on the neck will just look out of place.

 

thanks for the 2 links, i will look into those textures later today!
 

[delilah]

new conundrum for you vioxsis...

 

i hound a nice snakeskin texture that i can use for the body of a snake.  to test it, i made a tube and unnwrapped the uv for it and fit it to the skin texture.  it looks great IMHO and i was even able to make it seamless so i can copy/paste then weld tubes together and the skin still looks ok.  then i looked into how to get my snake tube to bend and curve and discovered the "extrude along spline" function.  now, this will work great to get the tube to follow the design of the gold frame on the top from the snake armor, but  it means i wont know how many segments are needed until its done.  also, unwraping the extrusion will likely be different from my simple tube and the faces may not line up how they should.  any ideas on how i can keep the current uv map and just repeat it for every 8-10 (i forget exactly how many segments my tube has) segments?  this way i can make sure the scales bunch up along the insides of curves, and spread out along the outsides.

 

in the pic below, the textured straight tube was my test piece.  you can see the spline i made (helix) and how the 2 end caps follow it.

 

 

 

 

 

[Vioxsis]

I have been doing something similar to this.

 

 

The rope i wrapped around the harpoon uses the "path deform" modifier <-- its a world space modifier at the top of the list.

 

 

 

Here is a copy of the rope mesh, all the modifiers in the stack are so i can keep maximum control on how it looks even when its binded to the spline.

 

Pic of the spline

 

 

 

Clicking the "show end result toggle" on to see what changes i do will look like.

 

 

 

I would use the same technique for what your trying to do, fit a spline to where you want it <(don't worry to much you can change it at any time)

Then make a copy of your tube <(just in case shit goes badly wrong) make sure the pivot is centred and aligned to the world properly.

 

Then add the path deform modifier, pick the spline as the path then click move to path (change the axis/parameters if you need too)

Then click and drag holding shift to copy along the spline. once your happy collapse the stack, delete the spline and carry on poly modeling/what ever.

 

   

[delilah]

so, here is a dumb question...  easiest way to get the spline to follow the design of the bra frame?  or do i just need to start from the grid and move the  spline verts into position one at a time?

 

 

EDIT:

 

nvm, i think i got it.  YAY for refine!

 

EDIT AGAIN:

 

i have tried and tried to get something even slightly similar to your pics, but all has failed.

 

i CAN convert the spline to a poly or mesh (never been sure what the difference is) and that gets me my long winding tube.  also, i can create uv seams that split the tube into smaller tubes equal in segments to my test tube.  but if i try to unwrap them when there is any sort of bend, the map ends up all curved and shit. now...  if i can copy the map from one section (my straight tube) to all the other sections then the texture should look perfect.

 

also...  i have found that if i try to redo an unwrap i end up with all kinds of flipped uv faces and i have no clue how to re-flip them...

[Vioxsis]

Quick tutorial on how i would do it.

 

First go in to edge sub object and select where you want your border on the bra/whatever.

 

 

I used a sphere for this, right click the selected edge and at the bottom left of the quad menu pick "create shape" make sure the shape type is "smooth".

 

Then take your tube and unwrap its UVs,<(important) then in hierarchy select "affect pivot only" then click "reset pivot", "align to world" and "centre to object"

 

 

 

Add the path deform modifier to the tube, click "pick path" and pick the spline you made from edges (or any spline you want) then click move to path and change the axis if you need to.

 

 

 

Hold shift and drag the axis (it will most likely be the axis you picked in the path deform box) pick copy and put in whatever number of copies you think you need.

 

 

The worst part is now you have to click on each tube and collapse the stack on them all.....

 

 

(path deform is a world space modifier so it is always dominant over object space modifiers, and i have yet to find away of doing this bit faster)

 

once there all collapsed attach them together

 

 

You can now delete the spline and weld the edges of the tubes together, the UVs are already done and if you used tiling ones should be looking seamless.

[delilah]

after much trial and error, i managed to get it to work.  there were several differences  though, but in the end i managed to get the snakes in place.  i do have a tip for you, though...  turbo tools has a function called "smart collapse".  i select all the tubes together, click the button, and they are all collapsed down to editable mesh.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the end of the coil in the center is going to be a snake head holding the ruby over the nipple, and the end that is just to the left will be a tail wrapping around and holding on to the other "snake".  its head will be up at the collar area.

 

i may need to do some more work with the skin texture but i think this version looks pretty good.

[Vioxsis]

That's just typical that is, i was looking for, and adding scripts to max just over a weak ago.

I found and skipped past turbo tools thinking 'it does to much i probably won't use it for anything'...

 

If i ever needed proof of my stupidity... Now if only i could find a use for that script that makes rocks...

 

 

Are you going to model the head from scratch or modify the one from the armour?

[delilah]

Are you going to model the head from scratch or modify the one from the armour?

 

most likely i will use the original model.  one of the versions has a decent-looking texture for the open mouth.  i might use that and fix the strange looking layout off the uv map for it.  the top and sides of the head look ok too, but idk how well they would mach with the body skin i have.  i will likely be scanning the internet looking for a good image of a snake head.  i was also thinking of adding fangs to the snake head as a fangless maw doesnt look very bad-ass, but, since the skin im using is from a constrictor and they dont have fangs, it might look odd.

[delilah]

ok, vioxsis, i have a new problem...  i have been playing around with the schwertliete armor and made a version im happy with.  i always seem to screw something up somehow. everything was working fine last night, but today, every time i export a nif all of the verts break.  so, when i go into outfit studio to touch up the clipping, all the polygons start floating around.  the screenie below shows what i mean...

 

the mesh on the left is pre-export.  the right one is re-imported.  i did nothing with or to the nif between exporting it and importing it again.  my export settings are on the far left

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

also, in a seperate topic...  i have been trying to play with havok physics and watched some of canderas' tutorials.  when he creates a bone it is created right there on the mesh in front of him...  my bones are always created WAY off in the background.  any ideas what im doing wrong?

[Vioxsis]

Can you show me the UVW of it before you try export it?

 

And when you are creating the bones don't do it in perspective view do it in the left or top view (which ever is best for what you are doing)

Hot keys for this are;

P = perspective

T = top

L = left

[delilah]

Can you show me the UVW of it before you try export it?

 

im not sure what you wanted to see from the uvw editor... but here is this...

 

 

 

 

also...  as soon as i added the uvw unwrapper all of the verts broke again.  when i deleted the modifier, they went back to normal...

[Vioxsis]

That is exactly what i wanted to see

 

 

 

Select all verts on the UV and weld them, the lines on the inside should not be green only the ones an the edge should be.