Extruding a scene..Part 2

this is awsome…thanks a lot
i will try to do some of this and post it for you, but it might be a little while…old lady wants to go to the lake this weekend…
pirate

Here are the textures I’ll be using. If you want to use them also…
1) Save this image
2) Load it into your paint app
3) Select each texture in turn with the selection tool
4) Copy and paste it as a new file
5) Save each texture into the same folder the 3DC model is in, as a .bmp file

Textures 1,2,4,5 need to be 256×256
Textures 3,6 need to be 128×128
Texture 8 is 256×128
Textures 9,10 need to be 32×128

Textures 1, 2 and 8 are used for the wall panels
Textures 3 and 7 for the bulkhead supports
Texture 4 is used for the door
Texture 5 for the floor
Texture 6 for the ceiling
Texture 9 for the door and wall recessed sides
Texture 10 for the recess on the floor below each door

Use as you wish, make adjustements/alterations etc if they don’t suit.

[img:1o7j97yg]http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/5060/decktexturessp3.jpg[/img:1o7j97yg]

The intersting bit…Applying the textures.
This is where all the forward planning starts to pay off, going right back to the beginning where the basic cube was extruded along it’s y axis to create the faces for the bottom, middle and center wall panels.
I have quite a few of these basic cubes with different face layouts for different styles of rooms, buildings etc.
The faces laid out, not just for the geometry…ie getting the door height right, but to receive the textures I will be using as well.

Now I know I ramble on a bit but if your new to all this, especially the textures there’s a few things you need to be aware of.
First..what are you going to do with the model when it’s completed.
If you just like buiding models and don’t want to take it further than that, then all you need do is to set up the lighting in 3DC, apply the textures and make any adjustements required in your paint app.

But if this is all you do with your models your missing out on a whole lot of things to improve the look of your creations. Many modelers don’t realise there is a world beyond 3DC.
To get your models up to professional standards you need more tools in your armoury.
3DC is a 3D modeler…you use it to build, texture and animate your models, but thats only the start.
To create the quality you see in games, demo’s, movies ( King Kong ) etc you need a 3D engine and a lightmapper for static scenes like this one.
The 3D engine (Blitz3D, Dark Basic Pro etc) allows you to import your model, then write some code to create say a walkthru of your scene. It ain’t that difficult to write some basic code for a walkthru.

With a lightmapper (Giles) you import your model/scene, set up the lighting for the scene, make adjustements to textures, mipmapping etc, render the scene then export it complete with lightmaps to the 3D engine.
The lightmaps create all the nice shadows for you.
So the sequence would be….
1) Model in 3DC
2) Export to a lighmapper
3) Import from the lightmapper to the 3D Engine, write some code.

Take a look at my Morpheus and City Scape threads in the Model Feedback section to get some idea of what I mean.They aren’t just static scenes.
The Morpheus is a massive space ship, you can walk around the scene using the arrow keys and mouse
Take the lift to 6 different decks.
Launch fighters from the launch deck
Recover returning fighters from the recovery deck
Beam down to planet surfaces
Fly a fighter from the ops room to other Galaxys, dock with a space station and try your skills at combat if you can find any hostile fighters.

The point being, you can’t do any of this just by using 3DC.
3DC is only a part of what you need to take your models further.

Now, I can hear you saying, ‘What the hell has all this got to do with appling textures to a model in 3DC’?
Well quite a lot, if your going to export your models to ANY 3d engine ( this includes all the train and flight simulators) the lighting you have set up in 3DC isn’t exported with the model.
So your textures won’t look the same regarding brightness/contrast in the 3D engine as they do in 3DC.
So depending on the lighting set up in the 3D engine, you may need to make adjustements to the textures in your paint app after it is exported from 3DC.
Also, most 3D engines use a different mipmapping system to 3DC, this again will effect the appearence of your textures.
The point being, if you are exporting to a 3D engine, you make corrections/adjustements to the textures AFTER you export to the 3d Engine, when the model is in it’s final setting and lighting set up.
If you use a Lightmapper like Gile you can usually make these adjustements here.

[img:3j63cchc]http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/5941/deck7ma5.jpg[/img:3j63cchc]

Fig 1…
1) Work your way along both side walls applying the textures to each face in turn
2) Apply the textures to both end walls BUT leave the upper corner faces.

Fig 2…The first problem, when you try to apply the texture to these corner faces, because you are trying to apply a rectangular texture to a non-rectangular face it gets all twisted so you need to rotate the texture.
1) Make sure you have compacted all the layers and saved the file.
2) Apply the texture as normal with the brush tool to one of the corner faces.
3) On the Right hand toolbar click the Operation Adjust tool and left click on the face you just applied the texture to
4) Place the mouse curser over the Blue (X axis) pointer on the Rotate/Scale/Move gizmo
5) Hold down the left mouse button and drag left or right to rotate the texture back to it’s correct angle.
6) When your happy Compact and save the file.

Fig 3…
Repeat for the other corner faces.
Because these faces are non-rectangular the texture doesn’t line up very well with the side wall texture, to get around this I’m going to add some pipes and vents to hide these corners.
The alternative would be to unwrap these corner faces but thats another story.

[img:3g3a3dpx]http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/5681/deck8gg8.jpg[/img:3g3a3dpx]

Applying the floor texture is more or less the same as for the walls, the only problem is the narrow faces running under each of the bulkhead supports. You could create a metal plate fill texture for these if you wish then just apply the floor texture with the brush tool to each of the floor faces. I choose to just apply the floor texture over these but this does mean the texture will be slightly elongated compared to the other floor panels, but who’s to say all the floor panels should be the same size.
Fig1..
1) Load your floor texture
2) Move the camera above the model and tilt it forward so you have a good view of the floor
3) Select the Brush tool
4) Position the Brush over one of the narrow strips
5) Hold down the left mouse button and drag it toward you so that it takes in one of the normal square faces as well
6) Release the mouse…the texture will cover one of the narrow strips and one of the normal floor faces
7) Continue working your way across the floor as above.

Fig2..
Apply the floor texture to the normal floor faces with the brush tool when you reach the next narrow floor strip repeat the above (Fig 1) routine.
Continue till the floor is fully textured.
Ignore the narrow floor strip at the base of any of the door recesses for now.
REMEMBER TO COMPACT AND SAVE OFTEN !!!! Ignore this at your peril.

[img:1yhcaku0]http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/155/deck9ia4.jpg[/img:1yhcaku0]

Applying the ceiling texture..
If you prefare a paneled ceiling, create a ceiling panel texture and apply as you did for the floor
I just wanted a greyish dirty ceiling effect to break up the wallpanels. To get this effect you create a smallish texture say 128×128 (depends on the area to be covered) then stretch it over ALL the ceiling faces.

Fig1…
1) Move the camera below the model and rotate it so you can see all the ceiling faces
2) Using the Point and face selection tool on the Right hand toolbar select all the ceiling faces
3) In the Object Operations panel click the Apply Material to Selection operation
4) you should end up with the texture streched across all the ceiling faces as in Fig 2
5) Compact and save the file

Rotate the camera back to normal position it inside the model and you should end up with something like Fig 3.

[img:3pefg7f6]http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/5627/deck10os6.jpg[/img:3pefg7f6]

Texturing the bulkhead supports.
These are a bit more tricky mainly because of the non-rectangular faces, you could unwrap these but I don’t want to get into that here and with the following method you need to scale AND rotate some of the textures, so a good exersize using the Operation Adjust Tool

Fig 1
Start with the inside faces, again, if you are using my textures make sure you flip them horizontally when applying to the inner faces on the opposite side of the of the supports…just as you did with the walls.
Apply the texture to upright inner faces with the Brush tool on each support.
Compact and save the file.

Fig 2
Now it starts to get a bit more awkward.
1) Tilt the camera to give you a decent view of the underside faces on one support
2) Hold down the left mouse button and drag the brush tool across all three faces

Fig 3
When you let go of the mouse button you get something like this…what a mess. The texture has been rotated through 90 degrees AND needs scaling to blend with the support uprights…so…

Fig 4
Fist to correct the rotation.
1) Click the Operation adjust tool, left click the face you just applied the texture to.
2) Place the mouse curser over the Green ( Y axis) pointer on the Rotate/Scale Move gizmo
3) Hold down the left mouse button and drag left or right to rotate the texture, this can be a bit tricky to get the texture to line up correctly, you may have to keep repositioning the camera to give you a better view

If you find it difficult to decide which pointer/axis you need to be using when rotating a texture, imagine sticking a pin into the face the texture is applied to, and spinning it to rotate the texture. Along which of the Models axis would the pin be pointing….in the above case it’s the Y axis, so you place the curser over the Y axis pointer to rotate the texture….Easy

Fig 5
Scaling the texture
1) With the Operation Adjust Tool still selected
2) Move the curser over the X and Z scale area on the Rotate/Scale/Move gizmo
3) Hold down the Left mouse button and drag the mouse to scale the texture. You may need to move it forward or back rather than left or right. Keep moving the camera position to get a different view.
When you get something like Fig 5 Compact and Save the file.
Repeat for the other supports.

If you find this Rotating/Scaling textures difficult, try practicing on a cube primitive in a new file till you get the hang of it. It’s something you’ve really got to learn as it will crop up time and time again.

[img:2ssj56np]http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/3342/deck11ah6.jpg[/img:2ssj56np]

The bulkhead support side faces….

Fig1
Using the same texture as you used for the inside faces go along the base faces of each support with the brush tool.

Fig 2
1) Load the texture for the rest of the support side faces
2) Using the Point and Face Selection tool, select ALL the faces on BOTH sides on ALL the supports

Fig 3
1) In the Object Operation Panel click once on the Apply Material to Selection button
2) The material will be applied to all the selected faces but now needs to be scaled
3) So click the Operation Adjust Tool again, click on any one of the faces to be scaled
4) Move the curser over the X and Z scale area on the Rotate/Scale/Move gizmo
5) Hold down the left mouse button and drag both left and forward to scale the texture along both x and z axis
6) Take your time with this, keep moving the camera if you need to, when you get something like Fig 3.
7) Check the texture on all the supports, they should all have been scaled at the same time.
You’ve guessed it…Compact and Save the file

Thats the hard part of the texturing over with.
If the scene is starting to look a bit dark, making it hard to see the textures clearly increase the brightness of some or all the lights. A quick way is to just increase the brightness of the ambient light.

[img:1kd7shmw]http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/9200/deck12ob6.jpg[/img:1kd7shmw]

Ok, now all the faces that remain untextured are spoiling the appearence of things, so start with the doors and door recesses.
For now, just to get rid of the untextured door face (I’ll build the actuall doors later and delete these Dummy faces)
Load your Door texture, select the brush tool, hold down the left mouse button and drag it over all the door faces.
Do the same for the doorway recesses along each side and above each door, using a quite plain noisey texture.
Load a similar texture for the floor area of the door recess but make it grey to match the floor, apply with the brush tool. You could if you wish create a texture to match the floor grid texture and apply this but I find the above works best if you want to make the floor in the adjoining room different to the corridor. The plain grey texture gives you a ‘break’ between two differnt floor textures
Compact and Save the file

[img:1vw9gi7w]http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/1899/deck13sy6.jpg[/img:1vw9gi7w]

For the wall recesses I used a different wall panel just to break things up a bit, for the sides I used the same texture I used for the sides of the door recesses.
Just load each texture and apply with the brush tool.
Compact and save the file.
Yipppeeeeeee Thats all the textures applied to the basic scene.

[img:24s1yllr]http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/5035/deck14fw0.jpg[/img:24s1yllr]

So now when you look along the corridor you should see something like this, assuming you used my textures.
Not to bad considering it all started as a basic cube.
Still to do…..
Fixtures and fittings…Light fittings, handrails, pipework etc
Make some adjustements to some of the textures in my paint app.
The ceiling and floor are a bit to light I think, just need to take the contrast/brightness down a bit on these textures.
I may do this when I lightmap the scene in Gile…not sure yet
I’ll do all the fixtures and fittings in Part 3.

[img:245d3yzp]http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/8086/deck15tk5.jpg[/img:245d3yzp]