This is a question on Skinning and Texuring 3D Aircraft for BoB (Battle of Britain) MA (MigAlley) and MSFS (MS Flight Sim)

The BDG (BoB Developers Group) and I would like to know the best way to Skin 3D Aircraft...

3D Stuff...and some fun ;D
http://www.simhq.com/simhq3/sims/boards/bbs/Forum40/HTML/004377.html

I've been developing 3D Modells for BoB starting with Trees and now I'm starting Model 3D Aircraft...you might have read my post on the "Tutorials/ Tips"...Meteor
http://www.amabilis.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=3DCanvasTips;action=display;num=1019765572

I'm on to Texturing the Meteor now, with Squiffy from the BDG doing some good work

He as asked me to split the Body down the middle so it might be easier to Skin/Texture...using the *.BMP's provided

One of the important parts of Skinning/Texturing the Meteor is the Mapping and how you do it correctly ?

I might know a little more about 3D Modelling, but Textures/Materials is a whole new area I do not know enoth about

I've read the Mapping Tutorial, which was great...but now things are getting more difficult...

I have started to map the Meteor and so far you can see I have done the Wings...using the Re-Map Tool, but when it comes to the body or cylinder or round objects it's becoming confusing ???



As you can see I've opened the one half or side of the front of the Body with the Re-map tool and could not make it map correctly...by resizing, changing angle etc...

I'll keep working at it...but I now need your help please...

I have the Meteror.3DC here if it helps :

http://www.eko.clara.net/uvmap.zip

Any help...will be helpfully


UPDATE:

I have the "ALL" the Textures and Meteor.3DC  zipped here...Meteor Body is not spit like the Meteor above, I do not know if this is the correct or not ?

http://www.eko.clara.net/NewMeteor.zip

Good for comparison and as the Texures too  

The ANSWER  

BoBers/MAers and 3DCers...I have found out how to Re_Map the Meteor, after Modifing the Aircraft      

NOTE* Using the original Textures supplied by Roger Hardy and the Modified Meteor (Mod : So It can be made by the BoB shpmke2 Tool) The Vertices are all reduced and I have split the Body down the middle as well as the Wings (upper and lower) and fins !

1. Re_Map WING

2. RE_Map BODY

We can Remap the Wings ok !...example

1. Top Wing left...wingl_a

Find the Texture for this (camaflage/ Wing/left) in the Material pallet (paint pot) add texture to Texture libaray and select...use this to bucket fill wingl_a

click on wingl_a and open Operations panel and the UV Re_Map selection Tool (or the Red chequered pattern button)...Then play around until the Map fits the Wing by resizing turning around etc !

This is Ok ! ...relativly easy      

NEXT*

2. BODY part or the left side Body front...bod1l_a

Fill with correct Texure as before and then right click on it ! and lots of operation will open find the Grouping and Ungroup...this will ungroup the bod1l_a from all the rest of the Aircraft. Now right click on it agin and this time find Properties at the bottom...You will now need to change the Group Orientation to 90' for X ! This will turn the Body part the same way as the Wing and therefore you can Re_Map successfully as before       To put the bod1l_a back into the main Aircraft Group all you do is reverse, so click on it and in Properties/Group position change the 90' back to 0' zero ! That will put the Body in its correct position and all you need to do is regroup by click on it and use "Group Objects Tool in the right hand side (2 Boxes intersecting in blue)

So that's the trick       Easy to see now, but when you have to work it out from scratch...its a different matter      

Here is the Meteor with the Textures correctly applied...or near enoth to move forwards :

       

Then all I need to do is make *.bin with the Shapmke2 tool  this is a completely new *.bin...with Textures, which will need to be converted to x8 BoB file format

UPDATE*... here is the new Meteor U_V.3DC (3DCanvas file):
http://www.eko.clara.net/U_V.zip

If this is there is a quicker/better way to do this please post

hi eko,

you found a nice solution, thanks for sharing it with us . I wrote the best I know about unwrapping in the Alex's unwrapping tutorial at the Amabilis site.

It is about unwrapping though, that is very different from skinning. May be you'll enjoy to give a look at it anyway.


bye , Alex

Alex

Thank you for posting...I will have a look at your unwrapping tutorial  

I like Tutorials and the more the better...they help you progress forwards quicker and also give you good tips and advice

Please keep up the good work...I will be reading them all