DH-17 blaster pistol?

Rekubot · Post by **Rekubot** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 3:20 pm

I believe it's actually -scale = 0.8, LoL.

Anyway, I've decided to redo the UV mapping as I wasn't impressed by the way it looked. Does anybody know how to resize a bunch of objects and keep them in the same spot without merging them into a polymesh?

Post by **PR-0927** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 8:59 pm

Heh, I'll use this when you're done with it, if you allow me to.

- Majin Revan

DooFi · Post by **DooFi** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 9:55 pm

Rekubot wrote:I believe it's actually -scale = 0.8, LoL.

Anyway, I've decided to redo the UV mapping as I wasn't impressed by the way it looked. Does anybody know how to resize a bunch of objects and keep them in the same spot without merging them into a polymesh?

prolly you can group them. If XSI is capable of something like that, but i believe it is. Otherwise you could just merge it into a polymesh and then seperate the single pieces again.

JabbaLovesLava · Post by **JabbaLovesLava** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 10:42 pm

DooFi wrote:the texture map is the picture you use as the DH-17's texture xD

Actually that's incorrect, the UV map is the set of coordinates that are ON the texture you choose.

DooFi · Post by **DooFi** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:53 pm

huh?!

UV-Coordinates: Coordinates of vertexes which are saved within the model and say, where each vertex is located on the texture-map.

UV-Map: An image-file (or the preview in your 3D-tool) exported from the 3D-tool of your choice. It shows the vertexes and edges of your model at the spots determined in the UV-Coordinates. In fact its the coordinates in visible form.

Texture-Map: An image-file with lots of pixels, ideally painted on a UV-Map.

So at first you create a UV-Map (or UV-layout or however you wanna call it

) then your 3D-tool saves the vertex-coordinates in the model and exports the pixel-coordinates to an image (called the texture-map or texture-sheet or just texture or sometimes even UV-map, which is not actually wrong afaik). Later you paint stuff on the picture and if you load it into the 3D-tool as a texture, the model tells the renderer (or the game-engine) where its vertices, polygons and edges are on the picture and then the renderer puts every pixel where it belongs.
Same thing happens to bump-maps, normal-maps, alpha-channels, specular-maps, blah, blab, blah and so on and so forth lol

JabbaLovesLava · Post by **JabbaLovesLava** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:55 pm

oh my bad, sry my contacts are off, i tought you said "the uv map is the picture you use as the DH-17's texture xD"

DooFi · Post by **DooFi** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:57 pm

main thing is rekubot knows

Rekubot · Post by **Rekubot** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 5:09 am

DooFi wrote:So at first you create a UV-Map (or UV-layout or however you wanna call it ) then your 3D-tool saves the vertex-coordinates in the model and exports the pixel-coordinates to an image (called the texture-map or texture-sheet or just texture or sometimes even UV-map, which is not actually wrong afaik). Later you paint stuff on the picture and if you load it into the 3D-tool as a texture, the model tells the renderer (or the game-engine) where its vertices, polygons and edges are on the picture and then the renderer puts every pixel where it belongs.
Same thing happens to bump-maps, normal-maps, alpha-channels, specular-maps, blah, blab, blah and so on and so forth lol

Okay, one question about that. How exactly do you create the UV map? Is it something to do with Property --> Texture Projection?

DooFi · Post by **DooFi** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 10:02 am

to be honest... i have no clue lol
But Qdin mentioned that he knows in the Flechette-Thread

trainmaster611 · Post by **trainmaster611** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 11:13 am

Awesome! That's the kind of guns that they should have Princess Leia using! :amidala:

Post by **Qdin** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 4:37 pm

Just to make me feel alot smarter I'm gonna talk about the 'problems' which you have on that texture

it might not help you at this point, but it will probably make you think of the consequences about UV Mapping so to say

The first is called Distortion, which simply means that you have set the UV Map on a texture, but the current UV you've set is set to be more wider and smaller in height than supposed. Of course we can all imagine how it would look like to have something stretched out at one 'axis', so it looks like it's really stretched. It's really no pretty sight, and the only fix is to set the UV's before skinning

You might 'notice' some distortion on the 'backside' of the blaster on the image above; The texture is all stretched where it wasn't supposed to be stretched.

Think about it

lol. That's how we improve from model-to-model

The next is probably the most important thing; Seam.
It simply means that you can see where the 'lines' of the UV Coordinates aren't the same. If you see on the scope on the picture above as well, the 'top face' on it has somethign which looks like another texture than the faces next to it on the side of the scope. It's called seam, because you can truly see where it seperates the texture; liek on a pair of pants

It's usually the biggest problem, and if you're looking for a texture, always make sure it's Tileable, which means that you can scale out many times and have the same texture applied continiously on one UV so to say

without you can see where the 'border' on the texture is

I know it's not a way to fix it, but it's what we as modellers must think about when we skin

- Q

PvtParts · Post by **PvtParts** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 11:22 pm

How goes your work, Rekubot?

Rekubot · Post by **Rekubot** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 2:52 am

Ah, I haven't been working on it at all recently, due to a certain annoying thing called school. I'll probably get it done and dusted by this weekend, but I want to try and get it as close to the movie as possible as well as giving it a proper texture with a UV map, although it seems that only Qdin knows how

. Once it's finished and I'm happy with it I'll upload it somewhere and post the link here.

@Qdin: LoL, thanks for the skinning advice, I'll bear that in mind

.

PvtParts · Post by **PvtParts** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 3:18 pm

Ah yes school. Im in 10th grade. it aint fun is it..

Post by **PR-0927** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 6:14 pm

Rekubot, by any chance, can you finish the DH-17 Blaster Pistol very soon? I'd like to use it. Soon as in one to two days, LOL.

- Majin Revan

Rekubot · Post by **Rekubot** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 4:03 pm

Hey guys, this is no doubt a bit late but I've pretty much got a final version here. Comments?

@Majin: If this is OK I'll send it to you next time you're on MSN.

If anyone else wants it, PM me. PvtParts will be glad to know that it works perfectly with both pistol and rifle animations.

Edit: Perhaps I should've been a little more specific. You can PM me but I won't be giving it away freely, so if in my opinion you'll put it to good use you can have it; otherwise, don't just say "I'll take it" and expect me to give you the link. I expect I'll release it eventually.

jango232 · Post by **jango232** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 4:15 pm

nice dont suposse it would be able to be held like they do on film or do you need to make a hole new stance for that

Rekubot · Post by **Rekubot** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 4:27 pm

That would require a brand new animation. For now the most accurate you'll get is the rifle animation, as it holds the gun in both hands.

valiant · Post by **valiant** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 5:28 pm

Feel like sharing your pistol?

jango232 · Post by **jango232** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 5:43 pm

oh ok loks kool you gonna make any more new weapons cos i gotta pretty gd idea wot about the mg42 the sand troopers have on film